rear leaf spring removal

[crosby]

I am trying to strip a good frame I have, to paint and use for my 87 V20. Right now I am working on removing the rear leaf springs, and cut access holes on the inside of the front spring hangers. I removed the nuts on the inside, and cut the heads off the bolts, and still I can't get them off. Is there supposed to be a sleeve inside the spring eye? Is that separate from the frame (a separate piece?) Should I basically end up with two holes to run a bolt through, or am I doing something wrong? I tried pounding the bolts out and they won't budge. I do have a torch, but I am not very experienced with it, and don't want to ruin my good frame. Thanks very much for any help you can provide!

[Jim85IROC]

There should be a nut and bolt going through the eyelet of the spring bushing on both ends. When I pulled mine out, I had aftermarket poly bushings that the eyelet fused itself to. It took a lot of pounding and swearing to get it out. If you pound on the bolt with a hammer and use some vice grips, you may be able to turn it in order to free it from the eyelet. Once you do that, getting it out will probably be a bit easier. You can also try the torch. If you have the original rubber bushings, those should burn up long before you cook the frame.

[crosby]

Hi Jim, thanks for the reply. Is there a sleeve in there I need to worry about, or can I just cut through the whole mess? I did already burn up the bushing, and set some leaves on fire on the ground Do the sleeves usually come with new springs or bushings? Thanks very much!!

[us111]

hello,,that bolt welds itself in there basically,,took me an entire day to beat,cuss,torch and anything else i could think of to get mine out..ton of wd40 and a lotta sweat...one side note though,,if there is still tension on those springs dont have any body parts above or below the spring when that bolt does come out,,wasn't thinking and when mine came loose it hit the bottom of the bed so hard i thought it tore the truck up..lol

[Jim85IROC]

Originally Posted by crosby

Hi Jim, thanks for the reply. Is there a sleeve in there I need to worry about, or can I just cut through the whole mess? I did already burn up the bushing, and set some leaves on fire on the ground Do the sleeves usually come with new springs or bushings? Thanks very much!!

Every portion of that bushing can be easily and cheaply replaced. Cut whatever you need to as long as you don't mess up the spring mount and/or the shackle, although the shackles are dirt cheap too.

When you buy new factory bushings, they'll come with the sleeve. If you're using aftermarket springs, they'll come with polyurethane bushings and sleeves. The poly setup is quite a bit different looking than the stock setup, but they both work the same way.

[crosby]

Hi guys, thanks for the info. It's just a frame sitting on my gravel driveway right now, so not much to worry about. No gas tanks, no body parts. Hopefully I can get everything cleaned up nice, and painted in the next few weeks. Thanks very much!

[rodnut randy]

what I did on my 70 frame is remove the the 4 rivets that held the front bracket to the frame, than I could fight it out in the open and bolted the bracket back to frame. that sleeve in the bushing is what causes the trouble. your bolt rusts to the sleeve, sleeve is in rubber , so a impact or wrench twists the sleeve in rubber instead of jarring bolt.lots of new words are learned changing these. Randy

[crosby]

here are a couple of pics. not a lot of fun, but easier once I had a plan of attack. I cut some material from around the ends of each spring near the bolts, and just burned the bushings and cut through the bolts. ended up with a nice clean hanger after all. One ear got bent when my friend came over and helped, but no big deal to bend that back a little. thanks for the help guys!