Ric asks about his missing spring clamps:
Could the lack of clamps be causing the car to sag on that side?
They're probably connected; either the missing clamps caused the
sag, or the sag caused the missing clamps. Take a look at the
leaves to see if one of them might be broken.
Are these clamps replaceable without tearing apart the rear
suspension (to get me thru to the winter re-build season)?
They should be, but in any case, the rear suspension is a lot
easier to mess with than the front suspension. Replacing the
rear springs and bushings, for example, should take you a couple
of hours, while replacing the front springs and bushings should
take you a couple of weekends. :-) You can even remove and
replace the springs with the wheels in place (well, I did on
my B, I'm not sure about clearance on the Midget). One of the
good things about leaf springs is that you don't need a compressor;
just put the car on jack stands, place a jack under the axle,
remove the bolts and lower the axle. The weight of the axle will
slip the mounting brackets off the U-bolts and the spring will
come free easily. The hardest part, and it's mainly just fiddly
rather than complex, is getting the rear shackles to line up when
you put it back together; the trick there is to jack on the front
half of the spring. An easy job between lunch and dinner
on Sunday.
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