extended shackles question?

Longer shackles will give you half of additional length of lift. So if you have a set of 2" shackles, they will give you about an inch of lift. They will also adversley effect the stability of the vehicle.
 
GotWood said:
Longer shackles will give you half of additional length of lift. So if you have a set of 2" shackles, they will give you about an inch of lift. They will also adversley effect the stability of the vehicle.
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x2. And they can mess up your pinion angle, but they do flex more.
 
Hard to mess up caster on an XJ by installing extended leaf spring shackles.. ;)

With a 6" lift, I'd bet your shackles may actually be limiting the amount the spring can arch.. OTOH, it may be the stiff-ass lift spring pack that's limiting you, too.
 
what is the shackle angle, when sitting at normal ride height? If it is not pointed in this general direction, it will ride stiff.

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it is slightly angled towards the back but basically it is straight up and down. is there any way to fix that so it is more like the picture? I noticed that you fabbed up a new bracket, can i get some more details on that?
 
I just did an image search to find that pic and have no real experience on xj's, so i can't help with the details. But other than making a bracket to relocate the upper mount, the only thing i can suggest is playing with different length shackles. I bet there are lots of people in your area that could build you a set of brackets for a fair price.
 
ChrisAyers said:
well i have a 4.5" Rusty's leaf spring with a about a 2" or 3" lift shackle and i just noticed that its a LOT stiffer in the rear now since adding the longer shackles
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Did you gorilla-torque the bolts?
 
Yup I see this all the time. You can't tighten the bolts too tight. That's why they have lock nuts. You want to tighten the bolts till they are tight against the shackle don't bend the ears till they start to crush the bushing. Usually the ferrell through the bushing will keep you from over tightening but you never know may be to short.
 
Just a thought but how much shock shaft do you have showing? If you have added a few more inches of lift without using longer shocks theres a chance you're shocks are running fully extended at ride height. It doesn't seem like it but that will make the ride seem very stiff. If you unbolt the lower end of the shock you should have atleast 4 or 5 inches of extension before it extends all the way out. I'd try that and see what happens thats prob your culprit.
 
MarsFab said:
Yup I see this all the time. You can't tighten the bolts too tight. That's why they have lock nuts. You want to tighten the bolts till they are tight against the shackle don't bend the ears till they start to crush the bushing. Usually the ferrell through the bushing will keep you from over tightening but you never know may be to short.
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I've seen it before where that metal bushing through the rubber bushing was too short and did let you tighten the bolts too much, that's why I asked.

x2 on the shocks though..
 
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