[quicksilver]

We all know that stock suspension gets tired and leaf springs begin to frown, coil springs lose their pep in their step. But have you guys ever had springs on one side of the vehicle give out before the other side? My jeep has the pimp lean going on, its pretty damn good now, on the passenger side. It appears that the coil and leaf are both weaker on that side.

Anybody ever have this happen? Lol, not sure if I bent the unibody or if its just weak springs, but my shackle angles are different from side to side, so I'm leaning toward the worn springs. At some point in the spring I may pull the rear springs to compare them. Any one have recommendations to band aid the problem? After this coming summer the jeep is getting overhauled finally, one tons and I'm going to work out a four link rear with coilovers all around. Its just a matter of having the space to work on it all now.

 

[4.3L XJ]

I have had that happen on several rigs. Just find some wrecking yard springs to put in there

 

[quicksilver]

I have had that happen on several rigs. Just find some wrecking yard springs to put in there

At least now I know I'm not alone. So, did you basically just add a leaf to the rear then? I've got a rough country lift, don't know if they'd do a spring swap after so many years, 6 I think?

 

[4.3L XJ]

Oh, you have a lift. that complicated things. Park your rig on flat ground and measure each distance from the center of the hub to the flare or to the seam above it. That will tell you if it is just one spring or both on one side

 

[quicksilver]

Yessir, im fairly certain that the one whole side has weak springs. The whole jeep has a pretty good lean to it. I have the sway bar disconnected, but even so, it will only do so much to hold things level.

Another indicator that I can tell by is the rear leaf spring shackle on the passenger side, its angled more horizontal than the driver side, indicating that at least that spring is flattened out. Is there anything I can do to it to bring back some arch? Maybe find a good spring shop?

 

[Gluckmysock]

I know you can get springs re-arched. But you may be better off just picking up a set of S10's from the junkyard and add a leaf to yours.

 

[4.3L XJ]

Yes, re arching can be done. It tends to be expensive though. Generally, the leaves will go before the coils. How much lift do you have. But also humor me. Make the measurements. Many times one corner will be the one sagging and it appears the whole side is. (I used to build lift kits from scratch back in the day)

 

[quicksilver]

Yes, re arching can be done. It tends to be expensive though. Generally, the leaves will go before the coils. How much lift do you have. But also humor me. Make the measurements. Many times one corner will be the one sagging and it appears the whole side is. (I used to build lift kits from scratch back in the day)

Probably won't be til next week, but I'll get er done and report back.

As for lift, its supposed to be 6.5", but measuring from hub to fender flate, it seems that I have netted something around 7.25"

 

[4.3L XJ]

OK, if it ends up you need to add a leaf, that limits your options. When you figure out which springs are loosing their temper, we will figure it out

 

[quicksilver]

I never got around to measuring the wheel center to fender, but its not necessary, I can visually see where my issue lies.

On the driver side, the tires in the way from really seeing the effect, but the driver side spring has plenty of arc still, while you can see the whole passenger side spring is pretty well flat. The helper springs seem to have their arch still, but not good enough to keep the rig level. Also, the bracket on the front of the passenger leaf is mashed up a little on the outboard side. The floor board is rotten on that side, even though it would have been thin sheet metal, it still provided the support that it would have needed. Looks like I have a spring time project lined up already.

To address the front leaning as well, the tire on the side was low on air. That wheel was on the driver side, musta mixed it up when I installed the front locker over the summer. But that would be why the front seemed to lean also.

 

[quicksilver]

Also note worthy is looking at the angle of the shackle on both sides, the passenger side is kicked at almost a 45°angle where the driver side is close to vertical. Its not sitting on perfectly level ground, but was close and the jack stands were both at the same height.

So what to do now? Call rough country and see what they can do for me?

 

[4.3L XJ]

You can try that, but I doubt they will do much. If they don't I would get some Chevy S10 rear springs and make a bastard pack by cutting off the eyes and putting them under the main leaves you have. You can do this without removing the main leaves, which may have bolt rust issues

 

[quicksilver]

I said f*** it and just ordered new leafs. For the low price of $300 ill have new packs and u bolts at my door. I have impacts, torches, welder, plasma cutter and steel if I have to get crazy. Think I wont!?!? Lol, if that front bolt even thinks that it'll seize up, the impact will snap it right off, then I'll get to work on fixing the mount on the passenger side by reinforcing it and putting new threads in the frame for a new bolt.

I did anti seize everything when I put it all together, and so far it has helped everything that I used it on when taking stuff apart.

 

[Gluckmysock]

Not trying to depress you, but the sleeves get seized to the bolt, as you go to spin it out, the sleeve breaks free from the bushing and come out about 3 threads and stops. That's when you get the very fine sawsall blades and go to town. Some have used a torch to burn out all the rubber, then find the seam in the sleeve and jam it open with a chisel.

 

[4.3L XJ]

Which is why I suggested the bastard pack without removing the main leaf

 

[quicksilver]

I had replaced the rubber bushings with poly ones not too long ago a few years ago probably, and liberally applied antiseize at that point. I believe I'll be fine, but if not, ill get it eventually, if I have to go full retard on it, I will, lol.

I'm going to save the poly, just incase the rubber gives out before i can do my four link swap.

Also forgot to mention that when I talked to RC, they said the springs have a 5 year replacement warranty on them, so dammit I just missed it. Oh well, I've put some hard miles on those springs anyway, lol.

 

[quicksilver]

Brown Santa came tonight, which surprised me a little bit. Dropped them off right on my front porch just as you see here. Sorry for the blurry puc, but you can tell that my leafs definitely don't have that much arch anymore, lol.

On the other hand, I snapped an e brake cable, so ill be doing the tear down whenever I get that in, ill get it all done on one shot.

 

[XJSuperman]

Oof, brown Santa needs to bring you a tripod for your camera lol.

I'm late, I missed the discussion and the parts being ordered, but yeah, I've seen leaves sag on one side of the vehicle and I did not see anyone mention the cause: engine rotation and torque. Usually its old old springs and years of the engine revving have weakened the springs on one side of the vehicle. Also, some just have really fat passengers...

 

[quicksilver]

Oof, brown Santa needs to bring you a tripod for your camera lol.

I'm late, I missed the discussion and the parts being ordered, but yeah, I've seen leaves sag on one side of the vehicle and I did not see anyone mention the cause: engine rotation and torque. Usually its old old springs and years of the engine revving have weakened the springs on one side of the vehicle. Also, some just have really fat passengers...

Hell I don't have any special camera, just my phone, lol.

The engine torque makes sense. I do have solid engine mounts, and have not been easy on the jeep over the years.

 

[quicksilver]

It seems I need to go full retard on this pig. The nutserts ended up stripping out of the leaf spring hanger. I figured I'd start with the biggest pain in the are first, if it didn't want to go, then I'd leave it at that. And it didn't want to go...

Im going to grab a dremel and cut off wheel and open up the shell from the bottom and do what others have done and get a wrench in there to hold the nut to get it to come out. Im just going to go to the hardware store and get the proper sized metric bolt and matching nut, probably just going to stuff thbunut in there and tighten things up.

While I'm at it, it seems like I may have to reinforce the hangers cause they're just floating around at the outboard side of the body, I have new floor boards over the front half of the hanger, but behind the rear seat support, theres nothing on the unibody, it all rotted away, so I'm pondering taking some plate steel and covering the frame rails and running it all the way out to the rocker panel. At least stiffen it up tempa-permanently.

And as a side note, if anything that I typed seems funky, its probably cause the phone didn't autocorrect anything my fat fingers tried typing. Its been fighting me on that a bunch lately.