Replacing girder fork springs into spring holders on 1947 Chief

[larrymgibson]

I thought removing the springs would be the hard part. With suggestions from others with experience, I drove them off the spring holders with a drift punch.

Now I'm putting new springs on and two of the four spring holder ends went on without much trouble. The other two just won't start, or if they start, I can't screw them the rest of the way on. 3 hours trying so far.

Any suggestions?

Thanks - Larry M. Gibson

[pisten-bully]

Have you tried inserting some type of wedge (e.g small screwdriver) at the end of the coil between the spring end and the adjacent coil, just to open it up slightly so that it will thread on more easily?

[larrymgibson]

Have you tried inserting some type of wedge (e.g small screwdriver) at the end of the coil between the spring end and the adjacent coil, just to open it up slightly so that it will thread on more easily?

Thanks. So far I have tried wedging a small screwdriver (as you have suggested), slightly deburring the end of the coil so it doesn't dig in, lubricating the parts and using non slip gloves to twist the spring by hand. I also tried using a pipe wrench on the other end. (Each spring has one end installed).

[larrymgibson]

I finally got the springs installed by doing all that I had done before and all that was suggested and then put on non slip surgical gloves and got enough grip to screw them on by hand.