What Leaf Springs to Run on a CJ5

burrellsjeep

burrellsjeep

Breaking Stuff...
Joined
Nov 19, 2008
Location
Morganton NC
Looking for some advice for a buddy of mine.

He has a 72' CJ5, It has the skinny leaf springs, It stock as of now. He is want to go with as little of lift as he needs to run 35s, He wants to replace the leafs with wider ones.

What kind of leafs, does he need to look for? What works well, Relocating the hangers is not an issue.

Should he SOA or leave it SUA and lift it some other way?

This will be a trail rider and a weekend driver, nothing extreme.

I am not familiar with leafs so, Any help would be great.

Thanks
 
stock yj leaf springs set up SOA will get the 35's on there with good flex, if he is making a good bit of power may have some spring wrap/wheel hop on the rear
 
i dont think he will have a big problem with it then, but if he does go that route make sure he keeps an eye out for it. there are a few companies that offer complete kits to do the swap, he will need springs, shackles, shckale hangers and spring hangers, longer drive shafts, and spring pads where it mounts to the axle( a longer spring pad can help control axle wrap and also gives him the chance of getting an extra couple inches of wheel base which early cj5's desperatly need
 
X2 on stock YJ springs sprung over. If at all possible I would try and lengthen the rear out some. The drive shaft on a Cj-5 is short and doing the spring over will create a huge angle. Lengthening it will help a ton! I would most likely run a CV shaft in the rear to help with vibration issues you most likely experience.
Doing the spring over you will also experience axle wrap. I have seen longer spring perch's, but no experience with how well they work. I do recommend using a traction bar to keep the wrap issue in check.
Doing all this has a snow ball affect.
On the front, if you want better handling on the trail I recommend doing a shackle reversal, but when you do this you need a long slip drive shaft. You can go the cheap route using square tube or PTO shaft get the longer slip, you can also put a limiting strap on your front pinion to help out too, to keep the pinion from rotating down under power, which most often causes drive shaft separation.
Also on the front of it, I would put a steering box support, Seems when you lift a CJ like this, it puts more pressure on the box and you mangle the steering box brackets.
You will also need to install a drop pitman arm, a 4" drop will do what you need. While heading issues off at the pass, upgrade your tie rod and drag link, using stock ones just won't work for long.
On and not sure how aggressive you want to be off road, but I always recommend going out (wider), when you go up(lift). You can achieve this with newer CJ axles(mostly bolt in) wide track, or less back spacing wheels, or wheel spacers.

I am sure I have missed something, but these are my experiences doing this type thing, Feel free to give me a shout if ya need to Mike.
 
if i were doing this i would run 4" yj springs, sprung under and trim as nessesary to keep it low and spring wrap in check. i have a friend that runs this setup with re springs and it goes like stink.
 
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