New 74 Build Have Some Questions

Another 2.5" lifts with 32" tires and shackles that are maybe 1" longer. Understand that leaf spring allow articulation in large part by having the shackles swing away, letting the spring pack become flatter and longer eye-to-eye. So one should want a slightly longer shackle if they want their lift springs to articulate. An arched spring without longer shackle may feel like it hit a hard stop before actually hitting the bump stop because the shacke eye ran out of room to move.

My springs are from 4wd Hardware maybe a decade ago. Back then it was widely believed they were rebranded BDS, but not 100% certain. It was also believed that they changed sources after that. Mine have the double-wrapped spring eye.

 

Did you guys with the CJ5's run a standard drive shaft or double Cardan type. Wondering what I could get away with just swapping the shackles for now. Shaft angle looks pretty severe. I still need to purchase a drive shaft so now is the time to decide on everything.
OLD

 

Rear shaft angle on an intermediate CJ-5 is severe. My brand-new '73 with factory heavy-duty suspension wore out a rear u-joint and threw the driveshaft after about 20K miles. That said, I replaced the original joints with greaseable Spicers and had no more trouble. So IMO it's right on the edge of acceptable.

If you go double Cardan, I believe you'll need shims under the rear axle pads that point the pinion at the transfer case. Tom Woods covers this pretty well on his web site.

 

Standard driveshaft in mine. No apparent vibration or failure so far. If I ever have issues I'll tilt rear axle pinion to be straight shot to driveshaft then a double-cardan at output of transfer case. I'll re-research first but I think thats how one should do it.

With regular u-joint the angle at transfer case and differential pinion must be equal, and they must be clocked correctly. A u-joint at an angle runs at a cyclical angular velocity for a steady input of the transfer case shaft. It's a geometry thing. Look it up for more detail than I can provide. But having equal angles ensures the cyclic velocity at both ends of the driveshaft returns to a steady velocity at the differential, and the joints arent arguing about when to go fast and when to go slow.

 

Also add that one might be able to get the correct angle on the diff pinion with shims. Not sure. I'd figured on cutting off the spring perches and rewding new ones at a different angle. This may raise the pinion bearing high enough to starve the bearing without running more gear lube. May need an aftermarket diff cover with higher fill hole to conveniently get enough lube into the differential.

 

shimmed the rear up and dropped the transfer case and have an acceptable life span on ujoints

 

Oldskool did you ever find a steering column,if not i have one from my 1974 CJ5