Unfortunately my original leaf springs were beyond repair. Starting life in SJ with a DSO of SJ and remaining in Nor Cal for 9 years, the following 4 years in Detroit had its toll. Even using the bottom leaf was not viable once I noticed the hair line crack that was confirmed when the center bolt was removed. So I'll document the journey here for others that might find themselves in a similar state. I work a mile away from Eaton so was able to visit their shop (pictures later). Since they make spring sets in groups, mine were sitting on a shelf. They paint them to prevent rust. I paid an extra $75 to have them disassembled and shot peened to remove the paint. They put the clamps and rubber pieces in a box for me, since I requested to take the springs disassembled. A few days later I applied gun blue based on a process found in the library section of this website (thanks, Jeff). The spring clamps that Eaton provided were nearly identical to the ones I procured from Jim Cowles. Dimensions on a future post. The rubber spacers associated with the spring clamps were the only thing that would be visibly different (to a trained eye), and I'll provide dimensions and pictures of that also.
For detail, let's talk about the main spring components. The three longer spring components are actually visibly identical. Nothing jumps out as being different. Later on I'll measure thickness and width, but don't expect any real issues based on my eyes.
That is not the case, however, with the bottom leaf. There are, from my observations, three differences to note.
1. There is no part number or date stamp. I guess that should be expected. I'm on my own if I want that detail. Picture #1.
2. The ends of the spring are squared off compared to my originals that are rounded. See picture #2. I'll be looking into fixing this.
3. One end of the original spring has a "bump", whereas the reproduction does not. It looks like the bump is there to prevent the clamp from sliding off. I'm going to talk to Mike of Eaton about what he can do for this. On picture #3 on the left are the bottom leaf (new/old), and to the right are the next leaf up (old/new). Note that the "bump" on the bottom leaf has a much different profile than the center two leafs (leaves?) I suppose one could say that looking at the bumps on the center leafs there is a visible different in profile there as well. The reproductions are more rounded. Dimensions and details later.
Also let me put a plug in requesting anyone that might have C7ZZ-5556-AE paint stripe colors to share that. My colors were long gone. According to Eaton the colors are not listed on the original spring drawings, but I'm going to try to get a look at the drawing myself.
More to come.
