"mystery" leaf springs

[Dakota Boy]

Here I am again, looking for an expert out there in cyberspace....


My '58 had a leaf-spring assembly installed by one of the previous owners.

I want to take them apart and clean them up. I also want to replace the rubber pieces and the little round anti-squeak pads.

The rectangular rubber pieces where the springs attach to the axle are Ford part number "B9SS-5732A". T-Bird parts catalogs list this part as "5741".

These are 2" wide leaf springs. There are 6 leaves total. I'm wondering where these springs came from, as they maybe arent from an old T-Bird at all?

Second question is how to get them apart. There is a bolt with some sort of shoulderless acorn nut holding them all together at the center.

Front spring eye bushings will also be replaced, but I dont want to order a bunch of parts and then have them all be wrong for my "mystery" springs....

[Dakota Boy]

I guess I'll use a C-clamp to hold the springs together, then cut the head off the bolts....

[Guest]

Hey Greg,
Just my opinion, but I think I would look at Ebay item #350384658705 After fifty years are these old springs worn out?
Richard D. Hord

[simplyconnected]

Here I am again, looking for an expert out there in cyberspace....

If you truly need an expert, contact Eaton Detroit Spring. They make springs to oem blueprints. - Dave

[Dakota Boy]

These leaf springs are going to get some Competition Engineering traction bars to back them up....

Worn out? Hard to say...

I'm also trying to figure out where to set these shocks:

[Dakota Boy]

hey thanks for that link to the new springs on ebay there.

looks like a great deal, and those springs they have listed have the exact same measurements as my old ones........so maybe I really do have '60 thunderbird springs on my car, and not some other oddball unknown units.

[YellowRose]

"mystery" leaf springs

I checked out that eBay listing

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350384658705&ru=http%3A%

for a set of NEW '59-'60 Tbird rear leaf springs set. It was sold, and so are the 10 he had. He sold them ALL out! They come with the bushings and are complete, ready to go on your Squarebird he said. I spoke with Tom McVeigh. These are made by Dayton Parts to OEM specs. But he has more coming in during the first part of December. He also has other parts for our Squarebird leaf springs. He is checking on what he can get in the way of parts for the '58 and it's coil spring set up. I am going to add his business and that of Eaton Detroit Spring to our Advertisers listing so you will have easy access to the information.

http://www.mcveighstrucksprings.com/

[Dakota Boy]

"ask, and ye shall receive.."

I find it amazing that here, in 2010, there are small businesses out there that are able to construct and supply parts for our rather obscure vehicles (hey, these aren't '57 Chevys we all have here..) from 50...yes...FIFTY years ago.

I think that pretty crazy!!!

[simplyconnected]

The aftermarket and classic car parts business is huge.

You may be surprised by the number of common parts shared by many cars. That's why car manufacturers bought many of their parts from 'specialty parts' oem's (like Bendix, Budd, Essex Wire, Holly, Kelsey-Hayes, Monroe, Thompson Products, Timken, Trico, Tung Sol, and thousands more).

If you consider Ford's 1959 production numbers, no single company could possibly produce enough leaf springs. Ford sold 1,684,108 cars (excluding trucks) in '59. Each car uses two rear springs. That's 3.36-Million rear springs. Each DAY (M-F) someone made 12,955 springs just to satisfy Ford's assembly lines. GM needed twice that number. What about Chrysler, American Motors, Studebaker-Packard, Hudson, Checker, aftermarket, all the trucks, etc.

Now you know why the Japanese auto companies want the US & Canadian market share. Mass production numbers are staggering and so are the profits.

Am I surprised a spring vendor sold ten sets of springs in a week? Not at all.

[Dakota Boy]

After a long winter of wire-wheeling, cleaning, fixing, painting, buying parts, etc etc..... I finally got the car down off the jackstands last night.

That weird old ladder bar setup was removed from the rear axle way back before Christmas; so I was crossing my fingers that the ride height of the car would not be adversly affected as I was lowering the floor jack....

And....the verdict....

The right leaf spring stack is completely shot.

The car now sits 2 inches lower on that side (as measured at the fenderwell). Left side is fine.

McVeigh Spring will be getting some of my money tomorrow.

I guess those old ladder bars really had things "bound up" under there.