Rear springs touching spring hangers!

Post by **mowogg** » Mon May 05, 2008 9:59 pm

I have discovered that the rear of both the leaf springs are touching the rear of the spring hangers when they rotate - i believe ths is causing quite a lot of road noise!

Is this likley to be caused by:

- Poor repair to rear spring hanger reducing the distance between the body work and spring? (theres does appear to be quite a lot of weld in the area
- Worn bushes (they were replaced about 5 years ago)
- Worn shackle plates?

Can i get over this by slightly longer shackles plates or do I need to do one or all of the above?

Post by **myminor1969** » Mon May 05, 2008 10:24 pm

Basically it could be any or all of these. I replaced all recently and used poly bushes, new shackle pins nuts and replaced front rear spring bushes as well with new pins.
Maybe the leaf springs sagging and becoming 'longer'. hope this may help.
Alex

Post by **minor_hickup** » Tue May 06, 2008 12:17 am

Maybe it's worth doing some measuring to see if the welded repair is in the wrong place. However worn springs is most likely. It's amazing how much a new set of springs increases the rear ride height.

Post by **mowogg** » Tue May 06, 2008 7:40 am

How long is it likley to take to change the springs -i remeber trying to get a rear spring of a scrfap car and it took a lot of effort to free the front spring hanger? Is there a trick to make the job easy?

Post by **bmcecosse** » Tue May 06, 2008 9:02 am

Yes - a sharp chisel or an angle grinder! But I would certainly try a set of poly bushes in the rear shackles, if it doesn't help then you have them anyway for the 'new' springs if you go that route - and yes - longer shackles will lift the car by half the extra length of the shackles. So - 1 " longer shackles lift the car by 1/2".

Post by **rayofleamington** » Tue May 06, 2008 11:13 am

- Poor repair to rear spring hanger reducing the distance between the body work and spring? (theres does appear to be quite a lot of weld in the area
- Worn bushes (they were replaced about 5 years ago)
- Worn shackle plates?

- Worn / sagging springs

All plausible, but there's one more possibility (especially likely on bady repaired cars):
- Failed mountings!

I've seen one or two that were bodged (badly repaired). There is an internal support tube within which the bushes fit - poor repairs are unlikely to give any strength to support this tube and this can break off inside the member. When this happens the shackles don't take much load and the spring eye is loaded onto the bottom of the box section.

Post by **bmcecosse** » Tue May 06, 2008 7:01 pm

Aye - the fact that it's rubbing on the shackles does suggest something is off the square - certainly could be collapsed rear mounting. Best dismantle and investigate before going any further.

Post by **mowogg** » Tue May 06, 2008 9:51 pm

I will have a look at this- i would be surpirsised though but then you never know. The spring hangers were replaced with herics replacements- generally it was very good welding- i suspect it was lazy workmanship not grinding off the welds that were at the base of the hanger between the spring and hanger.

The springs are faily worn- stangly they are 7 leaf on a saloon.

I suspect they have been rubbing for the last 5 years -i have been trying to find a strange noise in the boot/exhaust banging issue.

Post by **bmcecosse** » Tue May 06, 2008 10:17 pm

May have been welded on slightly askew!

Post by **rayofleamington** » Wed May 07, 2008 9:07 am

The springs are faily worn- stangly they are 7 leaf on a saloon.

What age is your car? Saloons had 7 leaf springs until mid 50's
I'm reliably informed that these were the same rating as the later 5 leaf springs. However if they're sagging, then they're well past their best.