Tape-wrapped springs: Anybody done it?

I have seen photos and magazine tech articles from the late '50s and early '60s where the front spring was wrapped with what appears to be electrical or plastic tape. Apparently the idea was that spring performance could be improved by lubing the leaves and the tape prevented the grease from making too much of a mess.

Does anybody know if this worked? Anybody know what type of tape was used?

 

I wrapped the leaf springs under my '63 Dodge drag car to prevent them from separating under launch. It worked just fine and the car left hard on stock springs. I know the "Super Stock" leafs are a better call, but this was the '80s and I was broke. It was better than nothing.

Wrapping a leaf spring will limit it's travel. In some cases, this can be beneficial.

~Scotch~

 

I always read/heard the springs were wrapped in a strip of leather to keep the grease in.

 

It was for grease. Now we have Teflon .

 

Weren't some of them wrapped in tin or aluminum?

 

I had a 40 Dodge that had the springs wrapped with leather strips. The springs were nice and quiet but that leather sure stunk!!

 

Some of the early Fords (late '30s, '40s?) had metal wrapped springs to keep the grease in. I think it was a feature of the DeLuxe models. Electrical tape and grease would not mix well.

 

Some even had leather lace up covers with zerk fittings

 

There were leather spring covers with felt strips inside available for Model A Fords. The idea was to saturate the felt with oil and wrap the covers around the springs. They attached with metals straps that you threaded through metal loops and bent over to secure. I had a set on my '31 coupe years ago.

Jim Winter
The Hot Rod Grille Garage

www.wvpinball.com

 

In my younger days we would cut strips of screen door screen the same width as the spring leaves, slather it with wheel bearing grease and place these between each spring leaf. Wrap the whole mess with electrical tape and you were good to go.

Another trick that kinda worked was to grind a groove in the bottom tip of each spring leaf and place a long roller bearing in the groove so it rolled on the top of the spring leaf below it. Put some grease on it , wrap it in tape and again good to go.

Both of these methods seemed to work fairly well, but I'm probably remembering it better than it really was!!

Mick

 

My old Jag had canvas covers filled with grease and laced to the springs. I replaced that wth teflon strips between the leaves. It rides better and looks better,too.

 

i wrapped the springs on my 55 because i thought it looked cool.... haha....

 

The Rear springs on my 48 Pontiac are the original rears and are wrapped in tin. These are the o.e. springs and work well on the Nova rear. Real quiet, packed with grease from 48, i've never touched them...

 

On the Great Race a lot of racers would slime up each leaf with spring then wrap the whole thing in a big continuous strip of canvas or burlap. Supposedly works but I've never tried it, probably will on my '26.

 

When I bought an old 60s supermodified dirt car I noticed the front leaf spring had bits of electrical tape still left on it from where it was wrapped. A guy I know told me this was common practice on dirt track cars to keep the grease in and dirt out. Here's a pic where you can see some of the electrical tape on the spring.

 

Have done half a dozen '30s -'50s Chev & GMC trucks using this method. Grind the wear pattern off evenly, taping everything but the contact area for u-bolt/axle. Use a waterproof grease. Really smooths out the ride. Also, the always worn shackle bushings & pins should be replaced at this time.

 

I take the springs apart and take 'em to the teflon coater. He does them in semi gloss black. Just one-a my old racing tricks It works really really well.
AND no one guesses why you can go into a corner so much deeper

 

Exactly how does this improve spring performance? I'm feeling dense at the moment. Does this work equally for transverse and parallel leaf springs?

 

You can design a spring with whatever rate you wish, but in a multileaf spring, interleaf friction can make it act much stiffer than it should.
The loss of friction from the equation is why monoleafs and coils seem to work so much smoother.
Grease,Teflon, rollerbearings etc lower the friction, thus helping the ride/handling by keeping the designed in rate consistant.

Wouldn't matter what position the spring is mounted in, or the number of spring assemblies.
But you MIGHT need to reevaluate the rate once you have no friction to "help" in some cases...

 

A leaf spring is a leaf spring-regardless of how it's positioned in the car. As the spring flexes (or deflects) under load, the leaves slide against each other as they try to straighten out. The grease, oil, teflon, ball bearings, etc. reduce the sliding friction and make the spring work easier-in effect making the spring softer.l

 

Yep, done it regularily using a special wax tape called 'Denso Tape'.
The stuff used by plumbing/heating engineers around steel pipe/ joints to prevent corrosion.
Used it regularily on the 46 TC MG I have. its really messy stuff so use gloves. I would imagine there will be a industrial equivalent over there of the same if not name then product.
Hope this helps, any help I can give pm me off site, Safe crusin Chris.

 

It was common for older (30's-40's early 50's) cars to have sheet metal wrapped springs with grease fittings installed in these covers. I have a pair of '47 Ford springs stored away that were done this way.

I think the factory wrap was done more to keep dirt and moisture out than to keep the grease in . Remember, the majority of roads back then were not paved.

The old Fords also had a spring centerbolt with a grease fitting on it. There was a groove in the top side of each leaf to act as a channel to carry the grease. It's amazing to watch it being greased. Pump grease in the centerbolt and grease starts coming out from between the leafs more than a foot away .

I've been looking for repop grease carrying centerbolts, but haven't found any.

I disassembled the front and rear springs in my '38 Ford that were rebuilt almost 30 years ago using plastic strips between all the leafs. There was a lot of worn through places, bare metal to metal contact and rust.

Seeing that, I decided to rebuild them using grease between all the leafs. I rearch and rebuild all my springs in my workshop. Once installed, I'm complimented on the ride quality by all my car buds. But, I don't wrap them. Not enough dirt where I drive to warrant it.

 

Most heavy American classics had the tin wrapped springs as well. There's a company somwhere that makes new tin covers. The laced up leather covers are called "Gaiters" (sp?) and are as much for appearance as function on older spidery lookin cars. The Packards (did many) were wrapped in burlap then the covers fit over and fold into themselves for retention. Sorry, couldn't find a pic of a restored one.

 

Do not tape directly to the spring leafs (leaves ? ). This will hinder the sliding action of the spring assembly and cause it to be stiffer than you might want. My sprint car that I ran in the 70's was equipped with the "Hollywood" transverse front spring. That's the trick one with the tapered leafs and the rounded ends.

After greasing (or adding teflon) and assembling your spring, wrap it loosely with a couple of layers of a cut-open plastic lawn or leaf bag. Then do the electrical tape wrap after that. This will allow full sliding action of the spring and won't change the spring's designed-in rate.

 

How well does the Teflon hold up?

 

Thousands of racing miles. I have one old race car that I had atleast 4k miles cause I ran it in the Mille Miglia four times.

There are cars I did 30 years ago that are still going strong.

I've rebushed springs and not had to re-coat them

I do grease the spring when putting it together but that's it

 

This is a really interesting thread, ya learn something new everyday.

-W

 

I've got a '39 pontiac, same setup even the Nova rear, they still work great.

 

I wonder if there are any teflon coaters in my area..... are they specialists or do most powder coaters do it??

 

Thanks for the info!