Leaf Spring bolts

[softlad1971]

On my chassis cab, I did not even remove the wheels. Just do one u bolt at a time.

[AndyG]

ok ive just had another look, and one of the springs (bar) out of the three, is out of line with the other two..................

Probably 'cause of the lack of clamping

Just finished mine but it takes me alot of time to get these piccies up

Nice newly refurbished leaf



And straight

[Gunslinger]

yeah you need to get this sorted, if you have to stop sharpish you might find youe axle stops but your van doesnt

as said easy to do, and you dont have to take the wheel off, just crawl underneath, as for the mis-aligned springs, you might get away with clouting them and then replacing the brackets that hold them together, then put the new U bolts in and tighten them up, try and do it evenly as well, you need to make sure you dont wind the bolts up unevenly, as this will lead to problems later

[Aztran]

hi thanks for the input guyz.....

Im ordering the bolts today, and hopefully b here tomorrow or monday, unfortunately i need the van 247, so im just going to have take it eazy everywhere i suppose.

the old man reckons we can re-align the bottom spring and just replace the bolts

two pics of the spring...........

[Aztran]

do not but them from a ford dealer, mine came out at a whopping 60 odd quid for bolts and nuts, when you get em off you need o know the length and the width of u bolt for your replacements as there are several sizes,
http://www.jones-springs.co.uk/home.htm this lot do em, very helpful people i have had a spring from em with no complaints

Thank you for the advice, ordered and should be here tomorrow or monday

lets hope the fitting goes ok, Santa Pod Thursday wahey i need em fixed becoz of the weight of beer in the back haha

[Gunslinger]

one of my springs was a little out of line like that too (dont know if it was that bad) as i said above i just gave it a clout with a hammer and then did my best to close up any straps that were fitted then retightenned the U bolts back up. I guess if its worn in that position a bit then it will work its way back to it eventually, its nothing to worry too much about ... not like the U bolts

[Aztran]

ok cool cool.........

Whats the likely hood of them snapping, it seems theyve lasted like it a while tbh......hopefully b ok for the weekend!

[Gunslinger]

just go easy on them, you could try tightening them up a little, just be careful !

[Aztran]

im just gonna watch where i go i reckon, not gonna risk tightenin them coz they might let go

cheers

[madmark]

what will happen if they are out or line .,i noticedon my mk1 that they are out both sides???????

[Transitwalla]

:? what will happen if they are out or line .,i noticedon my mk1 that they are out both sides???????

Nothing basically . . me thinks they will have to be hanging at rightangles for there to be any effect to the suspension. When I took my MK5 for its last MOT one of the leafs was sticking out as the bolts were loose [one of many things it failed on]...nice guy that he is, the MOT man, he tapped it back with a hammer [though he's not supposed to] but didn't add it to the failure sheet guess there was no room left

[Aztran]

Got the bolts, goin to fit this evening.

Will i need to torque them?

[AndyG]

Yes
Do them evenly and torque them to 136 Nm

[Aztran]

136nm

I torqued em to 100, that seemed plenty!

[AndyG]

136nm

I torqued em to 100, that seemed plenty!

I'm quoting from the Ford Technical Information System disc

Whatever you personally decide, do check them after a few hundred miles