Rebuilding Rear Leaf Springs - 46 Hudson Pickup

46HudsonPU

bob ward said:

Fill the holes and redrill. Leave no more than a 1/16" gap between the spring and the bolt.

Yup Bob, my thoughts too.  Thanks for your input, it is appreciated.

46HudsonPU

A bit more fiddling today - 

Went through the shelves, trying to find something to use to temporarily hold the leaf spring bushings, while I cut them.  What I came up with, shown in the photo below - 
Its a 5/8" bolt & a 1 1/4" to 1" PVC reducer, with about a third of it cut, then gradually sanded-down to an overall length of around .88". The piece to be removed is cut with a utility knife (note: use liquid dish soap, or you'll struggle getting the bushing on and off!)..


The bushing, with the 'sacrificial slice' removed - 


Two bushings, head-to-head.  About 1/16" over the 1 3/4", fits the leaf spring well, with a bit of 'compression' built-in..


Actually it was fairly easily done. Took my time measuring, cutting the PVC piece down (to about .90), then sanding that down, a little at a time, down to right about .88" (measuring with digital calipers).
Soaped down the bushing (inside and out), and inserted it into the PVC, THEN pushed the 'soaped' 5/8 bolt into the bushing. The bolt holds the bushing in proper form while cutting, as well as providing something solid to cut against.
Since I'm currently only cutting four (4) of these for one (1) truck, I don't need to go 'high tech' just to modify a few of these things.

To Be Determined (TBD) - How much needs to removed from the 'shoulder'? 
I need to get underneath the truck and take some more measurements, but preliminary estimates indicate that at least 1/2 of the 'shoulder' needs to go (measure twice, cut once).  I'll probably do something similar to the above process, to modify the shoulder (as necessary) as well.

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As previously shown (with the 'mock up' of the springs) - leaf retainer bolts.  The original bolts on the retainers were welded, so had to be cut. They turned out to be 5/16" X 2 1/2" bolts (as are these). The roller/spacer that was there wasn't useable either, but found some 3/8" ID pipe that fits perfectly, and should work well..

46HudsonPU

Completed '46 Hudson pickup rear leaf springs (modified, 4 leaves removed): Not perfect, by any means, however should work well..

Before I took these apart, I got out my grinder and 'made a mark' on one side of the leaves, just so I would know 'which way' to put them back together.  It was just deep enough so I could see it, when putting these together (after a nice thick coat of Eastwood's 'rust encapsulator' paint.
You'll also notice the generic 'leaf spring liner' (with lip/edge) between the leaves of each spring.  In my case, a 20' roll of the leaf spring liner was required, per leaf spring (two 20' rolls for this set of of leaf springs.  Don't know how well these will work - guess we'll see.  Came in rolls, which left 'crimps' in the liner along the entire length of the springs. Careful application of my heat gun (for stripping paint) smoothed them out - BE CAREFUL, or you will melt the edges of the liner.
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Not finished with this project - coming up next will be cutting down the bushings (as noted above, done on one of the bushings), then preparing the Hudson pickup that these leaf springs are getting installed upon.

46HudsonPU

Here's what the rubber bushings look like, after they're cut -


I went under the truck, and re-measured the mounting point for the leaf spring/bushing.  It measured 2.05 inches (digital caliper). I ended up cutting 1/8" off of each end of the 'HB-862' bushings, came up with 2 1/4" (2.25") overall.  Should 'squeeze in' nicely...