Home made spring spreader - More versatile than I thought.

[Mart]

The links to the pictures have been broken in the great PhotoBucket debacle of '17. I have re-added the pics, but they now appear as attachments at the end. Mart.


I needed to fit a stock 40 style spring to a 40 style axle, so I made up a simple spreader.

I used 25mm square tubing with a 2mm wall thickness as the main body. I then used some threaded bar 20mm diameter to make the two pushers.

I heated and flattened the ends of the bar to make a sort of blunt chisel blade type point, increasing the width due to the flattening.

I left the screwed rod as long as I could to give the best overlap with the tube and therefore the greatest strength.

It worked really well. I then made some clamps (from odds and ends) to enable me to spread a reversed eye 40 style front spring. I made a new centre piece of tubing, from the same material, and had to cut a couple of inches or so off the insides of the threaded bar. the overlap was still plenty.

Again, it worked really well.

Still with me? Now here's the thing.. I assumed this spreader could only work on the 35-up straight springs. I was wrong. I just used it to remove and refit the reversed eye 32 spring on my roadster.

Because the spring was reversed eye, i used the clamping pieces previously used on the 40 front spring.. Using the clamps, with careful positioning of the clamping bolts allowed a straight shot across the back of the axle, and the spreader ends nestled snugly and safely in place.

It occurred to me that even with a non reversed eye spring (stock type) using the clamps (normally not necessary) would allow the use of the simply made spreader bar.

Ok? Obviously without pictures I'm lying, so here are a few from the refitting of the spring to my hybrid 35/32 axle (32 ends on 35 bell centres.)

Attachment 1:
Basic tube centre, Showing threaded bar left as long as possible.

Attachment 2:
Detail of the flattened ends.

Attachment3:
Showing the improvised clamps. bolts are 10mm 8.8 grade

Attachment 4:
Showing the spreader nestled in the adapter clamps - note the long end of the bolts positioned to ensure the spreader end cannot slip out.

Attachment5:
Showing the straight shot achieved across the rearmost part of the axle.

Attachment 6:
General view of the spreader doing it's thing.

Attachment 7:
And another. This is in the spread state. You can see that the length of threaded bar sticking out is very short.

As always there are the usual get outs - This works for me, you are welcome to use the ideas presented here at your own risk. Make sure the rig you make
is strong enough.

I can hear the "don't use all thread" people chiming in as I type. Well, if it is big enough, part sticking out is minimised, the part inside the tubing is maximised and there is no bending moment (it's a "straight shot"), then it will work as I have shown.

in summary I found the tool simple to make, from stuff I had around me, very useful for the intended applications (straight springs) and was pleasantly surprised that it would work equally as well on the curved rears too. Usage of the clamps normally required for reversed eye springs make it's use on curved springs possible.

Cheers.

Mart.

[grumppyoldman]

Good idea I may use it myself. Thanks Al

[mountstimothy0]

Thank you for that idea. I'm gonna use it for a similar situation on my 55.... c-word. (Don't know if I can say that here). Very helpful. Thanks again

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-J120A using Tapatalk

[Joe Immler]

Now THAT is cool! Going to make one this week. Thanks for sharing.

[tubman]

It's a lot like my homemade one. I agree with you on the use of all-thread; If it's big enough and you do it properly, there's no problem.

[19Fordy]

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That is cooler than dry ice.
Nice job, especially for reversed eyes.

[corvette8n]

Clever

[pooch]

I suppose you know that metric grade 8.8 is only equivalent to UNF grade 5.

When I made my spreader for a model A with reversed eye with similar end plates as you, I used 1/2 inch grade 8 UNF.

My spreader had to hang off the backside of the spring to mss the diff .

[fortyonerag]

Nice one, many thanks.

[Mart]

I have updated the original post with images directly uploaded. Thanks PhotoBucket.

Mart.

[VeryTangled]

Originally Posted by Mart

I have updated the original post with images directly uploaded. Thanks PhotoBucket. Mart.

Mart, thanks for the educational information, and thanks also for coming back and fixing the photos. I'm more than a bit bummed about the hosted photos I've got in a bunch of posts.

[JSeery]

Going to be a whole lot of fixing going on to save a lot of great past threads/post!

[Mart]

It's a pain because you can't insert the images (now called attachments) into the text, they have to be added as thumbnails at the end. I did the same over on the hamb and the images can be added as either full images or thumbnails anywhere you want in the post.

Hey ho, we have to work with what we have, and ought to be thankful for being able to do it.

Mart.

[JSeery]

The HAMB has a lot of cool features that are nice, but change is not well excepted!!

[PeteVS]

I'm not sure, but I think you can add photos to your album here on FordBarn and use those addresses in your post the same as you used to do on Photo _uck it.

[Randy in ca]

Originally Posted by PeteVS

I'm not sure, but I think you can add photos to your album here on FordBarn and use those addresses in your post the same as you used to do on Photo _uck it.

For sure this can be done - copy the address of the photo in your album(s) the same as you would from any hosting site. Also the address of any thumbnail you post or have previously posted is filed in your User CP section under "attachments" (or something similar, I forget for sure what it's called) and can be used similarly.

[stangblue]

Nice job Mart! I like the compatibility with the simple bolted L brackets for the reverse eyelets on the spring. The more I think about it was how dangerous it was to use a port-a-power with all its attachments. Also utilizing a safety chain strapped around the rear housing. Thanks for your ingenuity.

[cederholm]

Brilliant! I need to store that one for the future.

[TomT/Williamsburg]

Nice work - ain, clean and simple!

[John Gibson]

Years ago I made one from a really big turnbuckle that I picked up somewhere. Just welded some flat pieces on the ends to catch the spring eye.
John