Removing leaf springs

[blown motor]

I am going to remove the rear springs. To do this I will jack the rear end, place jack stands under the frame rails to support the body and then lower the axle back down. I will undo the axle U-bolts first and then the front and rear bolts. As I loosen the U-bolts I should be able to find the right height for the axle so there is no pressure on the springs. Does this procedure sound logical and more importatntly, safe?

[mopar jack]

You should also support the rear end with jack stands. Raise the car and support on the frame rails then you can remove the u-bolts then lift the rear end to take weight off springs and support it there.

[Denison636]

When I did mine I left the rear end in the car.

[blown motor]

Ya I'm not removing the rear end, just the springs.

[Denison636]

Just need four jack stands then and a floor jack. I jacked the car up got it on the jack stands front of the spring hanger and let it back down. I had my tires off then then put the jack under the rear end and put pressure on rear end. I then undid my shocks and then my u-bolts. After that the rear was loose so I put it on jack stands to be safe. I raised it up to have it out of the way. Then be careful but you can get the rear of the spring out with out taking the lower roll pan off. When the rear of the spring is off the front is easier to take out. I hope you don't end up like me and find a hidden rust mess. I had to get a new spring hanger for the front. I also put new bushings in my springs while I was at it. Energy suspension sells a nice kit I put in my car. And the front hanger I got off of E-Bay. I got the one that you can lower the car 1" so that I have more adjustment.

[Denison636]

If you have any questions feel free to ask. I am off work at the moment and use my car as Therpy. I look at her everyday.

[blown motor]

I didn't plan on undoing the shocks. I think if I put the rear end on stands I should be able to leave them connected not?

[Denison636]

If you unbolt the bottom part it will make life easy. I left the top part of the shock in.

[jimynick]

Murray, I just took the diff and springs out of mine last week. If it's original, the frt bushing bolt was put in from the inside out and you need to drop the hangers. If they haven't been out, heat is your friend, as I twisted one of the studs off trying it cold. The REAL fun is getting the rear shackles out of the rear bushings. DON'T try it with the rear valance on, even if it can be done, because there's lots of banging that'll take place before you're done. I got one shackle out and the other just wouldn't cooperate, so the torch came in handy. To leave the diff in, I'd do what Dennison recommended; jack it up, take off the U-bolts (keep that torch warmed up), leave the shocks on and support the diff with the other stands and away ya go. A third stand to support the pinion so it doesn't rotate might be a good idea as well. PS- we'll talk about those seals, too. TTFN! Ian   

[Chryco Psycho]

The lower plate is bolted to the shocks , so you can leave the shocks attached to the plates & swing them out of the way , you may need 3 jack stands for the diff or the nose / yolk will swing down & could damage the brake line .
 Generally I cut the U bolts & install new ones , often you cannot undo the U bolts unless they were installed recently anyway .

[dakota]

I tried t remove one of my U bolts with a pretty beefy impact gun, but the fine threads were too gunked up to get them all of the way off.   I ended up using a cutoff wheel to remove the U bolts.   My axle was coming out anyway so I dropped it out before removing the springs.   One other note:  on my 70, I had to take off a painted body panel under the rear bumper to get the leaf spring shackle bolts at the rear end of the leafs.

Good luck!

[blown motor]

Thanks for the input guys. CP, I never thought of the nose swinging down. Good point, that's why I ask questions here. Ian, I know the power of heat but I'm a little leary of using flame around the undercoating. Not sure how flameable that stuff is.
I can't pull the springs until next week because a friend (Doug, aka ebody copper, he has one post here) wanted to see how I did it and he's in Cuba this week. So I started loosening nuts yesterday just to see how it would go. A PO had cut the bolts off flush with the nuts using a hack saw on the left spring. That made them a little tough to get off but....  ....a pipe on the end of my long handled rachet got three loose and I twisted the fourth one off  I already have the valance off and the shackle bolts and nuts look good. Clean and not rusty so I'm hoping they won't be too hard. I'm planning on gently driving the shackle bolts back with an air chisel if I have to. Not too keen on using the torch in such close proximity to the gas tank.

[jimynick]

Murray, yeah, the undercoat is flammable, but if you scrape the majority of it off, a simple squirt bottle should handle any flare-ups. As for the twisted off stud, just knock the stub out and replace it with a bolt the same size/length and weld it's head to the mount. I used an old broken air chisel that I cut off flat in it's shaft as a driver in the air gun and it works pretty good. A good penetrant on the shackles also helped I found. Good luck and say hi to Doug for me.  Ian