I have a 2003 2 door 4WD stock Blazer. I see in Rock Auto/ and other parts catalogs a listing for rear leaf spring isolators or cushions. They look like a flat mushroom with a stem to insert and retain in a hole in the spring leaf. It is not clear how many you need for the two rear leaf springs or whether they will fit on my SUV. I have done several searchs and get very sketchy info. The rear springs are sagging, but not to the extent that they need replacing, just a refresh.
Any suggestions on where to find them, part no.s , and best deal. How hard are they to install? What is the proper name for them?

 

Here's a Rock Auto cat. /Dorman product . Rock calls it an insulator. Dorman calls it an insert. It is a 2.5 " round disc with a center nub to locate it on the leaf.
https://www.rockauto.com/catalog/mor...nid=512&jpid=1

 

Just wondering if you put these in? I'm looking at replacing mine
and can't find any info for installing. Anyone changed these?

 

No, I haven't yet. I haven't bought them either. The rear springs on my '03 are starting to lose their arch. I don't want to go to the time, expense and effort to replace them, so I want a cheap and easy alternative. Just a refresh! I was hoping this would be the answer. Anyone out there know if this is a worthwhile project? Anyone done this and recommend it or not recommend it? I haven't tried separating the spring leaves so have no idea how to do it. Please let us hear from you. Thanks, Jim

 

Those won't help sagging at all.

Those discs are to replace the isolators/cushions in your stock springs. If you look closely at your springs, you'll see them sandwiched between the leaves, near the ends. You'll see the holes they set in at the end of each leave. When they get old, they sometimes crack and fall apart and fall out. When that happens, your springs will rattle loudly when you drive over bumps. Those are replacements to fix the rattle issue.

They also provide a bit of "slipperiness" between the leaves, reducing the stiffness a bit and letting things bounce and slide.

 

So I had the Blazer jacked up today and took a closer look.
From my brief examination this looks doable.
Went ahead and ordered some insulators from RockAuto
and I'll give it a try in a weak or so.

Here's what one of mine look like, pretty much done I think its
safe to say.


I'm hoping replacing these gets rid of my annoying sqeaking
I'll let you guys know

 

Trelane and others, let me know how the R & R went. What did you do to get them out, how hard was it, how much did you pay for the cushions. Dorman cushions from Rock Auto are 4 for 4.94 plus shipping is a deal if I am reading that right. Did it stop the squeak, improve the ride, and so on. I saw a S10 pick up on a lift with the diff. hanging free. It appeared that those leaf springs separate and would be easy to get the cushions out and replace? Correct?

 

Did this the other day.
I ordered the ones from dorman, came with 4 in a box, but
it looks like you only need 3 ???. I didn't take the tires off
so maybe I missed one but all I saw was 3.
Here's what they look like..

Not sure what the notch is for? I couldn't find any install
info on doing these things so I don't know if the notched side
should be orientated a certain way or not.

 

Trelane, normally there's one at each end of each load leaf/free leaf. The top leaf with the eyes doesn't have any cushions.

They come in packs of 4 because 4 does one leaf, front and back x 2 sides.

Our trucks aren't completely "normal" because the bottom leaf usually has only one cushion at the front. There are three of these cushions per side on my Oldsmo-Blazer.

How is the rubber in the clamp between the eye leaf and the upper load leaf?

 

How hard was it to install? Did you jack the SUV up at the frame so the rear axle would sag? Did you have to pry the springs apart and get the old ones out? IOW a step by step would be nice.


Once you did this, did you notice a diff. in the ride: less noise, less squeaking, ?