Anybody else ever had a monoleaf front spring break on them? Wonderful Tulsa streets took out mine. ________________________________________________________________ Like I told the kid, "Your music's not too loud, its just like OKC it sucks!"
Not trying to stir up controversy but I keep hearing about broken mono springs but I would like to see a photo of the one that broke on their car. I have logged thousands of miles with mono springs and hit some pretty rough roads and pot holes and never had a problem,,,maybe I'm just lucky. HRP
I have one in the front of my project yet to see road duty .As usual when i overthink ,it does give me the willies when i think about the aformentioned concern!!!!!!
I was going to run one on my Roadster but after 3 of them that were arched differently, Left side to right side the arc was different. I went to a TCI chrome stock type
I've run 2 of them with no problems.Have one on the front of the 32 sedan right now.Montana has rough roads so they get a workout!
I've used quite a few of them over the years on customers chassis and have not had any feed back on broken springs. Durant told me way back in the beginning that having them tight in the crossmmeber was critical. There was a period of time when if I remember he didn't offer them plated either. I still prefer the Posie reverse eye/ super low/rolled and tapered spring for the chassis I build.
Ever notice that OEMs don't use mono leaf springs unless they are composite like the Corvette? A leaf spring had two jobs. It is a spring and suspension link. If the main leaf breaks, you lose suspension geometry and you can be in real trouble. A leaf spring pack is designed so that each leaf protects the leaf below it and prevents it from being overstressed. The main leaf, which is also a suspension link, is the least stressed and most protected leaf. A leaf pack is designed so that the some other leaf will always fatigue and fracture long before the mainleaf. There's no way to do that with a mono leaf. They are a fundamentally bad idea for any car you intend to drive in real world conditions.
Looks like there was a pre-existing crack. Note what appears to be rust on the fracture surface in the second photo. That is quite possibly due to a manufacturing defect.
or maybe the fine Tulsa roads.........I broke a shock mount the other day because of one of the many potholes
Or perhaps that an earlier bump caused the initial crack weakening the spring and the most recent bump finished off the job of breaking it.
I broke one on my hiboy in Bowling Green a couple years ago. Sounds like almost the same thing. Went across an intersection with a small rise in the road, no where near bottoming out, and it snapped. At first I thought I hit some banding material in the road, but when I walked around front I knew what it was. It was on a Sunday, no one had any springs so I wired in a rubber bumper that I bought at the swap meet and drove it home to Indiana. The spring was not plated and it broke in the center. It was on the car about 10 years.
I have 2 cars with them and i like them. I did break one on my 32 rdstr,but think it could be my fault. The aftermkt x member had a radius on the inside corners.and the main leaf had square corners and on top,Had the u bolts very tight but it couldnt seat,and i feel thats the cause. I ordered another,put a spacer leaf on top,ground the outer edges so it can seat on main flat of the x member. Good luck since.
Novas and Camaros had mono leafs on the rear in the late 60's, but of course there were 2 of them. This is bad stuff, who did you buy that spring from?
could have been mfg out of recycled steel in china...their steel quality not up with america's and englands of the day. I worked at a shop building truck cranes and the steel occasionally (rarely) had inclusions of things like razorblades that didn't get hot enough to melt in with the rest of the steel when it was recycled. we had to watch out for inclusion defects as part of the job I would think it was a steel quality issue more than design but I noticed even though some new semi trucks use a monoleaf on the front they still use a non-load bearing half leaf up front with an eye wrap to hold the axle in place if it failed. That spring looks pretty thick in the middle for the job at hand. I'd say it is not flexing evenly along it's length and concentrating flex forces at some point...like where it broke??? Just another possibility Remember the old saying if it doesn't shake...it's gonna break
I don't know why these springs are breaking , but I have a thought. For years,I've noticed front leaf springs (regular springs) will have the leaves staggered ,or shifted if you will . This is only on cars that do not have the front crossmember installed at the same angle as the caster in the axle. When the caster angle is screwed into the axle ,it twists the spring , shifting the leaves . Always been a pet peeve of mine . If you have this situation with a monoleaf , and do not have adjustable perches , well , you get the idea . No good can come from it . So does the car have adjustable perches? Is the crossmember at the same angle as the caster ? Just a thought .
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