Front leaf springs questions

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Bog Orfe

Member
Posts
17
Location
UK
I have just finished stripping down, derusting, greasing and reassembling the front leaf springs on my ex-MOD 109 (LHD). I have temporarily refitted them to the chassis, but without the axle in place. I have measured down from the chassis to the springs in their relaxed state and found that the offside (LHD passenger side) one is nearly half an inch lower than the nearside (driver's LHD side) one. They are 11 leaf heavy duty springs, probably the originals.
Now, I've read somewhere about springs being handed and I believe I read that the driver's side, presumably RHD, are stronger than the other side. Question is, would that apply to LHD, i.e. would the left hand spring be the stronger spring? Is the reason for the stronger spring because of the driver's weight or is it because of the weight of the transfer box? I can't see it being the latter, because the engine and gearbox are offset to the left and probably counterbalance the transfer box to the right.
This 109 has always had a pronounced lean to the left. That is partly due to a bulkhead outrigger fitted too low on that side but could also be caused by the left spring having nearly half an inch less drop. Coud it be that some squaddie mechanic has fitted replacement springs according to RHD wisdom, possibly following spring suppliers instructions and fitted the lower spring on the wrong side?
I'm tempted to try reversing them when I come to refit the axle and see what difference it makes.
Any thoughts and wisdom gladly accepted.
 
Well done for stripping and cleaning, I did mine rather than buy replacement as I thought they must be originals.
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from the chart the drivers side has the biggest camber by half an inch as you measured and slightly wider leaves so as lynall says swap them over you might have the extra fuel tank too on LHS
 
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Great info Steve2286w, thank you.
I have the usual military GS tank setup of twin petrol tanks under both seats. Battery is in the usual place over the right chassis rail.

Interesting to note that the driver's side spring is wider, I hadn't noticed that on mine but I'll check tomorrow.
As you say, the half inch of extra camber tallies with my measurements. I'm guessing that camber is measured from the centres of the spring bushes to the bottom, or maybe top, centre of spring when fitted?
I will take yours and Lynall's advice and swap them over. If it doesn't help, or even makes things worse, I can always swap them back again.
It will be a long while before it hits the road as there's tons to do. At some future stage I'll be giving the rear springs the same treatment. IIRC there is no handed-ness issue with rear springs, so they can go back on either side.
 
Got the twin tanks on mine too very handy long haul, I still,Need to do the back ones too,along with axle refurb my diff pan has been patched with araldite in the past by previous owner no leaks but would like it welding , if doing lots of work on it are you putting it on the member projects section be good to see
 
Got the twin tanks on mine too very handy long haul, I still,Need to do the back ones too,along with axle refurb my diff pan has been patched with araldite in the past by previous owner no leaks but would like it welding , if doing lots of work on it are you putting it on the member projects section be good to see
I have a restoration thread going on the LRUK forum, but that forum is down for maintenance at the moment, so I can't post a link. I suppose I ought to put one on here too. I'll see if it's possible to copy and summarise the stuff I've done so far and start a resto thread on here too. Basically, I was almost given this 109 by a retired Army officer who bought it from a dealer who buys cast MOD vehicles back around 1996. He drove it until it became too dangerous to use, around 10 years ago and parked it in a garage. As he was returning to the UK from the Channel Islands, he didn't want to take it with him because it would be very costly to have it repaired to MOT standard, but he didn't want it going for parts or scrap. He sold it to me for £100 and a promise that I'd do my best to get it back on the road. So far, the engine is out and I've done extensive repairs to the front end of the chassis. I'm currently working on replacing bulkhead outriggers and wrestling with a very ****ed bulkhead, trying to get it somewhere near straight before cutting out both footwells and A posts. After that, I have a nearside front of rear spring outrigger to replace followed by rear crossmember.

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