George Tavary

I have a '66 with the standard 9 leaf spring. Anybody know if the top leaf of the rear spring has a liner between it and the next leaf? Got the new liners from Eklers and it only has 7 liners. They say the top leaf which is only about a foot long does not have a liner. My old spring did and a spare spring I have also has a liner. Is Eklers full of bull?

6T5RUSH

George,

Youve got my curiosity too. Both the original spring (9 leaf) and my rebuilt one that I installed last summer did/do not have a liner above that short first leaf.

Heres a pic of my redone rear.



Think Im going to look up what the AIM says on this.

Regards,

Jim

wilbur

I'm not 100% sure, I will have to go and take a look. I think I have only 5 liners in my standerd leaf spring that would mean I have no liners in the top 3 leafs, If I'm correct.

covett

There is no liner between #6 and 7 so you should use 7 liners total
when the spring is not under load you will see why

JohnZ

That's correct - photo below shows a correctly-configured 9-leaf spring; note that there is no liner between the top cambered leaf (#6) and the first flat leaf (#7). That's because under compression, the contact between adjacent similar leaves (cambered or flat) is sliding contact; between the top of #6 (cambered) and the bottom of #7 (flat), the contact is rolling, not sliding.

George Tavary

Thanks for everyone's help!!

bonehead2

Hi. I have 10 leafs (pieces of metal) and none of them seem flat. I have only 7 new liners.I cannot tell from the picture which is #6 and#7. Are you counting from the bottom of the car and are the smallest ones in length not considered leafs?. Thanks. I have no flat leafs as in the picture above sticking almost straight out. Skipping a liner between #6 and #7 I see but I need to skip again to account for only having 7 liners?. Nine rubber liners came out of the old spring?. Should there also be a liner between the very first short leaf and the contact area on the housing, where the springs contacts the metal rear housing?.

bonehead2

I know to count from the bottom of the car now but still need help.

JohnZ

You apparently have an aftermarket replacement spring; a correctly-configured spring has nine leaves - the bottom six are cambered, and the top three are flat, as shown in the photo above, and there is no liner between #6 and #7 leaves.

What year are you working on?

bonehead2

Thanks John.A 66 BB coupe.I looked in my 1983 dealership Corvette parts book that a buddy got for me many years ago and they do indeed list two springs as for the cars, a 7 leaf listed as HD and one they list as 10 leaf. No nine leaf listed in the GM parts dept parts book. I was always under the impression,like most that there were 2 leafs available, 7 and 9.The car has 70k miles and looks to have never been apart.