97 broken rear spring hanger or shackle
#1
97 broken rear spring hanger or shackle
This past weekend heard a loud bang from the rear of my 97 f150 xlt flareside with only 78,000 miles and never hauled anything heavier than a few bags of mulch. After getting home discovered the passenger side rear leaf spring rear hanger had broken away from the flange that's rivoted to the frame. So now the spring is resting up against the underside of the bed. Closer examination shows the hanger failed due to corrosion, plus the metal it was made from must have been pretty thin compared to the mounting flange it was attached to. This will be second go around with leaf springs on this truck now. In 2003 both leaf springs broke for no apparent reason. As I said this truck has never been worked like a truck or even close to being overloaded. When this happened of course the truck was out of warranty. However I went to the dealer anyway where I bought to plead my case in hope they would at least offer a good faith adjustment towards the 1500.00 repair bill they quoted. However they just reiterated there was nothing they could do and that they never heard of the problem before and that sometimes underloading the springs can damage them as well. Can't repeat in this forum what my response was to that. Wound up getting the springs replaced on my own to the tune of 500 bucks. Has anyone ever had this problem happen to them? If so how much did it set you back to repair? I'm planning on trading this truck in soon as I can before other stuff starts breaking. However I just started a new job and need to wait a bit first to catch up financially. It's been well taken care of and really hasn't cost me much given it's age. However I know 97 wasn't a good year for this truck.
#2
Resident A-hole
This past weekend heard a loud bang from the rear of my 97 f150 xlt flareside with only 78,000 miles and never hauled anything heavier than a few bags of mulch. After getting home discovered the passenger side rear leaf spring rear hanger had broken away from the flange that's rivoted to the frame. So now the spring is resting up against the underside of the bed. Closer examination shows the hanger failed due to corrosion, plus the metal it was made from must have been pretty thin compared to the mounting flange it was attached to. This will be second go around with leaf springs on this truck now. In 2003 both leaf springs broke for no apparent reason. As I said this truck has never been worked like a truck or even close to being overloaded. When this happened of course the truck was out of warranty. However I went to the dealer anyway where I bought to plead my case in hope they would at least offer a good faith adjustment towards the 1500.00 repair bill they quoted. However they just reiterated there was nothing they could do and that they never heard of the problem before and that sometimes underloading the springs can damage them as well. Can't repeat in this forum what my response was to that. Wound up getting the springs replaced on my own to the tune of 500 bucks. Has anyone ever had this problem happen to them? If so how much did it set you back to repair? I'm planning on trading this truck in soon as I can before other stuff starts breaking. However I just started a new job and need to wait a bit first to catch up financially. It's been well taken care of and really hasn't cost me much given it's age. However I know 97 wasn't a good year for this truck.