Heavy Duty Rear Spring Install On a Club Car Gas Golf Cart

simmers24

New Member
Bought a Heavy Duty 4 leaf rear spring kit for my 2001 gas Club Car golf cart. The heavy duty springs came with all the bushings and spacers and new u bolts. How hard is the install?
 

HotRodCarts

Cartaholic
Its not to bad. Jack the cart up and put jack stands under the frame in front of the rear end. You'll need your jack to hold the rear end. Do one side at a time. Just make sure you get the springs center bolts in the holes in the spring perches. You might want to spray penetrating oil on the u-bolt threads and the front and rear mount bolts. After you use the cart a few times re-tighten the u-bolts...
 

simmers24

New Member
Put my springs on this past weekend,could have given me a heads up on getting the bolts out of the old springs on the inner mounts.Ended up cutting them off with a sawsall and replacing the bolts!The front was simple only took about 5 minutes,the rear took about 2 hours,what a pain!
 

apollo610

New Member
Give me some more details, I am going to install them on my 01 gas CC too. I bought them 2 or 3 months ago but was waiting until the weather was to crappy to ride before I tore it down.
Adding a 6" spindle lift as well. Cart is stock now I have a 6" lift, 22" tires and nice 10 inch aluminum wheels for it plus the HD leafs.
 

clubcar05

New Member
I had to drill my bolts outs I will let the pics do the talkin'

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JRay

Cartaholic
Hey thats cheating, :rotflmao: anyone can change springs like that. You miss all the fun of laying on the floor and getting all dirty.
 

apollo610

New Member
Has anybody installed these without any trouble?? I assumed it was a fairly easy job. Drop the U-bolts out unbolt the leafs bolt in the new leafs and install the U-bolts. I will be doing my 6 inch spindle lift at the same time so I will be adding spacer blocks and new U-bolts.
Any other advise would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
 

HotRodCarts

Cartaholic
Normally they're not bad. If the battery trays are corroded the bolts can be seized. Spraying penetrating oil on the bolts a few times before you start will make them easier to get out sometimes.
 

simmers24

New Member
My cart is also a 01 club,its in excellent condition and I did spray the bolts several times for a week or so to loosen things up.It did make all the nuts come loose with no effort but did nothing as far as removing the bolt from the bushings and spacers.The rear bolts I drove out with a punch with some effort,the inner one's you can't get to to drive them out,you have to pull them out with a pair of vise grips.The only thing is the bolts are about the same size as the spacers,i had to hammer the new one's in once it all came apart.The vise grips slipped sevarel times leaving my knuckles bleeding everywhere,that's when the sawsall came into play.If your going to tackle this job I would have some new blades and saw near by.You may also want to stop by the local hardware store and get a pair of new bolts and nuts,I replaced all four bolts and nuts on mine but thats up to you,the way I've been doing it with my cart is if a old bolt comes out a new one goes in.The front HD spring kit I put on took a total of 6 minutes from start to finish,but the rear was a challenge.
 

apollo610

New Member
Thank you,
I got my rear HD springs on and my spacer blocks for my spindle lift.
I didnt have a lot of trouble getting my bolts out although they were corroded pretty bad. I sprayed them 2 times with PB Blaster before starting and the nuts came right loose and the bolts I was able to tap on the drivers side one with the side of a hammer to get it started and then pulled it with vice grips with little effort. The passanger side there is no room to tap on it from behind so I clamped onto it with the vice grips and hit them with the hammer. Worked pretty well, a lot more effort in getting this one out. The back two were fairly easy as there is plenty of room to work back there.
Installing the lift and the springs was definately a 2 man job. I had to do both sides together in order to drop the axle enough to put the springs on top. So I was holding the rear of the cart up while a friend put the leaf and block in. Everything went together other than the shock mount on the drivers side does not hit the intended mounting hole. Not sure why this is, I made a bracket to fit it so that I dont have to modify my throttle cable.
I will hopefully get the front done this coming weekend.
Total time, about 4 hours probably start to finish on the back.
 
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