Leaf spring reset: Can you fix a sagging spring? | Auto Expert John Cadogan
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
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Last century (in my youth) loved listening watching Julius Sumner Miller explain stuff. Tamuchly John this is that now.
another great video John.
30 years ago i had a set of rear leaf springs reset with an extra leaf added for a 1974 Mazda 808 Sedan, the guy looked at me funny and asked why the hell i wanted it done, i took him out to see my 65Kg dog and the huge tool box that lived in the boot.
he had never reset springs to factory height & added a leaf in a long career doing springs.
i now live in country vic and need front leaf springs reset for a 1948 Wolseley Ten, but i can't recall the company name (in Ballarat Vic) and suspect the guy might have retired.
Wolseley 10, very cool Amanda.
I'm an Alfredton local, and might know someone that can help.
You'll have to look me up though, not sure how.
@@longflare g'day from Maryborough, (Alma Vic) i'm in the phone book.
i also have several other Wolseleys and a couple of Mazda 808's here, i'm secretary of the local car club.
i was in Ballarat Hospital a few days ago and drove through Alfredton, do you have any old cars yourself?
I think that this whole subject re-setting of springs has changed in my lifetime.
Back in the 60's 70' and well into the 80's it was a common and frequently done thing to have springs re-set or reset and an extra leaf, but that is because we did not have the ready availability of aftermarket leaf springs AND we did have a lot of local spring works.
While one of my local spring works is still in business, their business model; has probably changed too.
The days where local mechanics and enthusiasts walked into spring works every day for custom springs or spring repairs have gone.
Of course one of the reasons springs did sag, was poor quality control in original manufacture, probably errors in the tempering process.
Local spring works with highly skilled staff and a reputation that mattered probably did a better job than the mass market producers.
Manchester Springs were the top place here in north west UK. Don't know if they're still in business. I'm going to check on that!
30 something years ago I was witness to an attempt to build the ultimate ambulance. The result was a ford f-150 i believe with a fuel injected 351, auto and a fibreglass body on the back that held everything a paramedic could possibly desire. All was good until someone thought it would be a good idea to put one over a weigh bridge. We were overweight to buggery and the fix was to send every truck one at a time, to specialist spring/ suspension workshops to have the leaf springs removed, reset and reinforced, (I think with extra leaves from memory but I might be wrong. ) I took months and cost god knows how much. Ahhhh good times.
Yeah you can fix it with a new one.
I reckon you could probably do the same with coils.
The reset is probably easier with a coil pack.
@@AutoExpertJC Attach the coil pack to the chest, just above the heart? =)
@@AutoExpertJC the coil springs in my Venerable 80 series, were around 50 mm lower after 22 years, and plenty of outback Dingo Piss Creek visitations.
I reckon that is pretty good going.
But also new springs from the King Springs factory in Arundel( Sodom and Gomorrah by the sea) were $102 each
Wow you know a lot. Thanks.
The old Austin A55 from 1960 had very dodgy rear leaf springs and took on a very nasty sag without any overloading ... they just didn't have enough 'helper' leaves ...
Leland P76 have coil springs in the rear. Just saying. thanks for another informative video.
what i don't under stand is we had a Chevy maple leaf around 1943 and we would over load it all the time with hay big time and sometimes it would sit for weeks and we unloaded it and up shed come back to standed height, Bought a 200series cruiser put a three draw tool box in the back all highway work took out toolbox after 9 months and the cruiser didn't come up i was told shit steel shit springs bought after market springs not a problem i think the steel is not what it used to be
Love the bastard file swing for the last half of the clip…perpetual motion.
Add an helper blade
How simple can it be
Why reset Leah springs. If you have OEM springs, just get another set of gumtree or Facebook. There are a lot of people who struggle to give them away after they have lifted their utes.
If you are running lifted leafs, just get another set. They are not very expensive.
John, thanks again. I am an engineer too, electrical, so not overly knowledgeable of materials science. I seem to remember fatigue failures with steel operating within the elastic range and a high cycle (>10^4) count. Is this applicable to vehicle leaf springs?
Shouldn't happen. Think about how many cycles your valve springs do, (10e9 in about 100k miles) and they run at about 85% yield.
Premature failure is a quality issue.
Valve springs do lose preload over time because that 'yield point' is a bit negotiable. Material science is more voodoo than science it seems.
@@johnwade1095 Thank you. You are rights about valve springs; they last a very long time IMO. I have to agree with you that material science is a black art.
@@deanrhodenizer938 valve springs can lose maybe 10 of their preload over the engines life, and they have stringent requirements for damage and stress relief.
Suspension springs generally fail from manufacturing defects, or damage, not from design fault
glass transition temperature?
Other time to reset springs is if you're lowering a vehicle.
just here for the jokes
Expert pun on the last word there...
Clearly this guy's never seen an obs Ford. Factory front leaves invert over time regardless of usage😂
👍❤️👍
Steel quality does vary; my 80's Mazda van has had many loads over 1 tonne, as well as towing a trailer so heavy, that body spot welds deformed, yet the leaf springs haven't sagged at all; why? high quality Japanese steel; the steel from other Asian countries now would be sub-standard in comparison.
You turn them into a knife set.
😊👌🏽
Agree, just buy a new set from the local parts place
I run some fairly intensive heat treating stuff for making kitchen knives, some of which are quite long but at the size of something like a leaf spring you're not going to get much off the shelf which is capable of heat treating that sheer bulk of metal. Then you're going to need many gallons of very expensive heat treating oil (no, not vegie or old motor oil) to the point I'd be budgeting in about 200 bucks just for that, the tank to stick it in and the oven costs are getting into the 10k alone just for a precision furnace to accommodate them, then one for tempering it in as well.
A lot of leaf springs are usually in the SAE 5160 type of steel of thereabouts, its a great steel
But it does benefit from precision heat treatments and to some extent if you've gotten a leaf spring completely played out, its also probably full of microfractures and other metallurgy mess that wouldn't give it much of a life anyway. So they just send the old ones off to be re-melted as its still a good carbon steel and will find its way back into new ones eventually.
had the factory springs reset on my 40 series was perfect with a 2 in lift, better than aftermarket, however you missed a big issue that the current car companies are making extremely inferior springs i have a mate with a 2 year old bt 50 that carries less than 200kgs in the back (sparky) drives it like a granny and the leaf have collapsed, another mate runs a chassis shop and said every modern utes springs will deform after 3 years of standard use. no one is talking about this issue because aftermarket springs are cheaper than taking the manufacture to court
Chinese steel
@@Rampart.X
Thankfully, they have literally destroyed what was the world's biggest steel industry by trying to punish Australia via banning Australian coal, coal their generators and steel foundries are designed around, for insisting on independent investigation of the Wuhan incident.
I heard European vehicles all take springs from the same plant in Sweden, and in winter they cool them too fast after tempering, so they fail.
In other words, your suspension reliability depends on when your springs were made.
@@Rampart.X Chineseum.
@@johnwade1095 you heard wrong
That was the best spring info I have ever seen...thank you for taking the time to make the video
All hail the P76 the only Australian vehicle capable of taking a 44 gallon drum of fuel in the boot...I seen it done and the old coils held up quite well.Whats more it was semi surplus drum of Avgas that made the ol girl run quite spritely.
As always, amusing and informative. As a fan of the Ford Fairlane, LTD of 76 to 79, I owned quite a few as did some friends, they had a huge boot but the springs were made for comfort not loads so I just used to buy ute springs, which were load capable and sacrificed a little comfort to maintain ride height. If you are thinking of loading your vehicle talk to a suspension shop about options before you bend them.
The P76 POS was a good design in many ways but ugly asf, Leyland Australia didn't have any quality control which made them worse, when I was in the shop we used to call them the P38 because they were only half a car. (spelling F U)
I had a set of OEM Toyota leaf springs 'reset' on a project Landcruiser of mine from the early 70s, I wanted to keep the originals in line with the rebuild. I wasn't aware you could repair leaf springs but apparently they're quite serviceable.
Old mate that did the job had been doing it for donkeys years in his family run fabrication business, but rarely ever does it anymore. Was a common repair back in the horse cart and early motoring days but not anymore.
Having flashbacks to me as a 16 year old way back in 1981, doing one of my first jobs; employed at a local steel works that reset leaf and coil springs. Many hours were spent as a TA to the guy working it all in front of that big forge feeling like a medieval blacksmith and drinking gallons of water a day to replace the lost fluids from the heat. Thanks for bringing back the memories, John. 👍
John, this is a great video for me. I have a 1992 Isuzu Rodeo 4x4 that has 233,000 miles on it, with a sagging right rear leaf spring. I'll inspect all the ubolts and replace them if suspect.
I miss the old P76 from when I was a teen driving. Best camping vehicle ever.
I get a spring in my step, every time I see a new JC video is out.
Yeah, we're just waiting for him to don his gay UZZI t shirt 😅😆
Oh no! Sagging, DOWN THERE!
Just jam in a blue pill - instant reset.
P76 didn't have leaf springs, they had coil springs and unequal length trailing arms like a HQ Holden
50 year old HG Premier rear springs, leaf springs, yes they do deform. That’s why my restoration is having the springs reset, by a spring works who would be professional in that methodology. You provide them with the OEM eyebrow height and off we go…
Are trailer leaf springs supposed to be more flatter than how bow shaped actual truck leaf springs look? Are they same or different? Thanks.
@Autoexpert what bit would you used to drill through a 1930's Pre-war Spring Steel bumper?
why? they break when they get old. I just replaced mine in the driveway and it did'nt cost that much. Why put all that work into something that might break next week?
Most aftermarket springs are heavier duty than standard . If u think its hard to get stock replacements which is a joke try coil springs . Most coil options areonly available setup for raise 30-40mm and with bullbar fitted . They are so hard when fitted to a standard vehicle only driving thru a DEEP road drain is the only way to actually compress them . The aftermarket is targeted at one thing your wallet !!
But if you do the whole heat treatment and bending process with the whole pack, you'll lose the preload designed in and they'll feel less stiff than original, and squat more under load. I think Yuri Geller could have missed a massive career opportunity here!
There was a place at coopers plains in QLD that used to do that. Did my 1979 F250. Power cost shut em down.
If leaf packs don't have p-tons or shim spacers then have one added at the ends of each leaf cause the leaves to bend improperly and change their shape if a large bump is hit on the road?
1: springs definitely sag
2: springs can definitely be reset
Source: I work one of the biggest spring factory in the country and make leaf springs.
Oh John, I was sooo distracted by the perpetual motion of that 'bastard' of a file from about 8.30m to the end. Just how did you manage that? New spot in the workshop and there we have the real headline "Cadogan Cracks Perpetual Motion Pendulum"
I couldn't stop looking at it too. It just kept going and going. No signs of it slowing down.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one that saw it.
Possibly the Phantom of the Fat Cave in action?
I prefer to have sag as I can access tools easy. I don't understand why Ford Rangers etc have such a high lift which does nothing to the vehicle as it's for vanity. High lifts don't give extra ground clearance which only bigger diameter tires or portals give.
Leaf spring sets 350kg and up are cheep as, why stuff around with your old under sized ones as it would happen again next time you launch over a speed hump.
Love these deep dives. Always learn something. Thanks John.
Insert an additional leaf in the original pack, gives you back your ride height and makes the pack a little stronger. Often have to adjust the leaf lengths to correctly distribute the load but that only takes a grinder and cutoff wheel. Done it, works well.
P76 had McPhersen strut front and coil rear suspension, which is what made them a far better car to drive than Holden or Falcon
Yeah nice, that was actually some pretty good and accurate information there…. I’m starting to think you may have read “ materials in the service of man” , gosh it’s a good read…,,, but my old UK MGb has undue elasticity in the leather straps that stop the rear axel from “being in a German night club” whatcha gonna do bout that👍
NICE GAY T-SHIRT JOHN!!!!!
FROM Putin's General?
From a locker on the Moskva...rescued by a Ukranian tractor driver...er diver....
@@JohnSmith-yv6eq I am so glad to hear this. Hope he had a wetsuit on!
Putin, and his little general.
Down at the Lada dealer
Eagerly awaiting the Ming Mole to retemper the spring in his step.
Dude leafs do sag over time regardless of load and over time your ruler would be permanently bent.
Hi John. I work in a dealership and I see so many tradie’s utes or vans that are completely over loaded and don’t have heavy duty springs.
P76 had coils on all four corners....ahead of their time.
First to get MacPherson Strut front end as well
1971 HQ ?
@@dougstubbs9637
Steered like a shopping trolley.
@@dougstubbs9637 HQ to HZ had wishbone suspension. VB Commodore - 1978, got the Macpherson strut
You can't do something ahead of its time if you've done it is it's time
Charles Rolls wouldn't use cold formed springs. Snob.
Sexiest subject on the planet . …. Metallurgy…, heat treatment….
Haha. “The great reset”. I too have seen the hilariously stupid posts about the protests.
I am now having flashbacks of material science classes from my first year of engineering.
Yes. As a truck mechanic, we used to get springs reset regularly at a local springmaker.
Why do you keep bending the ruler the wrong way? 🤦♂️
My 1967 VE Val had a bit of a beefy, solid suspension. It was used to tow a 22' foot trailer sailer before I got it (my father owned it before me). It had stabilisers and heavy-duty air shocks, as well as beefier springs. The front had the standard torsion bars and a set of heavy-duty gas shocks. The old VEs tended to handle like a boat at times. However, this one was solid with next to no body roll at all. It had one strange quirk that I never figured out. If I went too hard around a left-hand corner the car would shut down. I'd have to pop into neutral and restart it as it was rolling once I was pointing straight again. Right-handers were fine and if I took it steady around a lefty it would be fine. Yeah, never figured that one out.
Must have been a two-barrel.
The Carter 2 bbl carbies fitted to Slants had the bowl off to one side, so if you went around a left, the fuel sloshed up and away from the needle, toward the floats, jamming the needle into the seat and starving the engine of fuel. The last couple of gasps as the engine conked out and your radial speed slowed to a stop would pump enough fuel into the bowl that you could just start it right up again.
Later 2bbls in the Hemi 6s had the fuel feed under the floats, so they didn't suffer the same problem.
Why not get ASPW's expert opinion? He's very knowledgeable about suspension setups, plus he has the experience to prove it. ☺👍
Opinion on what? This was a discussion on the technical process of resetting leaf springs, not what you can buy off the shelf and fit on your car. ASPW may make interesting videos but he certainly is no technical person or engineer.
@@wigs1098 Yes, but he may have experience of different setups, and I'm sure he'll know if his vehicles leaf springs have ever "sagged".
That’s nothing new I used to get my leaf springs reset and lowered for my hot Holdens back in the 1960’s & onwards at Henderson springs, In Kensington Rd in Melbourne, so what’s the big deal!
I think John's point is that it's no longer viable in this day and age given how labour intensive and costly the procedure is.
This channel is just a constant stream of wisdom.
I'm sure the car industry thinks so...
Koth
Yer you can fix it, get with times and run a coil set up.
Had the leafs in my old corolla reset 2 inches flatter ( because im a wanker) and it cost me $400 at Liverpool Springs in Western Sydney. The old bloke there does an awesome job IMHO.
Good summary mentioning Hilux and sagged springs. This was a thing that happened to my 1984 model. Toyota resolved the rear sagged springs just before the guarantee ran out but a further 20,000km they were sagged again together with the front springs. I did an after market upgrade with a small lift but they also sagged about 60,000km later. I paid to have them reset and traded the Hilux in before the next spring reset. The Hilux was often climbing a mountain trail to a hang gliding launch site with a few extra people and a few gliders on the roof but didn't consider it was overloaded.
The next Hilux is 30yo now enduring a considerable work life and still on original springs.
I so want a 3rd or 4th generation Hilux, I still have my 5th gen and 6th gen, My whitey just turned 33 in August owned her since new. Just a beast of a Ute..
As recently as the 1980s or 1990s I visited a shop that recurved leaf springs. I don't think he heated them up. He used two methods. He had a fixture that would support the individual leaves of the spring spring at two points, perhaps 8 inches apart and would strike it with a heavy hammer. He would move the spring side to side going from one end to the other creating some additional curve. He also had a machine that would apply hydraulic pressure in place of striking it with the hammer. He would work his way through all of the springs in the pack and until he was satisfied and then reassemble them. This was not cheap, but less expensive than buying new springs.
I notice a lot of Aussie made Ford Falcons with saggy ass end springs in line with the obesity factor of their owners. Or is it just that Ford makes shit springs?
Both, on the balance of probability.
Wait till you see American made Ford Falcons
I drove with 600KG’s of cement and sand bags for 8 minutes home carefully and they’re now sagging (lower than the rear) The cars a 2016 Hilux with 139,000k’s
Sound like just buy another one 😂
More importantly, can I drop the missus around to fix the sagging?
I'll see what I can do to straighten things out.
I have never had a leaf spring sag but had one break at the centre hole, had more problems with them binding up due to salt water and giving a very harsh ride, for decades now I have been washing them out and spraying them with lanolin keeps the rust away and makes for a better ride
Give it a rub after hardening! Lol!
Are those files at background from Bahco? If they are you have made excellent choice.
I had the springs on my old Falcon reset and tempered (lower) with an extra leaf added. Nearly 30 years and nearly 350000km later they're still at the height they were. Yes, I still have the poor rust infested machine.
Spring is just around the corner
Spring has sprung,
The grass has rize,
I wonder where the birdie is ?
There he sits apon my sill,
Yellow beak and yellow bill,
I weigh it down with scraps of bread,
Then, I crush it’s f*cking head.
How do coil springs behave under a constant compression? Most people think that they weaken when left compressed, but presumably they will also be in the elastic operating window. At what point do materials creep?
Coils are compressed by the mass of the car, unladen. Obviously.
@@AutoExpertJC And laden, unless you go full dukes of hazard, and land upside down. But why do people think that compressing a coil spring and leaving it compressed will ruin it? Is it bs?
Anyway regarding springs, when we had an old Landrover 50 years ago (and no money), it was out with the springs, pull them apart, find big concrete slab and bash crap out of top side with freeking big hammer (big ball peen hammer did it too) and "voilá" reset spring with a lift! For a while anyway....
In the states, in Omaha, NE. We had a company that would repair, replace or re-arch any leaf spring 5 days a week. They provided a 1 year warranty for non-commercial vehicles and 90 days for company trucks.
These were 4 guys who knew metal, replaced a single leaf and used two books to arch the leaf springs. You could walk in there and tell them you had 68 Dodge Charger; they stopped you and ask mono leaf? Yep, we will a second leaf only and install then for $72.50 plus tax in 1986 dollars, bib, Squid, Quid, PiD, whatever it’s called!
finally someone i thing can answer my question-i have a 1947 lincoln continental front end needs a couple inches of lift maybe 3 -so can i raise body and put shims on top of the leaf spring probably have to put in longer u bolts-if this will work that has to be easier than changing the leaf i know raising it will probably put linage rod
in a bind but i think i can correct that -love you video thanks
lov your work. Got Mazda via your stand-over side kick stick. Two grand better than the bastxxds quoted me. Waited 6 months and shazam, a new car appears. The best bit of your You Tube thingo is course is the girlie interludes (makes the WOKE so angry) and secondly by a long shot, bringing real engineering to car considerations.
hi U need to tell local spring maker about the "hot" method . He follows the cold press method apparently . I suspect after hearing your correct methods its all about price /cost . Generally what I have found is the springs that have been reset do not last even thou they are used normally no excessive loads . My ute tradesman 250kg tools in the back and 130kg on the tow ball yet most go flat b4 100,000km . So from what your saying the factory springs cannot even handle this, under rated for the job.
I swear, that ruler looked like it was sagging somewhat towards the end of the video, but I could be wrong.
What's the bet, young Jonny checks it, if or when he reads this.
I agree... it sure was bent ;-)
If you do decide to have your leaf springs changed, please at least knock off some of the mud you accumulated on the way to Dingo Piss Creek.
Thanks in advance from me, a grateful aftermarket spring fitter!
My old Mitsi L300 4wd rear leafs had 'sagged' due to many jumps etc - suspension shop reset them and Added a tapered but dead-straight 'over-rider'' leaf; just enough to help.
One day I was racing the tide down Teewah beach, and it was humped - about every 200 to 400metres for 80 kays I launched it, at 100km/h.
My Camping plates were Corelle - didn't break.
The Torsion-bars in the front you ask?: replacement genuine Mitsi.
Ahem, all bump-stops removed, and aftermarket shocks all round that exceeded the springs reach even with the stops removed.
At 20 years the gearbox gave up . . .
I miss the Venga-Bus.
i bought a new truck in 1994 knowing i was going to keep it as a classic survivor it has never seen a load never seen rain never seen snow. it is now nov 2022 going on 29 years old with 25,000 miles on it and in like new condition and has a half inch sag on the drivers side and the only thing i can think of that could have caused the sag is a tank of gas. so im thinking it "sagged over time"
You made it look so easy!!! Keep sharing please… love your channel :) I’m subscribed! 😋
About 1990 I bought an XC falcon Wagon. It had sagged rear leaf springs. Can't remember what co it was but they were in Newcastle, don;t think it was Lovells. For stuff all $$ from memory $300 they reset them. Sold the car about 6 yrs later still looked the same.
You give your car a spring pill 💊
Reset to original ride height is double but reset to original bend/carry property is impossible.
My boss decided to reset springs on trailer in shop that just does that for living. And they did awesome job at first glance. Ride height was great, he pastidip all of them so no more lubricants and wd40 to the stop noise... All great.
First load and boy what a uneven load those 6 tires have... Disaster 3 - 6 tons. We have 8 tons per axle max here in Europe and one wheel was at 6... For that shit you get straight to jail... When shop removed all springs they were same shape, like pin point exact same shape but bending properties were completely different.
Maybe for one axle vehicles this is viable option but for 3 and you are all the time on full law limited load ...
Sagging spring?: call Tiffany 📱
Having watched this explanation on leaf springs, it got me thinking about torsion bar front suspension that was available on many 4wds in past decades, and still available on some (e.g. Mahindra). The standard method to “lift” the front is to wind them up a few turns on the adjusting bolts. Using the explanation given for leaf springs and pushing them beyond design, wouldn’t the same apply to any torsion bar lift? As I see it, by winding up a torsion bar you are allowing it to twist a lot more than design on upward compression of the front end. Or is there a lot more flexibility available in this design of spring? I have an IFS 100 series Landcruiser and am keen to improve its remote area touring reliability more than its ability to climb rocks.
Come on JC, the mighty P76 has a sophisticated 4 link coil suspension like an HQ. Except it handled and stopped better
I had my Falcon wagon springs reset lower to drop the rear end. It was about 1/5 the cost of a set of new springs.
Considering that the average person has no access to the tools necessary to do any of this I guess this guy needs a set of new leaf springs, which must be costing him a fortune but I am fairly certain that hiring a blacksmith(if there is one anywhere to be found these days) for days to get this done will cost more.....
Hi John. Any chance you could provide your insights on HHO cleaning for a diesel/petrol. So many opinions out there and yours seem to be based on facts, science and engineering. So would love to know if its worth doing a HHO clean.
Cheers
Deon
I seem to recall the venerable HQ Kingswood being renown for sagging in the rear end, almost dragging the rear quarter and bumper on the road - and they were on coil springs, rather than leaf. At the time, it was blamed on crappy dampers that wore out quickly, letting the spring bounce way too much and eventually causing it to soften, but I have no way of knowing if this was actually true or just a wives' tale. Presumably material science has moved along a way since then, so maybe it's not quite the problem it once was - at least for coils.
Would you consider a tour of your fatcave (one or two words ? ) to show us all those outstanding items in the background of your videos .
I just had springs replaced on 1983 Jeep Scrambler, when I had it refurbished. A lot less work.
I remember back 40 year's ago when our trucks when required Springs they would be sent to Rotorua to the specified spring workshops, I wonder if these special offers are still available, as most things are but thrown out now.