My new (to me, anyway!) IIa 88 has Rocky Mountain parabolic springs all round. Each has a thick coating of grime and what I hope is surface rust.
How best to clean, lubricate and protect them?
With ordinary springs I'd have wire brushed them, painted with Smoothrite and lubricated with a 50/50 mix of petrol and old engine oil. Anything there that shouldn't be done with parabolics?
Thats pretty much what i did with my 'bollics. I doubt a bit of surface rust hurts em anyhow!
Any parabolics I have seen are designed for the leaves to touch only at the end, where there is often a nylon block to do the rubbing. Consequently the need for lubrication is much reduced compared to conventional springs, but the need for rust protection is still there, although even that is less because the leaves are thicker (and hence can lose a bit of metal with less effect) and the space between them is usually wide enough to dry out, although if it is full of muck I would be inclined to disassemble the spring, clean the leaves to bare metal and paint. JD
On or around Thu, 14 Sep 2006 13:02:03 +1000, JD enlightened us thusly:
I think rocky mountains have steel-steel contact points - in which case it's worth greasing 'em - you can spring 'em apart a bit and squirt spraygrease into the gap.
Some of them aren't designed to dismantle, and some are. there are normally clips on the spring leaves which hold them together, and these are either bent round the spring or have a bolt. No prize for guessing which kind come apart readily.
being as they have gaps in the leaves, pressure-washer should get the crud out.
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