Junkyard 6" leaf pack

Is there any thing that I can use the rear spring pack out of in the Junkyard, that I can get around 6" of lift from?

I did a search but I couldnt find where anyone was actually giving a lift height over factory.

I want to get away from the lift blocks.

I got 6" of lift from the Dakota spring pack with a dakota add-a-leaf in the pack, it was stiff as hell and rode like shit. When I took out the AAL and put in lift blocks it improved ride and flex.

I used mj leaves mixed with xj leaves and the mj shackle to get around 5.5" of lift. I rides better than stock packs with an AAL. It just takes a few tries mixing the packs to find a combo your happy with. I ended up with a 7 leaf pack.

CW said:

I used mj leaves mixed with xj leaves and the mj shackle to get around 5.5" of lift. I rides better than stock packs with an AAL. It just takes a few tries mixing the packs to find a combo your happy with. I ended up with a 7 leaf pack.

Click to expand...

Please would you describe this combo a bit more? What order are they in from bottom to top, and do you have any pictures? This sounds more like what i want to have....
Thanks in advance,
Buck

Buck Jackson said:

Please would you describe this combo a bit more? What order are they in from bottom to top, and do you have any pictures? This sounds more like what i want to have....
Thanks in advance,
Buck

Click to expand...

Ditto

Fryphax said:

I got 6" of lift from the Dakota spring pack with a dakota add-a-leaf in the pack, it was stiff as hell and rode like shit. When I took out the AAL and put in lift blocks it improved ride and flex.

Click to expand...

I know where there is a dakota leaf pack but the top leaf is bent to hell, did you use the top one. I really need a stiff setup cause i haul a heavy trailer, so it is ok with me.

I didn't use the dakota main leaf at all, I used that for a different vechile, just the bottom 6 leafs including the overload (used it as a bumpstop) and the AAL.

CW said:

I used mj leaves mixed with xj leaves and the mj shackle to get around 5.5" of lift. I rides better than stock packs with an AAL. It just takes a few tries mixing the packs to find a combo your happy with. I ended up with a 7 leaf pack.

Click to expand...

Odd, I have the exact same leaves in the rear of mine with the XJ shackle and it rides like A FRIGGIN SKATEBOARD in the back. The front end will be rippin a tire apart in the fender while the back has used up maybe an inch of travel. This setup is HORRIBLE for an XJ. Mine is the entire MJ pack with the eyes cut off the main leaf. The MJ packs are grafted onto the XJ main leaf, so I've got an extra leaf over the MJ. In its defense, I think a longer shackle should help the ride somewhat, as should removing the XJ main leaf.

But, it sure handles the trailer well. Even rides well with 200 lbs of gear and a 20 foot boat hitched up. Good for tow queen, bad for trail rig. I get about 6" of lift with stock shackles. MJ shackles give what, 1/2" of lift or less?

I believe the ZR-2 Chev S-10 pickups/blazers leafs can be used as added leaves to the XJ main. Also, spring under Dakota's and ever Explorers.

Jaredatriot:

Here's some info:

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=23381&highlight=suspension+tuning

Here's some info:

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthre...spension+tuning

Click to expand...

What chevy springs did you use? What years, 2wd orr 4wd?

DeadEyeJ said:

This setup is HORRIBLE for an XJ. Mine is the entire MJ pack with the eyes cut off the main leaf. The MJ packs are grafted onto the XJ main leaf, so I've got an extra leaf over the MJ.

But, it sure handles the trailer well. Even rides well with 200 lbs of gear and a 20 foot boat hitched up. Good for tow queen, bad for trail rig. I get about 6" of lift with stock shackles. MJ shackles give what, 1/2" of lift or less?

Jaredatriot:

Click to expand...

wow. thats exactly what i have. xj main with entire mj pack (minus overload) underneeth. mine flexes like crazy. it only gave me about 2" of lift after a few wheeling trips and working the springs out. if i load any weight it really sags. great for a trail rig, horrible for a tow queen.

i had to go back and add a 3" xj aal to bring it back even with the RE 5.5 fronts.

matthew

DeadEyeJ said:

Odd, I have the exact same leaves in the rear of mine with the XJ shackle and it rides like A FRIGGIN SKATEBOARD in the back. The front end will be rippin a tire apart in the fender while the back has used up maybe an inch of travel. This setup is HORRIBLE for an XJ. Mine is the entire MJ pack with the eyes cut off the main leaf. The MJ packs are grafted onto the XJ main leaf, so I've got an extra leaf over the MJ. In its defense, I think a longer shackle should help the ride somewhat, as should removing the XJ main leaf.

But, it sure handles the trailer well. Even rides well with 200 lbs of gear and a 20 foot boat hitched up. Good for tow queen, bad for trail rig. I get about 6" of lift with stock shackles. MJ shackles give what, 1/2" of lift or less?

I believe the ZR-2 Chev S-10 pickups/blazers leafs can be used as added leaves to the XJ main. Also, spring under Dakota's and ever Explorers.

Jaredatriot:

Click to expand...

I am not using the main leaf at all, or the overload. I belive Cheapxj is running the overload upside down for a 1/2" of lift. I just went out and looked at it again and I have a six leaf pack, it is made out of both mj and xj springs. What I did was take apart both packs and layed the leaves out in order from shortest to longest and went from there. It netted me six inches for about three months but now its settled to about 5 1/2"s. Here is a sad attempt at a wright up
I will take some closeup pics later when I get home.

are you guys all doing this with the stock main leaf? in the original hangars?! (i know goatman has his setup different) your shackle angle must SUCK, which would make it ride like crap and give you very poor droop.

you could always box the rear hangar CRASH style and move the shackle position to get the angle right

mad maXJ said:

are you guys all doing this with the stock main leaf? in the original hangars?! (i know goatman has his setup different) your shackle angle must SUCK, which would make it ride like crap and give you very poor droop.

you could always box the rear hangar CRASH style and move the shackle position to get the angle right

Click to expand...

I am considering that mod when I put my 9" in since I need to rotate the pinion up for SYE anyway. Will give me the 2" I need to match my spacers I will be putting up front. does it detract from departure angle any noticable amount? I am already running RE extended shackles.

andyr354 said:

What chevy springs did you use? What years, 2wd orr 4wd?

Click to expand...

They are 2wd 1/2 ton Chev, and from an older unit. I got them from the junkyard and don't know what year, but it was an older unit. I'd say '70's or early '80's. I don't get concerned with what it comes off of, I just look for the right length combination of springs, then I can mix and match until I get what I want. When I first put this particular pack together, it was the 1/2 ton chev pack minus the main leaf and the very bottom leaf, the main leaf was MJ and the small bottom leaf is original XJ. That combination was just a touch soft, so I added one more leaf. I don't remember what it was from, I could have cut down the Chev main leaf and used it since it was long enough to make a second leaf ubnder the MJ main.

My old springs were all of the original four XJ leaves, plus three of the Tomken leaves from my original lift, plus a couple of YJ leaves. I think I ended up with 9 leaves on one side and ten leaves on the other (pass) side. I had this pack apart, adding and adjusting leaves, at least a half dozen times. When it sagged after a couple of years of hard use, I just added another leaf. Because I kept friction to a minimum, they were always soft riding and flexible, plus handled weight well.

I don't think leaf springs are rocket science, and you can get a spring to perform just like you want it to if you're willing to take the time and do the work...it's basically trial and error.

i used the bottom 3 leaves from a 2wd s10 4leaf pack,and got 4.5-5 inches of lift, kept the main leaf. I just need to get longer shackles. The spring rate seems about right for a light vehicle like the XJ, nice and soft but not too soft!

Here's my MJ leaf pack graft not flexing with stock rear shackles. I am nearly positive that longer shackles (or anything to get the rear shackle angle corrected) would help substantially.


And, the other side...


The rear axle is still nearly parallel to the body, while the front is flexing all over. There is about 300 lbs of tools/gear in the back. Also, the vehicle is tilted backward slightly, putting even more weight on the rears. The shocks are the DT3000's that come with the RE XJ 5.5" Xtreme Duty kit.

Jared

Okay, the pics aren't showing up for some reason. go to community.webshots.com/user/deadeyej and go to the miscellaneous album. the pics are called "crappy rear springs"

DeadEyeJ said:

Here's my MJ leaf pack graft not flexing with stock rear shackles. I am nearly positive that longer shackles (or anything to get the rear shackle angle corrected) would help substantially.

And, the other side...

The rear axle is still nearly parallel to the body, while the front is flexing all over. There is about 300 lbs of tools/gear in the back. Also, the vehicle is tilted backward slightly, putting even more weight on the rears. The shocks are the DT3000's that come with the RE XJ 5.5" Xtreme Duty kit.

Jared

Okay, the pics aren't showing up for some reason. go to community.webshots.com/user/deadeyej and go to the miscellaneous album. the pics are called "crappy rear springs"

Click to expand...

i'm not trying to just argue with you, but your rear flex looks pretty good. in the first picture the rear tire looks like its stuffed about as far as it can go. in the second picture there isn't a lot of droop, but thats not the springs fault. thats because of a shitty shackle angle. the shitty shackle angle comes from using the xj stock main leaf but adding leafs with more arch under it. the main leaf is just too short. if you're using the stock main leaf, it doesn't matter what's under it, you can only get so much droop. if you want more than you have, you need to fix the shackle angle. either a longer main leaf or move the top of the shackle forward.

matthew

That rear flex is really not that bad. Try throwing a set of mj shackles on and see if that helps. My shackle angle was horrible with stock shackles, but it is fairly good with mj shackles.

sarvermr said:

i'm not trying to just argue with you, but your rear flex looks pretty good.

Click to expand...

CW said:

That rear flex is really not that bad.

Click to expand...

Funny thing, everybody I go wheeling with disagrees. Even in the above pic the rear axle has very little angle to the body and this is literally as good as it ever gets. Most of the time the rear does far less.

Yeah I'm very aware of the shackle problem, I even mentioned it in an earlier post. The rear sits higher than the front already though, so what I need to do is take out the shortest leaf and get some longer shackles. The rear axle is out of the same MJ, so the spring perches I fabbed up have about a 1" lift block in them, but they are quite long to reduce axle wrap. The MJ leaves I got are thicker leaves than what was on the XJ, and seem to have a much higher spring rate.

My main message here is that the MJ leaves I got are very stiff springs. Maybe some are softer, but mine came from an '85 4-cyl long bed so they shouldn't be anything too heavy duty. Consider using a couple of them to replace a couple XJ leaves and get a 1.5-2" lift shackle with them. That setup should work well and give you somewhere near 6" of lift. Just don't run my setup, it sucks.

Jaredatriot: