What is this welded to my spring hanger?
 

Can anyone advise why someone would weld this to the front of my front spring hanger on my '71 Blazer? It is only on the driver's side. I am replacing the springs, and wondered if i need one on the other side, or could i grind it off. I want the suspension setup to be the same on both sides.

http://i982.photobucket.com/albums/a...gperchweld.jpg

Re: What is this welded to my spring hanger?
 

My 72 has the same thing only one of those things on one of the hangars. I think it's a limiter or something like that.

Navysnipe

Re: What is this welded to my spring hanger?
 

Factory did that as a safety measure. The thinking (if I recall correctly) was that if the bolt holding in the front leaf spring sheared in half, leaf spring could pop forward, causing rig to lose steering and spectacular end over end crash results.

That strap would keep leaf spring within the pocket, allowing steering to be maintained.

Re: What is this welded to my spring hanger?
 

Thanks, that makes alot of sense, i should have figured that by looking at it. great info.

Re: What is this welded to my spring hanger?
 

There should also be a bracket on the drivers side at the rear of the leaf spring attached to the frame. It will look home made almost, but that keeps the spring from going too far back if the spring breaks.
And yes the front one is factory also. Keeps things in place. I heard it was drivers side only in case if something broke on that side, you could still steer out of oncoming traffic. If the pass side broke, you just went for the ditch.

Re: What is this welded to my spring hanger?
 

That strap is also used because the P/S box will cause a little frame flex, thus it being used only on driver side.

Re: What is this welded to my spring hanger?
 

Yes, it is a factory recal from 1969 ~ the eye bolt would sheer and the rig would be uncontrolable. Years ago someone had scanned the actual recall letter and posted on an old Blazer site that is no longer up. I think GM increased the bolt size also.
Yours looks a bit different that any I have seen. When I swapped my springpacks I upgraded the eye bolts to the biggest I could fit in the hole, Grade 8 too. I removed the rear stop but left the front strap.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-a.../hydroasst.jpg

See mine is from 72 and I only have a front strap (not a bottom & front like yours)....???
I say leave it.

Re: What is this welded to my spring hanger?
 

True they were added for safety reasons drivers side front and rear of the leaf spring

Re: What is this welded to my spring hanger?
 

UGH, my 71 Jimmy doesn't have either one installed.

Any chance I can take it to the dealer and they will honor the recall?????

:lol::lol::lol:

Re: What is this welded to my spring hanger?
 

check this out:

http://auto-recalls.justia.com/chevr...969/70v031000/

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/recalls...intVersion=YES

Re: What is this welded to my spring hanger?
 

JoeBlaze, thanks for posting those. I've got new grade 8 eye bolts and new springs, so I'm covered there. Neither speaks to the front and rear stops though. I wonder why it would take GM 3 or 4 recalls to finally fix one issue. I guess that's why they finally went broke.