Thanks Nathan for your help. I haven't had one of those spring assemblies apart so I don't know exactly how it works. If I understand correctly what you are saying that long piece of pipe on the bolt is a bushing and just not a spacer. Does that bushing slide through the hole to the back where you welded the washers? The hole in the washers has to be big enough for that bushing to slide through? You weld the washers to the back side of the piece that hods the spring where the head of the bolt will be? How thick are the washers you use? I am thinking maybe 1/4" or so. We often make our own square washers out of flat stock for projects like that.

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