I was in Pep Boy's today and I happened to see a set of generic helper springs for $35. I know I really need new springs on the Dart, but I wanted to see how these worked on my most likely stock 4-leafs.

The springs came with U-bolts and hardware. The U-bolts are much longer than they need to be. They don't hit anything but I will probably trim them down anyway. A large rivet is used to select firmness.

Here is a picture of the left one installed (with the car still on jacks):


The car sits a bit higher in the rear with these springs installed with the rivets in the "A" hole ("A" hole being the "medium" stiffness). It's noticeably stiffer on the road. I didn't have a chance to do much driving, but I will report when I have a chance.

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- Dan in Simi
'74 Dodge Dart Custom

man, I had no idea that they still made those things.

I have a set of them on my Dakota. They were originally purchased for a Chevy 4X4 pickup which my daughter had but she sold the truck before we got them installed. I mounted them in front of the axle, the reverse of the usual configuration, in an attempt to control wheel hop. It did help.

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David Kight
'62 Valiant Signet, White
'98 Dodge Dakota
'06 Jeep Liberty

Growing older is unavoidable but growing up is strictly optional.

If anyone else needs a set of these, I have a number of sets that I would love to get out of my shed at a "fire sale" price.
I saw that the sets I have actually have different thicknesses, looks like they offered them at different spring rates!
DD

Well, it turns out that the U-bolts on these helper springs are too wide to use with 205/70R14 tires. I had to remove the helper springs in order to safely mount these tires. The tires in the above picture are 195/75s.

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- Dan in Simi
'74 Dodge Dart Custom

When I worked in a car and truck spring shop in the late '60s, I saw a lot of cars come in with broken main leafs and those "helpers" dangling off them.

We used to call them "spring breakers".

If you look carefully, you will realize that these "helpers" work by trying to bend the main leaf. All the pressure is applied at the two points where the "helper spring" rides - forcing the main leaf to bend around those two points.

You would be much better off adding a leaf right under the main leaf.....a little more work, perhaps, but about the same parts cost.

Oh yeah....while you're at the spring shop picking up two spring leaves, make sure you pick up the correct MOPAR center bolt. It has a longer head on it than the "standard" center bolts you can buy at places like NAPA.

Don't waste your time with a band-ad fix. JC Whitney has brand new leaf springs made by a company called JR Spring in Michigan for very reasonable prices. I replaced a set on a 75 A body for $125 - 5 leafs on both sides. Raised the car up about an inch higher than stock. You can also get them where the car sits level - order with 4 leafs instead of 5.

Yeah, JC Whitney or ESPO.... I spent over $225 having a leaf added and a rearch job on my Volare leafs not counting front bushings, (which by the way I wound up having to get from ESPO anyway) then found out upon ordering the bushings that I coulda had a brand new set, bushings and all, from ESPO for $150!
And no, i didn't have them installed either.. I carried in 2 SETS and told them to use the best pieces from all of them to get me 1 GOOD set, toss the rest, and they could either rob the main from the pair that they didn't redo to cut down for the added leaf, or use their own stock, at their discretion, they were the "experts". As my bare car body's still in the paint shop, the springs are in the attic collecting dust.

my dart has Espo's on it.

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1973 dart swinger

Yeah, I ordered new 5-leafs from Espo last week, they should be arriving this week some time. I'm looking forward to getting the rear bumper off the ground. I ordered eye bolts and shackles while I was at it.

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- Dan in Simi
'74 Dodge Dart Custom