So, I know that these leafs are obviously messed up; I bought the Jeep that way.

I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with them, and what's the best way to go about fixing them. This XJ is lifted about 3-3.5", but I have no idea whether this is some kind of add-a-leaf pack, or a bastard pack.

Anyway, here's what's going on. It looks like the main leafs are bent, but I can't tell if they're messed up, or if all the rest of the leafs are messed up. I *think* the mains are flattened out somewhat more than they should be. All of these pics are passenger side, but the driver's side is similar:






Obviously, the ride is horrible. It's rough and bouncy in the rear at the same time. I just installed new extended Skyjacker shocks with BPEs, and that helped quite a bit, but it's still kinda bad. I think it has to do (at least somewhat) with the fact that it still has stock shackles, and I think that they're hitting the body, as seen here:


So, to fix this, I'm considering trying to pick up 2 entire XJ leaf packs from the junkyard, and doing a mix and match to try and get them all lined up correctly, as well as replacing the mains with JY mains. Do you think that this, along with extended shackles, will fix my ride problems? What length shackles should I go with? What do you think is going on with my current setup?

I know, it's not a Cadillac, and I don't expect it to be, but it's *really* bad right now.

Thanks guys.

the DAPO put the add a leafs in the wrong spot putting a preassure point in the main leaf causing it to bend like it is. You need to get a new main leaf or really should get a new leaf pack and ditch the AAL

Holy crap, now that I look at it, I think you're right. Sorry, I'm a little dumb about leaf springs, coming from the import world.

So, are you saying that the second leaf from the top needs to be one lower? That's what it looks like to me now, since it looks to be shorter than the one below it.

I'd love to get full new leaf packs, but this is my beater, and it's on a junkyard budget. You think new mains, shackles, clamps, center pins, and u-bolts, as well as putting it back together right will fix it?

I would grab another stocker leaf pack. pull the main off of it, cut down the donar leaf pack second leaf to where is is about 3" shorter on each end, Place the add a leaf in the pack where it fits (might have to flipped 180* cant really tell, just mess with it) and then new spring clamps and the centering pin may be fine, if not grab a new one.

so leafs should be ordered like follows (with JY donar pack):

new main
secondary
cut down secondary
aal
3rd leaf
shortly leaf.


also look into a bastard pack. Some JY's have the vehicles needed some dont

Awesome, thanks so much. This was exactly the info I was looking for. One e-beer for you, on me.

EDIT: Do you think a bastard pack would ride better than an AAL setup? I've heard differing opinions both ways.

just depends on the vehicle you got it from.... and how many leafs you used from that vehicle. no matter what it will ride rough....

One more quick question:

What length shackles should I go with on this 3.5" lift? I've heard some people say 1" lift shackles should clear the body, but I want to make sure that they wouldn't cause too much rake.

I run stock shackles on my 4.5" lift. But you're going to have to replace those before they break, they look about shot.

But mine are dinging the rear frame... I think. If you look at the picture, you can actually see a small rust spot in the shape of the shackle on the frame behind it. I've heard that running stock shackle length on a lift will cause that. True?

The shackle hitting the frame is (I think) consistent with the ride problem, in that the Jeep feels like it's topping out. If I jump on the back bumper, it travels down fine, but when it travels up, it stops hard at the top... which is exactly what it feels like going down the road. I mean, upward travel doesn't gradually stop, it feel like it hits a wall. Even more interesting, is that if I load up a few hundred pounds in the rear, or put 2 people in the backseat, the problem goes away completely, presumably because it's lowering the ride height enough that it no longer makes contact.

I had assumed that this was caused by the shackles, but there's so much other Bubba'd crap going on in my rear suspension that nothing would surprise me. Right now, I'm trying to identify and fix everything that I think is likely to break when it's too cold to work on.

Arching the main leaf more by adding leafs should pull the shackle away from the body, not move it closer. Maybe the main leaf isn't stock and is longer. That shackle does look pretty thin, so at least replace those with some better stock JY shackles depending on what you do with the leaves.