Trail damage: broken leaf spring

[DirtyLarry]

Well, now that it is getting colder we are finding ourselves in the garage licking our wounds from the summer’s adventures. On the last camping/fishing trip for the season we happen to get all stuck and twisted up in a bottomless pit right smack dab in the middle of the easiest part of the easiest trail in Chaffee County (Tin Cup Pass). It was kind of a surprise. More surprising was there wasn’t a decent size tree to winch to for what seemed to be a mile.

I didn’t realize that a spring was broke until I got it home and all unloaded then noticed it leaning to the left rear badly. Luckily, I had a two arched springs lying around that I removed from the truck a few years ago when it sat too high in the rear after installing the ORD flip kit. So, I grabbed two new spring center pin bolts and authored spring pack surgery to replace the broken spring and reinstall the old arched springs.

Also lost a heater core on that trip.

The stuck…




Redesigned shock bracket after a trip on a more different trail. Decided not to bother fixing this.



The spring repair…

[Burt4x4]

That has been going around latley, my buddy Frizz busted his too

[Jtrux]

I can't quite tell, is your truck a long bed or short??

[DirtyLarry]

It's a shorty.

[ERASER5]

DirtyLarry, What does the plate on top of your springs look like? I need to fab one or buy one. At the moment, the old plate from the bottom is on top.

[jrdv]

Larry,
That is a great flex picture!

Hope things are going well.

john

[DirtyLarry]

ERASER5,

I would recommend just going to the bone yard and buying one. The U-bolt plate is the same on every ’73 – ’87 ½ ton and ¾ ton I have ever seen. I would think it is a very common part to come by even in the salt belt that wouldn’t be worth the hassle of fabricating.

John,

All is well just been busy fixing broken stuff and staring a new EFI project in a ’72 beater truck. I saw a few of your threads a while back. Your heard of trucks are looking nice! I really like that front bumper and headache rack on your ’72.

[ERASER5]

Thanks. I'll find one.

[ERASER5]

I went the junkyard and found a perfect set of top plates. Unfortunately, I did not have a big enough socket to fit the nuts. My U bolts had 3/4" nuts so that is what I brought. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Luckily, next to the Chevy was a Cherokee w/o wheels so the axle was exposed. There was a nice top plate and 3/4" nuts. Better yet, I got them free! The guy was either in a good mood or too busy to mess with a couple bucks worth of metal. They worked perfectly!

Good thing too. The former bottom plate/now top plates had shifted and ALL eight nuts were loose. Not sloppy loose, but not tight and not good.

Thanks again for the push in the right direction.