Dale A's Leaf Springs ? ? ?

Who's installed Dale's leaf springs? I'm on the final step of my restoration and find myself confounded by the fact the location pin on the springs is twice the diameter of the stock pin. My question is do I replace the existing new allignment pin with the original out of the old leaf springs or do I drill out the receiving end/hole on the axle/spring support to accept the new large pin? I can't reach Dale and would really like to proceed correctly and at once. Thanks in adavance for any help I can get on this. Don Lutjen

I just checked the set of Dale's springs out in the shop and pin is 1/2" ( 5/16" bolt ). That's because spring shops don't use 1/4" Bolts anymore like the original springs. I had the same problem when I had some work done on my springs a few years back... they drilled out the old leaves and put a 5/16" bolt in which has a 1/2" head. The old springs probably have about a 7/16" head.

Just drill out the pads on the axle... the worst that can happen is that if someone down the road puts original springs back in your car, they'll have to modify them for the 5/16" bolts...

Jim
B382000446

I agree with the recommendation in Jim's post but have taken a slightly approach to dealing with the issues of going back to original springs. When you are drilling out the pads, I recommend going in small increasing drill sizes rather than jumping right to one half. Helps keep the hole centered when you remove just a little material at a time.

It just so happens I am in the middle of taking my factory springs apart and removing a leaf to soften them for autocross purposes. Previously, I had installed heavy duty springs to control axle windup but they are too stiff. I bought them second hand so not sure if they are Dales or not. Anyway, the rear will not squat for extra bite under acceleration. I hope to have a torque arm someday to deal with axle windup. In the interim I will make do with traction masters.

Anyway, I had drilled out the pads to accept the larger pin bolt on the heavy duty springs, as mentioned above. In taking apart my factory springs I managed to ruin one of the pin bolts. As luck would have it the head of those pin bolts is exactly the same diameter as a 1/4 inch alloy socket headed bolt (0.368 inch) from your local ACE Hardware. Rather than drilling out all the leafs for a larger bolt, I am just dropping in a 1/2 inch steel spacer into the now enlarged spring pad hole on the axle. Trimmed to length of course to be flush with the top of the pad and resting against the axle tube. The inside diameter of the spacer matches the pin bolt head diameter very nicely. When the spring is bolted into place, the spacer makes a nice little shim that is held firmly in place, tightly restoring the original locational function. For me, its easier than having all the leafs redrilled.

Just a variation on the theme, but maybe also a cost effective one. I had to also come up with a way to reuse the factory steel leaf wraps since a couple are now wraping one less spring. Let me know if that is of interest to anyone.

Cheers, Gene

spring center bolt options

We've done that by using a hardened (9 mark) allen head machine screw in fine thread. The head nests neatly in the stock axle cradle hole. randy

Randy, thanks for sharing. I meant to say allen head as well. Did not know there was a hardened version available. I will be looking for a couple of those.

Cheers, Gene