Can a leaf spring be dismantled?

[Steve Cureton]

I’ve removed the leaf spring from the Herald and would like to de-rust and spray it. It looks as if it’s just a matter of undoing three bolts and it all comes apart, but is it really this simple or are the leafs under tension?

[Pete Lewis]

No its just that simple  ask Zebadee....  if there is some tension with the centre bolt a G clamp will soon pull it back together  
Im sure Ive seen the pontyfract cake rubber slipper pads on a site somewhere
if they are worn badly.
springs should be dry and not liberaly greased, the dust sticks to the grease and makes a good grinding paste   Peter

[Steve Cureton]

Peter, excuse my ignorance but I've never stripped one before, what is a 'pontyfract cake rubber slipper pad'. When I first tread this I thought I'd missed the joke!

[JohnD]

If you are going to that trouble, wrap the re-assembled spring in Denso tape.
This is revolting stuff, a thick fabric tape more than impregnated with,  made stiff with a thick, greasy, sticky mess.  But it will keep dirt out of your spring like nothing else will!   And lubricate it.

No need for me to boost it - just google for Denso tape!

JOhn

[willows40]

if you do take the spring apart, take the bolts out of the clips first, and then the centre bolt but do make sure it is tightly clamped when undoing it,as the tension on the spring we strip the thread of the nut when it gets to near the end.
and yes denso tape is good or use leather packed with grease
cheers andy

[JonB67]

Standard rubber pads are shite, disintigrate easily - and cheap rubber thats not likely to be grease resistant.

I lathed up little bushes in ptfe. Should give a nice long life!

Jon

[Pete Lewis]

Pontyfract cakes     small round  flat black sweets  about the same as the pads popped into the relief in the ends of the leaves to reduce noise and friction,, on the old spring they may be long lost    have fun  Peter

[Steve Cureton]

Right, I've stripped the spring and I now know what a Pontefract cake looks like :-)

The spring is actually in very good condition, and so are the Pontefract cake rubbers, and there is grease between all the leaves so I assume it's been stripped before.

The only problem I've got is I stripped it down without paying too much attention to the position of each leaf, but when I've cleaned up the short top leaf the word 'front' is stamped on it. Does this mean all the leaves have to face a certain way and if so how do I tell which way they should face - they all look the same to me. None of the others have this stamping.