Best material for leaf spring silencer pads

[enigma57]

Seems like a small thing, but affects how the springs work and in addition, squeaks are annoying. So thought I'd ask y'alls thoughts.

This is for a driver. Not a show car nor a trailer queen. '57 Chevy 210 with OEM type springs having the indent in the center and the small square pocket near end of leaves to hold silencers in place.

I am rebuilding the springs and will be installing all new bushings and silencers. I have found 3 kinds of silencers so far. First is the old style woven cotton with paraffin......

2nd is an old style made of oilite bronze......





3rd is the modern style made of plastic......

I've looked for teflon silencers as well (seems like they would work well) but so far, have not found any.

Your thoughts?

Harry

[Rick_L]

Either the bronze or the plastic should work well. I would guess the plastic is far cheaper than the bronze.

Teflon is not the right material here. Acetal (Delrin) or UHMW (ultra hight molecular weight polyethylene) are much better. The ones you've found are probably one of them.

[enigma57]

Thanks, Rick! That makes perfect sense. I considered teflon initially, but wasn't sure it would last very long in regular driving. Which is probably why I wasn't able to find any spring silencers made of teflon.

The old style woven fabric silencers impregnated with wax are interesting as well. But they are incredibly expensive and I have the same concerns regarding longevity.

Both the bronze (only set of them I could find) and the plastic were reasonably priced at $14 - $15 a set to do both springs (+ tax) off e-Bay and shipping was free on both. The woven fabric silencers were crazy expensive, though.

So I went ahead and ordered the set of bronze oilite silencers and a set of the plastic reproduction silencers. Will use the bronze oilite silencers when reassembling my springs and keep the plastic silencers as spares.

Went with these for the plastic silencers. They look to be well made reproductions of the original GM silencers, made in Canada......



https://www.ebay.com/itm/333886473213

Thanks for your guidance on this.

Much appreciated,

Harry

[BamaNomad]

I've always used the (white) plastic-like material when I rebuilt leaf springs, mostly because the original trifive springs I disassembled many years ago all had the 'residue' of a white plastic like material in them from the factory. I also lubricated between the springs with a heavy duty grease to help the 'slide action' of the springs, because you really do not want 'friction' between the spring leaves to impact the 'spring' action.

I've never used (or even seen) the oilite bronze bushings, but let us know how they do, Harry... ie. wrt noise, spring action, etc...

[NickP]

Old Fire Hose

[enigma57]

That is an interesting idea, Nick. If they still use the old style woven canvas bonded to rubber type hoses we used aboard ship in the '70s...... That should work well if you can keep the silencers in place. Originals measure 2" wide X 2-1/2" long. Without the raised lump to fit into the depression in the spring end, how do you keep them in place? Do you glue them to one leaf and allow the other side to slide against the leaf above?

Thanks,

Harry

[enigma57]

I've always used the (white) plastic-like material when I rebuilt leaf springs, mostly because the original trifive springs I disassembled many years ago all had the 'residue' of a white plastic like material in them from the factory. I also lubricated between the springs with a heavy duty grease to help the 'slide action' of the springs, because you really do not want 'friction' between the spring leaves to impact the 'spring' action.

I've never used (or even seen) the oilite bronze bushings either, but let us know how they do, Harry... ie. wrt noise, spring action, etc...

Thanks, Gary! That's pretty much what I had in mind. I like to use a heavy black moly bearing grease between the spring leaves.

These are the only bronze oilite silencers I have seen as well. I have 6-leaf 9-passenger station wagon springs de-arched 2" to ride near stock height in my sedan. I should have enough oilite silencers to 'just' do 1 set of springs. Will hang onto the white plastic reproductions as spares. Price was reasonable for both types of silencers (less than $15 to do both springs).

The old style woven cotton type silencers impregnated with paraffin are hard to find and insanely expensive (I've seen them range between $40 and $110 for enough to do 1 set of springs), so I decided to go with the oilite bronze and keep the white plastic repros for future use (for my kids when they inherit the Chevy one day).

I'll let you know how this works out. I've got an extra (new) set of 6-leaf springs here that I had Detroit Eaton make up 20 + years ago as well. But I will probably go with the springs I am rebuilding using original leaves. I have substituted (mix and match) a couple of slightly longer leaves from spare 5-leaf sedan springs to stiffen the front half of the spring to prevent spring wrap up and allow the rear half to do more of the actual dampening...... Similar to the way MOPAR Super Stock springs worked and needed no traction bars. I have done this before and it works very well.

Front springs spec'd for '62 409 wagon with A/C. They are wound of larger diameter wire than '55 - '57 springs and free height is longer, so will cut 2 coils off to get ride height where I want it on the '57. I have done this before with good results. The idea being to stiffen springing whilst dropping the car 1-1/2" to 2" as well.

Depending on where ride height ends up, I may run solid aluminum 1", 1-1/2" or 2" lowering blocks at the rear as well. Did this on my '55 business coupe in the '70s and it handled like a 3,100 lb. go-cart in turns. My '57 will weigh about 300 lbs. more though, so must experiment a bit. Will be running the large dia. RV front anti-sway bar (1.5" tubular) and MOPAR (1.0" solid) cop car rear bar I've scrounged up and will be running 2 shocks at each wheel, as well.

Best regards,

Harry