blew a spring

randas · May 24, 2012

FFS I was just thinking to myself the otherday that I'm just about to roll over 100k on my truck and no problems thus far... Hit some washboard today and the dash lites up the ABS light, traction control light, and a service message. Then I hear the noise in the rear.

Damm middle leaf snapped in the middle, and in its spare time it destroyed the brake line and busted off the wheel sensor!!

$600 out the door for the spring and the sensor has to be ordered...... not too pleased

MikeNH · May 24, 2012

I have never heard of someone breaking a spring- how much weight you put in that truck?

randas · May 24, 2012

Moved a car 100kms with a dolley once and thats it... I keep a few hundred pounds of tools in the toolbox and I've probabally never had more than 500lbs of material in the box

Ill post pics when I switch it out tomorrow

gmtech4 · May 24, 2012

what are ya driving? year ?

brainpause · May 24, 2012

Hard to believe that something wasn't already wrong, or heading that way, before you hit that washboard road.

Larry

randas · May 24, 2012

Its an 07 NBS, If it was cracked before it sure wasn't making any noise

Mckenzie · May 24, 2012

pics?

Chris · May 24, 2012

FFS I was just thinking to myself the otherday that I'm just about to roll over 100k on my truck and no problems thus far... Hit some washboard today and the dash lites up the ABS light, traction control light, and a service message. Then I hear the noise in the rear.
Damm middle leaf snapped in the middle, and in its spare time it destroyed the brake line and busted off the wheel sensor!!

$600 out the door for the spring and the sensor has to be ordered...... not too pleased

Man, that sucks horribly. I had to change out a middle leaf in a pack on a semi. Are you replacing the individual leaf or the whole pack? Maybe just find a salvage yard and get a new leaf pack

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wages999 · May 24, 2012

This is kind of scary. I had a coil spring break on a Taurus, but haven't seen a leaf break and pop out of place. Luckily for me in the Taurus, I was only backing out of a driveway when it snapped, uncoiled, broke the sway bar link, and popped my tire. The Taurus was 37 months old and had 37,000 miles. Ford replaced everything but the tire under the factory warranty even though it was out of warranty because I had it in for front end noises before it happened.

I've actually been considering replacing my springs because they are weak. I have an add a leaf just to bring the rear up to stock height. This makes me want to seriously consider replacing them. There is a local shop near me that does great work. They don't take appointments, so it is first come first served. You basically have to take a day off work and show up before they open to ensure you get in that day.

demech23 · May 24, 2012

"FFS I was just thinking to myself the otherday that I'm just about to roll over 100k on my truck and no problems thus far... Hit some washboard today and the dash lites up the ABS light, traction control light, and a service message. Then I hear the noise in the rear.

Damm middle leaf snapped in the middle, and in its spare time it destroyed the brake line and busted off the wheel sensor!!

$600 out the door for the spring and the sensor has to be ordered...... not too pleased"

That sucks. It's not too uncommon, I've seen a couple of trucks come into the dealership with leaf springs broken just like yours. The leaf seem to snap near or on the center bolt of the leaf pack. The passenger side isn't to hard to replace, however the driver side is more tedious because you have the fuel tank to deal with.

=v8-only= · May 25, 2012

i broke the drivers side leaf spring 2 weeks ago. All it takes is to overload the truck once hit a bump and you will crack the leaf then slowly, slowly it will completely break off, i was lucky and mine did not hit anything.

I got the leaf packs rebuilt and and added a leaf on each side so now i have the main leaf, secondary leaf, third leaf and overload.

scz71864 · May 25, 2012

^pics of the add a leaf?

randas · May 25, 2012

That sucks. It's not too uncommon, I've seen a couple of trucks come into the dealership with leaf springs broken just like yours. The leaf seem to snap near or on the center bolt of the leaf pack. The passenger side isn't to hard to replace, however the driver side is more tedious because you have the fuel tank to deal with.

It was the drivers side of course.... Wish I seen your post before I tackled it, that was a brutal job.

I probabally wasted half an hour scratching my head trying to figure out how to remove the damm thing.. I refused to believe that some dumb*** designed it in shuch a way that you have a drop the fuel tank.. I'm lucky my tank was almost empy since I diddn't realize the tank had to drop till I was past the point of no return.

Well here she is. This is what 48gs gets you.. 99k kms on her, 62k miles

demech23 · May 25, 2012

I started to type out the procedure and the computer went down, sorry I never got back to retyping it out. Make sure you check the torque on all of the fasteners pertaining to the rear suspension parts, especially the u bolts.

Here is the procedure lined out by GM:

1. Support the vechile at curb height when retorquing the leaft spring bolts/nuts.

2. Loosen the shackle joint to the frame, front eye joint to the frame, rear eye to shackle joint and the anchor plate U-bolts.

3. Re-torque the shackle joint to the frame and to the rear eye. Tighten the shackle nut to 95n.m (73lb ft).

4. Re-torque the anchor plate u bolts (in an x pattern from outter rear inward). Tighten the nut to 100n.m (74lb ft)

5. Retorque the front rear spring mounting nut. Tighten the front nut to 200n.m (148 lb ft)

6. Repeat to the passenger side.

kstruckcountry · May 25, 2012

Wow that sucks. I've never seen that around here, and we have all kinds of washboards 600 seems high, but you definitely did the right thing in replacing both springs instead of being cheap and only doIng one.