Tired Leaf Springs

[FROADER]

Here is what I remember reading.

I think 2" shorter might be at or pass the limit. But here's my two cents:

There is a limit to the minimum length of the shackle. Simply put it, when the rear of the vehicle is pushed down, the rear leaf spring lengthens which rotates the shackle to a more horizontal position. Now assuming that the shackle doesnt have a central horizontal piece like the stock shackle, if the shackle is too short, the "eye" of the leaf spring will hit the frame rail.

I guess you could alwas put a bump stop right where the leaf spring would come into contact with the frame rail. You could also ghetto-fab the leaf springs - such as welding more metal to the top-side of each end of the overload spring but leaving enough gap between the added metal and the next leaf up on the stack (the overload spring is the most bottom one - and often the thickest). This would minimize the rear axle's vertical travel.

Oh, and I don't think monoleaf springs are a good idea.

 

[CDW6212R]

Yes Colin, that's why I went straight to the shackles, the springs are not cheap at all. They mount close to the frame, so moving the mounts upward is not an easy thought. You could go and notch the frame and do serious re-welding to raise the shackle mounts, but yuck, more work.

 

[Maniak]

I've seen shackles that weren't straight.. Would't making the Shackle have a 30% or so bend abut 1/2 down give you the extra length needed to keep the shackle from rotating too far?

~Mark

 

[MountaineerGreen]

So mono leaf springs are out- although, I could loose about 1" with the thickness of my leaf pack vs. the mono leaf.

The shackles, I think I can use ~4" center to center shackles, or about 1.5" shorter than stock, but I am not sure how that will work- right now my shackles are angled back, letting the leaf spring be flatter. Shorter shackles will force the spring to stay in more of an arched position. Right?

I don't know what to do now, the rear is way too high- I only wanted 5" of lift from this, but got way more.

I thought about custom leaf springs and staying SUA, but decided to go SOA because I thought I could get the lift without the expense of springs. I am seeing that it isn't working now

 

[MountaineerGreen]

Look at this:

He has shackles, 4 door leaf packs, a 1" BL and his doesn't look as high as mine does

 

[FROADER]

Looks about the same or higher to me.

You could still do custom springs with the SOA, but again it depends on how much money you want to spend on this. I'm guessing not a lot.

 

[Hokie]

So mono leaf springs are out- although, I could loose about 1" with the thickness of my leaf pack vs. the mono leaf.

The shackles, I think I can use ~4" center to center shackles, or about 1.5" shorter than stock, but I am not sure how that will work- right now my shackles are angled back, letting the leaf spring be flatter. Shorter shackles will force the spring to stay in more of an arched position. Right?

Eh, I don't see the shackle changing the arch of the spring. It would just change the inclination of the rear. (Thus the reason 3" longer shackles only give you around 1.5" of lift)

 

[MountaineerGreen]

Well, my whole goal for doing this was to save $$ vs. a custom leaf pack so I could do the coilover swap later on.

Custom springs will be my last resort, I may try some shorter shackles, although it will only get me .75".

What is so bad about monoleafs?

If I was to order custom springs, where would I get someone to make some, and how in the world would I order them, IE. spring rate, arch, etc?

 

[FROADER]

IMO the monoleafs would be way too soft.

For ordering custom leaf packs, some places may know the weight of your vehicle, others may want to you to weigh it front and rear. Tell them what you have, what you want to do and they'll go from that.

There are National, Deaver, Alcan and a few others.

 

[Hokie]

IMO the monoleafs would be way too soft.

Yes, they sag with age under the rear of a Sport. Also, I'd be worried about axle wrap. I'm currently running a Sport mono leaf (as my top leaf) then the 2nd leaf (from the top) from my stock Mounty leaf pack and then the overload spring (which doesn't affect ride). I was originally running the stock 2nd and 3rd leaves + the mono leaf and it was a little too stiff. Currently it rides alot better, but it doesn't handle as well as I'd want. I need something in between the two set ups I just described.

 

[MountaineerGreen]

Well Crap.

I don't have $400 for leaf springs, could go back to what I had I guess, but don't really want to do that either- it is way too stiff and a bit to low.

On the other hand, SOA is about the right stiffness, but too high.

 

[kert0307]

Why don't you just take out another leaf or two from the factory pack and see where that leaves you?

 

[FROADER]

^^ Axle wrap will be a big problem with that.

 

[CDW6212R]

I looked back at the new spring perch, I see where the extra height came from.
The axle plus the gap down to the old perch is just over 4", add to that the thickness of the new perch and gap to the diff., and that is over 5". But the thickness of the old springs is also added in lift, because the height is now based off of the bottom instead of the top. So what was gained by eyesight is over 6 inches.

If someone does that again they might cut out the spring perches to bring the housing arch down as close to the pad as possible.

 

[mounty71]

Are your torsion bars cranked at all? If not, that would be an easy way to level it out, temporarily before you swapped in the coilovers. Other than that, maybe some sort of bent shackle like Maniak mentioned. In my head it seems like it could work, but i guess theres only one way to find out. Good luck.

 

[MountaineerGreen]

T-bars are at full crank presently, the jacking up of the rear has forced more weight onto the front, causing it to sit lower than before.

 

[Hokie]

T-bars are at full crank presently, the jacking up of the rear has forced more weight onto the front, causing it to sit lower than before.

Weird :scratch:

Umm.. if you can make new shackles at work, I'd start there. If push comes to shove, I've got some D rated torsion bars back in VA that you could try.

 

[mounty71]

Maybe just skip the coilovers and go straight to a solid axle ? :

 

[Hokie]

Maybe just skip the coilovers and go straight to a solid axle ? :

LoL, he did the SOA to SAVE money

 

[carlover]

What about removing the overload spring?? Not sure if that would affect axle wrap or not though.....