Springs on M100, rebuild, clean

donthedickens · Post by **donthedickens** » Sun Apr 08, 2012 6:42 pm

I'm ready to clean the springs on my M100 trailer project.

They're pretty rusty but look to be sound and worth saving.

I'm going to take them apart, clean and paint. What tips can anyone offer?

Grease, no grease, paint, what type, replacement spring clamps??? .

If you did this how are they holding up?

Post by **wesk** » Sun Apr 08, 2012 9:59 pm

By design multiple leaf spring sets were deliberately designed to have that friction between them. It damps the spring's motion and keeps prolonged bounce reactions to a minimum. Only a very light hint of a graphite lube should be considered. Painting the top and bottom of the leaf is not a good idea as the paint will shred quickly as the springs enter service and the loss of the paint results in loose spring stacks which if not caught quickly can get out of hand and result in failures quickly.

So just clean well then assemble with very light graphite application between the leaves and then paint the entire assembly after they are drawn tightly together.

evanso1975 · Post by **evanso1975** » Mon Apr 09, 2012 12:19 pm

Some jeep owners wrap the assembled leaf springs in a petrolatum-coated fabric tape (i.e. Denso tape). It's non-hardening, and keeps moisture away from the springs. Apparently, it's used to wrap underground pipelines as an anti-corrosion measure.

Dad used it on the GPW, and after 15 years those springs still look as good as the day he fitted them.

Of course, the jeep police don't like the way the wrapped springs look. But since they're not making donations to my M38 fund, their opinions don't matter.

Owen.

donthedickens · Post by **donthedickens** » Mon Apr 09, 2012 6:37 pm

That is an interesting write up Wes. I had not considered that point of view. I think it makes a lot of sense. I'm gonna Goggle it and get some more details.

Thank you.

Owen,, I just did a quick goggle of Denso tape.. That is some intersting stuff. The phrase that really attracted my attention was.. "sub-sea use". Now that's tough.

Thanks for the product info.

Post by **wesk** » Mon Apr 09, 2012 11:18 pm

Your googling will show the other attitude about making it too slippery between the leaves but that train of thought is used by the rock crawlers to facilitate radical spring deflections and movements. There are also thin plastic lube strips out there for use between the leaves.

donthedickens · Post by **donthedickens** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 6:43 pm

wesk wrote:Your googling will show the other attitude about making it too slippery between the leaves but that train of thought is used by the rock crawlers to facilitate radical spring deflections and movements. There are also thin plastic lube strips out there for use between the leaves.

=============================
Wes, you were right about some folks on Goggle liking the slick-n-slide springs. I think I'll stay wirh the graphite between the leaves.
Thank you for your time to answer.

FrankenJeep · Post by **FrankenJeep** » Wed Jun 06, 2012 8:51 am

wesk wrote:Your googling will show the other attitude about making it too slippery between the leaves but that train of thought is used by the rock crawlers to facilitate radical spring deflections and movements. There are also thin plastic lube strips out there for use between the leaves.

I used graphite on my springs and put on new set of shocks. I immediately noticed an improvement in ride and handling.

FJ