Greasy Leaf springs???

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rdc

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O.K. I read an ad in 4wheeler mag about dissassembling the leaf springs and coating them with a teflon spray. In the magazine they said it makes a noticeable increase in softening the ride up. Has anyone out there ever tried this or no anything about this? Thank You.

gone ridin.
 
Tyson

Tyson

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I've never gone as far as taking the whole spring pack apart and then greasing them up. But, I have greased them up while being in the truck (lifting the back end) I did notice a difference for about a week and they were real quiet - but I've since decided that its not worth the trouble for only a week of peace and quiet.

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scott

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Yeah with teflon just at the ends of each leaf, makes the spring slide without metal on metal, slowing it up or bind.. Thats why some springs, most factory have a thin plastic insert in between each spring.
 
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Crayfish

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There is a place in Anaheim, CA called Thermech Engineering, they Teflon coat some of the aluminum molds we use. They could just as easily coat a set of leaves.
In the name of science someone needs to get this done. They can do it in different colors as well.
 
Kritter

Kritter

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The stickyness term is called sticktion (kinda like friction and sticking in one)...it has a large effect on spring rate and it is uppredictable. Grease sounds outrageous, but whatever floats your boat I guess.

Kris
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Tyson

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K, I didn't mean I used GREASE I mean I lubed them up. I know grease would do me no good at all. I don't quite remember what I used it was something along the lines of WD-40 I believe.

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Rodney

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Grease is good! Yes, believe it or not you absolutely should take the pack apart and brush on a light coat of high quality grease. It does make one hell of a mess, but the differance in spring performance is nothing short of amazing. I learned this little secret from John Ray at RFD, most remember him from the Factory Nissan days with Spencer Low. Me and Sacio were breaking the rear springs constantly on the ex-factory Nissan after Sacio bought the truck in 1993. We went to John for help and after we assured him that we didn't change his set up, the first thing he asked was if we greased the springs.
We tried some other coatings including teflon, nothing else even came close to a good coat of swepco.

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motoxscott

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I remember seeing somewhere getting real thin teflon sheeting, tracing each leaf, cutting them out and inserting them between each leaf.

You think that would help a little and be a little cleaner than good old waterproof, cant get it off my hands, grease.
 
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ntsqd

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I had the privilege of working on a '26 Rolls Royce some time back. It had leather boots on the leaf springs to contain the grease in the springs and keep dirt out. It had a centralized lubrication system. Pushing on a pedal forced grease out of a reservoir and thru a series of holes (like down the center of the drag link thru the tie rod end into the steering arm thru the arm to the spindle thru the spindle into the kingpin thru the kingpin to the axle across tha axle to the other kingpin, yada.....) thru out the car. It lubed the kingpins, the shackles, the leafs, tie rod ends, everything that moved in the suspension.

If I were going to try greasing leaf springs, I would use the silicone grease that Energy Suspension sells for use on urethane. You can but it from Baker, but it'll cost you more.

The problem with Teflon is that it cold flows under high loading. I would recommend that you try something more like HDPE sheet. You can get it from McMaster.com The usual problem with flat sheets is that they squirm out. In the streetrod world there is a sheet made just for this purpose that has 'leeboards' on it so that it can't easily squirm out from btwn the leaves. I have no source for this though, you'll have to search for it. I believe Posies uses it on their street rod springs, so they may sell it direct as well.

TS

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drtdevil93

drtdevil93

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no, no, no,no...

do not use any lubricant of those sorts. go out and find a dry film lubricant (we use DGF, dry graphite film). this stuff drys, and doesnt attract dirt, and more importantly doesnt give dirt a place to rest or a means of transportation to worsen the problem. ive seen it at mcfadden dale, it might also be available at autozone, or somewhere similar.

another option is to lightly buff the springs. id recommend buffing them, then spraying them. but grease is a temporary repair that will lead to increased spring wear. ive dealt with a couple teams that had been doing that, and the wear on the springs was pretty bad, not to mention the huge mess.

erik
 
Kritter

Kritter

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Hey Erik it cant be much more messier then the Ol henry's the leafs come back painted with...that is messy...:)

Kris
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rdc

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I used to prep the springs on Darren Yorks truck. We would massage out all the rough edges and such on each leaf with a DA sander then paint them with graphkote (I think thats how it is spelled) which is similar to what Erik is talking about I am sure. This would be the most I would do but if it is on a prerunner it is going to keep you very busy and I hope you like getting very dirty!

Grease is bad as Erik has said. It is like wet sanding when mixed with dirt. Not to metion WHAT A FREAKIN MESS !

Now what about using those teflon buttons on the end of each leaf? Or maybe better yet make them out of delrin or such...

Tony
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sirhk100

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I havn't asked what sorta testing we did and the results but at RCD we powder coat our kits that come with leaf packs. We litterally tear down hundreds of leaf packs, sand blast them, powder coat them, and reassemble them. We also use those little plastic inserts. I do know that our leafs actually work really good. Don't know how long the powder coating lasts but it must be a noticable improvment to justify the major extra work of doing it.

Khris

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ntsqd

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I did say "IF I were going to grease...."

FWIW, the long term results I've gotten from several different dry film lubes ranged from poor to sucking out loud. I would call reapplication a several times a season thing, not a once a season thing.

The engineering polymer solution is the one I prefer. I think the buttons on the leaf tips would be the best method as then the leaves are not in full length contact. That may change your damping rate requirements, something that's handleable. Unfortunately that solution has to start with the spring vendor. Doubt many of us have the tooling needed to create the button's dimple after heat treating.

TS

"It only seems kinky the first time"
-- Bumpersticker seen in Lost Wages
 
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