Restoration of my 1925 4-44

[Aussie26Stude]

Can anyone tell me whether it is necessary to pull apart every leaf of the springs. And how do you tell whether they need re-tempering?

[DavidAU]

If you are doing a restoration the springs should be completely pulled apart, the leaves polished to a smooth finish, any wear marks on the ends where one leaf rubs against the other should be polished out as much as possible to stop them binding. The spring should then be assembled with plenty of graphite type grease smeared between the leaves and they will give a smooth ride.

If the car is sagging to one side you should have a talk to a local spring works and they will probably be able to reset the main leafs however you should talk to them before you pull the springs out as they will probably require measurements taken at all four corners from the chassis to the floor so they can do the resetting calculations.

I recently had a car with an obvious lean to the drivers side done and it only took the re-setting of the d/side rear main leaf to bring the whole car back level. A relatively cheap and quick operation.

The other alternative is that someone may be able to give you the original spring specification for your car and they can be checked/reset to that.

David Brisbane

[Aussie26Stude]

Thanks for that David - I shall pull the springs apart and clean them. I was unsure about doing this because of the "clip" at each end. (i live in Brisbane, qLD).

[DavidAU]

You may have to heat the clips up to open them up and heat them again to rebend them after you have finished. The smoother the spring leaf, the better the ride. Rolls Royce spring leaves for instance were polished, nickle plated, wrapped in a leather gaiter and then feed a constant flow of oil to ensure the smoothest possible ride.

If you need to reset them, I had the one done for my 1923 Metallurgique at Southside Spring Service at Rocklea.

David