reinforcing rear leaf spring perches

mine perches have seen better days. they are not cracked or coming off but have a little warpage to them. i was thinking of adding some flat steel plate to box them in but wanted to see what you guys say first. any pics would be nice.

i know some of you guys have done this. i just need to see some pics of other peoples ideas.

I rounded off my OEM's and then just built my own...





Now get crackin!

Matt

what about the actual frame mounts for the leaf spring eyes. i like the idea of no u bolts on the axle mount.

You can plate them easily enough - if you have plans for a cage (and you should) tie the cage into the suspension mounts and life will be much better- aka I can open and shut my rear hatch while posting a 960 on a 30 degree ramp

Mine are a little different as I moved the springs under the frame - but there is no reason you cannot reinforce the OEM mounts (my shackle mounts were in dime sized pieces on the floor!)



You can see they are made from 1 piece of 4" angle iron and then a plate forms the side you cannot see (it ties into the old welded nut in the frame rail with a very short bolt )

Matt

good stuff matt thanks a lot for the pics.

i have plans for making a cage this summer since i am not going to school. i will be posting questions on that soon enough.

How about this?:
http://photomail.photoworks.com/sha...L25fHaNJE.9/0rrBEQr6mHFcynwuM8f3Ksy0pKKwfO8xA

Jeff

Jeff 98XJ WI, how did you go about setting rails for the height change. Did you just cut and reweld? TIA, Rensing

I'm not quite sure what you mean here? My old xj had a problem with the front of the spring mount getting pushed up into the floor, so I wanted to do something about this on the new rig. The frame rails on the old rig also got beat up pretty bad, so I wanted to do something about that too. Finally, I have been through many different rear springs with various amounts of success. They always wanted to sag. So the pics are of what I did to combat these problems. I took a piece of 4x6x1/4 box steel and ripped it in half lengthwise to form two 3x4 U channels that I massaged to fit over the stock frame. Then I picked up a cheap set of Dodge 1500 leaf springs which are about 7" longer than stock xj leaves and use thicker leaves. I trial mounted them using the stock rear spring hanger, extended shackles, the springs installed backwards, and the center pin relocated "forward" 1 inch. I then shifted the front mount back and forth till the wheel ended up where I wanted it in the wheel well (slightly offset to the rear) and the shackle was angled back a bit. I then marked the location of the spring bolt in relation to the frame in a forward/backward plane. I drilled holes in the stock frame and the U-channel as low as possible to position the spring as low as possible for increased height and clearance with the floor. I opened up the holes in the frame using a hole saw and welded in some sleeves. Then the frame reinforcement slides over the stock frame and sleeve and a bolt can now slide all the way through the frame and be tightened down on the sleeve and frame reinforcement. Finally, I took another piece of the U-channel and welded it to the side of the frame reinforcement facing down to be used for the front spring mount double shear. I had to add a small spacer on the inside and outside of the spring to fit the 3.5" space, but it works quite well. I also ended up adding a 2" block to the springs to give enough lift to match the front RE ZJ 4.5" springs with 2" coil raise built into the axle spring mount. I did have trouble coming up with a 9/16 bolt long enough to go through the spring and frame. I ended up using a U-bolt from a spring shop that was NOT bent into a U. It was long enough and had threads on both ends. Seems to work just fine. The frame reinforcement is held on with three through the frame 5/8" bolts with sleeves installed in the frame. The sleeves are welded on one side and sandwich the frame sheet metal on the other. I had four bolts holding them on, but the rear bolt was interfering with the spring clamps, so I pulled it out. There are also three 7/16 grade 8 bolts threaded into the weld nuts in the frame that hold the stock crossmember. I drilled and tapped the weld nuts for the larger bolts. I hope this small book answers your question. Jeff