Caish

I've been avoiding this issue.
Well the previous owner was a turd.

on he left is Chevy lowering shackle, sold by oreillys $40 or there abouts. Same ones was $53 on amazon.
On the right is the Backyard engineered shackle. Just like it was removed.
The Lowering shackle has to be narrowed about 1/2" maybe a little more.
Measured 3" even, I measured the XJ one at 2 51/64 i think the caliper said, so I shaved it off with the angle grinder even with the poly bushing till it fit.
Replaced the bolts with Grade 5 x 3 1/2" and lock nuts.
My leafs are some kind of add-a-leaf or bastard pack, but was a little flat.

Next i replaced the shocks with a set of JK Rubicon pull offs. less than 4k miles on them paid $25 for the set. You can see the added length i a plus to add some more droop to the rear.




i had some skyjcaker 3" coils from a CL find, so I tossed them on to replace the Rauncho stiff coils. Added the JK Rubis to the front too.
3" lift maybe 3 1/2 in the rear, with 255/75r17's off another Rubicon. lol.

Better fix for flat springs, avoid lift blocks they create axle warp and will wear your springs faster.

gpXJ

That contraption on the right, was actually on your Jeep? Serving as a suspension component??!! That is sketchy to the extreme!

JeepMN

I would never have bought that jeep if that shackle was anywhere near it. Not even in the same garage..

Fred/N0AZZ

Scary at the very least what people will do.

aka"dude"

even those chebby shackles skeeze me out.

andrewmp6

If the one of the right has a lot of holes in its a old school adjustable lift shackle.

Caish

Yep it had a pair of them,
Crazy as it looks it worked for years, To be honest I looked at the shackle angles as odd, but it worked and I didn't slide under there to eye ball till I was installing the Tail bone spare carrier.
I would venture that was in a wreck or the U-Bolts was not torqued right. and got loose.
Even moderate off roading that is not going to happen. Someone is not tellign the whole story on that pictures.
Very true thats what they are, they're adjustable shackle and if the previous owner had welded the OEM shackle in place forward and used a spacer bushing it would have had great Shackle angle and worked well.


On a different note went out for the day yesterday with the wife on a Club ride.


The rear needs a little more lift, I think.
Going to pull some Chevy C1500 packs apart and use one leaf from them for more lift.
Suspension worked very nicely, smooth, over all the rocks, down fall, etc.
I am very happy withthe Skyjacker springs in the front, Shackles in the rear and the JK Rubicon shocks made a very nice handling setup that did not beat you or the unibody up.
One place I heard a rear tire brush on the flare.
Before the Rancho springs was very harsh and I'm sure it didn't help that I had two shocks blown. But the shocks was never a matched set either, was Comanche rear shocks, and I think it was ZJ fronts. But I've slept since then.