Thread: Broken Spring

As noted in another thread, I have spent most of the day replacing the RH front spring on the 2a. This broke the main leaf on Saturday, and I have replaced it with one from a Series 3 that I am gradually reducing to bits. I may replace the other front one later.

As you can see in the picture, the break is about a foot from the axle, on the top leaf. What you can't see (I'll see if I can get a picture later), is that the break, as can be seen by the rust on the face of the fracture, started as a crack about a quarter of the way in from the edge, and on top of the leaf. It occupied about a third of the width and a maximum of about two thirds of the thickness of the leaf, with the remainder parting with a loud bang as I scrambled up a rough, steep hill on one of the tracks on the property. Close examination shows that the incipient crack was possibly visible, being marked by a halo of rust dust.

It may have been like that for quite a long time. The car has for several months had a bit of a lean to the right, that I had been unable to find a cause for - I was looking for a worn bush.

The cause of the failure will have been some form of stress localiser, either a metal defect, or possibly local damage, although this would be expected at one edge of the leaf, so my guess is a manufacturing defect is most likely. Still, I have been running on that spring for almost twenty-five years, and the army for twenty years before that (of course, they may have replaced it).

John

Originally Posted by Jordan

Curious - did the second spring's safety loops prevent anything more serious?

Jordan

Yes, the only effect of the breakage on driving was that it was noisy and a bit more of a lean.

John