Up a creek without a spring...

[Gordon Raymond]

Like the shoes Terry!
Gordon Raymond

[AlfaDuc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jburning17 I have been checking into this. There is a spring that Centerline sells, but it is for a later car. Centerline Products: HS524 Return Spring for Turn Signal Switch 1965-79 Centerline indicates that it is not the same spring as for the switch: Centerline Products: HS510 Turn Signal Switch Giulietta/101 Giulia however, he doesn't have a switch in stock to measure the differences. Is this the one that you used? Anybody know if it will work? Sure would beat buying a new switch to get the spring! Jon

[user459]

Gordon,

Comfort first! Good thing my wife had already gone to bed and didn't see me in my recliner with car parts perched on my lap!! I never would have heard the end of that.....

Jon,

Package went out today, Priority Mail.

Terry

[alfa soon]

Ok, The spring from Century arrived today. It looks like it can be modified to work. Jon, I'll try and get it in the mail today.

[jburning17]

Ok, so I am finally back to finishing this adventure.

Thanks to Matt (Alfa Soon) for getting me a spring to work with. This is a record of my misadventures with the thing. I am not saying what I did was best. In fact, I am hoping that there is a better way...springs are tough to work with.

Enough of that, eh?

Firstly, this is spring model TO-1029 from Century spring co. It works for the passenger seat spring. To do the driver side spring, you would need the same spring that coils in the opposite direction. I don't have that model number right off hand.

The spring come with the tag ends not quite pointed in the right direction. See the picture below. The tag ends must therefore be bent to the right angle. In effect, you need to make an additional fraction of a coil. To do that I had to do some wrestling with it...

Alright, first I tried prying apart the end coils with a screwdriver so that I could clamp on a couple of vise-grips. The idea was to put several gradual bends in the wire to make the partial coil.

Oh, before I get any further, I figured out that you must make some of the additional coil on each end of the spring. Otherwise, one of the tag ends will not be long enough to make the bends necessary. Just thought that I would throw that in there for those of us who dig in before reading all of the instructions!

Anyway, I can't see how you can get enough grip on the wire to do it this way. One or the other vise-grips will slip, and you will get no bending action.

To be continued...

[jburning17]

I thought about how to hold the spring tight for a while and finally came up with this: I found a deep socket that would fit very tight inside the spring. By tight, I mean that I had to tap it down in there with a hammer.

That worked well, but you must also notice that the spring is expanding, or uncoiling to accomodate the socket. That means that the angle of the tag ends will change from the relaxed position. You cannot bend the angles to the final desired position and then remove the socket expecting the angle to be right afterwards. In the end, you will need to remove the socket a few times as you work the angles a step at a time.

Anyway, with the socket in place, you can manuever it and clamp it down in a vise. With everything steady, it isn't all that hard to bend the tag end. You just sort of wrap it around the socket.

The wire won't stay tight to the socket after releasing it. To over come this, I removed the socket, gripped the spring with a vise grip and CAREFULLY tapped the tag end with a hammer. (Why do I always end up using a hammer?) I bent the wire down to the coil diameter a little at a time. Moving towards the unbend section gradually. I was trying to mimick the rest of the sping as best as I could. Eventually, I had the angles right.

After that, I needed to bend the shapes of the tag ends to match the OEM spring. This was much easier. I marked the bend locations with an ink pen, clamped on with the vise-grips and gave them a bend. In some places a 90-degree bend was needed, and I couldn't quite get the space to do that with the vise-grips. Out came the hammer again, and I tapped it to a right-angle.

With the bends in place, I trimmed the excess with a diagonal cutter. Then I smoothed the cuts with my super cheap immitation dremel tool.

I figured that I had scraped away a bunch of the zinc coating on the spring. So, I cleaned it with carb cleaner and smoothed down any rough spots with fine sandpaper. Then I dunked it in the Eastwood home plating kit. I will include a before plating and after plating picture. I think that the finish either way wouldn't draw attention for not being original.

The spring works, but has just slightly a lighter tension. Not so much that you would notice if you weren't looking for it. So, all in all, it seems like a success.

I hope this helps someone out someday. Even so, be very careful with the plating shop!

Cheers,

Jon

See pictures...

[jburning17]

Somehow I didn't get a picture of how I set up the socket deal. Here it is.

[Gordon Raymond]

Very nice Patrick. Making replacement springs for this and that, I have run into many similar problems. I often end up breaking some of the tougher ones and have to start again. I took a short course from a fellow that engineers springs, and the variables of wire size and hardness was amazing. Then they make coils of this wire and it gets even more complicated. Now I'm pleased when I get one close! Then there is the problem of finding the correct one after going to the trouble of making one. Seems once I get the picture of the real thing in my head, I carry it around, comparing my impression of the thing with every darn spring I see. Gordon Raymond

[GTD]

Quote:

Seems once I get the picture of the real thing in my head, I carry it around, comparing my impression of the thing with every darn spring I see