Technical How low will a T Spring drop my ass end in my 28 sedan....got pictures?

I have a stock 28 sedan. Does anyone have pictures of this exact set up, Im wondering exactly how low it will drop the back.

 

Maybe someone will have better pictures and answers for you, but this will get you started. The model a frame under my 27 has a T spring in back, so you can sort of judge from these pictures how much it drops it down. A lot depends on how many leaves you keep, I eliminated some of them to soften the ride.

Don

 

Shane, I am on my mobile so posting pics isn't easy at this point.

On my old setup with the Maroonish Tudor. When the coupe body was on it it had the T Spring with 2 or so leaves out and I also channeled the rear crossmember over the spring 2".

It rode decent but a little soft, no shocks.

When I swapped the coupe out for the Tudor, it was washout to soft, it sucked.

Contrary to what most would do, if I did another, I would reverse the eyes on the A spring, pull a few leaves out and try that. If it wasn't enough it cut the crossmember.

There are tons of pics of those two cars, stance and the modifications in those threads.

 

I'm worried it might be "too low"

I'm a BMF at 6' x 260 and don't need to be hitting over the RR tracks if you know what I mean.

 

IIRC, you're only going to get 3" with the swap to the standard 8-leaf T spring. You'll probably want to remove a couple leaves from the pack to go lower.

 

Rainier Hooker posted a comparsion, standart A-Spring/T-Spring on his phantastic pheaton-build. He took 1 leaf out:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/rear-t-spring-on-a.874121/page-2#post-10427755

The hole Thread:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/rear-t-spring-on-a.874121/

T-Spring on my roadster, took 2nd and 3rd smalest leafes out, have no comparsion but it drops the rear noticeable!

 

is the t spring a bolt in? isn't it tapered?

 

Yup, bolts right in. You only need to make a small spacer for the shackle as the T spring is narrower by 1/4". IIRC, tapered springs were only used on the brass-era T's - and by tapered, I mean the ends of each leaf were rounded; width was still 2" so they are essentially the same as the later springs.

 

I don't have an A rear crossmember to compair to a 26-27 T rear corssmember but wonder if swapping in the T to an A chassis would change anything?Bob

 

The A cross member has a higher arch (more drop) than a 26-7 T by about an inch. I ran into this when putting my RPU body on a '30 frame...the T bed needs to be spaced an inch higher to clear the rear cross member.

 

I had a local spring shop build me a new spring useing the T spring as a patern. Same width as an A spring with rounded ends and reversed eye.

 

PO Russ put a T spring on my car with leaves 3 and 5 removed. With a 7.50 x 16 tire hard to go lower. Rides really good for a model A Ive been told. Beats me, its my first.

 

Nice stance! Has the frame been z'd in the rear ?


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You know, this type of thread pops up all the time, and the thing I never hear about is that in the 85-100 year history of the average "T" spring, the chances that it has sagged, or been re-arched to raise a vehicle are beyond HUGE. I have three of them here, and all three are completely different heights varying by as much as 2". Lets not even mention that currently you can buy 2 or 3 different arch heights new from Speedway as you have been forever.

I hate to say this, but trying to judge how much your "T" spring is going to drop your Model "A", well, we might as well just say "potato" instead of state it in inches. About the only way you will know is get out in the shop, crawl under the car, spend an afternoon and switch them out. I don't mean this to sound like a rant, but it's just the truth.

Now, from my experience, if it comes down to going out and sourcing a "T" spring and purchasing it, it's usually more cost effective to take the stocker "A" and tailor it to your needs. Most stock "A" springs are a bit too stiff for todays butts, reducing the leaves to 6 or 7 for a sedan, or 5 or 6 for a coupe/roadster will drop it a bit and give a much better ride right out of the gate. Taking a bit of time when it's out to detail the spring by grinding the leafs ends to a taper, cleaning it and painting, plus adding Teflon strips will sometimes lower things even more because it's killing the rust/dirt bind that held the stocker to a specific height for, what, 80 some odd years.

Not enough? Take it back out, find the nearest spring shop and have the eyes re-rolled. Damn near every town that has ever been formed has a spring shop, as it was always an off shoot of the town blacksmith, and most these days support farmers with their needs if they are not in a big city. There's another 1 1/2" down. Still not enough? Take your spring guy the whole thing and ask him to re-arch it to more closely match the "T" type spring. There is about another 3"or so possible before you get into EVERYTHING hitting and making a mess of things. Beyond all of this, with an "A", you really need to start "Zing" the frame and such to go lower, and at that point, if you are running 16" wheels and 7.00 or 7.50 tires you are pretty damned close to dragging on the inside of the fenders anyway.

Sorry, again, I don't mean to go all "ranty" on anybody, but it just seems that it is more cost effective to work with what you have than to search out and purchase other old stuff that needs to be rebuilt to do the same thing. All ya gotta do is go out in the garage and do it.

Speaking of which, I hear my shop calling....

 

This is the perfect stance, thanks!

 

Here is my Tudor with 32 heavy up front and a t spring in the rear

 

It is a brand new model t type spring, not original one. I can see your point on the sagging height variation if original.

 

Hi Don,
Can you give any extra info on the gas tank setup? Do you have a thread on the build? Sorry for the hijack, I'm interested in the rear spring question but have been beating my head over the gas tank placement.

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I am curious if anyone has used the
Speedway T spring. Will this fit as it is and how much did it lower the ass end?

 

What I used was an 11 gallon aluminum fuel tank that is made for a boat. It has been in there for over 25 years so I forget the exact details, but it was basically the right dimensions so that is what I used. Sorry, wish I had more info for you.

Don

 

Nice stance on the two black A's shown above. You guys must have smooth roads because it appears to be limited suspension travel ?

 

I just lowered my Model A coupe with a Model T Spring in the rear. I have a 4" dropped axle in the front and a 8 leaf Model T Spring (T-3824-A7 from Snyders http://www.snydersantiqueauto.com/leaf-springs) in the rear. From the T spring i pulled the 3rd leaf and replaced the 1st leaf with the Model A 1st leaf to use it as a spacer in the crossmember, cause the T spring is a bit smaler in width. In the shackles i spaced it with shims. Works good and its still enough space between the body an the axlehousing for suspension. Still looking for rear lever shocks. But also without them it's not to soft in the rear. Here is how it looks like. Original hight compared to the 4" drop in front and the T spring in the rear. Unfortunately i didn't measure the rear hight to know ho much it dropped the car, but you can see it in the pics pretty good.

 

I make a 26-27 T-Spring to 2.25" wide. With the reversed eye main and 3 leafs removed we get 4" of drop at a minimum with a stock roadster body. They are Made in the USA of 5160 rolled steel. They are a bolt in application. No shims, no spacers needed. You can get them at www.nespeedshop.com

 

Have not gotten mine on wheels yet but I have installed Matt's reverse eye spring with 3 leaves removed. It looks good so far

 

Anyone running a posies reverse eye model a rear spring?

 

I am in my 1930 Tudor.
I removed the top two leafs and it lowered the car about 2 1/2". Rides good, but I would like it about an inch lower

 

Here is my 29 with my pops behind the wheel. It has a heavy up front with a reverse eye spring and a t spring in the rear.

 

How long have you had it in for? Heard they drop a bit over time. My plan is to add a couple of large bags of cement into the trunk to help it along..pretty much the same as having a 'wholesome' lady sitting in the rumble seat

 

Its been in for over two years and I dont think its settled much

 

4" dropped axle, A spring up front, T spring out back, both reversed eyes and leafs removed.