If you are thinking of buying Autozone Shackles

Think again. I know it may be hard to build up enough money to purchase some warrior 153's or the like, but the Autozone shackles are terrible. I purchased them about 2-3 months ago, they installed well, they seemed to do the job until today.

When i looked under my car today i saw this






This disturbed me, I have no clue how long it had been in this position. The bolt was being held in place only by the weight of the car. You may be wondering "what makes copperhead or warrior shackles and different/better?" The answer is, there is a cross member between the sides of the shackles that would prevent them from bending out towards each side.




Again, if you can somehow fabricate your own shackles or purchase some higher quality ones please do for your own safety.

wow, thats scary.

I just got done building a set of shackles that are almost identical to the warrior shackles. The metal was free, the bolts cost me about 10 bucks, and the powdercoat was free. Someone posted a diagram on here for the warrior shackles because they were in another country and they had a hard time getting the warriors.

I do alot of work on hotrods and motorcycles so I couldnt justify buying something that even a beginner could make if they knew how to weld.

I like to support companies and all, but theres some things that are just not worth buying if you have the right tools and know-how. Wouldn't build them to sell but they suit my vehicle just fine.

sorry for the crappy photo...


- Jon

Looks like the bolt was loose not a shackle problem.

yeah the bolt came loose, but if you had a set of warriors or something the sides of the shackles wouldnt have bent out left and right. I'm just saying, dont you think something with a cross member would be safer?

Still dangerous, the Warriors are much more durable. With these, you could probably get away with putting another bolt at the top where a "crossmember" should be to make these a bit more stable.

yeah thats what i was thinking i may do until i get enough money for some warriors

i think if you had a lock washer with a locking nut, you wouldn't have had that problem. i ran the autozone shackles on my 93 (in conjunction with a 5.5" superlift system) for the better part of a year. wheeled it HARD every weekend and never had a single problem. i have them installed on my 84 ranger to compensate for the drop that installing the 8.8 rear. again, haven't had a single problem.

Bolt coming loose seems more of a problem with it not being torqued down enough and using threadlock. On my old 97 I ran advance/autozone for almost the entirety without problems.. It comes down to torque on the bolts. The center bar just helps reduce leaf movement and pressure.

I tightened the bolts with an air gun when i installed the shackles. I might come down to the owner having to check the tightness of the nuts every once in awhile

I just looked under my explorer and my warrior 153's came with locking nuts so buying them from the start would help avoid this.

Definately going with the "nut not tight enough/lacking locking feature" theory.

i agree fully that the failure was bolt related, but i think there would be a higher chance of being safe with a shackle that wouldnt separate to the left and right when the bolt failed

Red loctite is your friend....why would you NOT use it?

I didn't use it for my warriors, I didn't have any and my box Only came with the shackles, no bolts or nuts. Had to re-use my originals.. I did without problem and have yet to even come close to a problem.

Well to add alittle more fire to the pit............

I wanna see one of these smart guys explain this.
Yeah it a Broken Bolt Sheared off at the end. and i was not even wheeling it at the time.
Was driving down the street when it let go with a Bang. So one might wanna be careful when using these cause the bolts might be a little Dubious in quality.

ive ran them for years and beaten the hell out of my explorer. not one problem, although i did buy grade 8 bolts from the local hardware store.

Did you use the smaller diameter bolts with the kit, or did you re-use/re drill for the OE Ford bolts? Having a smaller diameter bolt in that sleeve would cause more side/irregular loading.

Just used the bolts that came in the Box

I guess i'm one of the smart guys that solved the problem. I think the instructions in the kit even mention something about that.

storlied said:

With these, you could probably get away with putting another bolt at the top where a "crossmember" should be to make these a bit more stable.

Click to expand...

Thats what i was gonna say, ive honestly never messed with shackles before, but there were 2 holes higher up, that you could put a nice bolt/washer/locking nut in and crank it, maybe use some LocTite or something too...?