I am assuming this is a bad thing

[BuckSawLilandtheGoose]

Was washing my truck at the power wash station today. I was cleaning the front suspension and noticed a huge bow in the spring on the passenger side. The other side is perfectly straight. I am assuming my Fabtech spring is bad. But I have no idea as I am not sure what would cause this. Any ideas on what to check if it could be salvaged would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise I'm going to order a set of Teraflex or Rock Krawler springs to replace them. Check out the pictures both passenger and driver side.

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[ScottBeach]

I have never seen that happen but i would have that checked and fast

 

[darkhorse13]

Highly doubt it's spring failure... something looks to have come unseated. Can you a take any additional pics from the front, back or opposing side?

 

[Staphylococcus0]

Almost looks like it's not seated right. Or too long. There's not a rock wedged anywhere is there?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Do those springs require different lower pads that stock? If so, did you use them, or did you use the stock bottom pads under those springs? Some springs require different pads to keep them level because the shape of the bottom coil is different.

EDIT - looking again those don't look like stock pads............ what else what changed? Is the spring properly seated and positioned on their pads?

 

[BuckSawLilandtheGoose]

I will pull the wheel off and take a look and get some better pictures.. It does possibly look from the these pictures that it might be unseated. Gotta finish my burrito bowl for lunch though before I find out.

 

[Agyoung35]

I'd be super super careful messing with that. Springs are dangerous to begin with. I suspect it's even worse at the moment because that for sure doesn't look right.

 

[BuckSawLilandtheGoose]

I will pull the wheel off and take a look and get some better pictures.. It does possibly look from the these pictures that it might be unseated. Gotta finish my burrito bowl for lunch though before I find out.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Almost looks like it's not seated right. Or too long. There's not a rock wedged anywhere is there?

Length gives these lift (along with certain other changes) ain't gonna be too long.
It's just not seated correctly or something isn't sitting flat.

Springs are safe as long as straight - this thing looks to me like it's the shock holding it in place so releasing the compression on it won't be easy because the drop of the axle will be limited by the shock - and releasing the shock could let the spring bow back. Sort of a catch 22.
Springs generally don't bother me - I'd done many full suspension restorations, spring swaps, repairs, etc. on all sorts of vehicles, but this one makes me do a double-take because of how it APPEARS to be supported by the shock.

Otherwise, the only times I've been make wary by springs is years ago dealing with trunnions where the wear was so bad the spring bowed out, or when swapping springs using factory tools, having to release the pressure using a hoist to compress the spring to get the tension off to remove the holders, then putting the new one under the hoist to compress it and put the holders on to get it in the car.
This one - I might think about a bit - but then, I'm only seeing pictures that tell a small part of the story.

 

[BuckSawLilandtheGoose]

Okay here are some more pictures. I put it up on Jack stands and let it droop completely, put on my spring compressors and tried to spin it a little but it didn't budge. I will have to disconnect the shock as mentioned and give it another go.

 

[BuckSawLilandtheGoose]

One thing to add. The gap on the spring pad is only about a quarter of an inch I can't imagine a quarter of an inch would make that much of a difference in the spring load and causing it to bend like that. The top spring pad is perfect. The bottom spring pat is actually straight it's just the spring is slightly crooked.

 

[BuckSawLilandtheGoose]

One other change I did make recently was adding control arm drop brackets. I put them on using the hole that is correct for my lift size so it should theoretically be good to go. There are three settings though so I could try changing that maybe for a shorter height lift.

 

[redfish]

Looks like it is also rubbing your bump stop. I would reseat top and bottom , the top isolators are also thicker on one side than the other , make sure the top isolator nubs are in the stock location holes if using stock isolators.

 

[LostWoods]

Top pic... not seeing a nipple from the upper isolator. Did you clip or replace them because if not it's probably either not in straight or it's going to be wonky from the nub being smashed between the isolator and bucket.

Scratch that... good has no nubs, bad does. That does make me think they're installed differently though but it's backwards from what one would expect. The bow is backwards from what would be expected from a rotated perch too when lifting too high without arms... this is a weird one.

 

[Jeepmonster]

Was washing my truck at the power wash station today. I was cleaning the front suspension and noticed a huge bow in the spring on the passenger side. The other side is perfectly straight. I am assuming my Fabtech spring is bad. But I have no idea as I am not sure what would cause this. Any ideas on what to check if it could be salvaged would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise I'm going to order a set of Teraflex or Rock Krawler springs to replace them. Check out the pictures both passenger and driver side.

Mine isn't bowed quite that much, but I do have a noticeable bow as well (more on the driver's side). I have stock JTR suspension with Teraflex front leveling kit. There are spring correction pads on Amazon (Metalcloak, Daystar, Rough Country, etc.), so the spring bow may be common for both stock and aftermarket springs.

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