De-arching leaf springs ?
 

Anyone know the mystery art of getting some of the arch out of some
used leaf springs ?

I thought it had to do with heating and cooling, but an old timer said
that the spring guys would just beat on them appropriately in the
right spots and they would straighten out. I would assume the
appropriate spots would be on the inside of the curve in order to
stretch it, but not sure.

I have an older truck with some broken and mismatched leaves up front.
The main leaves are fine... I just need to take some newer leaves I
have laying here and flatten them out a bit if possible.

thanks

Grummy

De-arching leaf springs ?
 

The correct way is annealing, bending to shape, hardening and redrawing, but
if you do not know the alloy, you won't know at what temperatures to do
this. If you don't have the facilities to do this, it is also impractical.
So, this leaves two choices. Go to a spring shop and buy what you need or
take your old springs and try to reform them cold, but to do this requires
you to push the leaves beyond their yeild point and that could be both
difficult and dangerous. I don't think this is possible with hammer alone. I
think you will have to force the spring to flatten and then with a very
heavy hammer slam the spring past its yeild point, but if that shock causes
the spring to release itself, it could kill or seriously injure you. Of
course, this operation is all about feel. I wouldn't do it. The cost savings
involved isn't worth the safety risk.
Steve

wrote in message
...
Anyone know the mystery art of getting some of the arch out of some
used leaf springs ?

I thought it had to do with heating and cooling, but an old timer said
that the spring guys would just beat on them appropriately in the
right spots and they would straighten out. I would assume the
appropriate spots would be on the inside of the curve in order to
stretch it, but not sure.

I have an older truck with some broken and mismatched leaves up front.
The main leaves are fine... I just need to take some newer leaves I
have laying here and flatten them out a bit if possible.

thanks

Grummy

De-arching leaf springs ?
 

I had a set de-arched at an automotive spring/chassis shop many moons
ago.
JR
Dweller in the cellar

On Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:48:18 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

Anyone know the mystery art of getting some of the arch out of some
used leaf springs ?

I thought it had to do with heating and cooling, but an old timer said
that the spring guys would just beat on them appropriately in the
right spots and they would straighten out. I would assume the
appropriate spots would be on the inside of the curve in order to
stretch it, but not sure.

I have an older truck with some broken and mismatched leaves up front.
The main leaves are fine... I just need to take some newer leaves I
have laying here and flatten them out a bit if possible.

thanks

Grummy
--------------------------------------------------------------
Home Page: http://www.seanet.com/~jasonrnorth
If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes
Doubt yourself, and the real world will eat you alive
The world doesn't revolve around you, it revolves around me
No skeletons in the closet; just decomposing corpses
--------------------------------------------------------------
Dependence is Vulnerability:
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"I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.."

De-arching leaf springs ?
 

wrote in article
...
Anyone know the mystery art of getting some of the arch out of some
used leaf springs ?

I thought it had to do with heating and cooling, but an old timer said
that the spring guys would just beat on them appropriately in the
right spots and they would straighten out. I would assume the
appropriate spots would be on the inside of the curve in order to
stretch it, but not sure.

I have an older truck with some broken and mismatched leaves up front.
The main leaves are fine... I just need to take some newer leaves I
have laying here and flatten them out a bit if possible.

thanks

Grummy



The spring shop I used to work in now has a huge press, and they
arch/de-arch leaves cold.

When I worked there 35 years ago, we used a four-pound hammer and a large
anvil......cold.

And, I have re-set the arches on dozens of spring leaves over the years.

Hit the side you want the spring to go to......more arch, hit the inside of
the curve - less arch, hit the outside of the curve.

When you hit the spring and everything isn't square with the anvil, you
will get what is known in the business as a "....hand full of bees."

Just thought you should know.

De-arching leaf springs ?
 

On Wed, 19 Mar 2008 04:58:47 +0100, "Steve Lusardi"
wrote:

The correct way is annealing, bending to shape, hardening and redrawing, but
if you do not know the alloy, you won't know at what temperatures to do
this. If you don't have the facilities to do this, it is also impractical.
So, this leaves two choices. Go to a spring shop and buy what you need or
take your old springs and try to reform them cold, but to do this requires
you to push the leaves beyond their yeild point and that could be both
difficult and dangerous. I don't think this is possible with hammer alone. I
think you will have to force the spring to flatten and then with a very
heavy hammer slam the spring past its yeild point, but if that shock causes
the spring to release itself, it could kill or seriously injure you. Of
course, this operation is all about feel. I wouldn't do it. The cost savings
involved isn't worth the safety risk.
Steve


I've arched springs many times with just a heavy hammer. I've also
bent them in a hydraulic press, cold.
But to relieve automotive leaf springs I generally just heated a
couple of the booster leaves a few inches from the end and pulled
them down a bit.
wrote in message
...
Anyone know the mystery art of getting some of the arch out of some
used leaf springs ?

I thought it had to do with heating and cooling, but an old timer said
that the spring guys would just beat on them appropriately in the
right spots and they would straighten out. I would assume the
appropriate spots would be on the inside of the curve in order to
stretch it, but not sure.

Beating on the inside arches the spring. Beating on the outside
de-arches.from my experience

I have an older truck with some broken and mismatched leaves up front.
The main leaves are fine... I just need to take some newer leaves I
have laying here and flatten them out a bit if possible.

thanks

Grummy



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

De-arching leaf springs ?
 

Thank you guys..... This is exactly what I was wondering. I will get
my hammer and a thick pair of gloves.

grummy


On Mar 19, 4:01 pm, clare at snyder dot ontario dot canada wrote:
On Wed, 19 Mar 2008 04:58:47 +0100, "Steve Lusardi"

wrote:
The correct way is annealing, bending to shape, hardening and redrawing, but
if you do not know the alloy, you won't know at what temperatures to do
this. If you don't have the facilities to do this, it is also impractical.
So, this leaves two choices. Go to a spring shop and buy what you need or
take your old springs and try to reform them cold, but to do this requires
you to push the leaves beyond their yeild point and that could be both
difficult and dangerous. I don't think this is possible with hammer alone. I
think you will have to force the spring to flatten and then with a very
heavy hammer slam the spring past its yeild point, but if that shock causes
the spring to release itself, it could kill or seriously injure you. Of
course, this operation is all about feel. I wouldn't do it. The cost savings
involved isn't worth the safety risk.
Steve

I've arched springs many times with just a heavy hammer. I've also
bent them in a hydraulic press, cold.
But to relieve automotive leaf springs I generally just heated a
couple of the booster leaves a few inches from the end and pulled
them down a bit.

wrote in message
...
Anyone know the mystery art of getting some of the arch out of some
used leaf springs ?

I thought it had to do with heating and cooling, but an old timer said
that the spring guys would just beat on them appropriately in the
right spots and they would straighten out. I would assume the
appropriate spots would be on the inside of the curve in order to
stretch it, but not sure.

Beating on the inside arches the spring. Beating on the outside
de-arches.from my experience



I have an older truck with some broken and mismatched leaves up front.
The main leaves are fine... I just need to take some newer leaves I
have laying here and flatten them out a bit if possible.

thanks

Grummy

--
Posted via a free Usenet account fromhttp://www.teranews.com