replacing van leaf springs - advice please

Post by **wibble_puppy** » Wed May 21, 2008 10:02 am

thanks for that extra info! very timely as I hope to be doing this job later today

Post by **chickenjohn** » Wed May 21, 2008 11:26 am

Further tip! put something thin (thin plastic bag or bit of thin card?) between G-clamp faces and shackle, I didnt and the clamp face turned and marked the nicely painted shackle, thus causing more work touching it in with chassis black paint.

Post by **wibble_puppy** » Wed May 21, 2008 12:33 pm

thanks again!

Post by **M25VAN** » Wed May 21, 2008 7:01 pm

wibble_puppy wrote: Do you mean the pads which go on either side of the spring in the middle, where the U-bolts go? Why do they not go on the van springs?

Yes they are the ones. In the parts list it shows 4 plain plates. I don't know why the rubber pads aren't fitted other than when I did mistakenly fit some I was forever tightening up the U bolts as the rubber compressed over time.

Post by **wibble_puppy** » Wed May 21, 2008 7:22 pm

ooh interesting.

I had a chat about this to Harry at ESM earlier, having seen your post. He said yes indeed the vans did not have the rubbers fitted. On the other hand he had seen lots where the owners had added them afterwards, and he reckoned it might soften the ride a little and have no adverse effect on handling etc.

I wonder why on earth they would compress on a van spring and not on the springs of the other models? most peculiar!

Got held up today and didn't fit the suspension as planned, so i have time to ponder this one before tomorrow. grateful for any other input!

Thanks again, M25Van

wibble xx

Post by **aupickup** » Wed May 21, 2008 7:48 pm

well of course when the vans were first built to be used by builders and the like and went with a full load, there was no need to soften the rear springs , only today wpould we want to do that.

i would not bother with the pads anyway no point

Post by **wibble_puppy** » Wed May 21, 2008 7:50 pm

well I've got 'em now, they are sitting with the plates ready to be fitted - and if they do soften the ride at all then I'm interested

Post by **M25VAN** » Wed May 21, 2008 8:12 pm

From memory the ones I hade were quite 'soft' and 'squidged out' when I tightened down the U bolts.
Keep us posted on how much they soften the ride......

Post by **alex_holden** » Wed May 21, 2008 8:22 pm

Superflex do polyurethane pads; I have a set ready for when I change the springs on Fenchurch.

Post by **wibble_puppy** » Wed May 21, 2008 8:30 pm

M25VAN wrote:Keep us posted on how much they soften the ride......

will do

alex_holden wrote:Superflex do polyurethane pads

yeah, I considered those but decided to go with rubber as it would be softer (nothing at all to do with the cost of the Superflex ones

) I have Superflex bushes for everything else, though - wish me luck for my first attempt at re-bushing using them, tomorrow!

Post by **alex_holden** » Wed May 21, 2008 8:37 pm

Good luck. Hopefully you won't need to do them again for quite a while!

Post by **wibble_puppy** » Fri May 23, 2008 9:51 pm

ello chaps,

well the mighty aupickup came round today and we installed the rear suspension in about ten minutes.

a really good method for a van is as follows:

1. Make sure the larger of the two round ends of the springs is at the front of the vehicle

2. Put bushes on front pin and in large hole, and push spring on to front pin. do the same on both sides, so that the front end of each spring is on its pin and the back end of each spring is resting on the ground below where the rear shackle plates go.

3. Assemble the rear end of one of the springs: bushes, pins and shackle plates - best sequence is to put bushes on both pins and put them through the holes in the chassis rail and the hole in the rear end of the spring, then put the inside shackle plate on to the pins and do up the spring washers and nuts on the inside end of the pins. Then push the outer shackle plate into place on the other end of the pins, put the spring washers and nuts on to the outer ends of the pins, and do everything up - not excessively tightly.

4. Grab your rear axle and thread it through between the chassis rail and the spring which has been done up at both ends.

5. Hold the axle in place (assistant, or jack, or both) while you assemble the centre section of the same spring: bump stop, U bolts, axle bracket, clamp plates and rear damper plate. It's easiest to do this by threading one U bolt through all its relevant holes, putting nuts on to the ends of it, wiggling the bump stop under the top arch of the U bolt, then tightening the nuts: then threading the other U bolt through its holes and doing up the nuts on it too, making sure that the bump stop is pointing in a sensible direction so as to make contact with the chassis bracket above it if need be.

6. Still holding the axle in place, do up the rear shackle fastening of the other springs, so that both springs are now held up at both their ends.

7. Assemble the centre section of the second spring in the same way as the first.

8. Tighten all nuts, and put lock nuts on to U bolts. Make sure the split pins are in place in the castellated nuts on the front spring support pins.

I couldn't believe how easy the Superflex polybushes were to install - they just glided into place with no fuss and no bother at all - not like trying to wrench the springs off the old rubber bushes! Probably cleaning up the front support pins had helped a lot (got rid of all caked-on old rust and grease and rubber, down to clean metal).

Obviously the van needs to have been jacked up at the rear, and supported on axle stands under the bits of the chassis which terminate in the front shackle pins.

Hope that description made sense, and that it comes in handy for any van owners needing to do the same job!

wibble xx

ps we put the engine and gearbox back in while we were at it

Post by **alex_holden** » Fri May 23, 2008 10:06 pm

Sounds like a good day's work!

Post by **ASL642** » Fri May 23, 2008 10:11 pm

Gosh you make me feel exhausted just reading that. So I should think the parts store (house) is a little barer tonight! National here you come WP!

Post by **bigginger** » Fri May 23, 2008 10:15 pm

Any chance of a post on sucking eggs? ;)

Post by **aupickup** » Fri May 23, 2008 10:17 pm

easy when u know how

but some of us dont know

Post by **bigginger** » Fri May 23, 2008 11:11 pm

I know - just being rude for my own amusement - hence the ;)

Post by **bmcecosse** » Sat May 24, 2008 10:39 am

If anyone else did that - they would be moderated!!

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?!

Post by **wibble_puppy** » Sat May 24, 2008 11:02 am

reckon I can take whatever the Big Man throws at me - and give as good as I get - don't you?

cheers, alex and regaliaqueen

- I do feel a huge hurdle has been jumped and that the end is in (very distant) sight - maybe I will yet be at the National, albeit with all non-essential parts still stashed in various parts of Wibble Towers!

My "to do" list is now taking up the spare room

Post by **wibble_puppy** » Sat May 24, 2008 11:09 am

wibble_puppy wrote:Hope that description made sense, and that it comes in handy for any van owners needing to do the same job!

Should have phrased that differently: "hope that description made sense, and that it comes in handy for any beginner van owners needing to do the same job!" BG obviously falling very very far out of that category!!