I will be attempting this in the next month or so aswell.

 

mine have been in my truck about a year with little signs of wear. Of course remember that if you don't clean each leaf and give a good of paint they will wear quicker than if you paint the springs. I also have the same tips on my my durango and they have lasted 200k miles and keep on going but they are beginning to wear out.

 

Awesome stuff as always Jim !!


BTW, Ive never see a rust free truck like that....

 

The last time I was under my truck while adjusting my brakes (about 2 weeks ago) I checked the springs, and the isolators I had installed were fine, I aired up my airbags with about 150 PSI and using a large screwdriver to separate the leaves I was able to pop the isolator free from the spring using a putty knife, the raised numbers on the face of the disk were just finally starting to wear off, this had to be because I took the time to clean and polish the face of each leaf.

My broken springs are because of the miserable potholes in out finely kept freeways, driving in to LA beats my truck so hard that I have to slow down to stay under control.

The next expensive item on my truck are going to be new custom springs for the rear, Atlas Spring is going to build a custom set of soft ride springs with much thinner leaves but more of them and of course the isolators, he told me "I promise that you will like the ride"

Just waiting for an extra $650.00 to proceed but it will be soon.
Jim

 

Was his promise of a better ride not including the airbags you already have? Do you plan to keep the bags with the springs anyhow?

 

Sounds good on the Atlas springs, but wow, $650, I wonder what stock replacements run.

Wonder how longer springs, with the extra length behind the axle and keeping the stock front hanger location, would work.

 

Quote:
Was his promise of a better ride not including the airbags you already have? Do you plan to keep the bags with the springs anyhow?

Jimbo,
No his promise for the better ride is without using my airbags but of course they are going to stay.

He is talking about building me an entire new set of springs, I usually only have just enough air in the airbags to keep them inflated maybe 10 PSI, all of the ride will come from the new springs.

He said there will be 9 leaves, and the truck will sit at its current stance so as to not mess with the drive line inclination

Looking at the quote from Atlas Spring Company, all new hardware including installation $712.16 if I want to install them myself I would save $125.00, not worth getting under the truck for, they have all of the high lift jacks to drop the axle out with, in by noon and out by 4:00 P.M.

Of course when I was there we started talking about the manufacturing of springs and all of the different brand names, he then took me into a room where there were racks and racks of springs and piles of junk ones that he had taken off installs and he said the one that he sees the most are the Skyjackers, people will put them on and will not be happy with the rids or they will sag, customer support is the worst, he will build them a custom set of springs and they never return with a complaint.

www.atlasleafspring.com

Jim

 

I second the work that Atlas does, the local one here is top notch with service. I love that I can walk in tell them what size U-bolts I need and in 10 minutes they are done and made from good American steel rod.
I am currently having them re-arch, refurbish and install these friction pads in the rear springs for my 1979 Ramcharger.

 

Finished doing the spring tip insert deal, definetly smooths and quiets the ride. Especially noticable on the small bumps.

 

Bringing up this old thread since I'm thinking about doing this eventually. What would happen if you put the poly spacers in the middle of the spring too? Where the center bolt goes through to hold them all together. Would this make it ride even better since it'll have less metal contact?

 

You would have to have rectangular pieces of the poly insert to put in the middle of the pack. Probably abut 4" long I would think.

This, along with the tip inserts would increase your ride height a bit as well.

 

Back in the late 70's early 80's I did some experimenting with metal coating while in the Navy. We used the MetCo system and sprayed many different metals, ceramic and teflon. The Teflon buttons are certainly a big step in reducing friction. But if the spring was Teflon coated along with the button I can't see how it could much better than that. Great information..
http://www.metcoat.com/ptfe-coatings.htm
Thanks,

 

A complete liner is the way I will go.

 

I don't think it would do much as there isn't much movement more than a couple inches inboard of the tips.

 

Jim Lane did that. Find the thread - I don't think they lasted very well.