I've got a 98 Sport with the single rear leaf. The rear axle mounts on top of the leaf. Under the leaf is a spacer (which looks like 4 leaves cut to fit) and then the plate where the shock and u-bolts bolt to. My question is....what is the purpose of that spacer?

Thanks,
Scott

The purpose of the spacer is merely to retain the driveline geometry of the 4 door with the full spring pack.

I don't think its driveline geometry, I think its shock geometry. Like so they could use the same length shocks on all models.

Originally posted by Byrd91
I don't think its driveline geometry, I think its shock geometry. Like so they could use the same length shocks on all models. yup that's it. fords to cheap to have new shocks made. they were stupid enough in the first place for puttin in the mono-leaf. cause '91-'94 & '01 and up Sports have spring packs not the mono-leaf. they got stupid and then got smart again.

Okay guys, I see the logic behind it ( the shocks think there is a full pack of leaves there ) but under full compression the axle should hit the rubber bump stops before the shocks bottom out so why bother with the spacers if the shocks compress enough in the first place? Sorry for the run-on sentence.

Thanks again,
Scott

Because the shocks need to stay within a certain "band". Any more or any less will cause their dampening performance to suffer.

Ahhh, I didn't know that. Thanks Jason!