[chris malish]

Replacing the leaf springs on my '68 with some new ones from Eaton/Detroit Spring. Chose some new polyurethane bushings. Supposed to be stock replacement....

Problem: realizing after the fact that new bushings have much less shoulder than old rubber ones. Maybe the rubber ones were not stock?? Now the old shackles have a gap between the shackle plate and the rubber shoulder of the bushings once the shackle plate hits the shoulder of the carriage shoulder bolt, at both top and bottom of the rear of each spring.

No idea if this is a wrong shackle kit or a wrong bushings, but the new bushings fit the frame rails (and would be hard to get back out now).

Question: Is it a bad idea/what could go wrong if I used some big fender washers to shim the gaps between the bushings and the shackle plates?

Is it a bad idea/what could go wrong if I drilled the holes in the shackle plates bigger to allow shoulder bolts to go through shackle plates instead of arresting once hitting the shackle plates?

Any other recommended solutions?

I appreciate that this would be a lot easier to understand with pictures but everything is up under the car and pictures are hard to get under the circumstances....

thanks,

Chris

[4dblnkldude]

Pics would help yes. I have done this 3x the last two years. I have never had to put a washer in there. The bushings should go in the frame rail pretty easy. A couple things I know for sure, it is difficult to get the nut started on the shackle bolt, you really need to squeeze and I tighten them until about 1/4" of the bolt is thru the nut.

[4dblnkldude]

Be sure to anti sieze them you will have squeaks if you don't. The difference in shoulder is almost 3/8" per bushing.

[chris malish]

Looks like my 1st gen was previously fitted with shackle bushings and bolts from a 2nd gen. The second gen bushings (and thus bolts) are longer.... Solution is to buy at least new bolts for 1st gen.