Spring Spreader, Rear, Home Made
 

Hi Gents,
A couple months ago someone posted a description of a homemade spring spreader for an "A" rear spring.
It consisted of three lengths of 3/4 inch threaded rod, a length of 3/4 inch Inside diameter pipe and some nuts. One rod was located in the middle of the pipe and that was bent in a press. the ends of the other rods were forged flat to nestle into the spring eyes and the other ends with nuts on them were inserted into the pipe.
I'd like to make one but need the dimensions. Someone has already worked that out and it would be very helpful to have that info.
If anyone can direct me to that thread I'd appreciate it.
Thanks much.
Al

Re: Spring Spreader, Rear, Home Made
 

I Searched the forum and found this https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/album...ictureid=21583

Looks like bad idea!

Re: Spring Spreader, Rear, Home Made
 

Buy one. IMHO, it's not worth the risk not too.

Re: Spring Spreader, Rear, Home Made
 

Check your local Model A club and see if they have one to loan or rent. You shouldn't need one very often.

Charlie Stephens

Re: Spring Spreader, Rear, Home Made
 

That one that was pictured was my creation. It was a POS, a dangerous POS! I do not recommend that anyone should replicate it! Since then, I have made a much better one from 1 1/4"ID chrome moly tubing scrap from a race car frame that a friend was building. It works very well. Look in my coupe (Green Wheels) in my albums. Originally I was going to use 1 1/4" threaded rod, but at $65 for a 3' piece and some advice I scaled it back to 1". Then I lined the 1 1/4" with 1" ID pipe and it works fine. I stick welded it with 7018 Low Hydrogen wire. Good luck!
Terry

Re: Spring Spreader, Rear, Home Made
 

Thank you guys. Appreciate hearing about your experiences, especially Terry's.
The one I'm still hoping to see again was a safe one that didn't require any welding, just one continuous piece of pipe with threaded ends.
By the way, what is the dimension from one rear main spring eye to the other, when out of the car?
Thank you.
Al

Re: Spring Spreader, Rear, Home Made
 

Pipe doesn't have the structural qualities tubing has..use 1 1/2"Heavy wall square tubing and use acme thread instead of national coarse if you can find it cheap,acme transfers load better..like Terry says,weld with Low Hydrogen 7018 1/8th stick,single stitch,triple pass..put some weld on it...nobody ever died from over engineering a process

Re: Spring Spreader, Rear, Home Made
 

How do you stick weld with wire?
Bill

Re: Spring Spreader, Rear, Home Made
 

Here's one: https://web.archive.org/web/20100928.../spreader.html

Haven't used one, though.

Re: Spring Spreader, Rear, Home Made
 

When I started welding, MIG was nowhere near as popular as it is now and all welding rods where called wire. I should have used the word "rod" but as I said, we used the words rod and wire interchangeably.
Terry

Re: Spring Spreader, Rear, Home Made
 

I caught what you were saying..for high strength structural I dont use MIG..you can feel the stick burn in,wire does but I dont trust it.

Re: Spring Spreader, Rear, Home Made
 

I have a home made but much heavier . works good . you really need one to be safe

Re: Spring Spreader, Rear, Home Made
 

I built one of these from Larry,s plans and it works great. The only improvement I could see would be to use Acme threaded rod in Grade 8.
Bill

Re: Spring Spreader, Rear, Home Made
 

I made one 6 or 7 years ago. I used 1" all thread and 1" pipe. It worked well the 5 or 6 times that a friend and I used it. It is NOT dangerous to use, even though you need to be very careful that you use it correctly. It is strong.
Rusty Nelson

Re: Spring Spreader, Rear, Home Made
 

My little MIG (Gas, 110V, .025 wire) is great for "gluing" in patches, but for the forces involved, I don't trust MIG either. Yet I did run an automatic that was 1/8" Flux core wire on a turntable and laid in a 3/4" bead, some wire, some heat! One company I worked for had a bunch of Linde's (.032) and we never used them for more 12 gauge to 1/4". Anything heavier , we used a stick machine.
Terry

Re: Spring Spreader, Rear, Home Made
 

I too have a homemade spreader but I bought the proper tool for the job. You only live once.

Re: Spring Spreader, Rear, Home Made
 

I built one from this article and have used it on my Model A and on a Model T rear spring.