Bad leaf spring? please see picture

[engineer76]

Hi all

Two days ago I received a pair of Mopar XHD leaf springs from Summitracing. (Left and right)
It seams to me that on the left spring the second smallest leaf was badly manufactured. Look at the picture how the leaf has something like a "double bend" creating a huge gap inbetween the leaf stack.

Summitracing tells me that they have to be bent like that. They also told me that they checked their inventory and the are all like that.
Even more strange, the right spring doesn't have such a leaf in it and thus doesn't have such a huge gap.

Do yours also look like that?

Thanks

[dodj]

Right and left are different. Don't know if the gap is an issue or not.

[engineer76]

Hi dodj

Thank you for your reply. That is correct left and right springs are not the same. But after all, the other side does not have such a huge gap.

[Katfish]

Which side / section is that?  I'll take a look at my ESPO springs.

[femtnmax]

I bought mine from Summit 2-3 years ago.  They do not have gaps like that.  I would tend to agree with you the one leaf looks to be formed incorrectly.  Don't you just love the quality of these non-USA made parts!!
I doubt it will make any difference as to how the car handles.
Some forum members say the Mopar springs lost their arc too easily, so maybe watch out for that.  Do a search on this forum, some folks are buying aftermarket leaf springs and have been pleased with the products, though I do not believe the aftermarket products have the staggered leaf setup like Mopar offered.  If you went aftermarket you could always return the summit ones if you pay return postage.
I have been happy with my Mopar XD leafs so far.   Good luck.

[engineer76]

Agree, in my opinion the parts quality got a lot worse over the last ten years...

OK, the spring I am talking about is the left one, P4452985.
I also sent Mopar performance an email with the pictures but I didn't get an answer yet. I am wondering what they say about the leaf spring.

If anybody uses the same Mopar XHD Leaf springs and doesn't mind taking a look at their springs that might be quite helpful for me to get the guys from Mopar or Summitracing going.

Otherwise I have proove that I am wrong and the leafs really do have that shape

Thanks

[Kapteenikosmos]

Just went through my pics but didn't find any that would show that area. Well anyway, I have the same springs and there are no gaps. I doubt that it will affect into your handling it is just merely a cosmetic error but still, it shouldn't look like that.

Who knows,  it might be so that one of the dies the mexicans are using to build the leafs is bent and Mopar has a huge stock of these at the warehouse. 

[engineer76]

100% !
And to make sure that the spring is with in specs they probably opened up the spec and obviously got a huge discount for accepting out of spec products from the manufacturer...

I still don't have prove that the spring is bad - but the uncertainty just pi$$e$ me off. I do not want to install bad parts.

[challengermaniac]

I like buying parts from Summit and had bought Mopar springs from them as well, only to see Made In China next to the Chrysler Pentastar!  When I put the springs on, they actually inverted a little (can you say inferior metals) and I wound up sending them back to Summit. 

If you have the original springs, have them re-arched, or go with USA made after market springs from a local spring shop. More $ but worth it.

Unfortunately, this is one area Summit fails.
 

[ShelbyDogg]

Send them back.  I bought mine from Mancinis at the Mopar Nats years ago. I had to change the top leaf out and use one from an old set because they were bending backwards too.

[Cuda54]

Years ago back in the late 70's we used to cut the eyes off the top leaf. Then we would add the top cut and second leaves to the spring that were on our cars. Mine was a 72 Cuda 340 and it lifted the back up 2" and still had a good ride. U bolt and springs were cheap back then U bolts were about $7 new the 4 springs about $5 at the Junkyard. We did it on both sides it helped the ride and traction too.   

[engineer76]

Hi everybody

After shooting emails back and forward with Summitracing and waiting for the response from Mopar Performance they agreed that the spring must have been badly manufactured.
As always Summitracing was really fast and refunded the bad spring immediately.