Hi all,

2001 XJ, 207K miles, Stock.

I just replaced my leaf springs, shackles, bolts, u bolts, and rear shocks. I also replaced both motor mounts and the tranny mount.

It was my first time doing this, but I've been studying for a while.

I got my parts mainly from Rockauto, Dorman leafs, and OMIX shackles. Everything went in easy, and I am still amazed that my leaf spring bolts were not seized up and I backed them all out with a breaker bar.

So I was feeling pretty good after getting everything back together.

I torqued the front leaf bolt to 120ft lbs. I torqued the upper shackle bolts to 120, and the lower shackle to 75. Then I did the u bolts to 55.

Here's my problem. I just took it for a test drive and I'm hearing a new "clunk" on the rear end (sounds like maybe passenger side) when I drive over a bump. I am wondering if I missed something or if the rear end is too loose?

It is a far different "feel" since I replaced the mounts and springs--my old leafs were flat or maybe inverted. The ride feels like there's a pillow in the rear end, so it is good, although it feels loose. I am open to any suggestions, but I am worried because I am about to pick up my mom and dad tomorrow and I don't want the axle flying off.

One other thing, I took the rear sway bar out and didn't put it back because everything I read says that it is worthless.

Any ideas on how or what to check?

 

Put a couple miles on it and torque everything down again. Mine stopped after a while. Not sure about the rear sway I left mine on

 

I'm not aware of the rear sway bar being useless; of course, I'm new to Jeeps so who knows. If it was my Jeep, I'd put the rear bar back on just to eliminate it. If it still makes the noise, I'd check the torque on everything. Most suspension work I've done over the years has required the suspension to be loaded when applying torque to the bolts. I've always installed the new suspension components with the bolts snug. Then let the vehicle down and torque the bolts.

 

For what its worth the Rubicon Express lift instructions tell you to throw away the rear sway bar. That and a lot of people agree that it is worthless. This may seem obvious but you never know, are your lugnuts tight?

 

Thanks to all for the input.

When I replaced the leaf springs, the bolts all came out relatively easy except for the upper shackle bolt on the passenger side.

When I was working it out with a breaker bar, the bolt slowly came out, but when it did, THE SLEEVE was fused (rust welded) onto the bolt, and the whole sleeve and bolt came out in one piece. What I mean by that is this: the eye of the body bracket WIDENED just enough to accept the sleeve coming out.

So basically, it widened the eye a little more than 1/16th of an inch. This left a "puckered" eye. I didn't think much of it then because I was so happy to get the bolt out. Plus I thought I'd just crank it back in and push the metal back in place.

The issue I hear and feel is a clunk or a "slam" in the rear, so I am doubting the rear sway bar does anything to stop that. It seems to be coming from the passenger side too.

I actually checked my lugnuts with a torque wrench just to make sure I got that right--they're all fine.

If I am not sure about that widening eye in the body bracket...would I have to get a metal plate welded on top?

How would I know that the eye hole is "too big"?

 

Mine did the same thing for about a week to 10 days. After that it quited down quite a bit, i checked all the fasteners to make sure they were still torqued down. All was good, it just needs some time to "settle" give it a week or so and you should notice it hetting quieter

 

Here are some pics.

The first few show where the upper shackle goes in. You can see that I put a washer under the bolt to help flatten the hole. In the second picture, I am seeing that the metal of the body bracket actually touches the shackle itself on the lower "lip" of the bracket (that might cause a clunk?). on the driver side there is no contact between that lip and the shackle.

Can I just pound that out with a little hammer love, or is it going to deform the body bracket?

The last few pictures show another issue with the OMIX brackets. when these things came shipped the lower "rabbit ears" are splayed out so that they are not exactly parallel to the mating surface of the leaf spring bushing. You can see where I've got some gap there.

These ears are somewhat flexible. Should I pound them in place so that they run straight up against the bushing? It might make the shackles fit better?

Any ideas?

 

Don't like the looks of those pics at all. Not that it's unsafe but could very well be where your noise is coming from. As far that "lip" goes from what those two pics show me I'd trim it til it cleared.
Those shackles leave something to be desired. They've even got the bushings on a bind it looks like. I doubt if it would have helped but using a vise I would have squeezed them in until they were a bit narrower than the spring and then worked them on.

I plan on replacing my shackles before winter. Rather not have the lift but it's only a inch.

http://zoneoffroad.com/zone-offroad-...cherokee/j5107

http://www.tomken.com/detail.php?id=55

 

Thanks EZ. The ears were initially a bit narrower than the spring bushings, but when I "worked them on" I ended up causing the lower part of the ears to spread even more.

I don't have a vise big enough to manhandle these shackles, but I guess I could try to hammer the lower tabs of the ears. The problem with that is that I don't see it changing the angles above the bolt where there might be some binding.

 

They can't be much if they bent out like that installing them. Don't figure hammering them will work. You'd have to go narrower than the spring for the ears to stay put. And even if you could I doubt if they'd stay.

Your right about the angles above to. From your pics it looks like the top of the ears are narrower than the spring. Poor design for sure.

 

I just spent a half hour under the shackles with a hammer and several chisels. I can't get much movement at all. I'm not sure how much luck I'd have if I pulled them out unless I could borrow a vise.

I still have the original shackles and I just looked at them. They have a ton of rust on them, but maybe I could wire brush that off. Since those shackles were original, the angles are nice and neat.

I bought new ones since I was buying everything else. I now see that the OMIX ones are junky.

I've never sent anything back to RockAuto, but I might on this one.

Any thoughts on trying to rehabilitate the old shackles? Might be good enough to send the OMIX ones back to Rock auto while I wait for new ones?

 

If your in not too much of a hurry you can throw those shackles in a container of auto trans fluid for as long as you can wait to help remove the rust. Then after you wire brush them if the metal looks sound spray them down with some brake cleaner and give them a paint job. I'd get some new bushing to if they look dried and cracked.

Your account is the second this week I've read about the poor quality of Omix products. Live and learn I guess.

 

Here is what I am seeing in a diagram.

Point A is where the body bracket comes in contact with the middle of the shackle (they are very close and would probably touch on a bump).

Point B is where the upper part of the shackle ear touches the leaf spring itself (not the bushing, but the actual metal of the spring.)

Point C is the "slop" where the lower part of the shackle ear doesn't mate properly with the bushing.

I think that is what is giving me the problem here and it seems like 3 strikes against the shackle and I've got the same problem on both sides.

If I hit a bump, the metal on metal in A, B, or C is cancelling out whatever good the bushings would do, because the bushings aren't really working then.

Some questions:

1. Can someone double check me on my thoughts above?

2. If I try to salvage the original shackle, how long to let it sit in tranny fluid?

3. Will the tranny fluid mess up the existing bushing in the shackle?

4. I can't even find a bushing for a leaf spring shackle....any ideas on that? My original bushing doesn't look too bad except that I ripped the sleeve out of one shackle when I pulled the bolt. I could try to tap the sleeve back in?

Thanks!!!!!

 

I thought that spring bolt looked too close to the body. That "lip" is there for clearence purposes. I just took two measurements from mine. From the "lip" down to the center of the spring bolt is 1.5". On the inside from the body down to the bolt center is 1". It's hard to determine without being there but it looks like the bolt on yours is inline with the body where it should be. It looks like the shackles are too short. Maybe the wrong ones. Which may also explain the poor shackle fit,spring bushing alignment problem. Compare things with your OEM shackles.

Auto tranny fluid will swell rubber after a good while but a couple days won't hurt and it helps loosen rust.

 

Thanks EZ.

I'm going to go measure.

My OEM shackles look rough. See pics to get an idea of what I'm working with. I can start a soak on these but let me know if they look salvageable.

Idiot question here: Are the bushings for the upper and lower shackle the same size? Because I can't find any bushings that are for the shackle only.

My original bushings look amazingly good for 14 years of duty.

I think that these OMIX are probably "technically" the right length until you actually try to bend them in place....and then they fall right out of spec because of the curves you have to force them into.