Is a shackle reversal worth it with stock narrow springs?

Have my frame upside down and got thinking about shackle reversal. couldn't I just swap the front spring mount to the rear location, and fab up a new mount for the front? what about the axle angle? Both mounts are 2" off frame I figured if I kept with a little less center to center mesurment,and moved every thing forward about 1.5" or so it might work. I'm using stock width 2.5" lift springs with .5" shackles. and will be running 33x9.5x16's. What am I missing? Does the reversal really make that much a diff. in ride?

 

On road the reverse does ride better.

 

Do I need to shim the axle or can I just switch spring eye mounts? I don't whant to get into something major, like rewelding axle purches, It just looked so simple at first.

 

I agree, they track much better down the highway. My '70 cj-5 does just fine of road. I had to move it forward a couple of inches. As far as shims- only if you need to.

Pete

 

Just make sure you get the measurements correct, right Clint :

 

A shackle reversel is good and bad .
I have researched this a lot and I dont think I will do it even though I am switching to YJ springs.
For one thing it will want to nosedive on hard braking.
The final consenses seem to be overall.
Reversal for street, shackle front for dirt.

 

Wow, only 5 replies. There was a huge thread on this a while back. Every one has an opinion. I personally don't/didn't do it when I had all of my spring mounts off anyway. The idea of shackle reversal is it allows the axle to travel rearward when it hits something. Unlike a front shackle where the axle travels forward when it hits an obstacle. If you do it, make sure you get a long travel drive shaft also. With rear shackles when the axle moves up and rearward it can break the transfer case.

 

I have a shackel reverse on mine, installed a few months after I bought the $ sink (and part of how it got it's name ). the reason I bought it was that I bent one of my front springs when I hit an obstacle (curb) a bit to hard. bent right in front of the rear eye.

the part about the long travel drive shaft is true, the only time I have actually had the sink offroad since install, I felt it go solid to the Xfer case . I don't get offroad much, and am saving up for an improved driveshaft.

as for the dive on braking, there isn't much difference and I have 11's on the front which were installed with the shackle reverse, they were 10s before.

I would not hesitate to do this mod again on the next JEEP.

and that's all I got to say about that. $.02

 

I have the factory reversal on mine ('56). Haven't ever seen a different driveshaft between front or rear shackled Jeeps, ya think the factory would have addressed that if it was an issue. I 'spose once you lift it or get some flex you could have an issue, stock susp travel was fairly limited. The nice thing about doing the reversal is that you can reverse the reversal if you don't like it. Also, the factory set up on the reversal had the rear "C" shackle in the frame, not below it. By putting the mount under the frame and then using a shackle, you would theoretically gain some lift that way too?

 

But to get that kind of lift out of it the front mounts would have to be about 5 or 6 inches long to get the axle orientation right.

 

I too have a factory reversal, experienced nosedive after installing 11"ers at all corners, I used the original C shackle holes and bought a slightly longer shackle I like it.

 

does that mean that with the reversal you can hit the trails faster? or maybe jump a bit higher? R) haha

 

I reversed mine when I installed YJ springs. Love it. It drives great and works good off road. I have front drum brakes so nose dive during hard braking isn't an issue because I don't get as much grab as disc. It;s tough for me to tell which helped more, the YJ springs or the shackle reversal. Doesn't matter, I would do it again in a minute. Oh, and I am using my stock front drive shaft. So far no problems.

 

Think about this:
You need to have arched springs if you want the benefits of shackle reversal. The idea is to have the axle want to move backwards not fowards to smoothly go over a bump. When an axle with an arched spring moves up, the axle moves toward the shackle end of the sprung, so put the shackle to the rear. When an axle with a flat spring moves up (or down), the axle moves toward the fixed end of the spring, so put the shackle in the front.

That being said; I have a slightly arched front spring and did not do a reversal, and mine still drives great. I still think it is an over-rated mod.

 

I have driven early willys with Yj spring both ways as well as a stock military and stock 3b.

The YJ springs make a big differance.
But the revesal didnt impress me.
I had every intension of doing it to mine.
My BIL has had at least 30 early jeeps. Buys and sells as a hobbie(sickness)
His Willys is an mb with YJs shackle front and it rides out very nice.
He built it that way. And after driving it I have changed my mind.

He had one with a custom reversal, and his biggest complaint was the shackle was under the middle of the jeep and would hangup on rocks hadnt thought of that either.

just my .02 cents.

 

I did mine about a year ago and I have no regrets. It was just too scary driving my Jeep on the highway. It is true about the nose dive but I haven't had any bad experiences. I haven't been on any nasty trails with my reversal but the trail riding hasn't given me any reason to go back to the factory setup. I used the Warrior Products kit.

 

I did mine back in '79 or '80, no kits, no plans just saw it on the racers and after bending mine numerous times on the trail figr'd i'd be a good thing! Back then the springs had arch (now they don't, should I change back???) I personaly thought it was a good upgrade and will keep it as long as, as was said before the springs have arch to them. I put the upper shackel through the frame, about 2" up on the frame w/ 1 1/4" O.D. x 7/8" I.D. bushings welded in. I also made my own shackels, ummmm... maybe 5" long (I'm not going out in this weather to measure!) at the front I added 2" sq. tubing to the frame under the perch, angled at 45 deg. and plated. I am using the stock drive shaft and spent a lot of time adjusting for bottoming the shaft agin' the transfer case, it hasen't!!! This was with the stock springs, by the way!

Dale

 

I hope it is worth it because I have already welded the reversal all up.\!
To answer your questions:

1. Yes you can reuse the mounts. I did.

2. Yes the spring perches will have to be moved! Even though the mounts are both 2" look at the frame and you will notice that the front perches are actually higher off the ground than the rear (I heard someone say about 5") My front pinion is pointing towards the ground now! I believe if you do a search on my name you will see pictures of my axle.

3. Once the spring perches are moved, you then will have to grind off the knuckles and reweld them so that you can get the castor angles back to origional. I hear from this forum that that is the best way to go because I thought spinning the tubes would be easier(NOT!).I still don't know if the steering linkage will work when this is done. It looks like it will hit the springs.

Like I've said before.......Oh the web I weave.........

 

Hey, thanks for the replys! I'm sorta thinking I'll wait for now, If I keep getting "distracted" I'll never get it back togeather. It will be possable to do it later.

 

x2. (With discs)

x2.

I had hoped those pics would accidentally get "lost" someday. R) Live and learn, I suppose. To be fair, though, the PO didn't exactly leave me a whole lot to get started with: