Suspension Stock leaf springs?

[ram137]

Okay, guys and gals, I bought an 85 CJ7 a couple of months ago and have been slowly getting it road ready again and making some upgrades. When I got it, the damn thing handled horribly at anything resembling highway speeds. There was a tremendous amount of play in the gearbox. I replaced it, the sway bar bushings, steering stabilizer, and am in the process of replacing the leaf spring bushings. All of those items were incredibly worn and dry rotted. After replacing those, it’s about 90% better, but I want more . The shackles on it now are 5 3/4” from center of bolt to center of bolt. I know that will cause quite a few problems with wandering, so I ordered new greasable shackles that are only 4”. My question is, how can I tell if the leaf springs are stock ride height? I’m currently running 31s, and given the extra height from the shackles, it doesn’t appear there is any extra lift. But, how can I make sure?

 

[CJ]

Have you seen the below thread? Lots of suspension comparisons.

Thread 'How tall are you?? I mean really.'

Mar 10, 2012

Hey gang!!
Hope to satisfy my curiosity on something and need a little help to do it.

Here is the information.

who: anybody that knows or think they know what amount of suspension lift they have, including those with no lift at all.

what: Two dimensions, setting on reasonably flat level ground.
1) measure the distance from the center of the wheel hub to the ground.
2) This is the hard one, measure from the top of the body mount drivers side front. that is the one near the drivers feet. Measure from the top of the mount not the top of the pad or the bottom of the body.

Why: This is...

• IOPort51
• Replies: 59
• Forum: Important Threads and Posts.

 

[TSB8C]

How are the ball joints and tie rod and drag link ends? When I replaced my drag link, tie rod ends, gearbox, and ball joints, I can run 80 with one finger on the wheel and 35" tires. I also replaced the upper ball joint sleeves with adjustable ones to get some camber/castor correction as well.

Here's a link to "Jeep math" to determine various lift amounts:
Calculate Lift Amount

 

[ram137]

How are the ball joints and tie rod and drag link ends? When I replaced my drag link, tie rod ends, gearbox, and ball joints, I can run 80 with one finger on the wheel and 35" tires. I also replaced the upper ball joint sleeves with adjustable ones to get some camber/castor correction as well.

Here's a link to "Jeep math" to determine various lift amounts:
Calculate Lift Amount

I forgot to mention, I replaced the drag link and tie rod with the heavier duty options also. The original drag link was bent.

 

[TSB8C]

Keep in mind your CJ will never have the steering feel of a modern rack & pinion setup, but you can have great stability and support highway speeds with no issues. You mentioned it's "90% better" after the work you've done already. With new tie rod ends, drag link, gearbox, ball joints, and new bushings in the springs and sway bar, plus the new steering stabilizer, there's really only two other areas to address. These are the steering shaft and your front end alignment. A common area for CJ steering looseness/play is the steering shaft bushing under the hood where the main shaft comes through the firewall and the intermediate shaft connects to it. This is a plastic/nylon bushing with a metal "cup" and spring clip. Cheap and easy to replace. You can also replace that intermediate shaft altogether with an upgraded Borgeson shaft that uses u-joints rather than the slip-joint lower coupler of the stock one. I have the Borgeson with the vibration damper and it's great.


In terms of alignment, there's really only toe you can adjust, unless you add some mods to get some castor and camber adjustment. I mentioned earlier I used some adjustable sleeves on the upper ball joints. These allow up to 2.5 degrees of range to adjust. I added a bit of camber to mine. If you use longer shackles in the front (3" eye-to-eye is stock) then you may need some castor adjustment as well since those longer shackles have angled your axle a bit down in the front. There are other ways to get this as well, such as shims that mount behind the hubs. I prefer the ball joint sleeves because they're easier to install and then adjust if necessary. I've heard some people say they can slip whereas the shims can't, but I've never had any issue with that yet.

 

[ram137]

Keep in mind your CJ will never have the steering feel of a modern rack & pinion setup, but you can have great stability and support highway speeds with no issues. You mentioned it's "90% better" after the work you've done already. With new tie rod ends, drag link, gearbox, ball joints, and new bushings in the springs and sway bar, plus the new steering stabilizer, there's really only two other areas to address. These are the steering shaft and your front end alignment. A common area for CJ steering looseness/play is the steering shaft bushing under the hood where the main shaft comes through the firewall and the intermediate shaft connects to it. This is a plastic/nylon bushing with a metal "cup" and spring clip. Cheap and easy to replace. You can also replace that intermediate shaft altogether with an upgraded Borgeson shaft that uses u-joints rather than the slip-joint lower coupler of the stock one. I have the Borgeson with the vibration damper and it's great.

View attachment 104351
In terms of alignment, there's really only toe you can adjust, unless you add some mods to get some castor and camber adjustment. I mentioned earlier I used some adjustable sleeves on the upper ball joints. These allow up to 2.5 degrees of range to adjust. I added a bit of camber to mine. If you use longer shackles in the front (3" eye-to-eye is stock) then you may need some castor adjustment as well since those longer shackles have angled your axle a bit down in the front. There are other ways to get this as well, such as shims that mount behind the hubs. I prefer the ball joint sleeves because they're easier to install and then adjust if necessary. I've heard some people say they can slip whereas the shims can't, but I've never had any issue with that yet.

Thank you very much for the help. This is the 2nd CJ7 I’ve owned. The first was an 83 and in much better shape mechanically than this one is. Unfortunately, this one sat at a ranch for many years and was only driven during hunting season and occasional trips to complete repairs on the property. One thing that hadn’t occurred to me until today was the tire pressure. I checked and the tires were at 35 psi each. I lowered each to 25 and the difference is very noticeable. I drove it afterwards and hit 45 without even realizing I had, once I hit 50, there is still a shimmy from the left front. I’ll probably head into town next week and get the tires balanced and an alignment done.

 

[CJ]

Another thread that may help you.

Thread 'Troubleshooting & Correcting your Steering'

Mar 13, 2010

When you're not satisfied with the steering in your Jeep, these are the steps you need to take to find & correct the problem(s).

Step 1 - find and correct any worn or damaged parts.

Begin with the rear suspension. Rear suspension issues can cause nearly as many steering problems as front suspension issues, although they're not usually as dramatic as front suspension issues.

Closely examine all four rear spring bushings and both sets of rear spring shackles for wear or looseness. If you have two-leaf shackles instead of single-u-bolt shackles, be sure the shackles don't lean...

• TDHofstetter
• Replies: 21
• Forum: Important Threads and Posts.

• 

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Keep in mind your CJ will never have the steering feel of a modern rack & pinion setup, but A common area for CJ steering looseness/play is the steering shaft bushing under the hood where the main shaft comes through nects to it. This is a plastic/nylon bushing with a metal "cup" and spring clip. Cheap and easy to replace. You can also replace that intermediate shaft altogether with an upgraded Borgeson shaft that uses u-joints rather than the slip-joint lower coupler of the stock one. I have the Borgeson with the vibration damper and it's great.

View attachment 104351
In terms of alignment, there's really only toe you can adjust, unless you add some mods to get some castor and camber adjustment. I mentioned earlier I used some adjustable sleeves on the upper ball joints. These allow up to 2.5 degrees of range to adjust. I added a bit of camber to mine. If you use longer shackles in the front (3" eye-to-eye is stock) then you may need some castor adjustment as well since those longer shackles have angled your axle a bit down in the front. There are other ways to get this as well, such as shims that mount behind the hubs. I prefer the ball joint sleeves because they're easier to install and then adjust if necessary. I've heard some people say they can slip whereas the shims can't, but I've never had any issue with that yet.

. A common area for CJ steering looseness/play is the steering shaft bushing under the hood where the main shaft comes through the firewall and the intermediate shaft connects to it. This is a plastic/nylon bushing with a metal "cup" and spring clip. Cheap and easy to replace. You can also replace that intermediate shaft altogether with an upgraded Borgeson shaft that uses u-joints rather than the slip-joint lower coupler of the stock one. I have the Borgeson with the vibration damper and it's great.

View attachment 104351

Where can I pick one of these bushings up? Would NAPA have it or do I need to look elsewhere. It’s an oddly specific part I never thought existed.

 

[TSB8C]

Amazon and many other web sites have the kit with the nylon bushing, spring clip, etc. Crown part # 4487696K is what you need. O'Reilly Auto also shows this on their web site. Alot of folks are not excited about Crown parts though. I agree on a lot of their stuff, but I used the Crown part and have had no issues for about 5 years now.

Amazon Link

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Thank you! I’ll check mine out this weekend!