I am working on the front suspension of my '68 Sweptline pickup (leaf spring front suspension). I recently had a local drive line shop rebuild and rearch my springs and make up new u-bolts. The old factory u-bolts were flat where they contacted the spring. These new u-bolts are not.

When I installed the new u-bolts, there is a lot of space underneath them. And it looks like they would provide a really bad point load on the spring.

Probably kind of hard to see in this photo, but:

Untitled by chilort, on Flickr

I did not do the rear springs but they are not original. I took a look and there is an extra piece that looks like it would help resolve my issue:


Untitled by chilort, on Flickr

Thoughts?