Rear leaf spring hangers on a chassis cab

[Andy]

Hi, just aquired a 1989 chassis crew cab - no mot but very cheap.
The rear chassis requires welding around the area of the spring hangers - do these come of and can you get replacements?
Would 2 mm steel be sufficient to weld into the chassis?

Is this a common rust area - where else will I find the rest of the horror rust?

Thanks for reading the post

[FredTransit]

Welcome, Andy. As yours is an earlyish Mk3, I can answer this. How bad is the rust? The spring hangers can come off, but don't hold out much hope of this if there is a lot of rust present, also the chassis may break up in that area if/whilst you remove them. You can't still get the Mk2 spring hangers any more, but I am not sure about the Mk3. This is a common place for rust in the chassi cabs, look for it also around the shock mountings. I assume you don't have a body on the chassis, so now is a good time to cure the lot, even on the top of the chassis not seen when there is a body attached. I would go for thicker than 2mm plate, I don't do the welding myself, but I have seen the plate our welder uses for the chassis, and I would say it was at least 3 if not 4mm. The thicker the better. Also check for stress cracks, this is a sign of the chassis rusting from the inside out.

[Andy]

Thanks for the help - it might be easier to drop the spring and weld away - looks like this has already been done on one side effectively welding the carrier to the chassis.
How tricky is it to drop the springs - and how tricky is it to get them back in again !!
There is a car flatbed transporter on top of the chassis but most is accessible
Cheers

[Andy]

To answer your question on how bad the rust is -- it will go into a hole when i prod and poke at it - but its not structurally "rotten" - just some plating required in my very humble opinion !

[FredTransit]

Theoretically the springs should bolt off, but this is a transit we are talking about...............

[Andy]

And I have run out of Oxygen !
Plenty acetylene - always seems to be the case !
Probably as well as I always seem to set fire to things.

[Luke]

And I have run out of Oxygen !
Plenty acetylene - always seems to be the case !
Probably as well as I always seem to set fire to things.

Mate get yourself a MIG - i used to use gas thought it was great - but then i found MIG!!! easy life!!

[Andy]

I agree - Dont worry all welding will be done by the MIG i thought of using the oxy/acet to encourage the leaf spring bolt to move !
My gas welding skills are non - existant.

[FredTransit]

Gas axe!

[bortaf]

Be carefull when welding round the spring hangers, they bolt up from 2 angles (side and bottom) so if the plate you use is thicker than the old chassis or you plate over, the bolt holes will not line up after
Just had this on my Mk3 chassis cab had to take it all back off again and let in metal, either that or grind the hanger down around the rear of the bolt hole bosses to line them all back up again, which i didn't fancy to be honist

[jay]

check around the chassis especially under the cab itself they rot on the normal cab at the rear.which on a crew cab wil;l be inline with the front doors.