rear spring

[glenn in camino]

I'm re restoring a 28 roadster. the rear spring has 10 leaves,(probably a new repo). I know it should only have 8. Because the car has a rumble seat, I'm thinking maybe 9 leaves might be good. What leaf or leaves should I remove?

[Tiny]

Glenn I was always told to remove every other leaf. I imagine you would have the best results with removing the 3rd leaf, start at the main, leave the next one and pull the third one up. Also remember the spring is thinner now so for it to bolt up proper you may need a spacer to take up the extra space from removing leaves. Also a new spring is way "tighter" than an old one so you may want to pull two, If thats the case I would remove 3 and 5. Really its a trial and error thing until you get it where you want it.
Good luck, hope I was helpful

[Randy in ca]

Originally roadster rear springs had 7 leafs and a short spacer one, and as far as I know the same one was used for rumble seat cars as for those with trunks. There has been a diagram posted several times (Marco's I think) which shows the various spring leaf combinations, etc. If no one else comes up with it I'll see if I can find it. Also I believe the roadster main leaf was unique from that used on other models - lower profile or something like that.

[Randy in ca]

A little more info. It seems there were 2 different main leafs used on original 10 leaf springs. If you happen to have a spring which uses the lighter of the two main leafs, it looks like you should have everything you need to make a proper roadster spring except for the #4 leaf and the short dummy. If you have a reproduction spring I'm not sure what you'd have to do - might be some info in these 2 old threads:


https://fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62383

https://fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=106426

[Tom Endy]

Glenn:

The 28 roadster I had years ago had a 7-leaf spring.

Tom Endy

[grj]

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Glenn. I wrote an article in the MAN on springs about 20 years ago. Off the top of my head. You can convert a 10 or an 8. The main difference is the forth one from the main leaf. It is thinner than the ones below it so one cannot make one from one that is longer. As a service item later they would supply the same one as in the 8 or 10. The dummy can be made. The other critical spring is the top leaf. Do not use the old top leaf. The top leaf is now the old number 2 which is not beveled. You need to do this to fit under the rear cross member correctly. The 10 requires the omission of two other leaves. Gary Johnson