[Dieselwrencher]

Originally Posted by BLAZERMAN

The strap and spring stop were part of a recall starting in 1969 due to main leaf springs breaking at the spring eye. It was only necessary on the driver's side due to the draglink being on that side....if a spring were to break the sudden drop would automatically veer you off the road or into oncoming traffic I bought a 1970 K-20 once at an auction and drove it 100 miles home. I even drove it to work and back for a week before finding out my driver's side main leaf was broke right at the eye. The spring was captured at the front by the strap and couldn't come back far enough to come out due to the spring stop. It had done it's job and the truck didn't handle odd or even sag on that side. Starting in 73 they went back to the "military wrap" spring in which the secondary leaf also makes a full wrap at the front leaf eye.

Rob hit it right on the head for the reasoning. 72 was the only year that had them. All the rest were added in the recall and it's pretty rare to see them. I've had and found quite a few 67-71 K trucks and only ever seen 1 added strap recall truck. I knew a guy that had a 71 that had the gm parts for his grandfather's truck that were never put on it. If you put a new style lift spring on the truck you get the military wrap type spring and don't need this strap but it is definitely something cool about these trucks history.

Here is a bad pic of a 72 K20 I got last year. It has the strap on the LH front hanger. I'll get better pics later. The 2nd pic is one on my Longhorn from years back.