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Shackle Install

50K views 31 replies 9 participants last post by  XJSuperman 
#1 ·
This is a write up on how to install aftermarket shackles on your jeep cherokee. For this writeup, i am using Rough Country's Adjustable Shackles. They are adjustable from 1" to 2" using the upper or lower bolt holes.

Here is the kit:







This is $52 shipped from www.roughcountry.com. Hardware includes shackles, bushings, metal sleeves for inside bushings, four bolts and nuts and 8 washers.

Tools you will need are:
Cut off wheel or sawzall.
21mm deep and short sockets
BIG MOTHA socket wrench or regular with with extension (pipe or hi-lift handle)
adjustable wrench
torque wrench
safety glasses
long sleeved shirt (or you will lose arm hairs)
pipe wrench
anti-sieze
jack stands
jack
PATIENCE
 
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#2 ·
First thing you need to do is block the front tires so the jeep does not move while you are jacking it up. Next loosen the lug nuts on your tires and jack up the rear end using the differential. Place jackstands under the frame rail near the front of the leaf springs and lower the jack so the axle droops down some. Remove tires.

Now take the 21mm socket and wrench and attempt to loosen the nuts and upper shackle bolt on one side. If you were wise, you would have pb-blasted those bolts for a couple days or weeks before the install. If you did not, prepare to throw tools and curse and spit. Some say nothing, not even pb blaster, will loosen the seized metal sleeves from the bolts but i will have to disagree. I could not loosen any of the bolts because of this problem and i have been pb-blasting the upper shackle bolts for weeks now and it loosened the passenger side. :thumbsup:

Now back to the writeup: remove the nut and loosen the upper shackle bolt:


If the upper comes out easily, consider yourself lucky!


Do the same thing for the other shackle. As you can see i ran into THE DREADED PROBLEM:


The metal sleeve was seized to the bolt. Now it's time to let off some steam and curse:


Since the bolt is stuck you have the option of just ignoring it as long as you possibily can and hope it goes away on it's own or just keep on working till the problem comes back. I kept working. Remove the lower shackle bolts and drop the axle as far as you can so the leaf springs are out of the way. It helps to unbolt the shocks first.



Now once the leaf springs are dropped and "hanging out" you come back to the same problem you hoped would disappear, the stuck bolt. The only way to get passed this issue is to bring out the toys :head:


I used a 4" angle grinder for a while and then got the 7" incher. A sawzall would work better but this is all my poor butt had at the time. They always say bigger is better but in this situation it doesn't work that way. The 7 incher would not fit in the narrow space and i was disappointed. :( So i kept working with the 4 incher using cut off wheels. Cut the welds on both sides of the shackles till the bottom part falls off:

After that, twist the bolt so the remaining part of the shackle turns. Cut it again on the top of the shackle to spit it off and you will end up with a bushing:


Use a razor to remove the bushing.
 
#3 ·
Now you are left with source of the headache: the sleeve. You could just simply cut the bolt on each end of the sleeve and then screw out the remaining bolt but i chose to save the poor thing. I didn't want to cut up a bolt that is worth $5 at the dealership. I took a flat head screwdriver and stuck it in the opening of the sleeve and hammer it so the sleeve would open some. Then i stuck a pipe wrench over the sleeve to hold it while i wrenched the bolt out:



It should come out with some muscle. If it doesn't then let the sparks fly and chop that SOB off.
Mine was saved but my anger for it didn't go away easily...


By now you should have the shackles off, leaf springs down and on your way into the house to get the new shackles.


Grease those bushings and install them on each end of the shackle and use anti-sieze on both bolts. ALOT OF IT! Think of making a nice big juicy hamburger and spreading all that delicious mayo on it. Do the same with the anti-size. The more, the less your brain will hurt later on. After a nice juicy coat of anti-sieze, install the shackles on the leaf springs and then install the upper bolts.



Use a 21mm socket wrench and tighten them just a tiny bit for now. Go ahead and reverse the procedure by remounting the shocks and tires and put the jeep back on the ground. Next take a torque wrench and tighten the upper shackle bolt to 105 ft lbs. Then tighten the lower bolt to 85 ft lbs. Sit back and breathe a sigh of relief while sipping a nice cold one :)

That's it. You are all done. You should have 2" of lift using the lower bolt.

Here's mine before and after:



 
#8 ·
Doesn't come with upper shackle bolts. The ones supplied were not threaded like the oem's. Have to re-use the uppers or buy new ones. The OEM lower shackle bolts are the same as the uppers so i could've just cut them and use the lowers but my cut off wheel would not fit up there.
 
#9 ·
The upper bolt goes into a nut that's welded inside the frame rail. One way or another, you've got to get that bolt out.
 
#12 ·
I already had 2" spacers up front. I swapped the 2" ome coils for Rusty's HD 3" coils with 1" spacer. Got almost 5" from that so it's pretty even now. :thumbsup:

 
#16 ·
Leon, you might want to look in to the shackle locator brackets instead if you can swing the extra money. From what I've been reading (and does make sense) these relocators really smooth the ride out big time. And you can gain 1 -2 inches of lift from them as well. So you get the best of both worlds. Just a thought. Check out the ones from Rough Country. :thumbsup:
 
#21 · (Edited)
Yeah, def lack of testing out the products for sure. You are the prime example. Just sucks that it's at your expense.

So I'm assuming you don't need those rear bump stops anymore with those huh?

When they designed these that was one of my 1st thoughts. The bottom of the shackle was wider than the bracket. How can it not hit? I don't understand why they have the last 2 holes anyway. As far as I know, you can't use longer leafs so why have those extra holes? A longer leaf pack would make the axle sit in the wrong location. If they shave the bracket off on an angle at the last 2 holes the stock shackle would probably work. Using one of the last 2 bolt holes would bring the shackle back to the same angle it was at originally.

I noticed you cut the tailpipe short of the bumper. Any problems with getting exhaust into the interior?

BTW, how much more down travel did you get with these?
 
#24 ·
They have multiple holes for different springs and angles. it also slides forward and back about 2" for even more adjustability. Right now I have it in the 2nd to last hole cuz it won't work in the middle one. It's roughly 70-75 degrees. Some folks run long springs and cut off the rear portion of the fender to increase the wheelbase so they would use the last two holes if needed.

I still need my bumpstops.....after I fix the binding problem lol. I have plans for some OME 2 or 3 inch springs with 1 or 1.5" shackles. This setup should ride better, net a better shackle angle, and allow as much uptravel as my bumpstops permit (or before the springs invert).

Yeah I cut the exhaust short because it was rubbing on the RC 2" shackles that I had on there before. The lower shackle bolt would tape it so out came the cutter. :D I had to make that alum heat shield to protect the tank but no issues with exhaust getting in the jeep.

I'm not sure how much more downtravel I got. Never had a tape measure with me when I went flexing. I need to fix the angle and binding problem before I can get some results.
 
#22 ·
man i got this thread up and running again! lol, my jeep is completely stock im just going to get the 1.5 (possibly 3in) kit from RC to fit some 30s nicely that's all, as it sits stock it isn't really sagging in the rear much at all, maybe 1/2in that's all, but the leafs are literally straight, no arch at all, is this how they were designed? by just changing shocks and using spacer/shackle setup i was hoping the ride would be the same as stock
 
#25 ·
Stock springs are pretty straight. If your springs are old with alot of mileage then longer shackles may stress em and cause em to invert, especially if you haul stuff often. It all depends on the condition of the stock springs.

If you feel your springs are weak but don't want to swap em out, get some OME AAL's.

Old Man Emu XJ Cherokee Add-a-leaf, OME-D22XL - JeepinOutfitters

About $50 for a pair. These will boost your stock springs without the harshness of regular Add a leafs and net usually around 1/2 to 1" of lift. Then you can run a 1" or 1/2" shackle and be worry-free.
 
#26 ·
Chiropractor is the first word that comes to mind.
 
#31 ·
Disconnect the sway bar links, lower shock mount and try. If there's not enough droop, disconnect the t-bar at the axle end and tie rod at the passenger arm. If there's STILL not enough droop, disconnect one side of the lower arm you are working.

Or you can just rent coil compressors but not really needed.

I've done this once by disconnecting the shock and sway bar links then driving it up on a hill so one end flexes down. I could pick the coil off the axle and was done in 3 minutes.
 
#32 ·
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