The CJ Lean

I have a 1965 CJ6a Tuxedo Park and was able to get a set of factory spec leaf Springs from Walks 4x4. Limestreet Carriage had him make a set a couple of years ago for a Tuxedo Park and when he did he made several of them. The springs are multi purpose spring to soften the ride which is what I was looking for. However this increased the drivers side lean to over an inch and being OCD or as I like to say CDO it killed me to look at the jeep. I was however able to tear open the other set of springs and add a leaf to the rear side correcting the issue. No questions here just hope it helps other with there Tuxedo Park resto projects

 

Some forum members have had success adding a shackle to the leaning side which was longer than the other three.

 

Making your correction at the rear instead of the front has always been what appears to me, the way to go.

 

Yes the lean fix was (as Timgr stated) with the small plate under the front spring. We all know the factory or dealer will go the fastest and cheapest route to make a customer happy but that is not to say it is the best way.

 

Quickest fix is to stay out paved parking lots. No one will notice the lean off-road.

 

Factory tells the dealer what to do regarding warranty repair work or what the factory recommends after warranty has expired.
Although some of us would have loved to tell the factory what to do....

 

I've got a longer shackle on the left rear...
Tried different springs, & I've tried swapping side to side.
Finally decided to leave well enough alone.

 

Yeah it's kind of a badge of honor.. Lol.. Have we ever really decided on the actual root cause? My opinions was due to the offset of the drivetrain to the drivers side..??

 

I wish my jeep leaned. The suspension is so bad it sits in the bump stops.

 

Well, in my personal case, it was running over something - hard enough to bend the frame...

 

​General consensus in other discussions is the offset motor and drivetrain and I'm not so sure bringing it level is such a good idea.

 

I think it is both from the offset engine and the fact that a good share of the typical use is driver only. IMO, since most of the weight distribution problem is up front, that is where it should be addressed and an extra leaf in the front left spring is what I've found to be effective. We think our CJ's are bad but compared to the narrow gauge FC150's, we don't have a problem.

Do those people who drive on the wrong side of the road still see a left side lean? Just curious.

 

The cause is due to the jeep being heavier on the driver side. When I put the new springs on I noticed that they were compressed about an inch more on the driver side as measured from eyelet to eyelet meaning they were longer on the driver side from more weight. By adding a leaf on the drivers side Front and Rear I was able to correct the problem by using springs to support the extra weight. At least this was the problem with mine.

 

Mine leanes a small amount, I had thought about adding the "coil"helper springs to the low side on the shoks. any thoughts on this?

 

Observations of new Jeeps contradict the theory that the lean is due to fatigue on the heavy side. New Jeeps often leaned, sometimes a lot. In '71-72, AMC/Jeep was replacing a lot of springs under warranty in new Jeeps in response to customer complaints about lean. When the AMC engineering department came up with the block kit (with a spacer that goes between the spring and the axle pad), they stopped replacing springs and started installing a lot of these kits.

I think a lot of the problem is that the springs on these Jeeps are way inboard compared to most vehicles. Thus any imbalance from frame straightness, loading, spring mismatch etc. is much more likely to cause a lean. And I also think there is a lot of friction in the suspension motion (lots of spring leaves, narrow silent blocks - in '74-75 Jeep widened the silent block centers), which would increase the tendency not to come back to level. With more weight on one side, suspension travel will be larger on that side, and be more likely exhibit a settling off-level, even though the weight difference does not account for that much more suspension compression.

An interesting question would be if the late model owners from '76 on see the kind of lean that the earlys and intermediates do. I think they do not. They have springs with wider and fewer leaves, and the rear springs are further outboard.

 

I noticed this in the newly acquired 61 CJ5..........but I have a bad back and at times lean anyways which is opposite the slight lean of the CJ....so it is self correcting....my eyes are level while driving

 

I have a 3in difference from side-to-side in my 52 M38A1.

 

are you running new springs, and what brand are they?
I bought rough country, 2.5" lift kit for my 62 and a year later the driver side sagged down nearly 2". last summer i swapped springs from left to right and that worked a little bit, but I was out in the shed the other day and noticed its leaning again. my 2.5" lift BDS set I put on my 70 is a million times smoother in the ride quality, and is still as level as the day I installed it