Welding Rear Springs

[Bob Bidonde]

The eyes of the spring are functionally not part of the car's suspension, so concern about ruining the heat treatment is negligible. However, the eyes of the spring are structural in nature. If the eyes did not fail with their untreated wear, I doubt they will fail after welding.
If the worn spring was on my Model "A," i would replace that leaf as a minimum or the replace the hole spring.

[8EL]

I find the claims interesting that state they have never seen such wear as has been realized on my machine before. From a recent post "Rear spring perch fix procedure", the shackle has failed leaving the weight of the car to be born against the axle housing exclusively. In the photo given it clearly looks to me that the spring eye is being worn in the same manner as mine, why would it not?

I am also curious why Bob Bidone agrees that after welding the spring would not fail, he would replace it any way. I agree with Bob in his assessment of the impact the welding process would have on reliability. Also as can be seen from the photos I submitted, one will be unable to discern after painting the repaired spring from new, why then would you replace it any way?

[updraught]

Originally Posted by 8EL

I find the claims interesting that state they have never seen such wear as has been realized on my machine before. From a recent post "Rear spring perch fix procedure", the shackle has failed leaving the weight of the car to be born against the axle housing exclusively. In the photo given it clearly looks to me that the spring eye is being worn in the same manner as mine, why would it not?

I am also curious why Bob Bidone agrees that after welding the spring would not fail, he would replace it any way. I agree with Bob in his assessment of the impact the welding process would have on reliability. Also as can be seen from the photos I submitted, one will be unable to discern after painting the repaired spring from new, why then would you replace it any way?

That thread was about a perch that had completely collapsed. He said "I'm hoping that the shackle wasn't riding on the housing for too many miles, since the break in the perch is still Shiney and not rusted."
Old cars had a hard time here as they were usually cut into utes during the war. So this sort of thing is common.

[8EL]

Originally Posted by updraught

That thread was about a perch that had completely collapsed. He said "I'm hoping that the shackle wasn't riding on the housing for too many miles, since the break in the perch is still Shiney and not rusted."
Old cars had a hard time here as they were usually cut into utes during the war. So this sort of thing is common.

That is what I was getting at, seemed like many such as yourself commented that they never saw the spring eye worn like mine. These cars are 90 plus years old, for all I know mine was driven like this also causing the wear noted. I posted that picture to show that there are probably many of these cars having this wear pattern.

[8EL]

I wish to thank all you fellows for taking the time to leave comments and concerns. The heat applied to do this padding build up was considerably less than an actual weldment employed to rejoin two pieces of parent metal however. 5160 can be welded in this manner (jointing) but heat becomes much more critical than what I did here.

ASTM publishes the following temperatures for these various procedural functions:

Heat Treatment 5160 is normally hardened in oil. Recommended quenching temperature is 1525 F, with a wide range of mechanical use available by tempering between 800 and 1300 F.

Forging Forge this grade between 2100 and 2200 F.

Annealing Heat to 1450 F and air cool.

As can be seen this part was kept well below stated temperatures in any critical region of the spring. I would not be going out of my way to be welding broken leafs back together in this material, but for the repair here it was I do believe well within reason all things being considered.

Have a nice evening to all