I know that before tightening up the new leaf springs I have fitted I need to put weight into the vehicle. What is the recommended load before tightening the spring bolts. I can easily get 300kg into the back is that enough or does it need to be more?
Settling new springs
- Thread starter dag019
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tottot
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It is just the empty weight of the vehicle,in other words it needs to be sat on its wheels and thats all.
Rubins4
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I recall someone on here saying you should put in the weight you might typically be expecting to carry before tightening up- the logic being the metalastic bushes won't then be under constant tension.
I've got to do the same shortly and will bring doing this. I'm on axle stands at the minute and will probably use a couple of the wheels in the back as a load, 300kg sounds like a lot unless you expect to be carrying a load of gear all the time.
I've got to do the same shortly and will bring doing this. I'm on axle stands at the minute and will probably use a couple of the wheels in the back as a load, 300kg sounds like a lot unless you expect to be carrying a load of gear all the time.
I had read somewhere that it was weighted rather than just the empty vehicle. The normal load makes sense, I will go for that. 300kg may be a little excessive for that but not by mich. I weigh just over 100kg and it currently has an empty fuel tank there is 150kg straight away.
rob1miles
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Back or front? I think the front axle weight stays fairly constant with load and the rear varies a lot.
I have torqued them down now, although I could not get the correct torque on the axle u-bolts as the shock mount plate began to distort before the correct torque was reached. I will see how it goes once it is drivable again but may need to replace them.
rob1miles
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My understadning of the torque ont eh u bolts is that you are aiming to get the bolts into the middle of their elastic range so that the nut and the holding force stay as the spring flexes up and down and the spring high changes. This means that you are aiming for streatch not a torque. If the plates are bending I would be inclined to change the u-bolts and nuts. I found mine work loose and so I now do an annual check.
The workshop manual states 75lbft which is what I was aiming for. The u bolts and nuts were new but the bottom plate/shock mount was the old one and was beginning to distort before the torque was reached. I think I got 2 of the 8 nuts to the correct torque and they were the two nearest the shock mount where the plate cannot bend.
tottot
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If you load it up and then torque up, when it is then sat empty the bushes will be underload at stand still.Torque up unloaded.
U bolts nuts need to be tightened equally,each a bit at a time.
U bolts nuts need to be tightened equally,each a bit at a time.
I did that with the unolts but they just distorted the bottom plate rather than tightening down.
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Yep. And for most of us the car is sitting empty for 95% of it's life, so that's where you want the bushes unstressed.
tottot
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Your bottom plates must be thin,good ons are a heafty bit of steel.
They are definitely a hefty piece of steel, but they were not new.
