The Ford Barn - View Single Post

Daves55Sedan · 04-15-2020, 10:22 PM

My '55 Courier has heavy duty rear leaf springs in the back (made by St Louis Spring Co somewhere around 1999). They are thicker than the original springs and their arch is atomic. When driving down an un-even road, the wagon frame actually twists rather than the leaf springs being bothered to move.
As such, this twisting motion has caused one of either of the front gas tank mounting hangars to actually bust apart. And that ain't no easy task as the thickness of that metal is about 1/16 inch.
I can see only two undesirable ways to stop this from happening:
1) Replace the new heavy duty springs with a set of original car springs, (maybe try to find a new set, but only if they are made to exact manufacturers specs).
2) Drop the gas tank down about an inch so that it is no longer up against the floor of the car. To do this, I would need to make pipe spacers and use longer bolts on all the mounts, modify the fuel line entrance to the tank and get a longer rubber hose for the filler neck.
This is the third time I have needed to weld and re-install one of the gas tank mounting hangars. Has anybody else had this problem?

04-15-2020, 10:22 PM	#1
Daves55Sedan Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Granite City, Illinois Posts: 3,008	55 Wagon gas tank mounts My '55 Courier has heavy duty rear leaf springs in the back (made by St Louis Spring Co somewhere around 1999). They are thicker than the original springs and their arch is atomic. When driving down an un-even road, the wagon frame actually twists rather than the leaf springs being bothered to move. As such, this twisting motion has caused one of either of the front gas tank mounting hangars to actually bust apart. And that ain't no easy task as the thickness of that metal is about 1/16 inch. I can see only two undesirable ways to stop this from happening: 1) Replace the new heavy duty springs with a set of original car springs, (maybe try to find a new set, but only if they are made to exact manufacturers specs). 2) Drop the gas tank down about an inch so that it is no longer up against the floor of the car. To do this, I would need to make pipe spacers and use longer bolts on all the mounts, modify the fuel line entrance to the tank and get a longer rubber hose for the filler neck. This is the third time I have needed to weld and re-install one of the gas tank mounting hangars. Has anybody else had this problem?