rear springs fall out when i jack up van

[jonwol]

hi,
can you get the plates that the rear springs sit on, ( the bit thats welded to the rear trailing arm )?.as on mine the bit the bump stops hits has rotted away and when you jack up the van the springs fall out.

or does anyone know of any quick fix.

i was thinking about welding an old socket on the top of the arm just to keep it in place when jacking the wheel off the ground. as i don't think the m.o.t man would be very happy if a spring fell on him.

1980 Aircooled .

cheers......................

[billy739]

you must have lowered springs i guess? or broken as with standard shocks the springs cant fall out as they should still be tight in the gap!

[jonwol]

yes it does have shorter springs, but the plates they sit on have rotted away so there is nothing to keep them in place. i just wonderd if you can get this part ( looks like they are spot welded on ) or do i have make my own ? as the trailing arms are in very good condition i don't want to change them.

[HarryMann]

A photo might help... ?
Haven't seen any welded on plates other than the original plate welded to the radius arm. If that's rotted then I wouldn't say that the radius arms are in good condition, so lets see what it is thats causing the trouble..

[jonwol]

will take some photos over the next couple of days.

it looks as if water has been sitting around the bottom of the spring and rotted the middle of the plate. the drivers side is the worst when i jacked the van up the spring fell out and the bit that the bump stop hits was stuck inside the spring with rust.

the arms are in good condition theres not even any surface rust on them even the rubbers look like new. all i can think is maybe the last owner done some work on them but did nothing to the plates ( as in put any paint on them ) .

i take it this is not a common problem then, and
if i do need new arms would i be able to find any good ones. and how would i line the rear wheels up again?

[HarryMann]

The tracking settings are around and on Wiki and the Brickyard, don't worry..

but I'm still wondering about those 'plates'

If its the nipple? on the trailing arm thats also rusted that can be dealt with -I've seen one of those go west with rot, but still want to see those spacer plates.