Homemade 60 shackle reverse (1 Viewer)

[skidmark7]

Has anyone built a set of homemade shackles to reverse the front leaf spring mount on a 60? Think 3/16 cold rolled is strong enough? Going to design and build myself. Any tips or tricks would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[CruiserTrash]

Shackle reversal owner here.

I feel like for $350 or whatever the Man a Fre kit costs, it ain’t a bad deal. As far as I know the hangers are made by 4Plus, so they’re quality. You also get bushings, pins, shackles that fit, greasable pins, and all the hardware … stuff you’d need to buy even if you made your own extended spring hanger for the front of the frame.

But I also fully support DIY endeavors that aren’t cost effective. Usually it’s more fun. You could also tweak them to your use. Keep us posted.

 

[too tall]

I used a set of 60 series spring hangers from ruff stuff with factory pins. Rear 60 springs up front. The factory pins set the width nicely in the new hangers. I pushed the fronts down with a 2" spacer block and sleeved the rear shackle mount through the frame to keep the springs relatively level. Reduces nose diving under heavy or emergency braking .
Our roads have a two tracked hump from the weight of the big trucks and when you have aggressive tires, my 60 had a tendency to try to climb out of the ruts causing me to swerve side to side while steering straight. The reversal has helped tremendously .

 

[matmattmatthew]

My SR was done by a previous owner but from everything I've gathered it sees like it was a homebrew job. It doesn't look like any of the "kits" I've seen, although it was done 20+ years ago. It's welded-on and very stout. (I can't wait to get rid of the body lift)

 

[CruiserTrash]

@matmattmatthew This brings up a good point. The MAF kits have the drop spring hangers mount at the very tip of the frame horns, but yours are further back. It doesn't really make a difference except that you'd want to do the spring length geometry first. I ended up going with longer HZJ75 springs in the front because the shorter 60 springs gave me a terrible shackle angle - the longer troopy springs got it dialed in. Having the hangers a little further back (or changing the location of the shackle mount for that matter) can give nice geometry with 60 springs or whatever else you choose to go with.

@skidmark7 Just make sure you calculate all that before busting out the welder. Oh, and don't forget about the spring center pin - that determines where the wheel ends up in the wheel arch opening. I think mostly centered or about 0.5" forward to account for the rearward shackle travel would be ideal. That's also going to be a factor in how you design the spring hangers and determining where they get welded. MATH!

 

[skidmark7]

Thanks for the advice and recommendations. Want to run 35’s so wheel opening placement is critical. Measure 4-times, weld once.

 

[lcwizard]

The point of the drop front bracket is to keep the caster as close as possible to original. You'll understand if you
measure from the ground up to the center of each spring eye. putting a shackle in the rear of the spring drops that end by the length of the shackle.
To keep the caster relatively consistent, the front needs to drop about the same distance. In reality, the drop bracket that manafre uses is technically
a couple inches short so a 3~4 degree caster shim is needed to get to stock alignment. I know this, since they are building on the parts I designed 25 years ago.
I don't believe they've changed anything with either the 40 or 60 S/R. Though probably not as much a concern on a non-sports car like the cruiser, changing the
relationship of the distance from the ground to the center of the front/rear spring eyes ( rotating the leaf pack ) affects over/understeer chacteristics of the vehicle. Having the eyes parallel is as neutral as you will get.

 

[lcwizard]

Has anyone built a set of homemade shackles to reverse the front leaf spring mount on a 60? Think 3/16 cold rolled is strong enough? Going to design and build myself. Any tips or tricks would be appreciated. Thanks

We built our shackles for the S/R kit from 3/8 x 2 with a 1 3/4 x .188 wall DOM tube to take the factory bushing. It slips into the rear factory hanger to
simplify things.

 

[dbleon]

I used a set of 60 series spring hangers from ruff stuff with factory pins. Rear 60 springs up front. The factory pins set the width nicely in the new hangers. I pushed the fronts down with a 2" spacer block and sleeved the rear shackle mount through the frame to keep the springs relatively level. Reduces nose diving under heavy or emergency braking .
Our roads have a two tracked hump from the weight of the big trucks and when you have aggressive tires, my 60 had a tendency to try to climb out of the ruts causing me to swerve side to side while steering straight. The reversal has helped tremendously .

Got any pics of this ?