Front shackle inverting?

McCracken

McCracken

Logan Can't See This
Joined
Jul 9, 2005
Location
With your mom at a nice seafood dinner
I had a problem at Windrock awhile back. When I was going down Little Mule I dropped off a ledge. When I did, the axle was forced back and the front shackle inverted. It caused my main leaf to bend at the solid mount. My question is, does anyone have any fixes for this? Possibly with pics? The only thing I can think of is to weld something behind the shackle to keep it from inverting.
 
It's likely your suspension setup, but I'd need to know more about your setup.

YJ? Longer shackles? Lift springs? Did you move the perches anywhere? Pics?

What you've suggested will band-aid the problem, but you're probably going to need to move the shackle hanger mounts closer to the fixed eyelets (so the shackle will "rest" at a more horizontal angle), or run a shorter shackle.
 
4" lift springs. shackle is close to stock (within 1"), I just made them bigger and beefier. I know a guy that the same thing happend to him at Harlan and he bent his main leaf too. I don't know if he runs the same springs as me.

oh, I have a 75 Cherokee with a D60. I believe the leaves are ~54".
 
I think this is a common problem with the shackles in the front. One way to help it is to droop the suspension all the way out. Weld a plate just beyond that point so it can act as a stop to prevent the shackle from inverting. If you ever hit that plate it won't be nice, but your springs should last longer. Or you could do a shackle reversal.
 
I have a little plate welded behind the front shackle to keep this from happening, came that way when I bought it. I've never had the shackle invert and don't have any complaints. Flexes like mad with no issues.
 
bending main leafs is a common issue with front-mounted shackles. The stop that was talked about above will help.

Shackle reversal will fix it, but brings its own set of issues.
 
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