MikeThomas

Finally waited for the temperature to drop a little (113?) to install my front 2" springs. Needless to say they are a grand improvement from my frowning stockers. Took me a couple of hours, but Im glad I finally did it. The steering is much smoother, so I have to wonder if the sagging suspension was binding at the drag link??? Any who, im gonna wait for it to settle (im showing 2.75 of lift right now), then have the rear re-arched about an inch to give me the rear high stance I like. I know this might start a debate but i have been researching it...since I have seven leafs with ends that terminate small even amount from each succeeding leaf, it should hold much better than say a 3 or 4 leaf pack.... But, I do not think it would be a good setup for heavy hauling...just play .

KB440

Looks good Mike

I'm glad it cooled down for you....LOL

whereswaldo250

Mike looks awesome, what rims do you have?

apprentice

three or four leaf set up will flex better... seven is a lot and dont hold your breath on a re arc holding long....imho... front looks good

MikeThomas

True, 3-4 flexes great, but you would never find something like that in a truck that weighs 6200lbs , not enough spring loading. Though my comment was comparing re-arching 3-4 leaf packs vs 7, I would never ever re-arch a small leaf count spring such as the front of ours, but the 7 and 8 leaf rears should hold fine mainly because of their over compensating spring rate...I just cant see a re-arched spring, one that wont even squat with 1000lbs of sand in the box, sag on a normally empty tuck. For loads, there will be some airbags in the future, IMO.

apprentice

the front springs you just put in are how many leafs? and how much of the weight "6200" is above the front springs . as for 2 4 7 or 25 leafs in a spring pack it makes no difference. The most popular method is to use either a hammer or a press to change the arch. This is known as "cold setting". This is the method used by most shops. this work hardens the steel
and takes the spring pack past its yield point creating a weak spring with un even molecular structure and WILL NOT HOLD even under no load and probably will break if heavely loaded . spring steel has a memory the only way to erase this is by annealing...

In order to anneal a spring it must first be taken apart. Then each leaf is visually inspected for signs of fatigue. Then each leaf is blasted to remove all paint, rust or whatever and re-inspected. If the leaves are OK then each leaf is heated about 90 F above the Austenitic temperature about 1,650 F depending on the spring steel . Once heated the leaf is placed on a pattern which has the correct shape and arch. Once re-shaped the leaf is quenched in special oil (Sperm [whale oil] and lard oil baths are used for hardening springs) to quickly cool it. The heating and quick cooling process results in a leaf which is too hard and brittle to be a spring. So the leaf is then re-heated to 950 F for a set amount of time drawing out some of the tempered hardness. Once cooled the leaves are then shot peened to relieve stress. The final product is a properly tempered re-arched, re-heat treated spring. not many shops do it this way! but its your money just make sure the shop you choose uses the later of the two methods. cost for cost and done right it is cheaper to get a set of sky jacker springs. its bad enough dealing with dirt and sweat in the eyes, rusty bolts, cut knuckles once but to end up doing it all again??? time is money ....

MikeThomas

Austenitic, is that the temperature when steel/iron becomes nonmagnetic?

eaesflyer

I did not re-arch my factory springs, I went with 2" lift springs and new shocks from Skyjacker and the ride is much better. [IMG]cimg0614[/IMG]

b1eric

Mike who's springs did you use and how much were they? My nose is dropin like a drunk at bartime so i have to fix it before i break something.

MikeThomas

I used the skyjacker 2" springs, part number 200xx. I expect them to settle more b/c at 300 miles they still sit at 2.5"....they ride SOOOOO much better too.

apprentice

It's not actually the Austenitic phase that causes the loss of magnetic properties of Iron, it's the temperature of the iron itself.
Magnetism in iron is believed to be caused by the alignment of the spins of the electrons located in the third d shell of each atom. Each atom has a magnetic dipole moment, and in ferromagnetic materials, zones of atoms with similarly aligned moments tend to form throughout an object. Normally, there are enough different zones with differently oriented magnetic directions to cancel out any net magnetic field. But when you apply an external magnetic field to a piece of iron, the zones that are aligned with the field grow and the ones that are not shrink. This causes a net magnetic field in the iron, and the iron piece is attracted to the magnet. However, under certain parameters such as rubbing the iron on a magnet, applying a strong enough magnetic field, or giving a few really hard whacks (highly scientific term) on another iron object, the magnetic zones will align and cause a net magnetic field, without needing to apply an external field

Ok, that's cool, but how does temperature affect magnetism? All ferromagnetic materials have a Curie Temperature, above which, the material shows negligible magnetic properties. This occurs because above the Curie Temperature, the thermal energy in the material is so high that the atoms wiggle around quite a bit more, and it's harder for the zones to form. The Curie temperature for iron is 1420-1450 F This is close to the temperature at which the Austenitic (gamma) phase of iron is stable but the two properties are not related.

but i am just a humble welder, taking a few metallurgy courses. this is just my basic understanding of what happens during heat treatment, so others feel free to correct me

Bookshelf

I have heard from others that have done it that rearching springs(probably done the cold way as apprentice explained it) is a waste of time. They don't last long at all before they're back to their previous height. I don't think the rears have too much of an arch to begin with, except the overload leaf...

MikeThomas

Thanks, I do a lot of foundry work so I should know better, but, still learning.

Ace

Dang, that is some real down in the weeds metallurgy information. I did not know that!