Today I decided to disassemble the rear spring. I put six large C clamps on it and started unscrewing the center bolt which broke just like the front one did. Lots of pressure on this one, much more than the front. Kept moving the clamps down one leaf at a time until I got them all off except the main leaf. It still had so much strength I had to chain it to the axle to remove the shackle bolts. When I got it apart I realized it had too many leaves and that is why someone had put the u bolt bars on upside down. It had a 10 leaf spring in it for sedans and pickup trucks. Roadsters only used a 7 leaf spring. Tomorrow I will go to Walt's and measure his leaves and remove the three that don't belong. Then I will grind and sand and re paint and grease it before re assembly just like the front one. New shackles and bushings will also be needed. Walt is in the process of locating for me all the missing hand brake bands, levers, linkage etc. He is certainly a great friend and a valuable resource for this restoration.
Next I took the differential apart to see what it needed. Took off the torque tube first which I noticed was missing the speedometer drive gear and housing and all the bearings, bushings and seals for the front of it. Differential gears look ok, one rough tooth on the ring gear and the pinion has slight pitting. Pinion has 9 teeth and the ring gear has 34 which makes it a 3:78 gear ratio differential. Tomorrow I will take it to Walt's and press out the bearing and seals and see what else it needs to make it like new again. Hopefully just bearing and seals and some new gaskets and shims and we can get a good pattern on the gears again. SS
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