Mopar Muscle Association UK

Hi All,

Im going to help my mate Andy change the leaf spring bushes on his Fury over the next few days. Plenty of advice on Youtube etc and I have bought us a proper kit for removing/ replacing them.

Anyone got any tips or advice on the best way to do this job please? We will be on axle stands etc on Andys driveway. Im assuming its best to do one end at a time and re attach the spring before doing the other end? Dont think we will have too many probs getting the old ones out and will use a small gas burner to heat them if we are struggling.

Any tips or advice before we start will be greatly appreciated

Cheers Steve

Are you doing the front eye bushes or the Shackle bushes, or all of them?

If all, drop the front hanger off, then the shackles.
Draw / press the front eye bush out with a long bolt and in with the new one.

Then the rear shackle bushes, then attach the rear first and then jack the spring into place and re-mount the front hanger. Torque up the bolt when the full weight of the car is on the wheels. About 115 Ft Lbs from memory.

The biggest fight could be getting the old "U" Bolts off - in theory you are not supposed to re-use them. Often you have to snap or cut them off - ask MattH!!!

Thanks Pete....we are doing them all so will follow your advice on the sequence of removal/ replacement.

Are the U clamps a universal thing or will they be a specific model application part?

Cheers Steve

U Bolts are pretty universal, if its an 8 3/4 you need 3" ones but they also come in different lengths so worth a check too.

Thanks Pete....sounds like we would do well just to order a set and replace them as a matter of course.

Found this video that should help as well. Would you say it would be easier to completely remove the spring to do it or to leave one end attached, replace, bush, re attach then do the other end??



Cheers Steve

I swapped axles at the weekend

my intention originally was to take out the front eye bolt, push the diff forward, lift the springs and pull it back

had a look and thought better of that, my front eye bolts are going from the inside out, with the nuts on the outside. The chassis rail has a hole for a socket to fit through which in this case the bolt would have to come out through, didn't fancy losing a bolt inside the chassis as I whacked it through the bush. and the hole doesn't align very well

obviously my spring hangers were bolted to the spring eyes before they were bolted to the car

so to get the front eye off, the hangers would have to come off the car

I came to the conclusion that if I was going to take the spring hangers off the front mount then the shackle mount at the rear would be the easiest option at that end, especially after I looked at the fossilised bolts/pins top and bottom in the shackle

In the end I changed my mind and just lifted the diff up on a jack which I had rolling on a bit of linoleum, shiny side down. allowed me to pull jack sideways get one end of the diff passed the spring, shove it the other way and get diff out.

springs stayed in place

but once the diff is out, taking off and manhandling a spring, and putting it back with or without the hangers on both ends would have been much much easier.

so would doing the job with an extra pair of hands.

Dave

remember if you do one U bolt up to spec

and then the other one the first one will then be stretched way past specification and made into scrap

the first U bolt will pull the shock mount/spring plate massively skewed to one side, as you do up the second you will eventually get to the point where the first one is impossible to undo.

do them up criss-cross a few turns each.

that way they all end up about the same torque and you don't ruin the u bolts.

Round bar U bolts and original chrylser flattend waffle U bolts have widely different torque specifications to achieve the same clamping/friction on the tube


Chrysler U bolts are 40 - 45 ftlb
round u bolts I think are 70

but you will only achieve that by doing em up like it was a cylinder head

check manual don't want you rear end to fall off

everything else uses round U bolts
flat waffely ones are a Chrysler only thing


Dave

Thanks for that Dave.....a plan is developing!

Just had a chat with Andy and it looks like we are only doing the rear bushes. Can this be done without taking the U bolts off? I assume it can be as the hanger moves so the car can be manoeuvred on a jack to line everything back up....

yes

the shackles have bushes at both ends

and are bolted to the rear of the car

the bracket they bolt to can be undone
or the bolts in the shackles can be undone

you can then lower the rear of the springs by lowering the jack you put under the diff centre

don't snap your brake pipe

car needs to be on stands by the front spring hangers i.e at the solid bit near the floor pan

Thats great Dave....thanks!!!

Just changed my springs, rear bushes are not too bad to do, front ones much harder. if you can avoid taking off the U bolts and snapping shock mounts on the lower plates then do so. I had to cut the u bolts as the bolts were solid, and the lower plate snapped off the shock stud.

I would suggest doing one side at a time so that not so much is loose. Get the car well supported on the body around the front hanger area, (I used two ramps with blocks of wood on top) and have a trolley jack to hand to move the axle up and down, but dont support the weight of the car on the axle. It probably sounds obvious but I did some head scratching to work it all out.

There soeaks the voice of experience! Many thanks Matt....great advice for us....cheers! They make it all look so easy on the telly!

I'm about to change my springs. I'm putting new U bolts in, new front bolts/bushes and rear shackles. Never done it before, some good tips here. The new U bolts are round, so go for 70 with the wrench? Any tips on which end to remove first? Where's the best point yo have least spring in the springs?

check the ft lb setting

that was an off the top of my head number

but tight is good

Dave