feerocknok Posted December 5, 2006 Share Posted December 5, 2006 Ahh, the truck runs and moves. It's a good thing, even with the problems it still has. When I parked tonight, it happened to be with one tire on a large mound of dirt :roll: , and the suspension did its articulation job beautifully. However, when I was driving the truck, the rear end (with just longer shackles) was not nearly as smooth as the front (with new LCAs, coils and such). My ideas to soften the rear end were linking it, getting custom leaf packs made, or swap to some Chevy springs. Linking and custom leaf packs are out of the budget for this year, and the Chevy springs are only 5"ish longer and I'm not sure how they perform on MJ width frame rails. Does anyone have a suggestion on softening up the rear for smoother driving? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike Posted December 5, 2006 Share Posted December 5, 2006 i never tried this but just guessing you could take 1 leaf out at a time on each side and try that and see if it's any smoother? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
500 MJ Posted December 5, 2006 Share Posted December 5, 2006 When I got my leafs new from... Rusty's!!! ... They were stiff as hell. I took the bottom leaf out of them and loaded the truck down with 500 lbs of sand. I drove it like that for a month and now I sit nice and level and only have to carry around 250lbs of sand for winter driving purposes. Taking the bottom leaf out greatly softened the spring packs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CWLONGSHOT Posted December 5, 2006 Share Posted December 5, 2006 When I got my leafs new from... Rusty's!!! ... They were stiff as hell. I took the bottom leaf out of them and loaded the truck down with 500 lbs of sand. I drove it like that for a month and now I sit nice and level and only have to carry around 250lbs of sand for winter driving purposes. Taking the bottom leaf out greatly softened the spring packs. This goes to show people preceptions can be VASTLY different!! I too have the RUSTYS 4" springs. I think the ride is awesome, even better/more supple than the factory spring in my LWB MJ. Not stiff in the least! CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feerocknok Posted December 6, 2006 Author Share Posted December 6, 2006 Won't removing a leaf lower ride heighth and induce spring fatigue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted December 6, 2006 Share Posted December 6, 2006 Won't removing a leaf lower ride heighth and induce spring fatigue? Yes... Umm, I found the stock springs to be very soft. What are you running for shocks? You 'feel' the shocks more than the springs a lot of the time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feerocknok Posted December 6, 2006 Author Share Posted December 6, 2006 I don't rememeber if it's the Skyjacker Nitros or Hydros. I think it's the Hydros. Maybe they need to be worked in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted December 6, 2006 Share Posted December 6, 2006 Aren't those pretty much the cheapest shocks you can buy? Take 'em off and go for a little spin and see how things are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrettM Posted December 6, 2006 Share Posted December 6, 2006 shocks will influence the street "feel" way more than springs, and if the leafs articulate well they are probably plenty soft. get some good shocks on it and go from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feerocknok Posted December 6, 2006 Author Share Posted December 6, 2006 Yeah, I cheaped out on shocks. Got em back when I wasn't planning on making the truck nice. They'll blow quick the way I drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted December 6, 2006 Share Posted December 6, 2006 You can soften them out by triangulating the crap out of them. Look in my thread in the projects, there's an @$$-shot of my truck if you want to see what I mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feerocknok Posted December 6, 2006 Author Share Posted December 6, 2006 What sort of travel loss did you take on the shocks like that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted December 6, 2006 Share Posted December 6, 2006 Does anyone have a suggestion on softening up the rear for smoother driving? What are you running for shocks? My '87 and my '88 are both SWB. The '87 rides a lot better than the '88. The '87 is on whatever shocks were in it when I bought it, the '88 is on a set of Gabriels that I installed new about a year ago. Try a pair of Monroe SensaTracs on the rear. Taking out leaves will soften the ride, but it'll also lower the truck and reduce your carrying capacity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted December 6, 2006 Share Posted December 6, 2006 What sort of travel loss did you take on the shocks like that? Well, they only travel a couple inches normally... But, the shocks actually allow the suspension to travel quite a lot farther. Both upwards and down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feerocknok Posted December 6, 2006 Author Share Posted December 6, 2006 What sort of travel loss did you take on the shocks like that? Well, they only travel a couple inches normally... But, the shocks actually allow the suspension to travel quite a lot farther. Both upwards and down. K. I was worried that the angle would decrease the amount of vertical shock stroke, limiting my axle droop and hurting my mounts. I'll look into it when it warms up a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrettM Posted December 6, 2006 Share Posted December 6, 2006 Try a pair of Monroe SensaTracs on the rear. Taking out leaves will soften the ride, but it'll also lower the truck and reduce your carrying capacity. Have you ever used OME shocks? any comparison to the SensaTracs? anyone else tried both? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CWLONGSHOT Posted December 6, 2006 Share Posted December 6, 2006 I agree with Eagle. I have run Sence-A-Tracks on a bunch of vehicles. Very nice riding shock/strut!!! Sorry never run the OME shocks. But I have herd nothing but good things form everyone who have ever used a OME product no matter what it may be. Personally, I would not be afraid to try them. CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted December 7, 2006 Share Posted December 7, 2006 I have never tried OME shocks, but like my compatriot I hear only good things about them. The downside is the price. I can afford Monroes. FWIW, a few months ago I finally replaced all 4 SensaTracs on my '88 XJ. I can't find the records to be certain, but my brother and I figured they probably went about 150,000 miles. They didn't blow out ... they got extra stiff. Advance Auto replaced them without any question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORCA Posted December 7, 2006 Share Posted December 7, 2006 I've run monroe sensa tracs, rancho 5,000's, and OME nitro chargers. The OME's have been the smoothest ride both on and off road. I should mention that it was the only shock on a lifted truck (the sensa tracs and rancho 5000's were on stock vehicles) 2 thumbs up for OME! :cheers: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feerocknok Posted December 7, 2006 Author Share Posted December 7, 2006 Does OME have an official site? I can't find one, just see the parts on quadratec and such. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88swampedmj Posted December 7, 2006 Share Posted December 7, 2006 id say, depending on the "cheap" lift you want.. getting different springs makes it higher.. but then you have crappy control arms.. so cheap would be GUT that crappy coil stuff and put in leafs haha, its what iam doin... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87manche Posted December 7, 2006 Share Posted December 7, 2006 might just want to check the bushings and the torque on the bolts back there. After my lift the rear end rode horribly and didn't flex well. Came to find out that the rear shackle bolts were way above spec torque wise. torqued them to about 80 ft lbs and it rides fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 might just want to check the bushings and the torque on the bolts back there.After my lift the rear end rode horribly and didn't flex well. Came to find out that the rear shackle bolts were way above spec torque wise. torqued them to about 80 ft lbs and it rides fine. Part of the key for that (and for the front control arms as well) is to drop the chassis back onto the wheels (or onto jack stands supporting the AXLES, not rhe frame/body) before torquing the nuts. This tightens the bolts with the suspension at its normal ride height, whereas if you torque everything down when the axle is hanging by the bushings, you effectively pre-load the suspension. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feerocknok Posted December 8, 2006 Author Share Posted December 8, 2006 might just want to check the bushings and the torque on the bolts back there.After my lift the rear end rode horribly and didn't flex well. Came to find out that the rear shackle bolts were way above spec torque wise. torqued them to about 80 ft lbs and it rides fine. Part of the key for that (and for the front control arms as well) is to drop the chassis back onto the wheels (or onto jack stands supporting the AXLES, not rhe frame/body) before torquing the nuts. This tightens the bolts with the suspension at its normal ride height, whereas if you torque everything down when the axle is hanging by the bushings, you effectively pre-load the suspension. This is something else I did/didn't do. I put the new shackles on and torqued them up before even putting the wheels on. Thank you. Hopefully after correcting this, it will ride more to my liking. If not, off to the shocks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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