ANDRA FASTLANE Edition 27 | Page 23

23 fastlane [ 2 ] [ 3 ] When you examine the front of the spring pack on each leaf you’ll find it is heavily forward biased with more leafs in front than in the back, much like the famous Chrysler Super Stock spring. The idea with the forward bias design is to control spring windup, where the front of the spring gets S-shaped under power. [ 4 ] Only one clamp is used at the back of the spring. This too is similar to the arrangement Chrysler used on their Super Stock springs. [ 6 ] AFCO puts a reinforcement under the locating pin. Not all leaf springs have this. [ 8 ] In addition to more leafs, the AFCO leaf spring also incorporates double clamps in the front segment. [ 5 ] AFCO uses Teflon “buttons” between the leafs to reduce friction. There are three buttons in the front segment and two in the rear. [ 7 ] Note the location of the second leaf on the nose of the spring. It ends directly under the eye—just like the ultimate snubber location for a slapper bar. That leaf ends just after the locating pin. [ 9 ] The springs are supplied with an OEM style and diameter rubber front bushing. You’ll want to swap this for a polyurethane bushing for competition use. AFCO does not supply a rear spring eye bushing. You can use an OEM style rubber bushing or polyurethane, it is your choice. The spring eye uses a stock 1.50 inch diameter bushing. [ 10 ] [ 11 ] The leafs are tapered to reduce stress in the spring pack. If you’re tuning these springs, this location at the front of the spring pack might be a good spot for an extra clamp. AFCO builds these springs that are very close to OEM springs dimensionally. The arch is approximately 6 3/8 inches, which put the ride height at stock or very close to stock levels.