Im pry wrong but looks like the stock front fender is all the way up at the fenderline and the rear is trimmed.

 

Yes both back and front are both trimmed a little. It also does have dropp brackets

 

this was my jeep lifted on hp44/9" 35x12.50x15s in the pic its on level but it was 4.5" lift difference from stock lift.

 

Yours is trimed a lot more than mine and mine is higher don't know how much though I have it on jack stands right now or i would take a pic with a measuring tape up to it. Its also on 33" right now till I can afford 35" tires

 

the front is trimmed higher lol yes the back is actually trimmed at the top like yours just wider at the base to tuck the 35s btw it does look like a nice two door.

 

Thanks

 

This is mine with 33's and if I were put 35's on it, the thing would sit identical to your rear and I'm at roughly 5.5 in the rear right now, Your rig actually looks like what he did was either 5.5 or 6.5 and didn't compensate for the front axle height. buy some 4.5" coils for the front and see how it turns out, worst it can do is put em on criagslist and say they weren't right. front rubicons on amazon are dirt cheap right now.

 

Thats with the worn out 33s on it

 

So I installed some Rock Auto $16 dollar replacement shackles on my 2001 this weekend and now I have creaking and grinding noises coming from the back of the Jeep that were not there before.

The old shackles looked factory and were rusted/rotted almost all the way through, in fact, they broke into 2 sections when unscrewing the very rusted and stuck bolts on the leaf spring bushing. I had sprayed the bolts for weeks with PB Blaster and it was still so hard to get the bolts out that the PB almost didnt seem to matter.

Managed to unscrew the body bolts and get those out, but the leaf spring bolts were stuck/rusted to the umm forgot what you call the metal sleeves inside the bushings.., those were stuck together and came out of the bushings, so we had to put them on the ground and use a big flat screwdriver and hammer to split them down their seam to get the bolts out.

we got those metal sleeves back into the leaf spring bushing by putting a long bolt and washers into the bushing and then ratcheting a nut onto the bolt until it pressed the metal sleeve all the way back inside the bushing, then unscrewed that nut and bolt since we were just using them as a tool, not to actually attach the new shackle to the leaf spring. (hope that tip helps someone else out who runs into this)

Here's the issue from what I can see.. the geometry of the $16 dollar RockAuto after market shackles was a \_/ shape and had to be squeezed around the [__] leaf spring and bushind and intead of being parrallel like this: | [__] | it ended up touching the corners of the leaf spring metal like this: \[__]/ and then the bolt and nut were put throught he bushing hole and shackle holes and it all kinda pulled it together, but I feel like there's some rubbing going on now. Is this common? are most shackles out there not shaped properly and you have to bend them around the leaf spring bushing or is this just the cheap ones that come like this?

Does anyone know if the Dorman $40-$60 dollar XJ stock shackles have the same geometry issue or if they fit around the leaf spring properly without touching it?

We're thinking of putting some fender washers on the upper bolt and the leaf spring bolt so the shackle is screwed tight against the metal sleeve the bolt rides in, but not tight against the bushing or the metal of the leaf spring, does this sound like a good plan of action? If the Dorman part geometry is |__| and not \__/ where the leaf spring goes, then I'll probably buy those and remove the $16 dollar ones, but at least I have new shackles now and not paper thin rusted ones, so at least I can safely ride the vehicle until I figure out something else.


For anyone interested, the upper body bolt is torqued to 109, lower torqued to 80 per some specs I saw here on the forums. Everything was tightened with Jeep on the ground, the the lower bolt was a full bolt width behind the upper bolt if you looked at the shackle from the side.

Thank you for your help.
Squelchtone

 

9" of lift is way to much. Bump it down to around 6" of lift and you'll be much happier on 35's. For the rear, I would recommend shackle relocation brackets and a slightly longer shackle.

 

*bump*

Can anyone help with my question above regarding cheaper stock shackles versus Dorman or dealer purchased stock replacement shackles? getting lots of creaking/grinding after putting in some cheap shackles that seem to be rubbing on the metal of the leaf spring.

Thank you,
Squelchtone