Leaves>Coils

I was thinking about going to leaf sprung up front ... anybody done this? Got pics? Got specs?

Where did you mount the hangars? Which springs/shackles did you use front & rear?


Yes I know coils flex better than leaves usually.....

LOCKED UP said:

Yes I know coils flex better than leaves usually.....

Click to expand...

So..... WHY???

Flex isn't everything. I live in Louisiana so it's mostly mud and I have seen some leaf springs flex pretty well.... at least well enough to suit my needs. I don't need tons of insane flex... don't even need the amount of flex I have now.

Mostly for simplicity. I'm sick of the handling issues of short arms at this height & yes I have control drops ... probably more due to the tracbar & draglink, but if I'm gonna need to replace my steering anyway I just assume get histeer and swap to leaves. Going long arm is gonna be more expensive than cutting off coil perches & getting leaves & mounts & even with long arm I'd still have crappy tracbar/draglink angles unless I cut all that off and redo it.

Coils flex great, but for simplicity.... I'd prefer leaves.

You can have leaves all the way round and have a little flex too. I used 4" yj rear leaves in the front of mine. Search search search. seems like there was a thread about this last week....


http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=15761&highlight=front+leaf+spring+conversion

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=8203&highlight=front+leaf+spring+conversion

Yeah I found those threads too....

I guess I'd just like to see some close ups of how folks mounts the front perches & what they did for steering. Everything else is within my realm of ability (the easy stuff ) I know some people have mounted shackle mounts to their bumper & others have made reinforced crossmembers..... well a pic is worth 1000 words so I'm looking for pics mostly.

Also gonna need to figure out which springs should I get up front to match my RE 5.5s in the rear.

Yellow, what front are you running? I'm looking to reuse my d30 and stick with 33s for now. Not looking for more lift or anything ..... just want to can the coils.

Yep, reused the d30. The reason I did it the way I did was cause I'm cheap but I need it to work...I would say try 2.5" wrangler rear springs in the front to match the 5.5 rear springs. My steering solution works, aint pretty. I can try to find more pics of steering.
http://home.earthlink.net/~michtravhp/id3.html

LOCKED UP said:

Yeah I found those threads too....

I guess I'd just like to see some close ups of how folks mounts the front perches & what they did for steering. Everything else is within my realm of ability (the easy stuff ) I know some people have mounted shackle mounts to their bumper & others have made reinforced crossmembers..... well a pic is worth 1000 words so I'm looking for pics mostly.

Also gonna need to figure out which springs should I get up front to match my RE 5.5s in the rear.

Yellow, what front are you running? I'm looking to reuse my d30 and stick with 33s for now. Not looking for more lift or anything ..... just want to can the coils.

Click to expand...

If you can locate one-take a look at a Scout II by International Harvester (a 1973 to 1980)-a little wider than the XJ, but similar underbody contours. That car will also show you how to connect up the steering and hang the springs....FYI.

Best regards,

Bob

Yellow,
any pics you can share are most appreciated, especially steering, front hangars & where the perches sit on yours. Would it be easier for me to located a YJ d30?

Bob,
will do. Guy I know has 2 of them so I'll be sure to take a long hard look at stuff next time I see him.


I guess my main concern with mounting the fronts is that I would be fearful of tearing up the unibody. I already have a BPI up front & I know I couldn't mount to that. Taking it off & modifying it to go around some sort of hangar isn't out of the question, and I can always leave it off while figuring stuff out. I really just want as much info & pics as possible so I can try to form a plan...

leafs are the way to go if you ask me. they have been using leaf springs since the age of wooden wagons, and i trust them! and when it comes to simplicity, try to beat it with coils... i dare you. and cost wise they rule. and anyone who says that leafs don't flex has never driven a vehicle with a fine-tuned leaf setup. and they probably don't like the rough on-road ride... crybabies. leafs really can flex it is all in the setup, shackle angle and length is important as well as spring rate. screw control arms and tracbars, just get your stuff on the trail and wheel it for hells sake!

to the point:
i am finishing up my leafs up front for the second time. the first time i rushed myself and did shackle forward with the leafs in the lca mounts. the lca mounts curve outward and i was not satisfied with the affect that had on my flex so i redid it. i now have shackle reverse, and i plated the unibody for where my shackle hangers will be. it is super stout and i am almost done. i need to update my webshots page with pics when i get it done this week. i used yj 4" leafs and netted about 8-9" lift but we will see what happens with the shackle reversal.
i built everything myself with the use of a plasma cutter, nice mig welder, 1/4" and 3/8" steel and spare time. the front hangers attach to my custom bumper that is attached to the uniframe with a piece of 5/16" angle iron that goes back about 10". it is super super stout. i built my shackle hangers with some 3/8" flat bar and some small, thick tube for the bushings. the unibody is plated with 1/4" sheet from where the lca mounts were, about 14" towards the front (up). it is badass!
for most people i would suggest just running leafs forward for the sake of easiness. running shackle reversal takes more work but makes sense to me.
there are some pics of my old setup in my webshots album here http://community.webshots.com/user/xj_punk

check it out and let me know what you think.
good luck, and by the way leafs may not be for you, that is just a decision you need to make. but don't let some moron tell you that leafs suck, they are wrong! i am sure you have seen older toyota trucks that wheel like mad and they have leafs f/r. my buddy has an older yoat and it can get up 40" on a ramp with tires on the ground. leafs might not flex as well as coils but they can do A LOT!


-nate

punk, you have any more pics of the front hangers you made ... or do you still have the hangers themselves? Looks like they bolted in in the same spots as my towhooks & BPI bumper bolt in....

Can one of you guys get some measurements for me?

I'd like to know how far apart your spring perches are on you axle and how far your hangars are from your stock LCA mount holes.


I'm getting a rough guesstimate of about 27"+ apart at the rear LCA mounts (hard to tell with the RE drop brackets). I'm just trying to get a feel for where/what I'm going to have ot build up to get the front hangars on. It looks like some of you have the front hangars right under the "frame" in the front but others look like they have the hangars sitting outside the "Frame".....

If I was you Id use a leaf sprung front axle, ford d44, or d60 or if you get one for free a YJ d30 front. My 79 f350 d60 axle was within 1/2in spring perch width as a yj front is so either would work bolt on for future upgrades!

I used a YJ rear 4in lift pack (only the second leaf) some factory Yj rear leafs and Xj Rear main leaf. I used the longer XJ main to give me more flex, it would be easier for you to jsut use a Yj main or even better a toyota Rear pack for the main then add Yj rear lift leafs to get yoru height.

I used some sch 40 pipe and polly bushing for my shackle to mount to, its welded to plate thats welded to the box tube that sleves my frame.

Ashman, I'd love to go to a bigger axle, but I have monetary constraints right now that are stopping me. Hoping to beef up the axles within the next few years, but for now I am sorta stuck with my d30.

What does your steering look like on the pass side? er since you have a d60 it'll be totally different for me but pics might help me get an idea of what I can use to make due for the time being.

Really, anything they SOA YJ guys use should work for me ....

i sprung over a Waggy D44 on mine, the perch width was somewhere 31-32 inches, i don't remember exactly (that's a center to center measurement).

you are definitely better off with a D44 or 60 because of the high-steer options that do not exist for a D30. You will get major bumpsteer with a taller lift and YJ style T steering. If you really are stuck with a D30 for now, (my waggy D44 was only $90, ungeared of course) then you better stick to about 4" lift with a ZJ pitman, or 5 or 6 inches with a Skyjacker pitman, which by the way I think is a bad idea because of the huge amount of extra leverage to rip the steering box out of the "frame"

LOCKED UP said:

I am sorta stuck with my d30.

Click to expand...

I think the leaf front is a good option when going to a leaf sprung front axle but to cut off the leaf perches, and old control arm mounts then make leaf perches and leaf hangers is alot more work then just making a radius style long arm for your exisitng front.

You would really have to do a spring under axle SUA front leaf setup or your drag link would be S shaped to clear the leafs.

On a dana 60, d44, or toyota front axle (with SOA leafs) you can bolt on high steer arms, then the drag link, will attach above the leafs and be straight. The tierod can also be up there and Ill do that after I figure out how I want to run a steering ram.





On the Dana 30 you would have to do something like the teraflex knuckle or a WJ knuckle to do Spring over axle leafs.
http://www.ilovejeeps.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9437

The Good steering solutions for the d30 are not cheep solutions.

Yeah steering solutions aren't cheap.... I'm finding that out. But, currently my steering sucks anyway, so I'd need to do something just to keep what I have. Hell, even the currie setup is almost $400 for basicly stock crap.

I was looking at some stuff from MORE for a YJ SOA that I think I could get to work with little or no problem.... Supposedly will work on a YJ SOA with up to 2.5" springs. Yellow had told me to use 2.5" lift springs but that was rear springs, how do front 2.5" lift springs compare to rear 2.5" lift springs for YJ?


As for the waggy d44.... how wide is that sucker? Plus I'd have to get new wheels... then I'd wqanna replace my 8.25...... I'd love to do that, and probably will one day, but for now I am kinda stuck with my d30.... and remember I'm ony running 33s right now. SUper beefy bulk up is a little ways down the road for me... and a little $$$ away at that.