Front Leaf Spring Bolt 6" Pair Mustang 1965-1968

We recently introduced you to our '65 Mustang Coupe parked behind me. This is our new project car at CJ's and it's a very nice, original Coupe. We plan on doing some basic maintenance, clean up, safety items, too. We're not going to go crazy with the restoration, because like I said, it's a survivor in very good shape. One area that does need to be addressed, though, is the rear Leaf Springs as they are completely shot on this car. Today we're going to install these Scott Drake Leaf Springs, designed specifically for light duty use, which is perfect for our 6 cylinder car. While we're there, we're going to replace the U-bolts, the front bolts, and instead of replacing the shackles, we're going to rebuild the originals with these new bushings.

This light duty Spring from Scott Drake is going to fit your ‘64-1/2 through ‘66 Mustang. It can be used on a V8 Mustang if you wanted a softer ride. They're really designed for light-duty use, i.e. for the 6 cylinder Mustang, which is perfect for what we're using our car for. Again, we're going to go with new U-bolts because the factory hardware is probably going to be pretty shot once we take it off. Same for the front eye bolts. The shackles, like I said, you could put a whole new shackle on. In our case, we're going to use these Whiteline bushings and try to rebuild our originals. The Whiteline is going to give you a much stronger bushing then the factory rubber, but not having any of the issues of a polyurethane bushing.

For this installation, you're going to need a lift and a pole jack, or a jack and jack stands. A 3/8 or 1/2 inch ratchet or impact gun, 9/16th socket, 11/16th socket, 3/4th socket, swivel, 9/16th wrench, 3/4th wrench, pry bar, large set of channel locks, and safety glasses.

The first step of the installation is to get the car up off the ground and take a look at what you're working at. In the case of our '65, everything appears to be mostly original underneath this car. You want to do is make sure everything's going to come apart. Most of this installation can be handled with normal hand tools. There's one bolt, though, that if you have a problem, is going to require cutting. I'm going to show you that next.

We went through our car and checked all our bolts. Everything loosened up with the exception of the front bolts, which we kind of expected. These are going to be your problem bolt. These are the front eye bolts that go through the front of your Leaf Spring, connected to the chassis of the car. The problem with this is inside this bushing, is a metal sleeve. Over time, the bolt can actually rust to the sleeve and as you turn it, it won't release from the car. In the case of our car, it's actually doing us a favor because I'm going to be able to show you both ways. Our passenger side, the bolt actually will come out, but our driver side, it won't. We're going to show you the process there. You want to do this ahead of time because you want to make sure you have the right tools. If you have basic hand tools and this bolt is seized, you're going to kind of be out of luck for the installation. To get this off, you're going to need a plasma cutter, torch, angle grinder, something sharp that you can get in there and be able to cut the bolt and separate it from the sleeve, to be able to remove it from the chassis.

We're going to start over on the passenger side. This is the side that I know is going to come apart a little bit easier. It shouldn't require cutting like our driver side will. What we're going to do to start is actually just support the axle and then we're going to remove the bolt from the shock to the shock plate. Then, the 4 nuts on the bottom that hold the U-bolts over the rear differential, also to the shock plate itself.

With the rear supported, first thing we're going to do is separate the shock from the shock plate. Next, we're going to remove the nuts on the bottom of our U-bolts that hold the axle to the shock plate, then remove the wheel and tire, as well, to give ourselves more room to work. The Leaf Spring is separated from the rear. Now we're going to move on to the rear shackles, and the nut here from the bottom of the shackle. Now, move on to the top nut. You may have to pry this plate off. In our case, it came right off. Now you want to get somebody to help hold the spring, or support with a jack or pole jack, because now we've got to pry the Leaf Spring and the shackle off the frame rail. Everything's loose, now we're trying to separate at the bottom so we can get it out. Sometimes you can pull down and it will clear, but most times it will get stuck up top. Now we're going to lower it down.

Now we're going to move on to the front bolt. Before we put our new Leaf Spring in, just want to make sure this area up in here is clear of any major debris. There's no rips, tears, nothing that can damage the new bushing. Once it's clean, we can now get ready to install our new Leaf Spring. Going to put a little grease up in here, just to make it go in a little bit easier. Now, I'll put the new Leaf Spring up into place. Good idea to get some help for this part, because these are heavy. It can also be kind of tough to line up. We're using our new bolt and nut, and the original washer. Just get it hand-tight for now.

There's nothing wrong with our original shackles, even the bushing's weren't terrible, but we do want to replace them while we're here. We're installing our new Whiteline bushing. What I'm going to do is start with just the shackle and a single bushing, put this on first and put it up under the chassis of the car. Just a little bit of applied lubricant on here. Put some on the outside to make it easier to get up into the chassis. I'm going to make sure the hole in the frame is also clear of any debris that would damage the bushings, put it up into place. Once again, we're going to grease the outside of the bushing here, install the outer bushing into our Leaf Spring. Okay, now put the Leaf up into place. The same thing with the other 2 bushings. You want to lube them up and slide the 1 on the top side of the frame, and the bottom one on the Leaf Spring itself, and use a big set of lock jaws to pull it together. Do the same thing with the bottom one. Now, you reinstall the plate for the shackle. Install the nuts and tighten them down. You want to tighten these until they get snug and you see the bushing starting to squeeze. You don't want to over crank these, because you can break them pretty easily.

We are about ready to mount the U-bolts to the shock plate now, so what we're going to do is lower the rear down till it's sitting on the Leaf Spring. There's this stud that goes up in there, the hole is pretty large, it's pretty tough to miss. There we go, once it's tucked in and pressure is off, now you can install the U-bolts. Then, pull that into place, make sure it's behind the brake line. Don't go over it. Now, we line everything up. You should get one sort of barely started, just enough to hold in place and then we can work on lining the other.

Okay, with that hand tight, we're going to give you a little preview of our next installation. Obviously, the shock probably should be replaced next, but we're going to leave it on here for now. It'll be the next video we'll probably do on this car. You definitely should not be able to move that so easily. The shock is pretty much here for looks only at this point. All right, I can tighten everything up. The front bolt, we're still going to leave hand tight at this point. You don't want to crank this tight until you have weight on the suspension of the car, or else you can bind-up the bushing and damage it. Now, as we're normally going to say, repeat the process on the other side. In this case, we are going to show you the front how to remove a damaged bolt.

Here's what I mean by a seized bolt. We're over here on the driver side, we have the nut off the outside, we put the gun up, basically it's just spinning. It's not backing off. The first thing you want to do is grab a punch and hammer, see if maybe you get lucky and you can hammer it out. As you can see, it still hasn't budged. Now on to the next step. Now before we get into something requiring cutting, the last step is to try an air hammer or air chisel, put it on the outside of the bolt. Again, see if you can force it through, make it separate from the sleeve. Now, in our case, the air hammer is working. If it didn't, what you'd want to do is put the leaf spring forward, get up as high up in here as you can and plasma cutter, torch, whatever you happen to have that you can get up at this angle and cut it off right here so it sort of falls apart and comes out.

Now the driver side leaf spring is out, the process is the same as the passenger side. Put it back together and your installation is finished. Again, once the car is back on the ground and everything's tightened up, don't forget to tighten up the front eye bolts because you want to do that with the suspension loaded. The Scott Drake Leaf Springs are perfect for our 6 cylinder car. It gave it the exact right height, thanks to the light-duty design, and the car should ride a heck of a lot better, as well. Overall, the installation, it's a 2-3 hour installation. If you have some trouble getting the front bolts out, it could take a little bit longer. Take your time, you'll be back on the road in no time.