Spring Fever

How do you know when you need new springs?

As mentioned elsewhere in these pages, I picked my Rover up in Boulder, Colorado, and drove it home to Palo Alto, California–about a 1600 mile journey.  On the way I noticed that ride was a bit rough–like so rough my IQ was halved every hour I spent on the road.  For a long time, I told myself that this was simply the way Land Rovers rode.  As time went on, I became more mechanically adept, and more familiar with the Rover.  I started to think that maybe The ride should be smoother.  Perhaps I was going to have to put new springs on the old beast.

One day, after having spent quite some time on the front end of the Rover, I looked at the rear end.  The angle of the front shackle to the tangent of the spring where the spring attaches to the shackle was fresh in my mind–about 60 degrees.  I noticed that in the rear, then angle was not even 45 degrees.  I thought, “I bet they are supposed to be the same”.   Sure enough, they were.

Parts

So, towards the end of the Great Downtime of the Summer of 1997, I ordered the following from British Pacific (BP), and Rovers North (RN):

I usually do business with British Pacific because they show up at some local Land Rover events, they have nice, friendly people, and they’re often cheaper than other places.  Sometimes they’re more expensive, but I like doing business with one shop.  When I call up, they say “Hi, Chris, how’s it going?”.  That’s nice.  All that aside, they only had 3 of 4 shackles required for the rear in stock, and only had 1 genuine U bolt in stock.   I wanted genuine U bolts because TerriAnn Wakeman mentioned to me that she’d had problems with non-genuine ones.

Tools

As with a lot of the jobs described in these pages, I ended up running off to Orchard Supply Hardware to purchase a few tools before it was over.  Now, you don’t have to, as with this information, you can make sure you have what you need before you start:

• 7/8″ both shallow and deep sockets
• 13/16″ both shallow and deep sockets
• 5/8″ shallow
• 5/8″ speed ratchet
• 1/2″  both shallow and deep sockets
• 1/2″ speed  ratchet
• hack saw (YIKES!!)
• short-handled sledge hammer (Boooyah!!!)
• An 18″ breaker bar (Oh yeah!!!)
• Small (1/4″ wide) chisel (Eeeek!!!)
• Grinder (Ouch!!!)

Make sure that you either have good sockets, or sockets with a lifetime guarantee.  I broke one of my 13/16″ deep sockets during this project.

The Job

Basically the front and rear springs are the same, except where I’ve noted below.

Preparation

I decided to start on the rear,  so I jacked up the rear cross member and placed  jack stands under it.  Next, I jacked up the axles and removed the rear wheels.  Once the wheels are off, you can remove the jack from under the rear the axle, as the check straps will then hold it.  Next it was off with the shocks.  This isn’t hard, simply put the 5/8″ speed ratchet on the inboard side of the frame, and the 5/8″ socket on the outboard side and go to town.   After that, straighten the cotter pins on the bottom, pull them, and the whole shock comes off easily.

Next, remove the U bolts.  These are probably rotten as hell, but a little WD-40 should help with removing the nuts on the bottom.  If you’re replacing them, and you run into trouble removing them, consider cutting them with the hack saw.

The Dreaded Suspension Bushings

Now, we’ve gotten to pulling the bolt that goes through the rear frame bushing and the top of the spring shackle.  This was a bit tricky.  The best way to do this is to put the 13/16 speed ratchet on the nut and the 7/8 speed ratchet on the bolt head, and remove the nut while not moving the bolt (It may take a deep socket and a breaker bar to get the nut off, though).  If the nut comes off the pin, then you’re in good shape.  If not, then grind off the nut (in the rear) or the bolt head (in the front).  Once the nut is off, you may get lucky.  If you’re lucky, you can just beat the bolt out with the sledge and the chisel.  If you’re not lucky, the inner sleeve of the bush came out with the bolt because the two had rust-welded.  In this case, drive the small chisel through at least two, maybe three places in the rubber left in the frame.  You can then funge around disconnecting the rubber from the outer bushing sleeve (which you will not, in all likelihood, be able to tell is there).  Then you can beat out the rubber with the sledge and a deep socket.  Next, you have to get the outer bush sleeve out.  But first you have to identify how thick it is.  Take the chisel and put it next to the inside of the frame bush mount and try to separate the sleeve from the mount (remember, at this point it’s likely that there is no empirical evidence that it exists–you’ll just have to trust me).  You should be able to get some separation.  This will tell you about how far you’ll have to cut with the hack saw to cut the sleeve.

So, now we have to cut the sleeve.  Make two cuts:  one on the top and one on the bottom.  To cut the sleeve, thread the hacksaw blade through the hole in the frame and fix it to the saw. then start cutting.  Once you think you’ve gone far enough, rethread the blade for cutting the top (or the bottom, if you started with the top).  After you’ve made both cuts, drive a chisel between the frame and the sleeve along one of the cuts.  Both sides of the cut should bend inward, giving you something on which you can push with a deep socket and then hammer with the sledge to get the sleeve out.

Now that the sleeve is out, remove the bolt from the forward spring mount.   You should now be able to remove the spring from the frame and discard it.

To put the new bushing in, place it next to the hole, and gently tap it in as far as it will go while gently tapping.  Once gently tapping with the sledge ceases to yield results (this should be 1/4 to 1/2 way in), place one shackle on the bush and thread the bolt through the bush and shackle.  Then place the other shackle on the part of the bolt protruding from the other side of the frame from where the partially installed bushing is sticking out.  Thread the nut on the bolt and start tightening.  This will do two things:  fix the shackles to the frame and press the bushing into place.

Installation (A.K.A Anticlimax)

Now, put the spring between the two holes on the bottom of the shackles, thread a bolt through the two shackles and the spring bushing, and screw on the nut.  Do the same for the front.  When that’s done, put the bottom plate back under the spring (note that there is a pin in the top of the spring which goes in a notch in the axle.  There is the same thing underneath, and the bottom plate is aligns with it.  Now, put the new U-bolts on, replace the shock, and Bob’s Your Uncle.

With the 1-ton shackles in front, the placement of the axle on the spring centering pin is a bit tricky.  I ended up raising the left spring and lowering the right in order to get a fit.

Post-installation Adjustment

After installing, drive around for a little bit (less than one mile) with the shackle bolts a bit loose.  This should settle out any tilt in the suspension.  Make sure you do lot’s of left and right turns.  Then, when you get back from the drive, tighten the bolts on the shackles.  Go back to the bolts and tighten them after about a week.

The Finished Product

Here’s a picture of the finisthed product.  Do you have that much room between between your tires and the top of your wheel wells?

Here are some pictures of the shackles:

Front Left	Front Right	Rear Left	Rear Right