MORE Jeep Shackle Reversal + Buggy Spring

Difficulty Rating:
This is something that most people who are comfortable doing work on their vehicle should be able to accomplish without too much difficulty. It is somewhat more difficult than a standard leaf spring lift kit installation and does require some drilling of the frame and removal of welded on spring perches.

Tools Needed:
A good jack and at least 4 jack stands, a basic set of 1/2 drive wrenches, a good drill with quality drill bits, cutting fluid (for drilling), tape measure. A grinder and cut off tool. Air tools and an air chisel are strongly recommended and will go a long ways towards making this job easier.

The Jeep must be jacked up well off the ground and the frame supported behind the rear spring hangers as these will later be removed. The wheels are removed, and the axle is supported by placing jack stands under the disk brake hub (make sure you replace a few of the lug nuts to keep the disk from popping off at an awkward moment). The springs are unbolted from the axle; do this carefully as the spring may still be compressed. The springs and all spring bushings are then removed from the vehicle. The front bumper is removed.

We took advantage of the opportunity of having the spring packs out of the vehicle to do a little basic work and a few small modifications to enhance articulation.

We disassembled the spring pack by holding the leafs together with a clamp and then unbolting the retaining nut. After loosening the clamp we were able to separate the leafs. Quite a bit of mud and grit were packed in between the spring leafs and the friction from this gunk prevents the leaves from sliding easily against each other. This causes a rougher ride and can limit spring travel. The solution was simple: we took a hard wire brush and scrubbed the springs, especially were any rusted spots were found. We touched up any bare metal spots that were exposed with a bit of paint and then we applied a thin coat of heavy grease between the leafs before reassembling the spring pack. The grease will not last more than a season and it may attract more grit, but we can easily clean these out every now and then and the improvement in the ride and articulation is noticeable. We will look into what should be the optimal solution: finding full length Teflon pads to go between the springs in the future.

Another old trick we used was to loosen the clamps that hold the spring pack together. These are needed to keep the leafs from spreading laterally (fanning out) but by loosening them so the springs can separate vertically we can improve articulation quite a bit. This works because as the spring compresses all the leafs compress, but when we are in a droop situation if the main leaf is not tied to the other leafs they can separate and only the main leaf is fighting axle droop. This can add significant wheel travel when getting twisted up.

To do this we heated our clamps up with a torch while holding the spring firmly in a vise, then grabbed the red hot end and simply bent it up. If you wish you can place a 1/4" or so spacer beneath the end and bend it back down and then once it cools remove the spacer.

The front mounts
Since this is a shackle reversal we must move the fixed spring mounting point to the front of the vehicle. The MORE front mounts are very beefy and well constructed and bolt right on. They use both the stock front spring hanger and bolt to several other locations on the front of the vehicle and are significantly stronger than the stock front spring perches (a notorious weak spot on the Jeep YJ).


A hole is drilled in the passenger side frame and a sleeve is inserted to keep the frame from collapsing. We tack-welded the sleeve to help hold it in place. Don't drop it and lose it in the frame.	The drivers side front mount re-uses one of the bolts for the power steering box.	Here it is easy to see how the ARB bumper mount and the front MORE spring mounts co-exist with each other.

It is necessary to drill a hole in the passenger side frame for one these mounts. The front mounts did not interfere at all with our use of an aftermarket bumper (the ARB bumper) even while using the lower bumper mount as one of it's mounting points. One problem we found after removing the front bumper was that one of the welds on the nut that is welded into the frame was broken. We used a small wire fed MIG welder to quickly make this important repair before going on.


We found a broken weld on the nut that is welded in the front frame horn	We repaired the break before continuing. Paint was used to prevent future rust.	The front spring hangers are used as one of the mounting points once a machined aluminum bushing is inserted.	The mount is bolted through the original spring hanger, through the frame and a bolt (not seen) is used through the lower bumper mount

This can be a tough part if you are only using hand tools. The welds on the stock rear spring hangers are ground away. We then used an air chisel to separate the spring hanger from the frame with minimal scaring or damage to the frame. Paint was used to touch up the frame and prevent rust.

This is the "point of no-return". Removing the rear spring hangers mangles them beyond any hope of re-use and to return to the stock configuration would require that these stock mounts be bought new and carefully rewelded into place on the frame.

The new location for the shackle mount is determined with the tape measure from the front spring hanger. The buggy leaf is then clamped into position and a center punch is used to mark where we will be drilling - But before this is started however we need to cut away a bit of one motor mounts to provide clearance for the buggy spring. This is called out in the excellent instructions and a reciprocating saw makes quick work of the job.

We first drill a hole all the way through the frame being careful to keep the drill exactly perpendicular to the frame and using plenty of cutting fluid. Then, since sleeves will again be used, the bottom hole is enlarged to accept the sleeve. We used a 1/2" bolt placed through the top to locate the sleeves and then we tack welded the sleeves in position. You can get by without the welding, but be very careful not to drop the sleeve into the frame as it would be virtually impossible to retrieve.

When drilling the hole we used a cheap trick to keep metal shavings under control, we took a few strong magnets (about $1 each at Radio Shack) and placed them in a plastic bag (or you will never get all of the shavings off). We placed the magnets next to were the holes were being drilled and the vast majority of metal chips and shavings stuck to the magnet. When we were done we simply turned the bag inside out and we easily disposed of the razor sharp metal chips.
Remember to always wear safety glasses!

The buggy leaves are bolted into place with the supplied mounting plate, the springs are reattached to the vehicle and the axle is bolted back onto the springs.

Ready to go?
Well, while we may be able to drive around, we are really not done yet, there are still a few things to consider:

First we can see the axle drooped on the vehicle with no tires installed. This is by no means the maximum droop that either side will see when twisted up, but you can already see how the springs have started to spread out (from loosening the clips) even before the buggy spring pulls away from the frame.

The front driveshaft is showing quite a bit of spline in this configuration and it looks like getting a new driveshaft with a custom long spline section is going to be required. We will have to contact Tom Wood about this. It also looks like the brake lines may be a bit tight - some Rubicon Express HD extended stainless braided brakelines will take care of that nicely.

Since we now have a front suspension with much more travel we selected a Rancho 9000 shock that has much more travel (9012). Unfortunately Rancho does not provide these in the style of shock that the Wrangler uses in front (with a mounting stud on the top) so we used an adapter from JKS to fit these shocks.

Yes, I guess after a few small details like mounting the wheels we can drive the Jeep.

Finally it is time to look at how this suspension performs both on and off-road and to look at some of the tradeoffs involved with the buggy leaf.