New Product Release
Front Spring Clamp Plate / U-Bolt Eliminator |
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| On any straight axle Ford car at any given car show, a part that you're most likely to find installed is a front clamp plate and 2 U-bolts. That's because there simply aren't a whole lot of ways to hold the spring in the crossmember. With Welder Series' new release of their part #WS15710 front spring clamp kit ( C$23.08, U$20.77 ), there is another way - and it's easy and fun to install. There are no U-bolts, and a total of about ten inches of welding. I'll show you how I installed my kit in the '32 Ford I'm building. |
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| Here is the kit from Welder Series. It comes with all the hardware and a spring spacer plate just in case your spring sits a little bit above the bottom of the crossmember. |
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| Here's what I started with - since I already had a U-bolt kit installed, I just... took it off. No grinding, no cutting, no mess. Just four nuts. Depending on your spring - either multi leaf or mono leaf - you may need to weld the included spacer plate to the main plate before you begin. The objective is to hold the spring tight in the crossmember with the center bolt head protruding through the hole. In some cases (like if you are using a 4-leaf spring) it might be necessary to use more than one spacer plate to hold the spring tight in the crossmember. |
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| You'll notice a small gap between the crossmember and the weld-on tab. For ease of installation, I removed one spring spacer plate from the pack (I'm using a mono leaf spring). This let the tab sit tight with the crossmember. |
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| Here it is with the plate removed and the tab sitting where it's easier to weld. Make sure you have the nut on the center bolt, because you'll want to make sure the hole in the main plate will go around it before you tack the tabs to the crossmember.
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| To make it much stronger, I bent the crossmember tabs up at the ends with a vise and an adjustable wrench.
Notes about stock springs / crossmembers: The u-bolt eliminator kit will work with a stock 1-3/4" wide spring. It will likely be necessary to remove some leave so the clamp plate will be fairly close to the tabs when the bolts are tightened.
Reproduction crossmembers are very close to 2-3/8" where the spring sits in the center (measured front to back) and is flat and solid on the front and rear faces (as shown in these photos). As some stock crossmembers have a lip rolled towards the motor and large holes for the u-bolts to pass through, they would require some trimming and filling to provide the 2-3/8" dimension and a solid mounting surface for the tabs. |
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| Double check that the nut is on the center bolt, and also insert bolts through the tabs so the holes line up before you tack it. When you're finished, there should be a small gap between the main plate and the crossmember tab. This ensures that the main plate is holding the spring tight against the inside of the crossmember.
Looks a little cleaner than the U-bolts, doesn't it? |
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