Did you have any trouble removing your upper shackle bolt?

 

Use anti-seize next time you take it out.

 

That's a good idea, I'll do that.

 

Perhaps the previous owner did a little work on the gas lines/tank and forgot to reinstall it I'm sure you could find one at the salvage yard pretty cheap...

No problem

Actually, no. It came out pretty cleanly. I did spray it down the night before with a little PB Blaster, perhaps it made a difference?

Yeah, I try to apply some type of anti-seize on bolts when reinstalling parts when I can remember. It's worth it when it comes time to upgrade/make modifications.

 

Im thinking the shop took it off when I had my fuel pump replaced, and they never replaced it. I guess its not the worst thing wrong with my cherokee.

 

Cool man, I'll be PB blasting mine for the next two weeks before I install my lift

 

The new shackles showed up on the doorstep today. I primarily wanted to upgrade the stockers with a nice set of factory length greasable units. I'm satisfied with the amount of lift I currently have. However, I was unable to find any greasable shackles that did not add lift so I ended up going with some 3/4'' lift shackles from Rusty's Offroad:



They're solid pieces, complete with bushings and grease fittings.

Shackle installation is pretty simple, requires basic hand tools including some pry bars and a little brute strength doesn't hurt.

I started by installing the shackle into the new frame brackets:


Then the lower shackle bolt is coerced into the spring:


Time to snug things up, but the final tightening should be done with the vehicle back on the ground:


Time to reinstall the wheels, tighten everything up and take her for a spin.

 

Now it's time to determine how much lift I need to add to the front end to level things out:



Anyone?

Anyway, here's the final product:







The instructions from RC mention the possibility of modifying the exhaust for properly fitting the new brackets but at this time I am not having any issues:





I'll know more once I get the XJ offroad, keeping an eye on the articulation of the rear axle as to whether or not it's going to contact the exhaust.

 

Current shackle angle:



About 54 degrees at this time. The relocation brackets have only been installed an hour or so though, so it might settle out a little more. I'll remeasure the angle in a week's time to see where it's at.

 

Just my .02 cents here, but you want that to look stock for the most part, check out GOBESERK fender flars on Ironrocks website. Cherokee that has them looks stock, but has been cut big time and running 35's. Great looking jeep. Keep it up!

 

It's supposed to b about 45 deg

 

great looking jeep, awesome build write up...going to keep following this one for sure!!

 

how are you liking your RC shackle relocation kit? i have the same one and when i had set my shackles up in the right holes to have a perfect 45 degree angle when loaded, they would rub the crap out of the bracket and the shackles. so know mine are at like 60 degrees. it seems like the bracket sticks down to far and thats why it was rubbing.

 

Who said I wanted the XJ to look stock? Don't get me wrong, I prefer the LOOK of fender flares too. But, for my application they really serve no purpose other than pure aesthetics. And around here the law enforcement have bigger fish to fry, I live in Detroit metro of course


Yeah, I was hoping to have an angle a little closer to 45 degrees but I'm thinking the angle will settle down a bit more with some driving time. The nice thing about the brackets is that they're adjustable so I can always move the shackle forward a bit and improve the angle further if need be.

Welcome to my build thread! Thanks for stopping by.

No complaints here, but I've only had them installed a day so I'll let you know if any issues arise.

I can see what you are saying about potential rubbing issues. Do you have factory length shackles installed or extended aftermarket units? I can see where factory length shackles might rub a bit during suspension compression.

In my pictures, it's hard to tell but there is actually a bit more room than it looks for the shackle movement. Kind of an optical illusion from the 2-dimensional pics I guess.

Anyway, thanks for viewing everyone!

 

I had warrior products shackles but the bushings are to wide to fit and I happened to have some brand new RC shackles. And they fit perfect so I threw them
In.