Rusty OME Springs

[Kanda]

I am rebuilding a '81 FJ40 which came with Old Man Emu springs. They are pretty rusted and my thought was to have a spring shop clean and rebuild them. However, I have learned that these guys are not familiar with OME springs or light duty stuff - they work mainly are large rigs.

What's the best way to get the rust off? Is it advisable to take them apart and rebuild them? Plus would you paint them and if so with what. The OME springs also have little - what look like - teflon spaces/piece between each leaf. They look in decent shape.

Thanks - Fred.

 

[cruiserjunkie]

Fred wire wheel the rust off the springs and paint with industrial paint could also use slip plate to coat between the leaves

 

[KLF]

I have done this twice. It's a thankless, messy, exhausting job, but the only way to do it right is to do it yourself.

Go get your springs, and on the way home get yourself a couple of knotted wire wheels for your angle grinder, a face shield, goggles (yes you want both), and some heavy gloves. Stop at a John Deer dealer and get a quart of SlipPlate paint and a strong brush.

Put a C-clamp on the spring next to the center pin, remove the pin, then slowly open the C-clamp. Pay attention to how the spring is assembled, I recommend doing one spring at a time so you don't get the leaves mixed up, take photos and notes. Carefully pry apart the clamps that hold the leaves in alignment (throw away the old rusty bolts, get new ones). Then carefully pry off the little pads at the ends of the leaves, save, they are important.

Wear a heavy shirt and long pants. Wire wheels in grinders throw little wires at high speed, you don't want to go have one pulled out of you eye or have to yank them out of your skin with pliers. Wear a dust mask. I preferred clamping the leaves in a Workmate as I did them, so they sat still.

Once cleaned up (congrats, you've earned a beer!), slather the leaves with the SlipPlate. It's like painting with mud. Be sure to stir up the can before and during.

Re-assemble. Take your wife and kids out to dinner with the money you saved, they will be tired of listening to the grinder whine and you cursing the sting of those wires.

 

[tucker74]

Pretty much same as above, I used 3M paint and rust abrasive wheels instead of wire (you'll need a bunch). I primed and painted mine, only put the slip plate between the leaves where they contacted. They still look good, much better than the crappy finish they came with -

Tucker

 

[Kanda]

Thanks all for the great tips - looks like a have a few days of grinding and painting ahead of me - cheers.

 

[Kanda]

I collected my springs from the spring guy and he said that they were in pretty bad shape - some rusted areas have started to bubble which he says will weaken the spring. He suggested that if I can by a new spring for around $130 he would recommend doing this instead of trying to clean them up and reinstalling them. In all my years of driving Land Cruisers (in dry parts of Africa) I have never had a spring break - although these are OME springs and I am not used to the this Gulf Coast climate - which rusts any and everything.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[sadam_husain]

I cleaned up a 10 year old set last year with a wire wheel and POR15 and Chassis Cote, they came up pretty tidy and have stayed pretty tidy I live on an exposed coast with a lot of salt, I should have separated the leaves but I had too much going on at the time and had to get them done pretty quick, I get some rust stains leaching out from between the leaves every 3-4 months and just squirt a bit of WD40 or CRC on them to make it go away and they look new again

 

[Kanda]

Update

You were right about wearing all the protection and the process of grinding the springs - the cold beer the the dinner afterwards tasted better than ever. I have made some progress - rear springs have been de-rusted and painted. Now for the front ones......

Thanks again for the advice!