CJ7 New Rear Shackles and Bushings

The shackles on my CJ7 are frozen solid at the pivots and shackles.  The bushings are shot and the shackles are flimsy.

Decided to go with Warrior 120 and 121 shackles.  They are 1/4" thick steel with a welded center brace and provide 1/2" lift.

I purchased the bushings and shackles for both the front and rear.  I'll do the front later.

• Shackles • Front 1/2" Lift • Warrior 121
• Shackles • Rear 1/2" Lift • Warrior 120

• Shackle Bushings/Spring Eye Kit • Front • Prothane • 1-1002-BL
• Shackle Bushings/Spring Eye Kit • Rear • Prothane • 1-1003-BL

Here is the process:

Had to cut the nuts and heads off the shackles and then cut one shackle side in half to get them off!  Removed the rear shackle hanger.

Rear end of leaf spring free.  Wood blocks support axle.

Had to use a hole saw to cut the bushing out.  They were hard as concrete.

Never install shocks over painted pins...!!!  Took me two days to get them off.  Shocks have only 5k miles on them so no reason not to save them.

Made a roll up paint booth.  Got tired of cleaning up overspray.

Cleaned up the spring plate and the shackle hangers, edge ground, cleaned up the threads, polished the pins, etc..  Painted with Krylon, direct to metal, semi-gloss black.  Nice paint.  Nice build.  Lays down beautifully.

Wire wheeled the leaf springs and painted them with the Krylon.

Had to knock out the sleeves to fit the poly bushings.

Parts cleaned, painted, and ready to put back in.

1/2" U-bolts installed.  Perches are 3/8" wider than pivots which increases to 3/4" at the shackles.  Mid-year 1986 CJ7's received Dana 44 rear axles, but the perches were wide.  

Side view of leaf springs, axle, pivot, and shackles.  You can see the twist in the spring.  This has been the case for over 32 years.

The picture does not reflect how much the shackles are pivoted outward.  I decided to have new heavy duty perches installed to align with the pivots.  This corrected the problem, but the springs had taken a set over such an extended period of time.

Decided to swap the springs left for right which corrected most of the problem.  The shackles now cant slightly inward.  I'm hoping they will relax.  The only perfect fix at this point would be new springs.  I'm calling this good for now.

The interesting thing is that now, in 40 mph flat turns, the Jeep settles in nicely.  Before this project the Jeep would skid and felt like it wanted to roll over.  Another unexpected result is that the dead spot in the steering is almost gone.  I'm anxious to get the front springs, shackles, and bushings done to see if there is even better steering performance.