I got a little thinky...

[6spdYJ]

If I use 19" arms, are they short, mid or long? If I could stuff 22" in there, what would they classify as? I'm still working out my axle bracketry and looking at the options of modifying the upper panhard mount. Sure is nice not to have to hurry.

[aw12345]

19" is a standard TJ short arm if I am not mistaken, 22" your leaning towards midarm teritory

[6spdYJ]

Thanks Art, I'm back to third guessing myself. I'll have to measure it, but it looks like I might be able to stretch the front about 4" with the front LCA's. I'm going to look to see if I can just put a block in my upper panhard bracket and make another tab for it to come off the frame to slide it forward. Shouldn't be too tough. If this idea doesn't pan out, at least I know my earlier measurements are solid.
I'm still soing to have to fab some spring buckets, but I just found that broncograveyard has the f-250 bolt on shock towers for $24.

[6spdYJ]

Anybody familiar with late 70's F-series and OJ-Broncos? I've seen some coil buckets that look like they'd be a good fit, but I'm having trouble finding the OD of the coil (F-150/Bronco). Apparently the earlier Rangers had something like it too, but the OD is still in question. Wonder what a good source for NOS would be.

[inVERt'D]

Ted, those I know at least some Ford trucks use/ have used 5-1/2" front coils. In fact, I just checked an '82 F-150 and it's coils were 5-1/2".

Besides the buckets, you might like the coils themselves. That's what I believe my TJ's front coils to be--F-150 front lift coils (I got them cheap on eBay a few years back without a valid part number). They are stiff, but they work better than the Teraflex coils they replaced. Even before I got a winch, the nose would dive some coming down off of whoops, over ruts, etc., but now it's more like the nose stays up and the suspension goes down. I was kind of expecting the ride to be rougher, but it really wasn't--just feels a lot more solid and stable.

[6spdYJ]

And now... A leaf spring question. I'm thinking about the possibility of a reverse-arch rear leaf spring SOA. I want to keep it low, that's why the reverse. Do the reverse-arches tend to wrap up like a standard leaf? Does anybody know of a good resource to study up on this?

[inVERt'D]

If they flex, why wouldn't they they wrap?

[6spdYJ]

Thank you for the obvious ... I'm just wondering if they're worse - kinda like how standard leaves in SOA tend to wrap worse than SUA.

What I'm thinking is flipping my spring perches (they're bolt-ons) then flipping and re-stacking the stock springs opposite but with another main in the second position. What I'm after is a softer ride and more flex while gaining clearance on the bottom of the axle. It should have plenty of resistance to hold it up, but I wonder how droop would be. With the 32's my wheel weight is roughly 75 lbs - plus axle weight.

My Rancho setup is okay, but if I can do better, why not?

I know reversed eyes are the right way to go, but at this point I'm just curious if there would be any gains - or if it would work at all.

[inVERt'D]

Don't know anything in particular about reverse-arch leaf springs.

In general though, longer leafs + heavier axles + heavier wheels/ tires + longer shocks = more droop.

BTW, in Roger's CJ10A For Sale thread I posted a link to a build on pirate. One of the interesting things about that build is a sliding block mechanism for the leaf springs.

[jonah]

From what I have read, amount of axle wrap is most directly connected to spring rate. The fact that SUA wrap less is that they are usually arched more and have a higher spring rate and therefore resist wrapping. When people go spring over, they usually use flat soft springs which leads to problems. I would guess that flipping the pack will not change the amount of wrapping much as it should still have the same spring rate. However I would think you might have other problems with the pack having to bend over backwards on full droop which could lead to early failure. I must admit that I am curious on how it would ride.

Anyway, if you want soft flexy ride with leaf springs I think you just have to deal with the axle wrap. I am running stock YJ springs with an extra main and the wrap isn't too bad, but bad enough that I am doing the traction bar...

[inVERt'D]

I have some rear Scout II springs...

[6spdYJ]

Time to dust this off for another round of opinions. I got thinking about how to mount the front shocks. I want maximum ground clearance and shock protection. What I'm thinking is to punch a hole in the center of my upper spring bucket (they're made from 4x1/4" box and cut into a "c"). The basic idea is to use a short section of tube with the OD to match the coil spring ID and weld it in as a bung through the hole cut in the upper spring bucket. An attempt to simplify what I'm trying to say... Upper bucket, hole cut - centered on spring, sleeve to match OD welded in the hole. From there, I can make a tower that just adds onto the bracket itself and drop the shock through the center of the coil spring. The shock will act as a spring retainer and the spring will protect the shock. This would allow me to put the bucket anywhere and the shock would be guaranteed to fit. My only question would be the angles the shocks might reach under articulation. Do you think they might swing around enough to hit the hole in the bucket?

[aw12345]

Time to dust this off for another round of opinions. I got thinking about how to mount the front shocks. I want maximum ground clearance and shock protection. What I'm thinking is to punch a hole in the center of my upper spring bucket (they're made from 4x1/4" box and cut into a "c"). The basic idea is to use a short section of tube with the OD to match the coil spring ID and weld it in as a bung through the hole cut in the upper spring bucket. An attempt to simplify what I'm trying to say... Upper bucket, hole cut - centered on spring, sleeve to match OD welded in the hole. From there, I can make a tower that just adds onto the bracket itself and drop the shock through the center of the coil spring. The shock will act as a spring retainer and the spring will protect the shock. This would allow me to put the bucket anywhere and the shock would be guaranteed to fit. My only question would be the angles the shocks might reach under articulation. Do you think they might swing around enough to hit the hole in the bucket?

Flex it out without the spring and just the shock and you should be able to figure out how much things move.
Most likely it will

[inVERt'D]

I don't think it will work on a long-travel setup. It all depends upon geometry. There are a number of variables that will determine if and when the shock will hit the inside of the spring locating tube/ sleeve.

1) Sleeve ID: you're not going to have much latitude with the sleeve ID but bigger ID = less interference.
2) Sleeve Length: shorter sleeve in the lateral (inboard/ outboard) area = less interference. You might clearance the lateral areas of the sleeve.
3) Shock Upper Mount Height: higher the upper shock mount = more interference. When the suspension is flexed and extended, the bottom of the shock will travel in an arc. Actually, any given point on the shock will travel in an arc, but the closer those arcs are to the pivot point in the center of the upper mounting bolt (0 radians arc), the smaller they become.
4) Suspension control arm geometry will affect how the aforementioned arc will be shaped: whether the bottom of the shock will be moved forward or backward going either up or down, and if so, how much. So this is related to rollsteer. More roll oversteer or understeer = more forward and backwards movement. Shorter arms in relation to the travel distance = more forwards and backwards movement = more interference.
5) Travel distance up and down: more travel = bigger arcs = more interference.

All of which makes me think it probably won't work on a long travel setup.

In summary :geek:, it will be a whole lot easier and probably better to mount the shock aft of the spring. It should be well-protected by the control arms and axle from behind and below, and will be out of harms way from the front and even from the outboard side.

[aw12345]

Spring diameter is a big issue for this idea.