The leaf springs on the Daily 4×4 float around a little (by design). There are U-brackets at either end of the front leaf springs to keep them all aligned. The problem is that you can get quite an annoying squeak from the springs rubbing on these U-brackets. I therefore tried to find a solution to the squeaky leaf springs. As I am in Africa at present (Uganda), good DIY stores are hard to find; however I found a nylon kitchen chopping board which provided me with the basic material I needed. From the chopping board I cut out 4 blocks 85 mm by 50 mm, drilled a 13mm hole at one end and cut a 20 mm deep 30 mm wide slot in the other end. I then carefully cut the blocks in half, so I now had 8 blocks, each about 2 mm thick (see photo below).

Then, I fitted them either side of the squeaky leaf springs and secured them with the bolt through the 13 mm hole (the bolt actually goes through a spacing tube which goes through the 13 mm hole), see photo below.

I have now driven around 300 km with them fitted (some off-road; some pot-holed roads; and a little smooth tar). The front squeaky leaf springs noise has gone and the blocks have not fallen out (yet!). So now its time to tackle the rear leafs.

The forward end of each rear leaf-spring is held in place in the same way as on the front leafs, except they are held closer together and there appears to be less movement, so I do not intend to do anything here. The back-end of the rear springs however, has a lot more movement – very squeaky leaf springs.

Unfortunately the rear springs have no convenient bolt to hold the nylon blocks in place, so I have had to change the design slightly from the one described above for the front springs. For the rear springs, I cut out two blocks each 100 mm x 145 mm, then cut a slot 35 mm x 35 mm in the middle of one end and drilled 2 x 8mm holes either side of the slot. I then cut the blocks in half to produce 4 blocks, each approximately 2 mm thick. I then used a small blow torch to heat the nylon, allowing me to put a small bend in the end. This should help the block stay in place during maximum suspension travel, see photo below:-

Luckily I always carry some lengths of threaded rod and nuts to make emergency repairs, which came in handy here. To hold each pair of blocks in place against the springs, I used 2 lengths of M8 rod – see photo below (you can also see the bend that I put at the top of the blocks):-

This is very much not an ideal solution; a thicker block with a groove machined into the back of it so that it fits around the vertical metal bar would be much better. But working with what I have with me on the road this is dealing with the squeaky leaf springs… at least for now.

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