I ordered new rear springs for my Valinat from JC Whitney. Since I ordered the 5 leaf springs they were shipped direct from the factory which is John R Spring Company. http://www.johnrspring.com/

Here are pictures of the springs.....





They have 5/8" holes in these bushings instead of 1/2". They are marked "Silentbloc".


They have the zinc liners between the leaves like the originals.




The plastic liners on the ends are a bit shorter than the originals and only have one locating peg instead of two.

I got the same ones about a year ago. I haven't had any problems yet.

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"Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account."

Looks good, Craig. Now double-check and make sure a 5/8 bolt will fit through the bushing. If so, drill out your front spring mounts to accept the larger bolt, install grade 8 bolts of the appropriate length, ny-lok nuts, and use copper based anti-sieze on them when you slide them in. Use it on your shackle bolts, too.

Roger

I already made some plastic bushings to take up the space between the 1/2" bolt and 5/8" hole.

What I need now are some new rubber bushings for the shackle end. Got any ideas? I bought new shackles from JC Whitney some years ago but the rubber bushings with those disintegrated in only a few months. The metal from those is good, as is the metal from the original shackles. I just need some good rubber bushings, got any ideas?

Poly!

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Ohhh boy here we go again.

Actually Poly bushings do work very well in leaf spring applications. I've ahs a set of of poly shackle bushings on my car for over two years and they have'nt gave me a bit of trouble.

Up front in the control arm bushings is where all of the trouble starts with Poly.

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82 D150-225/727
02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed
87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2

What is the part number you ordered for 5-leaf springs? The only springs listed under "Dart" are 4-leaf.

Thanks.

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- Dan in Simi
'74 Dodge Dart Custom

I've had a pair under my red car for 4 years now. Launching on spray really whips the snot out of them, but they have not sagged at all.

I had a set of poly rear bushings laying around from Mopar Performance that I used. I also drilled the front hangers out to 5/8".

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

...wanna cracker? Squawk!

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I put the same springs in our Swinger back in September. So far they work great. I figured if anything did not seem right about them I would send them back. I think the shipping was free at the time, so the price was right. The ride hight was correct, too high for me but correct. I used a set of Mopar shackle bushings that I had stashed. You should be able to get shackle bushings from any good auto parts store or Rockauto. If you like squeaks, binding and road noise get poly bushings. I can only guess that the ones that do not make noise are on really loud cars. I would drill out your hangers for 5/8" bolts. A plastic liner in there will just wear out and it could get loose and start wearing out between the bolt and the bushing sleeve.

I did this as well. When I discovered I needed to do this, I got a little discouraged as I had to go buy a drill that would accept a bit of that size. Just installed my 5 Leafs from Espo and the difference is night and day(especially since the springs on the car were rusted all to hell and the leaves were beginning to seperate, probably original). The Duster handles so much better. Can't wait to rebuild the front now!