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Hi Team,

Stumped with this one. Stripped out the front end this morning and found this:



The insulator is still in the spring tower on both sides and the flat one is the shim on the drivers side to level out the ride. What is the extra round metal coil on either side. Everything is tied together loosely with copper wire and as they pictured is how they were pulled out of the ute.

It may all be correct - just that I haven't seen it before and is is not shown that way in the manual.

Thanks for sharing your wisdom.

Where is best place to buy , or has any one got new , front brake shoe retention springs , I need a pair for standard FC drum brakes ..Also same request for FC sedan hand brake cable , rear section drums to pivot point ..

The guards are a different story, both have been repaired and again the repair has been done behind the panel. I suspect that the hole in the panel has then been filled with bog. I will need to get in there and have a good look at what has ben done to determine if I do some rework or seal the back of the repairs and let them be.

The rest of the body looks to be pretty much rust free or it has had a previous rust repairs. The unfortunatley they chose to weld repair sections in behind the rust as opposed to removing the rust so I will need to cut out some sections of the old material to save them from becoming the next problem I have to deal with. Better to do it right once than do it twice.

There are also some pin holes in the welds that I should be able to touch up with the MIG to seal it all up.





I expect I will find some more repairs to do when I go over the body inch by inch but pretty happy with what we have to work with so far.

Got to work on the fuel tank and surrounds today. Tank still had a bit of fuel in it despite it being drained from the bottom of the tank. Interior and exterior look OK - I haven't removed the fuel sender unit yet to see if it is working - next on the agenda to do.

While everything looked pretty good rust wise it didn't take much work with the wire brush to reveal some gremlins at the front of the tank.




The rear looks and feels solid. Some of the holes aren't rust - looks like they have been punched with a nail or something similarr to get water out. Fortunatley both corners appear solid so I think I can cut out the rusted lips and make up a replacements with a bit of work with a hammer and anvil. The small sections around the lip I will cut out one at a time.

After some digging and supprt from Rob I think I have identified the spring setup. The leaves are 2", not metric, in both the six leaf pack and the addtional two. The six leaf pack appears to be an original set from a ute/wagon as they are tapered and rounded and look identical to what is shown in the FE/FC manual.

The addtional two bottom leaves do not taper and have square ends with rounded edges. The pins and bolts holding it all togehter have been replaced with metric ones - potentially by the previous owner who had started the restoration prior to his passing when the ute was put back into the shed for another twenty odd years.

It had been suggested to me that they may be lowering springs that were used instead of blocks. However, when I pulled the leaf pack apart it didn't take much effort on the clamp to pull the leaves in to undo the bolts; so  I don't think that they were performing a lowering function.

My theory from the design was that they were overload springs but none of my internet research privided any leads. I had previously searched the forum but couldn't find any related info but went back and searched the Accessory of the Week thread and I found this reference to Rogers Overload Shock Absorber Leaves.

. You can find the full post here: https://forum.fefcholden.club/index.php?topic=13115.msg78351#msg78351

So it looks like it is a set of standard ute leaf springs that have been "uprated" to constant load springs with the addtion of two overload leaves at the cost of 7 quid back in the day. I have been tossing up the benefit of removing them to lower the unsprung weight and improve her handling v's keeping them as part of her history.

I have decided to clean them up as found, give them a coat of paint for protection and replace the wear pads and bushes and put it back together. My old girl will probably not be carrying anthing more than a picnic table, a couple of fold up chairs, an esky and a couple of bags in her old age, but the overload springs will be an acknowledgement to her working life.

[I don't]

When I pulled the leaf pack apart it didn't take much effort on the clamp to pull the leaves in to undo the bolts; so  think that they are performing a lowering function.

Correcting the previous post in case someone is reading this down the track regarding the springs:

"When I pulled the leaf pack apart it didn't take much effort on the clamp to pull the leaves in to undo the bolts; so I don't think that they are performing a lowering function.

Hey Jolls.
Good to see the Accessory of the week section put to good use.
I also have a set that is only half the accessory spring.
Regards
Alex

Seems my theory was right. I found this reference to Rogers Overload Leaves in the accessory of the week section.

https://forum.fefcholden.club/index.php?topic=13115.msg78351#msg78351

Good that you got the springs out.  I'd be mortally afraid of shattering an angle grinder disc given how little space there is between the spring eyes and the body.

Take a good look at the spring leaves in the six-leaf pack.  The original leaves taper down to a couple of millimetres thick at the ends; and the ends of the leaves are curved.  Aftermarket spring leaves generally don't taper in thickness toward the ends, and the ends are usually chamfered.  And I wouldn't be surprised if aftermarket spring leaves are 50 mm wide instead of 2" (= 50.8 mm).  You'd hardly tell the difference in width.

The rear spring centre bolt is 5/16" UNF originally, but M8 is an almost exact equivalent in diameter.

Rob

The leaves are 2", both the six leaf pack and the addtional two. The six leaf pack appears to be an original set from a ute/wagon as they are tapered and rounded as you would expect.



The addtional two bottom leaves do not taper and have square ends with rounded edges. 

I expect that they are aftermarket overload springs but haven't been able to find anything in my research.

I don't have any history on the ute except that it was from the Dubbo area.

When I pulled the leaf pack apart it didn't take much effort on the clamp to pull the leaves in to undo the bolts; so  think that they are performing a lowering function.