Small-lift rear shackles

I could really use a recommendation on some extended rear shackles that give a fairly mild amount of lift. Here's the situation:

About a month ago, I finally had the D44 installed. As it happens, the spring perches on the D44 are slightly higher than the ones that were on the D35 it replaced - about half- to three-quarters of an inch more by my reckoning. This is fine, except that the front is now nose-down on the springs. I'm sitting at roughly 2.25"-2.5" front, 4" rear.

My thought was to throw a set of ACOS in the front, which should get it back up to around 3.5"-3.75" in the front. Provided it keeps to about this height, everything will be fine - however, if it ends up levelling the front or raising it slightly above the rear, I'd like to get about an extra half-inch onto the back for towing, carrying cargo, etc.

So, onto my question: is anyone out there making an extended rear shackle that gives less than one inch of lift? I know there's probably not a lot of call for them, but if anyone knows of something that fits into this category and isn't total crap I'd be very interested to hear about it.

An MJ shackle maybe? Don't forget you will need a adj. trac bar with more lift in the front. Your axle is gonna go off center.

xjtrailrider said:

An MJ shackle maybe?

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Hm. Interesting idea; hadn't considered that. I'll definitely look into it.

Don't forget you will need a adj. trac bar with more lift in the front. Your axle is gonna go off center.

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Adjustable trackbar's been on there for a year Good point, though, and agreed.

I'm pretty sure you can still get a couple options from Teraflex. To get a difference of less than an inch, Check with Tomken. They have some 1" longer than stock.

You could also replace the factory isolator on the front with a small spacer or just add an extra isolator. You can get a lot of spacers for the cost of the ACOS.(they're in the classifieds often)

passxj said:

I'm pretty sure you can still get a couple options from Teraflex. To get a difference of less than an inch, Check with Tomken. They have some 1" longer than stock.

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Thanks for that; I'll add them to the research list. Obviously this is all going to depend on how out-of-whack the rear is compared to the front when done, but it's definitely good to have multiple options. A quick check of allchryslerparts.com turned up new (assuming they're actually available) '92 Comanche shackles for around $47 apiece - a little higher than but about comparable to what's in the aftermarket for bigger-lift XJ shackles.

Out of curiosity, is there a formula (with straight shackles) for determining the amount of lift that they actually give? It's been a long time since I've looked into this so don't quite recall properly, but I seem to remember that any shackle that's n inches over stock only gives approximately n/2 inches of lift.

You could also replace the factory isolator on the front with a small spacer or just add an extra isolator. You can get a lot of spacers for the cost of the ACOS.(they're in the classifieds often)

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Funnily enough, I actually have some 1" spacers sitting on the shelf here that've been kept in wait for a situation like this - I just finally decided to go the ACOS route so that I had the option of side-to-side and 'over time' levelling. I'll probably just end up passing them on to a friend of mine whose '89 is in dire need of, well, damn near everything suspension-related.

Basically for every extra inch in length, you gain 1/2" of lift.

There's nothing wrong with the MJ shackle idea, a lot of guys run them with no problems. They give around 3/4" of lift.

If you get MJ shackles, get them from a junkyard, not new. 3/4" lift shackles from Rusty's for $59 available here:
http://rustysoffroad.com/mm5/mercha...e=rustys&Product_Code=SR75&Category_Code=Leaf

I have a set of MJ shackles on my XJ that will be replaced with some RE shackles.

How soon will you need the new shackles?

karstic said:

I have a set of MJ shackles on my XJ that will be replaced with some RE shackles.

How soon will you need the new shackles?

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Probably about a month or so - haven't ordered the ACOS yet. I'll let you know when I get closer to actually doing it, but thanks!