Quote:
Originally Posted by tsmith455
I was in the process of replacing the leaf spring bushings on my 1969 Trans Am and looked into replacing the entire spring. What's currently on the car is a 3 leaf spring. The springs appear to be original, and still has the spring straps intact. This car did have traction bars on it when I purchased the car. I noticed all of the replacement springs are 4 leaf. Were 3 leaf springs ever installed on these cars? Has anyone ever seen this on other 1969 TA's or Firebirds?
Thank you,
Tom
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Tom, you do have the correct and original springs on your 69 T/A. Do not let anyone convince you otherwise. Every original 69 that I have owned has had this 3 leaf spring. Years ago I even sent an original to Eaton Detroit Spring for them to reproduce. They were clueless! After numerous conversations with them I finally convinced them that a 4 or 5 leaf spring, like the Camaro uses, was NOT the spring used on a 1969 T/A. They supposedly made blueprints of my original spring and told me that they would make them available. After a couple of months I finally got my spring back. I ended up buying the plastic spring spacers and bands from Eaton and just rebuilding my originals.
Years later, I contacted Eaton to purchase a set of the 3 leaf 69 T/A springs, modeled after my original. Upon calling, I got the same line that I had gotten years prior. "Pontiac never used a 3 leaf spring in 1969!" They were so ignorant that I just decided to make my own set by modifying a pair of 79 T/A springs. I keep forgetting to look when I see an original 69 400 Firebird, but, I often wondered if they if they used these 3 leaf springs exclusively on the 69 T/A ???