I am having some limited flex out of my AAL/Bastard pack (I know, BIG shocker huh ? Sarcasm detected....lol).

I measured my XJ for new Bilstein 5100's. My Zone's are blown and undersized for my lift height (my fault). I have great front flex, but only 1" in the rear. After you are done laughing , I removed the front and rear shock to measure it, and used my forklift at work. I lifted the driverside rear tire(a friend did) while I watched the shock mounting points. I measured collapsed and extended. There was a 1" difference before the two shock points stopped moving, and the axle pushed the body.

My ride (other than the shocks) doesn't seem horrible, and I have 4.25" of lift in the rear.

I want to stay around 4.25"-4.5" in back. I will buy complete spring packs next year, but times are tight for now-I need to fix what i got.

I can see my AAL is so thick (Zone), that that is killing my flex. I have one S10 Blazed leaf (and another 2-3 for EACH side. in storage easily accessible), and 2ea original main. The order is this:
OEM XJ main (150K)
Zone AAL
Blazer
2ea OEM

I do have some thin rubber sheets in between a few of the leaves to help quelch the noise.

I know I need to experiment with the bastard pack (take AAL out, install 1-2 Blazer springs from storage), and use some sort of shackle for the rear.

Since inexpensive is the name of the game, are JKS shackles good? I want to buy a set of shackles and then work on the bastard pack swap to hopefully get to the 4.25" height I'm at now or even get to the 4.5" height. Then I can re-measure her and but the Bilsteins.

If you have any advice regarding running 3 leaves per side, shackles, or bastard pack spring, I'd love to hear it.

It won't help me with "just get spring packs"-duh. I will, but can't right now so I'll do the next thing I can do. Thank you for your help!

 

Man, unless my eyes are decieving me, that OEM main leaf looks rough.

I wouldn't suggest running only 3 leaves. They won't last long if you do. I'd ditch the AAL and find a combination of leaves that give lift rather than the AAL.

The AAL could have been used with ALL of the OEM XJ leaves.

 

Hmm, you should be getting more flex out of them.

Make certain of your shackle angle. I personally run a four leaf pack with no leaf straps. It helps down travel and in the six months i have ran them this way i have had no problems.

 

I have the stock shackle. How do i check shackle angle then? By leaf straps, you mean the ones that help the bolt hold the pack together? Is that common to not run them? I've never seen that before.

Lowrange2-By rough do you mean flat and tired? Becuase it was a sagging rear before i did the AAL/Bastard hybrid.

 

No its not common, notice my sig line. NOT LOL

But it has worked well for me(unstrapped leafs). I am certain there will be band wagon police here shortly to tell us how your jeep will explode doing this.

But I always assume responsibility for my own actions.

Basically on your shackle angle at ride height your shackle should be slightly back from 90degrees. probably around 100degrees or so. IF its in this range then your shackle angle is not your problem.

 

that bottom leaf is friggin thick and appears to be doing all the work.

that would keep the pack from wanting to compress.

I would get rid of that and add a couple longer, thinner leaves from another pack in its place.

 

"I am certain there will be band wagon police here shortly to tell us how your jeep will explode doing this." LMAO, that is hillarious.......



ktmracer-Good point! Now that I look at the picture again I see what you mean. That will be the first one I remove. I am doing it next weekend as I'll have my skackle by then. I'll have to research what shakle angle I should be around as I have no clue there.

 

Well, I installed RC shackles and due to how stiff my rear leaves are decided to run three leaves per side. The ride height is EXACTLY the same (tells you how stiff I was) and it flexes much better! Not too soft, not to stiff, much better ride quality. I really don't care if it lasts long term or not because when it wears out to sags, I'm buying a dedicated rear leaf pack and won't look back.

I now have gotten rid of all the "gap" in the above picture. That's why it flexes and rides better. To much of a mixed bag in the above picture.

 

Wait um u got a bastard pack but u got bilstien shocks? ? Lol huh what up with that yo

 

LMAO-yeah, you called it. See I started out trying to go cheap with the lift brand/type (Zone, bad idea). Once I blew my front shocks, I figured get some better ones. Now the rear has much more flex, I have to measure it for Bilsteins for the back too. To be honest though, the front Zone coils are SOOOOO STIFF!!!! that I can't feel a massive improvement like everyone else did going to Bilsteins. I know it's not the shocks fault. Cheap azz Zone coils. Need to find another brand that rides better (front coils I mean)

 

i have RE coils 5.5" and they're great. got em at a good price too from serious offroad

http://www.seriousoffroadproducts.com/

 

zone stiff coils eh? Friend of mine has them, seem to ride pretty good. Dude Rubicon express coils are what i have. horribly stiff. Very HD quality but not meant for comfort.

 

i dont find my RE stiff. guess it just depends. mine were an upgrade on severely work coils and shocks. then 3" RC coils for a month or two. then my RE 5.5",