63 in leafs in the Rear

I have heard of a lot of guys using them in the front but can't find much of anything for the rear. I have been searching for a few days now and all the post talk about the front.
So here are my choices. My brother owns a business that bags pickups and cars, well I scored a set of 2004 chevy 1/2 ton rear leafs. I looked under the jeep to see if I could cut off and and make new spring mounts. I think I could but It would be a lot of adjusting. Or should I just cut the ends off of the Chevy springs and use my XJ main leaf I would like the strength and flexibility of the 63 inches but I am not sure a balance of length can be made between the shackles and wh positioning of the axle.
FYI the Chevy springs are 62.5 eye to eye, and almost have the bolt in the direct center of the spring.
The main reason for hoping to keep the chevy eyes and just make new mounts is because I have heard that the main leaf in the XJ will NOT hold up to the weight of the 14 bolt?
Ideas please
Thanks
Ron

search here, PBB, and xjdb.com for norcalxj. he used the 63s in the rear with a 14 bolt and inboarded the springs under the "frame" rails. TONS of Toyota guys use them also, so maybe look at the Toy section at PBB, they have a good FAQ also.

thanks Brett, I have searched the Jeep section of Pbb a lot on this. didn't find much having to do with XJs. On a framed vehicle it is not much of an issue for me because there are more solid mouting places than on an xj. I think I may end up Just tearing the xj apart and placing the springs where I want them then making the mounts where they need to be.
thanks for the Norcalxj name to search by it brought up a few posts I have not read yet.
Ron

how wide are these leaf springs? 2.5" or 3" cuse if they are 3" - then the idea of the XJ main leaf is out...

I installed a set of Dodge 1500 leaves in my xj and have been pretty happy with them. I even kept the thick overload leaf. It kind of acts like a gradual bump stop. 60" eye to eye. They probably aren't the flexiest leaf ever put in an xj, but they really don't work all that bad. The greatest thing is that they haven't sagged at all in the couple years I've had them in!!!!!!!!!!! Here's how I did the install:

First, I built some bolt on frame sleeves by cutting a 4x6 piece of box steel 1/4" thick in half lengthwise to make two U shaped 4x3 pieces. I did some cuts and massaging here and there and ran the thing from the front lower control arm mount to where the rear frame starts to curve up to go over the rear axle. I cut the stock front hangars for the leaves off. I welded sleeves in the frame along the length and then bolted my u-shaped pieces to the frame through the sleeves. I also put in a sleeve for the front of the leaf spring moved 7.5" forward from stock. I then took a piece of the U channel and welded it upside down to the side of the frame piece to form a pocket for the leaf spring to sit in. Now a LONG bolt passes through the spring hanger, the spring eye, and the sleeve through the frame to mount the front of the spring. I then installed the springs backwards! With this arrangement, the rear of the spring fits the stock rear hanger perfectly. The center bolt sits back just a bit from stock. I actually only got about 5" of lift from my setup, so I made a short block and offset the spring center bolt to move the axle back forwards by 1". In this configuration, my 35's clear the front of the rear wheel well great and since I cut the rear quarter panels, they clear great there too. It works well and looks good. The springs measure 60" eye to eye on the Jeep.

http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeEN2jZq0btmGd

-- Jeff98 -Great shots. that is very close to what I am think is the best way to do it. Thanks
XJ ranger - I forgot to check and they are at home I think they are 2.5. After talking with a few friends and you guys I think I will be going through the time and process to sleeve and make the hanger very similar to Jeff. I am debating going inboard though.
More flex but less stable on the street v.s. More stable and less flex?

Ron4x4 said:

I have heard of a lot of guys using them in the front but can't find much of anything for the rear. I have been searching for a few days now and all the post talk about the front.
So here are my choices. My brother owns a business that bags pickups and cars, well I scored a set of 2004 chevy 1/2 ton rear leafs. I looked under the jeep to see if I could cut off and and make new spring mounts. I think I could but It would be a lot of adjusting. Or should I just cut the ends off of the Chevy springs and use my XJ main leaf I would like the strength and flexibility of the 63 inches but I am not sure a balance of length can be made between the shackles and wh positioning of the axle.
FYI the Chevy springs are 62.5 eye to eye, and almost have the bolt in the direct center of the spring.
The main reason for hoping to keep the chevy eyes and just make new mounts is because I have heard that the main leaf in the XJ will NOT hold up to the weight of the 14 bolt?
Ideas please
Thanks
Ron

Click to expand...

I am getting ready to do this swap in shortly. For what I understand you need to inboard the leafs to under the frame rails. The rest of the geometry I have not looked at yet but will in the next couple of days.

cherokeefun said:

I am getting ready to do this swap in shortly. For what I understand you need to inboard the leafs to under the frame rails. The rest of the geometry I have not looked at yet but will in the next couple of days.

Click to expand...

Why would you NEED to inboard the leafs?

Why would you want to place a rock anchor in a critical place on your frame rail?

For some decent info, check on PBB in the Toyota Truck & Runner forum. Do an advanced search, search titles only for FAQ and Chevy or Chevies. There is a Chevy spring FAQ thread, many pages long.


I run 63" Chevy springs on the back of my 85 Toyota.

They are 2.5" wide springs, but the bushings end up about 3" wide on the ends.

I built spring hangers from 3.5" x 3.5" tube, 5/16" wall. So thats a 2.875" inside dimension, so the bushings must be a little less than 3"...



There are many different types of springs out there. For an XJ, I'm not sure which is the one you'd want for the correct amount of lift. Mine are from a mid 90s 2wd 1/2 ton. These would be 3 leaf + 1 overload leaf. 4wd half tons had 4 leaves + 1 overload. Later current gen trucks have 1 less leaf in the packs. 3/4 and 1 ton packs I gotta believe are too stiff.

For mine, I cut the overload leaf off, which left a block about 3/4" thick. I may remove it as necessary to tune ride height.



Overall, they are quite flexible, although on my rig, I have very little weight on the back, so I'm not getting everything out of them that I could..

Really don't see how hanging 63" springs on a Toy would help someone see how to hang them on an XJ. Going under the frame rails is sort of lame, decreases stability unless the springs are stiff enough, which would then defeat the purpose of the longer leaves.

To mount longer leaves, you have to beef up the rear spring hanger and make some long boomerang shackles. You could plate under the stock hanger and hang another mount under it so the mount could be moved rearward some. In the front a new spring hanger needs to be fabbed alongside the frame forward of the old mount. Not a big deal, simple fabbing in both cases. To get the exact position of the front mount just measure the difference from the front spring eye to the center pin hole on both leaves, the difference is how far the new mount needs to be in front of the old mount.

I run a 57" long MJ main leaf with 1/2 ton Chev leaves under it, so I moved the front mount forward 3" and made a boomerang shackle to handle the rear 2". I used a circle track car adjustable spring mount laid on it's side for the front spring hanger.

I posted that because the afforemention FAQ goes into pretty good detail about the springs, size of mounts, years, leaf counts, other details, etc.

Granted its not exactly what he asked, but he mentioned he was having trouble on PBB finding some info.

Just the same as he didn't ask about running MJ mains, but you posted it, because it might be helpful..

I'm running some 63's sitting at ~7"~

Running them under the frame would be stupid tall. I mocked this up and was at 11"

The Spring Bushings are a little wider than xj bushings, and the sleeve has notched ends that keep them from working very well. A few seconds with a grinder will smooth the ends to make them move and give you enough clearance to run an xj style shackle

My front mounts are mounted similar to Goatman's. My rear hangars are specifically what he suggested minus the boomerang.

To get the exact position of the front mount just measure the difference from the front spring eye to the center pin hole on both leaves, the difference is how far the new mount needs to be in front of the old mount.

Click to expand...

Depending on your rear hanger about 10" I used 9.25" to get a good shackle angle and wheel movement under compression.

-BJ

For what I heard Norcalxj on this board had a setup just like this and had mounted the leafs under the frame rail. All I want to do is mount these springs. I will take Goatmans advice and measure both and take the difference. Now I am not quite sure I understand the rear mount portion of all of this. Should I box this up and hang a shackle mount off of that? Then fab up my own shackles. Also are any of you running a traction bar. As this will be somewhat of a daily driver I need it to be stable at 70mph.

People run 63" chevys in the front?



Approach angle FTL!!
Billy

JeepFreak21 said:

People run 63" chevys in the front?

Approach angle FTL!!
Billy

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Yeah I don't see how. Unless he is talking about toyotas, but even then I don't see how.

JeepFreak21 said:

People run 63" chevys in the front?

Click to expand...

Ron4x4 said:

I have heard of a lot of guys using them in the front but can't find much of anything for the rear. I have been searching for a few days now and all the post talk about the front.

Click to expand...

Unless he's been hanging out with BrettM