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rebuilding leaf springs


rippo

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i'm not so sure about that.

 

Stress relieveing is a heat treatment where the casting is heated up and soaked to relieve the stresses. Shot blasting but more so shot peening can relieve surface stressed/flaws, but how can it effect the inner material? The castings i work with are shot blasted but i aways believed this was to remove overcast or slag.

 

I guessing that the leaf springs are made of spring steel, which is hardened and tempered, i think it would take a heat treatment to alter this.

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Its actually true that no springs should be shot blasted ever. This leaves a big question, how to remove the rust - mechanically? I actually do have the same problem right now, I have 12 leaf spring sets (ie. springs from 3 trucks) that need to be recurved to original specs and painted. But I want a perfect base for the paint, as I actually hate seeing newly painted springs getting rusty through the paint.

 

What comes to greasing the springs, I have heard also the opposite - do not grease them! Grease only gets all the dust and sand between the springs and makes them wear faster.

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There are companies that refurbish leaf springs, check on the web. I agree with you about not greasing leaf springs, when I was young(a long time ago) if I had tried to put grease anywhere near the leaves the old timers would have chopped my hands off:-D

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To true mate,the friction between leaves helped with the damping didnt it.

 

 

Hi CW,

 

This might have been when the old friction type dampers were the norm, but on hydraulic type dampers, a smear of graphite grease between the leaves is recommended.

 

Just checked your Bedford Service manual, and it says use graphite in there :thumbsup:

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Guest catweazle (Banned Member)
Hi CW,Just checked your Bedford Service manual, and it says use graphite in there :thumbsup:

Shot myself in the foot there.i did forget to mention only with the lever arm dampers:rofl:have you heard the news?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Tony B. Just having a read through this one about leaf sorings and spotted your question about washers. I thought is this a chance to sell one of our £250K inline machines and then realised it must be one of the Polo mint shaped washers. Could it be using hardened washers under head bolts and nuts to stop them squashing and backing off the torque load under use? If so that's the answer..er if you know what I mean. I did the original posting on the WW2 Dodge Forum about 12 months (?) ago.

Hardened washers do exist even though some folks tell you different!

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I must read these postings more thoroughly. The problem with shot blasting is getting the inbedded shot out of the surface. Soaking and pressure washing will remove a small amount. Ultrasonically will remove it all. Some engineering companies have the facillity but play safe and don't. If and when the shot comes free between the moving faces the spring will 'linish itself to death.' We built a big ultrasonic aqueous solution tank for a foundry that produces gearbox casings. Not small ones but mega size casings. They used to shot blast and pressure wash them and then decided to ultrasonically clean them. They complained to us that the ultrasonics had made the casting surface very rough. We said pressure wash one and then clean it in the 'sonics tank. We did a trial and then showed them the bucket of shot that the 'sonics had removed from the casting surface. That was why the surface felt smooth it was the shot acting as a filler. You can guess the words they used. It started with, "Oh...............! So don't shot blast springs. Use a good hard wire brush on the old angle grinder. Mask and goggles of course.

 

If you live in the West Midlands go to Jones Brothers Springs. A pair of Dodge springs full refurb and reset for just under £100. Spend your time on something you can do easily. Trust me!

 

Phil

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