1948 Fordson E83W pickup

Hi Bugly,

The '39 prefect ute (E93A) we had looks a lot like your chassis/suspension, but without the engine offset to the passanger side.

Both springs on the ute we had, had hollow centre bolts with grease nipples in them. From memory the springs also had grease groves in them. I am sure that there was evidence of paint inbetween the leaves also. Maybe the 10 years diffrence in age, changed the need for greasing.

I remember an old "know-it-all" would tell the story keeping the grease up to the springs made his ute ride better. But when the lever-arm shockies stopped working, he stopped greasing the springs and the ride stiffened up...

Regards
Roger

When I reassemble the spring packs should I grease the leaves to give them some 'slip' in service, or should I leave them dry?

Just had a look at the old 48 Fordson ute out back of me shed. The rear spring is covered in old hard grease. Certainly protected it from the elements.

Probably with your tropical corrosive climate a bit of grease wouldn't go astray.

Thanks Roger and Lantana Jack. The rear springs had the standard bolt with a joining nut, and a grease nipple in the other end of the nut. The nut thread had a linear broached hollow running along the thread, for the grease to bypass the bolt into the hole in the springs and thus passed into the springs. The front was missing this arrangement The front was also fitted with the longer rear shackle pins, so at some stage somebody has worked on it and eliminated the grease point. I

No worries Bugly.

Since yesterday I have been thinking more on your springs. I have turned our shed upside down trying to find the old prefect springs, i thought I kept them. Unfortunately I have not found them, must be really well hidden.

I recall that the spring shackles on the prefect were one peice as if they were fasioned from a peice of chanel. I think this would serve to stop the spring twisting. Were your original shackles this way?

Here is a sketch trying to show what I mean. Might be worth a thought.



Regards
Roger

The front was missing this arrangement The front was also fitted with the longer rear shackle pins, so at some stage somebody has worked on it and eliminated the grease point. I

Great picture Roger!! According to my parts book the one-piece type of shackle was used on the Prefect, Anglia, Popular and 5cwt vans. The E83W (10cwt) van however always had the two

Looks good Lou, the mollasses tank worked great , good to see there was no bog in the guards etc.

Looks good Lou, the mollasses tank worked great , good to see there was no bog in the guards etc.

Thanks trucksyd ... I swear by the molasses treatment now!! Old Clarry hasn't got any bog at all that I've found. Some of the panels are a bit sad, but I reckon they're all repairable. [smiley=thumbsup.gif] It'll be interesting when I start on the body, 'cos I've never done any body repair work before!! :

Following a wire brushing of each leaf spring, and painting them last weekend, I was able to finish reassembling the front and rear spring packs today, on to the main leaf that I had already fitted to the new shackle pins. Each leaf was greased before the next leaf was fitted, which took a bit of juggling during assembly, but it all worked out in the end.

A bit of measuring for distance and offset, and I was able to lift the chassis onto the springs, where it sat nicely in position.

Tomorrows job after work is to fit the U-bolts to fix the springs to the chassis cross members, and start to fit the shock absorbers and link arms to stabilise the suspension. As you can imagine with transverse springs, there would be a lot of rocking from side-to-side if it wasn't for the shockies!

I thought the rule was NOT to grease the springs, because it removes the friction between the leaves that makes the springs work properly?