Rebuilding Indian Leaf Spring Forks

[evet]

Anyone care to outline a step-by-step guide for disassembling and re-assembling a leaf spring pack?
In this case for a 1935 Four.
First time rebuilding one of these front ends.
I want to pull the spring pack apart, clean, lube and reassemble without damaging it.
I see a few old threads on this forum where people say "I took my spring pack apart and..."
But they don't describe how to take the spring pack apart and put it back together correctly which leads me to the obvious conclusion: get out the big hammer and beat the crap out of the thing until it flies apart... right?
All advice, tips, tricks, tool choices, cautions, insults, and even photos will be received with much appreciation.

[gharper]

Disassemble the link, rockers, remove the fender etc. Remove the spring by removing the 4 bolts that sandwich the spring between the bottom plate and the fork. Really, all of that disassembly is straight forward. Here is a link to the Spring Fork page of Greers: https://www.jerrygreersengineering.c...936&model_id=3

The spring assembly is held together by one pin, driven through a hole at the rear of each leaf. The pin is driven in, peened over a countersink hole on each end and ground flat for a flat surface. Be sure to take pictures or make notes on the proper assembly before you take it apart. Simply drive the pin out and then all the links will slide out. The spring clip is only attached to one link I believe, no need to remove that, just slide the links apart. Here is a link to Greers site showing the spring assembly: https://www.jerrygreersengineering.c...1936&modelid=3

Now what to do? If I was doing a complete restoration, I would disassemble the spring and clean, then blast all the leaves. You will probably notice the flat surfaces may be rough, that's the scaly surface of the spring links. I would carefully work that down with a flap wheel on a small grinder. Doesn't have to be completely smooth, but get the high spots off. Then paint each leaf. Reassemble with a coating of grease between each leaf, then replace the pin and peen it over, grinding any excess to give a flat surface. Clean the excess grease from the sides and you're good. This will give you a good looking spring, all painted up nicely, smooth, quite spring action and it will not rust between the leaves, for a LONG time anyway.

Greers seems to have all the parts needed to rebuild the front end, pins, bushings, bolts etc, even the pin to hold the leaves together. Replace all the bushings and pins. Fit it dry and be sure there is no binding and the wheel is centered in the fork and sits straight. If not, then it's time to look at the fork and links for straightness, another job for another topic. One thing I've found is the spring link holes are not always the exact same distance between centers. Even the slightest difference will cock the wheel to one side, so they must be the same.

Good luck! Put down your phone and get to the shop!

[bernhardt]

This typically happens during the fit up, before the machine is painted. At the thick end, there is a large rivet pinning the spring leaves together. Carefully drill the flared end of the rivet. Make sure not to enlarge the holes in the leaves or ruin the counter sunk area under the flare, on the outer leaf. Once the flared end is drilled, you can tap the rivet out with a drift. A little heat will help sometimes. It's a good idea to mark with a punch or number dies the leaves, so they go back in the same order. Do this in an area where it will be hidden. Now you can blast or clean them, oil and reassemble. Some people parkerize them also. If you don't want to make one, you can get a new rivet from Greer. Remember - put the leaves back in the same order they came apart!

[evet]

Thanks for the guidance. I'm going to give it a shot and try to document the procedure and maybe post it back here for future reference. We'll see how it goes.

[pisten-bully]

...one benefit to reading forum postings is that doing so reminds me of tasks I need to complete, and this was one of them that I had put way down the list. But here's how I did the job with my six leaf spring pack for the 101 Scout:

With a Dremel I carefully dished out one rivet head (rear of the spring pack) making sure I didn't go too far and hit the taper: (I actually went a bit deeper than what's in the picture)

IMG_0783.jpeg

I then put a lot of penetrating oil around both heads on either end of the rivet, then between the leaves, and pounded on the dished out end of the rivet using a drift. I had to go to a 16 ounce hammer to get the rivet to move but eventually it came out.

IMG_0785.jpeg

I also made sure to mark the leaves:

IMG_0788.jpeg

[jim d]

I think that there was a very thorough article written about this in CAIMAG before it was shutdown. I may have printed it, I will check to see if I can find it.