Replacing Leaf Spring Bushings
07-25-2013, 10:43 AM
#11
Foghorn Leghorn
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: I reside in a near constant state of amazment.
Posts: 2,923
PLEASE be careful when messing with springs. Cold steel has no friends and those springs will kick your ***, eat your lunch, screw your old lady and not give a damn.
True Story
Many moons ago I decided that I needed to replace the stupid lift shackles that someone put on the fastback eons before and while I was at it replace the bushings.
Not knowing what I was doing but knowing it all I jacked the car up and put the jack stands under the axle housings and proceded to get to work. WRONG MOVE! The springs are under SERIOUS pressure when you do that.
The first three nuts came right off no sweat. But the last nut was being an absolute sumbitch and I couldn't figure out why and didn't really care. As far as I was concerned it was just being tough because it was a 25 year old car.
The only way I could get the nut to turn at all was using an extra long 3/4" breaker bar and it fought me every smidgen of the way which should have been a BIG clue.
BEWARE! When something is under pressure like that it will be tough as hell to turn.
Let me try to paint the picture:
I was laying on my back with my feet towards the rear of the car and my left shoulder, arm and occasionally my head were under the spring as I was fighting like hell to get this last bolt off. After several minutes of very slow progress the last nut was only held on by a few threads so I knew I was close. By the Grace of God Almighty I had just repositioned myself and scootched out a bit so I could get a good grunt tug or two to finally remove the last nut when all of the sudden WHAMO!!
The spring absolutely EXPLODED downward and the big *** breaker-bar & socket were blown out of my hands and sent flying across my face so close I felt it just barely graze my chin and nose. We're talking fractions of an inch lower and it would have, well it probably would have killed me or phucked me up so bad that I would have wished I was dead. It was thrown so hard that it impaled the drywall 8 or 10 feet away so that only the socket was still visible.
The leaf spring smashed into the garage floor with such force that it vaporized the chunck of the concrete where it hit and left about a 3/4" deep crater in the floor.
I was reeling and physically unhurt but the violence and speed at which it occured left me absolutely dazed and confused. If I hadn't repositioned myself at that last moment I definitely would not have left a beautiful corpse.
To this day my *** still puckers up when I have to mess with springs. Several life lessons were learned that day and thankfully I'm still around to appreciate them.
True Story
Many moons ago I decided that I needed to replace the stupid lift shackles that someone put on the fastback eons before and while I was at it replace the bushings.
Not knowing what I was doing but knowing it all I jacked the car up and put the jack stands under the axle housings and proceded to get to work. WRONG MOVE! The springs are under SERIOUS pressure when you do that.
The first three nuts came right off no sweat. But the last nut was being an absolute sumbitch and I couldn't figure out why and didn't really care. As far as I was concerned it was just being tough because it was a 25 year old car.
The only way I could get the nut to turn at all was using an extra long 3/4" breaker bar and it fought me every smidgen of the way which should have been a BIG clue.
BEWARE! When something is under pressure like that it will be tough as hell to turn.
Let me try to paint the picture:
I was laying on my back with my feet towards the rear of the car and my left shoulder, arm and occasionally my head were under the spring as I was fighting like hell to get this last bolt off. After several minutes of very slow progress the last nut was only held on by a few threads so I knew I was close. By the Grace of God Almighty I had just repositioned myself and scootched out a bit so I could get a good grunt tug or two to finally remove the last nut when all of the sudden WHAMO!!
The spring absolutely EXPLODED downward and the big *** breaker-bar & socket were blown out of my hands and sent flying across my face so close I felt it just barely graze my chin and nose. We're talking fractions of an inch lower and it would have, well it probably would have killed me or phucked me up so bad that I would have wished I was dead. It was thrown so hard that it impaled the drywall 8 or 10 feet away so that only the socket was still visible.
The leaf spring smashed into the garage floor with such force that it vaporized the chunck of the concrete where it hit and left about a 3/4" deep crater in the floor.
I was reeling and physically unhurt but the violence and speed at which it occured left me absolutely dazed and confused. If I hadn't repositioned myself at that last moment I definitely would not have left a beautiful corpse.
To this day my *** still puckers up when I have to mess with springs. Several life lessons were learned that day and thankfully I'm still around to appreciate them.
07-25-2013, 03:07 PM
#14
6th Gear Member
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: California
Posts: 10,468
Yeah, that's why I said put the jack stands under the jacking location, frame rail etc. That way the springs are totally unloaded, and all you use the jack/stand for is to drop the housing down enough to clear the bushing...just holding it up. The housing can stay bolted to the leaves. If you can't lower the spring at 1 corner down enough to get the bushing clear, then you can just unbolt both front spring locations.....change bushings and swing it back into place and then do the same on the rear.
As for the shackles...you'll see when you pull them out. The passenger side is relatively easy, but clearance on the driver side is more problematic with the tank and body panels. The direction of the shackles doesn't matter in terms of function, but there is a practical consideration as far as being able to simply get them in place.
As for the shackles...you'll see when you pull them out. The passenger side is relatively easy, but clearance on the driver side is more problematic with the tank and body panels. The direction of the shackles doesn't matter in terms of function, but there is a practical consideration as far as being able to simply get them in place.