Front spring survey

Tim, one of the RHD Cords that was originally sold here is currently under restoration. It has Serial No 812 1600 K
The front spring has two long leaves that can be seen in the attached picture. This particular car must have been subjected to some atrocious roads as the cross member supporting the spring had been badly damaged and strengthened in the past.
Both front wheel hubs had broken and had been repaired to keep the wheels turning. Oddly one hub had been welded on both sides while the other had only been welded on one side. This is the Cord that had also been in a Bush Fire .

Pete, 8 of those springs are in cars. I do collect some lighter items too, most of it rusty metal. I wouldn't mind exchanging some of the rust metal for paper with pictures of presidents.
Jim

Mike
I should probably run a special on cracked wheels!
Pete

Pete
You must have some parts that don't move quickly. I know I do.....like connecting rods or transmission cases. At least the rods don't take up much room.

Jim
If you were looking for something to collect I would have had a few suggestions; probably all lighter that springs!
Pete

Hi Tim,
I have 13 front springs with 2 main leaves and one with three main leaves.
Jim

I have 4 spring sets... 3 of them have only the 2 long leaves. I believe these to be original. One is from a 1936 car (810-2459H) , the other two 1937 cars (812-32402H and 812-310112S). I have a spring with 3 long leaves on 810-2489F. I think this is likely to be a restored spring since there were other front suspension enhancements on this vehicle. If you look at the photo the corners of the first long leaf have been trimmed off differently than on the subsequent two long leaves. My guess is that this additional leaf was added by someone post factory.

My 37 Beverly has 2 long leafs with holes nicely cut thru them. Car serial number of car is 1748 S built in February of 37. It is NOT a renumbered unsold 36 Beverly.


Gary Parsons

My ‘36 Westchester and ‘37 Phaeton have two main leaves.
Bill

My phaeton has 2 main leaves.
Pete

Tim In answer to your questions i went into my Suspension file to find a dialog from Pete Rhoads with Josh Malks in a 3/18/2006 Forum. "How many leaves do you have ? Count the little leaf at the top as a leaf, = 14 in total. Are there 2 main leaves ? ( the ones with the holes in them ) " See also Henry Portz diagram on heights.

Tim attached is a picture I took of my front spring about 14 years ago. The car had arrived from the US in pretty rough condition mechanically and needed a lot of work to get it on the road. The three long leaves all have a smooth round holes at each end. None were roughly cut. The car is a fairly early production Westchester with Serial No 810 - 1586 A.
I have no idea as the originality or when it may have been modified. The car had been in continuous use well up into the 1960s.
To me the ride was pretty firm up front. I had linished the leaves, greased them and wrapped the spring in heavy duty industrial plastic tape.
The spring was within specifications supplied by Henry Portz.
I replaced the saddle with a longer one to spread the load under the front crossmember.

Hello all: I recently had to change out the transverse front spring on my Cord. The one I had used in my car for the last twenty years (and it came with the car) had lost its “memory” and would not hold the proper ride height. It was completely flat, and the long ends were going convex. This spring has two long leaves on the bottom.
My new old spring came from a pile of parts with no known history. It has three long leaves on the bottom. Two of the leaves have nice round holes on each end for the suspension rod. The third leaf has a very rough cut hole for the rods.
Seems as there is no consensus as whether the third spring was added by the factory or by Dallas Winslow. It definitely has brought back the correct ride height.
So., when you have a chance, check to see if you have two or three long leaves at the bottom of your front spring. and respond here. I’d like to get a rough idea about how many threes are out there, and about any comments on factory or non-factory. Thank you!
CORDially, Tim.