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Bill,
Very good
questions with very simple answers.
Looking
at the coil springs, whether they are rusted or not, will not tell us
anything unless of course they are broken.
Checking
the free unloaded height of the spring will not give us any answers,
because even though a spring does not lose spring rate, they do lose the
ability to carry weight.
So the
spring height can still be to specs, but not be able to carry the load.
Load
testing the spring is the surest way to tell if it is any good or not.
However, who has a spring load test machine handy?
So let's
look other ways to tell if the coil springs need replacing.
There are
3 quick ways to tell if a coil spring needs replacing.
The first
will seem to be very obvious, the spring is broken.
However
with many coil springs the breakage occurs on the bottom coil and can
not be detected unless the spring is removed from the vehicle.
Just
jacking the truck up to get the weight off the spring and looking may
not expose the break.
One has
to physically remove the spring and hit the coils to reveal the break.
The
second way is to look at the vehicle.
How does
it sit empty?
How does
it sit with a load?
If it
looks fine, then chances are the coils are fine.
However,
if it looks low or leans to one side chances are the springs are bad.
The third
and final way is how does the vehicle ride?
Again,
check it with and without extra passengers or a load.
Bad
springs normally will bottom out when traveling over uneven surfaces.
If the
vehicle fails any of these tests, then replace the springs.
Then
there is reality, when redoing a 30 year old truck with a bunch of miles
on it, it is just a darn good idea to replace the springs.
And don't
stop at the front springs, check the rear leaf springs and all 4 shocks.
I hope
this helps you and to learn even more about both leaf and coil springs
download a copy of our Spring Tech 101.
And feel free to use this information in your article.
You may also want
to look up some of our Other Tech Questions.
-Mike |
