Well I was bored today so I decided to lift the rear of the XJ a few inches. Let me preface this by saying that I recently put 33x12.50's on it with no lift and things were a little close in the rear but with no money right now for the 4.5" lift what was I to do. Again with no money at this moment I could not afford to buy lift shackles, but I do have some steel and a few welders so here's what I came up with. Since they are temporary I didn't feel like making them from scratch so I kinda piggy-backed off of the stock shackles, I beefed them up and braced them, and added 4.25 inches in length (from center of old hole to center of new hole). I know I know, I the stock ones aren't the greatist, their weak, flexy, and the bushings are 21 years old now but I had to work with what I've got so be gentle. Here's a before and after and three shots of the modded shackles.

 

hope your welds are strong!!! cause if they arent im sure we will find out soon.. looks good tho.. about how much more lift did they give you??

 

hell ya now get some coil spacers......that was the first mod i did to a Samuri i had...they will hold.

 

not bad at all. they look beefy too, what did you use 1/4? i have f150 lowering shackles in mine (they lift an xj 2") . theyre from autozone for 30 bucks. theyre pretty beefy and they hold up well and allow better flex than a pack i think. good job.

 

got another welding project to fix the problem with lift shackles

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f58/sh...rection-42983/

 

Just curious about that pinion angle now. Something tells me you will be going thru u-joints pretty quick now. Might want to look into some degree wedges.

 

i highly doubt it.... that wont affect pinion angle much at all!


I run 6.5" in the rear with stock drive shaft, no tranny drop, no shims, just spring packs and tera flex shackles with no drive line vibrations and my pinion angle is still very good =]

 

SWC custom: The welds are strong and I welded them on all sides and I even filled in the stock holes to tie the two pieces together. Seems to have given me about 2.5" or so. I forgot to measure before I started and I already had one side done. Ooops.

93XJRay: Yeah, it's 1/4" Almost twice as thick as the stock shackel material.


posjeepxj: You are absolutly correct that strait up and down is not ideal for flexing, it is however ideal for ride quality. The colser the angle of the shackle gets to the angle of the spring, the harsher the ride will be. That's why OE ones are strait up and down. Since I do 98% street driving I can't justify the time money and expense to do that mod to gain 1-2" of droop, and at the same time make an already borderline ride quality worse. But I appreaciate your thought process and dedication to your perfection.

xjmarc: Pinion angle will not be changed, the body moved up in relation to the axle, the spring and axle did not move at all.

 

i see now.. i had to look at hte pics again LOL...

 

Thats a whole lot cheaper than buying lift shackles, good job!

 

nice welds btw ...... good job

 

X2 me also...

 

You might want to check again. My Chevy lowering shackles changed mine 8 degrees and I run 7.5" of lift but the leaves don't make that much difference.