Broken Leaf Spring Pack...

Last Saturday, I had a flat tire. Ok, so I put on the replacement tire. While lowering the spare tire, I noticed that one side of my truck had some broken leaf springs and the pack was turned almost sideways, about an inch from my tire (the non-flat side).

So I brought it in to our Old guy Mech who wanted me to replace both spring packs of the truck, four ubolts and four end bolts. He also wouldn't let me drive the truck home that night.

I have to drive my wife's Jimmy around. I can't wait for my truck to be finished. It's been two days now. Something about working on the paying customers first. I asked the Old guy Mech if he could install some blocks in there or something for me while he was in there, he just laughed at me and said, 'young punk'.

$578(parts) later, my truck rides higher, and smoother over the washboard of our local gravel roads.






More pics here;
http://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/forum/album.php?albumid=745

Wow. That is nasty looking!
It's a good thing nothing bad came out of it. Besides putting a huge dent in your wallet, of course...
When I was going to lower mine, I found one of my springs out of the whole pack was broken, but nothing like that. That's bad.

wow i went through the same thing 2 weeks ago. i bought used springs for 50 bucks placed my 3 helper spring inside them . new eye bolts for a buck and a used helper spring for 20 bucks total 71 bucks!!!! ps when the springs break its from loose u bolts.

MUDDER TRUCKER said:

wow i went through the same thing 2 weeks ago. i bought used springs for 50 bucks placed my 3 helper spring inside them . new eye bolts for a buck and a used helper spring for 20 bucks total 71 bucks!!!! ps when the springs break its from loose u bolts.

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Ya, my Mech won't let me go used. Almost never used. Even my replacement motor was a new 0km crate motor. Besides I gained a 1"-2" 'lift' by replacing the springs. After 11 years they were sagging so bad, the back end was lower than the front end! Now it looks good!

BEFORE:



Yay! Your the first guy to tell me that the breakage wasn't caused by excessive speed over the spring mud/gravel/whourfrost roads. My dad, the mechs, my boss, my customers, everyone was telling me that the only way to break three leafs was speed. I tell them I slow down to 40kms over the mudholes, and 70-80kms over the washboard. Now I'm going to go back in the morning and tell them it was loose ubolts! Perfect! Thank-you.

---------- Post added at 10:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:50 PM ----------

chaser0517 said:

Wow. That is nasty looking!
It's a good thing nothing bad came out of it. Besides putting a huge dent in your wallet, of course...
When I was going to lower mine, I found one of my springs out of the whole pack was broken, but nothing like that. That's bad.

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According to our Old guy Mech. It was bad. I asked him what would have happened if I didn't get the flat tire, and didn't notice the spring pack sticking out sideways? He said that one day while driving at 120kms to work in the morning, the spring pack would have made contact with the rubber tire, causing the tire to be instantly shredded, causing the rim to drop to the ground, causing the remaining main spring to shatter, causing the rear axle to swing sideways(possibly ejecting from truck), causing the truck to cross over 4 lanes of oncomming traffic into a rock cut, all before I could think, 'wtf?'. Ya, apparently it was bad... but me thinks he was exaggerating. Anyways, I'm glad I spotted it before something did happen.

it looks good!

wow, you never noticed that? Good thing you did catch that though before....

Was searching and came across your post. I'm replacing the rear leaf springs on my 98 4dr Yukon.
I have a question if you don't mind.

On the driver's side the gas tank seems in the way to get the bolt out. The the nut is on the outside of the frame and I would need to knock the bolt through the frame. Did they have to drop the tank when they did yours?

I was able to get everything loose, but the bolt through the frame is giving me problem.

One_man72 said:

Was searching and came across your post. I'm replacing the rear leaf springs on my 98 4dr Yukon.
I have a question if you don't mind.

On the driver's side the gas tank seems in the way to get the bolt out. The the nut is on the outside of the frame and I would need to knock the bolt through the frame. Did they have to drop the tank when they did yours?

I was able to get everything loose, but the bolt through the frame is giving me problem.

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I couldn't tell you, so I called the apprentice to see how he did it.
He said yes, he did have to lower the gas tank to clear the bolt.
He already had the truck on the hoist, then he used the transmission jack(it's the one with a large flat surface) to lower the tank just enough to clear the bolt.

BTW, when I told him that a fellow member of this forum had asked about it, he mentioned for me to gently remind you that if you havn't done so already, please Purchase new end-bolts and u-bolts when replacing the rear leaf packs.


Hope this helps you!

Hey, thanks for the info. I was able to get both leaf springs / shackles off and replaced today. What an ordeal. All day trying to get the front two bolts off the leaf springs. They were a bit seized.
I needed to drop the tank, supported it with two jacks and was able to get it lowered enough.

As for the u-bolts I did buy new ones, used the same nuts.
I didn't replace any other bolts though. Witch "end-bolts" was he referring to.

Wow, you are very lucky. This could have turned into a terrible situation, especially at speeds. Thank g-d for the flat tire.
You should also thank your mechanic for not letting you take it home to.
That is good advise from your mechanic, you never want to use used u-bolts. They can and have been the reason for accidents like this. I would replace any suspension parts with new, especially u-bolts and nuts. Why would you want to put used nuts on new bolts, they could strip or damage the threads and cause the same damage somewhere down the line.
I'm pretty sure the bolts his mechanic was talking about was the ones that attach the leaf to the hangers.
Glad everything turned out on a good note. Granted your wallets a little lighter bu you can travel safe and in comfort now

What kind/brand leafs did you get?
I had recently replaced mine and they didnt give me much of a lift for a new HD leaf spring.

Yes, he was calling the main leaf bolts end bolts.

Good news, the stickers are still on the main leaf, so I cleaned off the mud a bit and took a photo with the cell phone.


I tried to do a quick google search of the part numbers, etc, but came up empty.

And you right, I do feel better that both packs have been replaced. they should last the rest of the life-time of this truck.

And finally, I didn't know that you could buy u-bolts without the nuts, I thought it came as a package... In any event, they are cheap and should be replaced.

Thanks for the info, found it. Here ya go.
http://www.standens.com/

I wish I new of this place, the replacement ones I got are pretty nice but yours look a lot better.

Hows the ride so far?

Hehe, I didn't realize that there may be different kinds.... there is a local company in town called 'Regional Spring' They mostly do heavy duty commercial trucks, but they also sell to pickups, etc on the side. I just gave my year make model and asked for two replacement spring packs. This is what I got.

As for the ride? I like them.. coupled with the Monroe Reflex shocks, I hardly get the tail end bounce sideways going over washboard. I can do 80kph on WB without my teeth rattling, so it's good I guess.

hey 99Yuk, could you do me a favor and measure from the ground up to the bottom of the fender on your Yukon now that you have new spring packs on? Take the measurement through the center of the rear wheels if you don't mind.

I think my springs are sagging, but I need a point of reference to see just how much they are sagging, if any. I appreciate the heklp.

EastTXYukon said:

hey 99Yuk, could you do me a favor and measure from the ground up to the bottom of the fender on your Yukon now that you have new spring packs on? Take the measurement through the center of the rear wheels if you don't mind.

I think my springs are sagging, but I need a point of reference to see just how much they are sagging, if any. I appreciate the heklp.

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Sure, no worries. I measured 35" from ground to the chrome lip on the fender on both sides, center of the wheels. I'm on my winter tires and rims, which are stock 16" rims wrapped in winterforce 245/75/16, which I believe is bone stock. Hope that helps.

Now I'm curious, what should the fronts be? I also measured 35" at the fronts too. but I keep reading about the fronts supposed to be lower? Hence the need to crank the front to level the truck? So what is the stock height on the fronts supposed to be?

I got a question I'm doing the same thing and replacing the leaf spring on the driver side. If dropping the gas tank is necessary dI'd u have to remove the connecting hoses and the harness and completely remove the rank or just lower it enough to remove the bolt

it is best to remove it and while it is down clean it up.it is possible that if you try to support it and the support fails you run the risk of damaging a connection and risk fuel spillage. BTW never just replace one spring pack always do both.

SunlitComet said:

it is best to remove it and while it is down clean it up.it is possible that if you try to support it and the support fails you run the risk of damaging a connection and risk fuel spillage. BTW never just replace one spring pack always do both.

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Thanks for the info. I wish I could change both springs but can't really afford both right now. Thinking of just putting the one and then the other on the next paycheck or just taking out the caprice til I fix the tahoe.

if paycheck is in a few weeks then good as long as you don't get it aligned till after both are in and you don't wait a long time to get the second on.