1914 Rear Leaf spring bent

[tgburns55]

Any suggestions for repairing a 1914 rear leaf spring that is bent? How different are the techniques from more modern leaf springs? Thanks

[exeric]

Are those leaves tapered? My '16 Excelsior had a similar spring package on the front fork and each leaf had a tapered thickness. I had 2 broken leaves so I made a fixture to taper them on a milling machine, and had them heat treated by a company that knew what needed to be done. I recall that I used 0-1 tool steel and in addition to tapering the leaves, they also needed to be 'arced'. I winged that part of it, but it was the heat treat that was most important. They didn't break, or bend so we must have got it right.

[Spacke2speed]

The rear Indian leaf springs: The two bottom leaf is not tapered, but all the rest (the top leafs) are tapered springs. If you have extras, the longest tapered leaf in the Indian rear spring used as is, makes good tire irons for changing tires.
It depends on what you mean by “bent”, is it just one or the whole pack, and where it is bent.
In general, I would take both sides to the heat treaters and have both sides annealed. Then the “bent” leaf/pack can be straightened. A fixture would be needed to hold the pack in the shape you want during re-heat-treating.
The reason I say to have both sides, that way both sides with have the same spring rate in them.
If the “bent” is in the curl area, you should check for cracks, as the curl is a common area for breaking the curled leaf, both the front and the rear. That is due from not have the rubber limiters in place on the springs. Both Indian and Excelsior had rubber limiters in their leaf springs. There were aftermarket companies that made rubber limiters also, such as Federal.
Hope this helps you.
Spacke 2speed

[painterdale]

Spacke 2speed,
Did the O.E. rubber limiters have any markings on them? The limiters on the rear of my '17 have raised letter "FEDERAL" on them. These would be aftermarket? They must be very old aftermarket. I don't see markings on the front one. Just curious.
My apologies for the hijack, tgburns55.

Dale

[exeric]

Dale, I had a Federal spring limiter on my Excelsior and it was as old as the motorcycle. Federal made handlebar grips, pedal blocks, and other items. See if you can find an early MECO catalog on ebay. Looking at Excelsior advertising literature; they do not show a rubber limiter. Now I'll have to dig into my old catalogs, and parts books to see if Excelsior, and Indian put those in their spring packs, or it that was an aftermarket item.

[Spacke2speed]

Dear tgburns55 and Dale
A lot of my knowledge comes from an original 1914 Indian I use to have for about 30 years and rode about 1k miles a year on it most of that time. As well as a lot of NOS and original parts, other Hedstrom Indians, and other pre-16 bikes I use to have.

While it may be technical a “hijack”, it still has to do with early Indian leaf springs and can possible help you, soooo,,,, does that count?

On my end, the only experience in making tapered leaf springs was for the Messenger leaf spring seat. We went to a place that made car and truck leaf springs and they gave us the annealed spring material. After machining them down to size, bending them to shape and size, we took them back to the same place and they heat treated them for us. And yes, we cheated, that way there was no guessing what is the correct type of material or which is the correct heat treat process.
I also cheated when I needed to replace the broken front main leaf spring on my 1913 Minneapolis, again, they supplied the material (annealed) and the heat treatment. They also helped in redoing the leaf springs on my Roger sidecar.

When I got my 1913 Minneapolis, the main leaf was broken in the curl, the same goes for a lot of broken Indian leaf springs I have seen. That is why I mentioned the rubber limiters for the springs.
Let’s start out by saying, from my view point, there are two different types of rubber limiters that are used on early Indians. The ones that go between the vertical suspension struts and sit on top of the main leaf spring eye, and the ones that fit inside the curl of the spring. Either type should work to reduce the stress on the curl.

First type:
I have seen two types for the front springs, I have had Indians with one version and Excelsiors with another version.
On the front ones I have had on Indians, the molded rubber limiter bottom surface is curved to fit along the top of the spring eye, and top is also curved the same way. The end is curved to fit the oval insides of the struts, with two wires molded into the ends to also help hold them in place.
The front Excelsior ones were almost the same, only the ends were molded flat. They also have the two wires molded into the ends to hold it in place.
On the rear Indian springs there is a rectangle block of rubber sitting on top of the spring eye, held in place between the struts by steel straps front and back that had two screws and nuts holding the rubber block between the struts.

Second type:
These are what I call after-market-types by Federal and such. They fit inside the spring curl. The ones sold for Indian front spring will have clearance for the front fender tip safety strap. I have early Indians that came with the rear ones held in place inside the curl with old cloth electrical tape.
I am not saying that Indian did not make ones that fits in the curl, it is just that I have never had or know of any known “Indian” ones.
In the past I have had some Federal limiters that were gray and black rubber and fit the front curl of the earlier Indian front springs. The ones I had were old NOS and old use limiters. I still have one that is black rubber with no lettering that fits the later larger Indian front spring curls in my swap meet stuff.

While we are in the subject of early Indian leaf springs, the bar that goes across the top of the front springs holding the struts together on some of my old Indians I use to have was a black rubber tube with a cloth pattern surface on them. I have never had or seen any on the rear springs cross bolt.
While on some of the my old Excelsiors, there was a have a kind of a cloth phenolic tube over the cross bar.

Hope the additional “extra” leaf spring information will also help our friend tgburns55 with his Indian
Spacke2speed

[painterdale]

Eric, always great to hear from you! Found a repro 1917 catalog on Ebay. Hit "buy it now" and it said it was no longer available. The originals are a little salty ($$)! In the pictures, it did show a page with limiters made by Continental. Thanks for the info!

Dale

[painterdale]

Spacke2speed,
Great information! Definitely appreciate your willingness to share your knowledge with us! On the front of mine I have the one inside the spring curl as well as the small one with the wires molded in. On the rear, are the ones in the spring eye and the cross bolt above the springs has what might be a phenolic sleeve over the cross bolt.

Dale

[tgburns55]

The spring was taken to a spring shop here in Phoenix that does many antique equipment springs and it was straightened using a special anvil and cold hammered. It came out beautiful!. Thanks for all the input!

[painterdale]

Great to hear! Again, apologies for the hijack.

Dale