Tie plates

[Matt_50]

1950 3100. Stock rear springs with a chevy 10 bolt axle.

I think I'm over thinking tie plates. I just lowered the front of my truck and I started eye balling the rear axle afterward. I threw the axle on after rebuilding/new bushings in rear suspension so that I could roll it over to the concrete and get the engine in. Donor truck almost completely gone now and I didn't want engine sitting outside.

Anyways. I gotta cut off old seats and make tie plates. Getting axle back off is no problem, so it hadn't been a priority, but I think it should be next. I did not flip springs. Instead I bought offset perches meant to center axle. Haven't thrown bed on to double check this, but I will just in case before removal and welding of perches.

Bed goes on, double check center for axle and I can mock up fuel tank with bed in place. Sounds fun right?

The spring center bolt is off center... With axle on, directly underneath we have a tiny bottom leaf that is not long enough to be under all of axle. So tie plate would be partially on bottom leaf and partially off it. Is that ok? At least that is what I see in my head unless the u bolts can be at an angle. See? I think I'm overthinking it.

Bad pic, just shows top perch has gotta come off. It's wider than original leafsprings. And it looks funny. I'll post better pic of underneath tomorrow.

[Matt_50]

Pic

[Matt_50]

I one i saved this pic! It explains flipping springs around. I replaced bushing and read some people say the flips weren't quite right.... now I got bushings in and unless I also flip those.. I'll just stock with offset perches. Because back bushings are threaded...i can't just flip anyway right?


So ignore everything on pic except for top illustration. It's basically what I got but with a perch.. my bottom leaf is not so long as to cover that far though.

[mr48chev]

Eyeball these: https://www.classicparts.com/1947-54...info/93%2D317/ It's hard to argue with 20 for the pair plus the ride but if you study them a tad and figure out the spacing off center which I think is 1-3/4 inches but may be 1-1/2 you can figure out how to make your own. The only real issue is finding the 1-3/4 wide tubing or channel to make it out of.
The extra material between the cutout for the axle and the surface to mount on the spring is to match the distance between the spring and the axle on the stock setup to keep the ride height the same.

The original setup had to swivel at the spring to keep things from binding but you don't want the open drive axle to swivel on the spring. you would have to have some sort of ladder bars on it to keep it located if you did that.

[72Mountaineer]

Plates as shown are available at any farm/fleet store, or someplace that sells trailer parts.

[Matt_50]

I got those exact ones! Took them forever to ship too. I used some scrap to run the u bolts through... So ignore that. What's best way to cut off the old perches.. I'm worried about that. I have a grinder with cutoff wheels.

I've got the old tie plate pieces from original axle to use as a spacing template.

Should bottom of perch be parallel with tie plate? And recommended thickness? I got some 1/2 stuff I could cut. Seems overkill...

[Matt_50]

Ok, I found these at a trailer website. Do you guys know if any of our vendors sell only the tie plates I need with center offset? If as cheap as the ones I found I'd almost just want order them.

[Matt_50]

Though, if you guys think these are fine... I could probably just drill a hole in these...

[mr48chev]

Well shucks I finally figured out what the hay you are calling a "tie plate" being as I had never heard that term in my 71 years before.

Those should work fine with the extra hole drilled in them.

[Matt_50]

I saw them named that in a catalog... What do you call them?

Yea I was happy to find this. If a local trailer place has these, I'll get them. Good enough for a trailer, should be fine for truck right? I could always cut and drill my 1/2 plate, but my small drill press had trouble last time.

Found some you tube videos on cutting off old perches.. So I think I can do that without too much trouble.

[dsraven]

zip disc works for cutting off the old plates, roughly at first to get rid of the bulk, then a grinding disc after to clean it all up.
the biggest thing to remember is to not get the axle too hot at any one time. allow to cool or the tubes will bend and all that will be for naught.
trailer supply should have all you need for parts

[jweb]

Those trailer tie plates should work but you may want a kit like this. It also adds shock mounts. https://www.performanceonline.com/19...-Shock-Mounts/

[mr48chev]

I'm bookmarking that one Jweb. Not cheap but everything you need is there without hunting anything down or having to fabricate something.

[Matt_50]

Yea its a great all in one kit. But I had already bought the perches mr48 mentioned.

Also, my axle has shock mounts on it. I thought I'd try just fabing up top ones. What do you guys think? I'm sure this has been done somewhere. Here's a pic of one of the shocks.

[Matt_50]

I might still check out trailer places tomorrow, but I got to messing around and I dug out original 1950 tie plates and one of the donor truck plates and traced and measured them. One gives me correct measurement for the axle and one for the springs. I texted my machine shop friends and they said bring my metal by for a quick drilling of holes. When I pull perches off tomorrow I'll double check where to put hole for center bolt.

[Matt_50]

What I can up with.

[_Ogre]

the kit is nice but i bought everything at a spring and trailer shop for about $30
4 u-bolts, spring pad and spring plate is all you need
i reused the stock shock mount bracket , it bolted up without any modification
i don't have the spring pad welded here in the pic

i did blow the springs apart to sandblast and por15 them
added poly liner between each leaf and removed the 2 short springs
new center bolt obviously

[_Ogre]

as for cutting off the old junk on the axle i just used a grinder with cutoff wheel and bfh
i believe your model truck has the spring pad hole offset, not the tie plate hole

[Matt_50]

I just dropped the metal off to get drilled. No charge, so saved a few bucks. I marked the offset hole to be drilled. Are you saying they just need to drill center? I thought it had to be offset both on perch and tie plate.

[_Ogre]

yes
ogre duh moment

[Matt_50]

Oh man. Really? Then what's up with the 6th hole in the kits? The one between two holes, offcenter. Like in this pic. Btw, I asked them drill it just like the pic too.

[Matt_50]

Ok my buddy just let me know my plates are ready. They will look like the bulky ugly cousin to the picture above.

Is there a certain torque I should tighten u bolts to or should I just tighten real good...?

[Matt_50]

For the great price of free.... yes I had to buy the plate, but it was bought for another part of this project, so this was left overs.

[mr48chev]

Now we are talkin, good going.

[Matt_50]

Ok, so the axle will need to come out one more time... to weld perches on. I called a local driveshaft shop. They said 60 bucks to shorten driveshaft.

Question one. Pinion angle? I've replaced axles and transmissions before but it was just a straight replacement. No setting of angles or welding required. So I'm lost here. Trans crossmember is still adjustable and obviously so is axle.

Question two. How do I measure what driveshaft length I need? Same trans and rear axle and driveshaft from donor went into truck, so it all bolts up, just too long.

Probably more things I'm over thinking but maybe all my newbie questions will help someone else. I plan to add my different thread links to my build thread.