What is safest way to remove a rear end that has a broken rear spring center bolt?

[Neil Mylar LakewoodCA]

I have a rebuilt Tom Endy transmission that I will be putting in my 29 pickup, sometime in the future. Normally, i would leave the rear spring in the car and just drop the rear end, but I noticed that the rear spring has a broken center bolt, which I would like to replace.

I am thinking of putting some C clamps on the springs, clamping as many leaves as possible, then removing the 4 nuts that hold the spring assembly to the cross member.
The upper leaves are flatter and should not have much pressure.
I would appreciate your thoughts.

I know I could just leave the spring alone and leave it for the next guy to contend with, but I'd rather fix it now.

[John]

Neil, remove the rear end from the spring while the spring is still captured in the frame with the 'U" bolts in the normal manner with a spring spreader. Relax the spring on the spreader and then carefully remove the spring from the car using good strong "c" clamps, 2 on each end facing opposite directions on the leaf ends as close to the center as possible. Slack the 'U' bolt nuts and remove the spring with the "c" clamps on it. If the center bolt hole in the spring is open, add a piece of allthread rod with nuts on each side of the spring as added insurance and begin to carefully slack off the allthread nuts and the "c" clamps until the spring tension is relieved.

Be careful as the spring has stored energy and is also heavy.

John

[Tom Endy]

Neal:


Go to the post below "removing the spring...." The answer I provided is the way you should handle the broken center bolt. As long as the spring is attached to the frame with the two U-bolts it is safe. Use a spring spreader to be able to remove the shackle bolts and drop the rear axle assembly. Then collapse the spring spreader and remove it. The spring is safe then, unbolt the U-bolts and take the spring out.


Removing a rear axle assembly with the spring attached is a dangerous practice, but people do it all the time. About the time you are wrapping chains around it may be the time it decides to explode on you.


Tom Endy

[wensum]

It should be possible to access the top of the rear cross member within the car? if so, one could drive out the broken bolt and replace it in-situ?

[pooch]

I would just use the weight of the car to do the job.

Undo the 2 U bolts and simply jack the chassis up.

All the upper leaves will loosen off, just leaving the main springleaf across the shackles.

[Growley bear]

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Originally Posted by wensum

It should be possible to access the top of the rear cross member within the car? if so, one could drive out the broken bolt and replace it in-situ?

Agreed; yes

[katy]

Originally Posted by pooch

I would just use the weight of the car to do the job.

Undo the 2 U bolts and simply jack the chassis up.

All the upper leaves will loosen off, just leaving the main springleaf across the shackles.

Ditto

Also, this would be a good time to clean up the spring and paint it w/slip-plate or your choice of poison before re-assembling it.

[P.S.]

I did that on a sedan once, and it was very dicey. Since you have a pickup, you don't have much weight in the rear end, so some of the suggestions above do not apply (or will kill you).

Doing as Tom suggests in the post he forgot to link is to remove the spring from the perches using a spring spreader, then after the spring is off, removing the 4 bolts from the center and it all falls out.

When I tried that, as the nuts in the center were being balanced out, suddenly one of them stripped off the threads and all hell broke loose. The fury released immedately in less than the blink of an eye.

I suggest a slight modification of Tom's approach- Remove the cotter pins from the four center castle nuts and back them off to release some of the tension first. Just back them off until the valleys of the castlated parts of the nuts are even with the ends of the bolts. Then, proceed using Tom's method. Using C-clamps seems to help, but that is pretty dangerous because the spring will bend them!

[P.S.]

Originally Posted by pooch

I would just use the weight of the car to do the job..

He has a pickup, as clearly stated in the original post.

[steve s]

Take it to a spring shop. No need to be a hero--especially a dead one.

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Originally Posted by steve s

Take it to a spring shop. No need to be a hero--especially a dead one.

His EPITAPH could read, "THEY TOLE ME IT WUZ DANGEROUS"!!!
(They even found the 3 missing fingers, to bury with him & his WATCH, so he wouldn't be "LATE"!)
Bill Chicken

[Cool Hand Lurker]

Originally Posted by wensum

It should be possible to access the top of the rear cross member within the car? if so, one could drive out the broken bolt and replace it in-situ?

This is a far safer method if you are just replacing the bolt. If you are not going to do anything else to the spring then just leave the U-Bolts alone.

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Originally Posted by Cool Hand Lurker

This is a far safer method if you are just replacing the bolt. If you are not going to do anything else to the spring then just leave the U-Bolts alone.

You're TOTALLY RIGHT!---Some Folks work hard, to OVERCOMPLICATE a simple job.
Bill Simpleton

[katy]

Since you have a pickup, you don't have much weight in the rear end,

It's not hard to temporarily add more weight to the back end of a pickup.

[CarlG]

Originally Posted by katy

It's not hard to temporarily add more weight to the back end of a pickup.

Several bags of sand or gravel at Home Depot work really well!

[Corley]

If you can replace the center bolt with it all installed, go for that. If you can't get a new bolt to drop in, then use the wieght of the vehicle to keep the spring together, even if you have to add some wieght. You can then be well out of harm's way while lifting the vehicle, and in no danger if it suddenly goes kablewy. This is by far the safest way.

Jmho

[daren007]

Get your next door neighbor to help...Then disappear.

[steve s]

I wonder why it is that just because these cars are older than us, there's something shameful about seeking professional help for fixing them. I include myself in this vanity or foolishness or stubbornness or whatever it is: until very recently, I even had the same hangup about rolling around under my Ford to grease it.

Most of us have for years been taking our modern cars to shops for all manner of servicing, without any qualms of conscience--even BEFORE computerization rendered them virtually inscrutable! In most fundamental respects, the Model A Ford is still a modern car. I say, it's great to work on and fix our cars ourselves if it's fun and you reasonably and safely can, but there's no shame in showing deserved respect both to those who have chosen to make a profession of being a mechanic and to the wonderful pieces of machinery that merit their services.

There, I've gotten that off my mind! Now, if I only could believe it.

[Corley]

Almost every time that I've taken a car for repair, it has not been fixed, but screwed up by an incompetent "mechanic". Mind you, I've only rarely taken one in, I'd much rather do a bit of research and fix it myself. Modern cars are actually pretty easy to work on once you understand how to make use of the diagnostic tools. Very rarely is there a problem it doesn't diagnose for you. The worst part is how tightly things are packed in.

[Neil Mylar LakewoodCA]

Thank you everyone.
I am definitely using a professional spring spreader to remove the rear end.
If i can just replace the broken bolt, I will not remove the spring, at all.
I'll let you know what happens.