Front spring...how to tell if it's sacked?

Tearing the front end apart to replace worn out parts. Found some interesting things around the spring. Their were two 3" pipe couplings welded to the cross member above the spring. After I removed the spring I found a 1/4" plate welded to the center bottom of the cross member. I am wondering if the spring is sacked and this was a PO's attempt to solve the problem without reworking the spring. Can anyone enlighten me as to how I can check this spring to see if I need to send it to the spring shop to have the leaves re-arched? Thanks.

Welding a 1/4" plate to the cross member sounds like a repair for a cracked member. What does the stop side look like?

called in a favor and got the information (see pics). Hope this might help someone else who needs this kind of information. I found my spring has 15 leaves which makes it a 06H5310E. A somewhat heavy spring. The free arch was 5" which tells me it hasn't sagged enough to worry about.

Here's a pic of the pipe coupling "stops" after I cut the out of the cross member.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]285474[/ATTACH]

Here is the pics of the Lincoln page of the spring book I got to borrow.

Some of you guys really need to pay attention to part of the chart that has short end and long end. My spring guy tells me if you reverse the spring then your cars will not drive straight. This is something I never knew.

All H series Lincolns have equal length (from center) leaves. The K series Lincolns had "short end...long end" springs due to it's longitudinal set-up.

Thanks Peecher, That's why I said "some guys". I got lucky as I didn't know anything about this when I assembled the rear. I just slapped it in there. For once I got lucky.

The more I learn about these beautiful cars the more I realize I don't know!

Beltfed - Do you have the page that shows the data for 48 rear springs?

Dan

The book is at the spring shop. I'll drop by there in a day or so and copy the rest of the Lincoln/Zephyr info and post it here. You guys have been so helpful to me in 'bringing back' my 38 it's the least I can do.