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+--- Thread: pinions and spring wrappings (/showthread.php?tid=8682)
RE: pinions and spring wrappings - Parazine - 26-06-2023
I find that the Chummy has a ride like the proverbial ox-cart on dry springs, especially if it hasn't been used for a while. A quick spray over with WD40 fixes the problem in the late winter, when I get the car ready and seems to last for the rest of the year, even though the liquid itself seems to evaporate after a few days.
RE: pinions and spring wrappings - john williams - 27-06-2023
I am amazed at the interest my question has generated.
As an apprentice in the garage in the late 1950s, one of my jobs on certain cars; was to jack up the car, support the chassis on axle stands then lower the jack. We then used a bolster chisel to open the spring leaves and a hacksaw blade to spread grease between the leaves .
Then attending the local Technical College, we were told that the friction between the spring leaves produced a natural "damping action".
RE: pinions and spring wrappings - JohnD - 27-06-2023
![[Image: 134235.jpg]](http://www.7ca.co.uk/134235.jpg){kind=small}
(26-06-2023, 03:39 PM)AustinWood Wrote: Friction between the leaves as they flex has a damping effect. I have always assumed that binding springs with cord was done to increase the damping effect.
Daimler springs were a beautiful pieces of engineering. There is a spacer between each leaf at the fixing point to keep the leaves apart. At the end of each leaf thear is a phosphor bronze 'top hat' section spacer. The 'brim' of the hat is the same thicknes as the spacer at the fixing point. The crown of the hat goes through a hole in the leaf above. It means there is no steel to steel contact between the leaves and each leaf acts independently. Thats what you got for paying £1,500 for a chassis with no bodywork in 1934. That would have bought you several houses!
I noticed the other day that Tony Betts has an Original Ulster front spring forsale with zinc strips between the leafs to prevent wear - i would have thought tho that zinc would have rubbed through fairly quick ?
Link to image i cannt seem to post it:
http://www.7ca.co.uk/134235.jpg
RE: pinions and spring wrappings - Duncan Grimmond - 27-06-2023
Several years ago an Austin 7eer came to me for some zinc, one square piece for one job that escapes my memory and several strips for inserting into his springs. I questioned the latter use but he was certain and as I couldn't argue with his view he went away with them. I don't know if he did fit the strips but he hasn't been back for more.
Off-cuts of 0.7mm sheet zinc available free for postage costs if anyone wants some to experiment with it... cutting to your strip dimensions is extra!
RE: pinions and spring wrappings - Chris Garner - 27-06-2023
The front spring on our Ulster has the zinc inter-leafing. I believe these to be original ( 1931 ) and there appears to be no / little wear.
RE: pinions and spring wrappings - austin - 27-06-2023
As do the rears on the sets of original springs we have.
RE: pinions and spring wrappings - Tony Griffiths - 28-06-2023
Over many years springs will take a 'set' and lose their original camber and need replacing or re-tempering. Will the oiled, greased and bound springs last longer than a set left untouched? If not, might there be no point in messing with them? Are the zinc inter-leaves found only in Ulster springs - and what's our best guess as to their function? Reducing wear? Modifying the damping characteristics of the inter-leaf friction? Improving the ability of the spring to flex? Or something else?
RE: pinions and spring wrappings - Ruairidh Dunford - 28-06-2023
Zinc interleaves were used on front and rear sports springs (normally stamped 9C, from memory) to reduce corrosion, friction and noise.
A set came with the AB Chummy and are now fitted to one of Steve H’s cars.
RE: pinions and spring wrappings - Duncan Grimmond - 28-06-2023
Zinc certainly has a "lubricating" quality (strips laid on a concrete floor make sliding heavy machinery surprisingly easy) but it also is very reactive and I would expect a degree of electrolytic action in contact with steel. This would be likely to damage the zinc rather than the steel...
RE: pinions and spring wrappings - Ruairidh Dunford - 28-06-2023
The leaves are sacrificial and can be replaced, the more expensive, and harder to make, steel lasts longer and remains functional.
Having said that, many of the interleaves I have seen appear to be original and still intact.