Thread: Spacer above a solid axle front end spring pack

Tweet

I would like a little more spring clearance, and was thinking of putting a solid spacer between the crossmember and spring pack. I have a Posie's SuperSlider and there's only 3/4 inch clearance between the top of the spring and the frame, giving me only at most 2-3 inches of wheel travel.

I think that if I make a spacer out of solid steel, much as I've seen offered with monoleaf springs, where the spring locater fits a hole in the bottom of the spacer and the spacer has a solid pin to fit the crossmember. The crossmember is more than deep enough to accomodate this, in fact, I have a 1/2" spacer below the spring pack now so the clamp will work, leading me to believe that maybe the crossmember itself is the problem, or I have the wrong spring.

Thanks, you folks are great.
Dorsey

That sounds like about the right amount of clearance for a Posie's slider spring.

I went to a Durant to gain some travel, got maybe 1 1/2".

Notching the frame 1" will help considerably.

You can add a spacer with no problems as long as part of the spring pack is captured within the crossmember.

New spring center bolts are available at any real parts house.
Get a new one and use that to clamp spring and spacer together.

It took three times longer than I thought it would, but I added the 1/2" spacer. The easy part was as C9x suggested. I had a chunk of 1/2" plate that I cut to fit (1 11/16" x 6") and drilled a hole to match the spring pack. I couldn't find a bolt at the parts store, however, my local hardware store had one in stainless, so I rounded off the hex head to fit the crossmember hole and voila!

The extra spring travel is noticable and the shocks no longer bottom out. It's still a solid front end, but noticably smoother now and steers better, too.

Thanks again to all,
Dorsey