Me buddy is building a T sedan and is doing it on the lean. He wants to use a used set of leaf springs from a 38-48 ford, He's not sure of the exact age ( nore am I). The main leaf spring is 42 inches eye to eye with a height of 9 inches to the main spring when sitting upright on a flat surface ( not under load). There's 11 leaves. I was wondering what the width we should use to mount the spring perches to the top of the rear axle. I was thinking 46 inches to leave clearance for the pumpkin and to make sure the spring hasn't flattened right out. Has anyone done this or have any suggestions?
Lay the spring down, measure center eye to center eye( you said 42"), add 3 inches for the shackles, then 1 inch for tension mounting. So your estimate of 46" is on the money BUT either mount the spring behind the axle because if you ever have back seat passengers you will bottom out on the rear end housing. Best to go with a good A buggy spring or mount to the rear just a few inches.
thanks guys. He's says he want to stay on top of the rear end not behind ( he lareay has the perches. He's counting pennies ( he's on a pension). One thing though. Do the perches get welded at 90 or 45 degrees?
The perch that we weld onto the rear end ( on top) should they be 90 degrees off the rear end or welded at 45 degrees.
Not having seen them I'll say this. The perch needs to be the specified distance, I believe you determined 46", from the opposite one with the perches parallel with each other. The bracket should have enough clearance to allow the shackles to swing straight down without the spring eyes banging into the bracket, usually built that way with a curve. When you have tacked them in place test fit the spring. With one side shackle installed to a perch you should have about an inch remaining for the other shackle to reach the other perch. It will require a spreader to stretch the spring to install the second shackle. This "stretch" gives you the pre-tension Ford designed into the 09-41 system so as not to need a Panhard bar.
It costs the same to build perches behind as it does to make some for top mounting. You will never be happy with that spring mounted on top. You need to get an A spring or mount that later spring behind. I think the best spring to use is the 36-40 front spring. It is 2" vs. the rears at 2.25". The rear springs get too long when used with the narrow Maverick. I can give you relaxed dimension and also mount distance if you go that way.
I know you're not using an "A" spring, but if you use "A" style mounts on top of the axle, watch for the ability to put the hard lines in the wheel cylinders, and access to the bleeder screws. I put a Maverick rear with "A" perches under a T bucket once, and ran into this issue. Also, the offset housing looks dumb framed by the buggy spring.
You wont be able to get the perches far enough apart on a standard width maverick rear, for a 42 inch static spring, unless you rotate the brake backing plates to get the wheel cylinders out of the way. and your estimation of 46" is too small. your shackles will have bugger all preload at ride height, meaning you will get bad rear end sway.try 48". you will have no luck at all fitting a later spring over the top of the axle..stick it behind.
i am at the same stage in a build and would like to know how you all convert to spring behind and still keep your rear wheels in the wells. cut the frame? move the body back and redo all the mounts?
Don't you just love spam generating computers? 129983's post sounds so intriguing! What happened at he ministry? Oh, and listen to these guys and go spring behind, to avoid all the problems mentioned. To BCT, you leave the axle whereit is, centered in the wheelwell, and either move the crossmember back or build a new mount.
I'm doing a Maverick 8" rear with a buggy spring, I had a local spring shop build me a custom spring with 40" spaced eyes, a 6" arch and 5 leaves. ( $175 ) Should work out well, I have a buddy with a similarly built car and I'll try to post a few pictures of his rear mounts-spring. He had his spring built with a 4" arch and as you can see in one of the pics he had to use some blocks to get the ride height set. His rear is also a Maverick 8". You can also see the panhard bar and mounts. Mine is a 26-27 Roadster pickup as is his.
So todays adventure was to tack weld the perches on top of the rear as originally planned. Center to center the eyes of the perch are 47 inches apart. We installed the main spring and then loaded 6 leafs onto the leaf set. With zero load, there's 6 inches of clearance between the spring and pumpkin. We rolled the rear end into the crossmember and clearance is still good. From there we loaded 8 cynderblocks on the rear of the frame and it didnt bottom out. I'm pretty sure we're doing good. I'll take some pictures tomorrow. Robin had notched the rear cross member up 4 inches and this has been benifitial in keeping the rear end down where he wants it. He's running full fendered. Interesting project to watch. Robin's 63, his grandson is 13 and helping out here and there.. And Robin's Dad is 95 and still doing little things on the build.
Tell them to be careful with the design of that setup, those later springs were designed to mount behind a rear. They're very flat with weight on them and the U-bolts tend to smack the top of the pumpkin when they're mounted over the rear. I think it could be arranged to work, (think taller perches...) but it would be much easier to find a cheap high-arch A or T spring. I bought a T spring for $25 and an A for $50 recently. Looks like they're having fun, 3 generations, wow!
Will do. He mentioned he had a couple A springs around and another matching spring as we installed. I was thinking of possibly using a couple from the extra set to stiffen it. From Robins Dad to Robins Grandson, there's 4 generation happening there. Robins son is coming over tonight to weld up the perches - he's a liscenced industrial welder. It makes it official then... 4 generations of folk working on the same car. I hope the grand puppy knows how lucky he is.
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