Lifting Front 1.5"?

Years ago, I installed a shackle-reversal kit on the front of my 79 CJ5. This gave it about a 1.5" lift over stock in the front and I also installed extended shackles in the rear to lift it about 2-3" higher than stock. My Jeep has always handled fine with this minor lift, the steering seems to work great, there is no interference or rubbing. But it's always had a "raked forward" look. It needs about another 1-1.5" lift in the front to even it out. Is it reasonably safe to install extended shackles in the front to give it a little more lift? This would put my total lift at about 3-4" over stock plus my 32" tires. Would I need a drop pitman arm? Is it going to completely screw up my steering/handling? I don't want to spend a lot of money on an entire lift kit, I'd rather just even-out the raked look. Is there a better way? I don't want to go spring-over and I'd like to keep the Jeep relatively safe and driveable. This would be for looks only, not serious rock-crawling or anything. Thanks.

 

I agree with lynn. If you have shackles long enough to lift the jeep 2 to 3" they are way too long to be safe.

 

Yeah, that would be 4-6 inches longer than stock....

 

I just measured. The aftermarket rear shackles are 6.5" long hole-to-hole, and the front shackles (which I believe are stock) are 3.5" long hole-to-hole. So if I'm doing the math right, the rear shackles being 3 inches longer give the rear 1.5" of lift over stock. I guess I was way off when I estimated they lifted the rear 3 or 4 inches. Maybe the PO put a slight suspension lift on it at one time, because I just replaced the body bushings and so I know it has no body lift. But it has a pretty good healthy clearance in the rear fender wells for my 32" tires. So what I'm asking is can I install matching 6.5" long shackles on the front to lift the front 1.5"? And if so, will I need to make major adjustments in the steering? These rear aftermarket shackles have been on for about 7 or 8 years now and have worked just fine.

 

Point taken. I'm just a little reluctant to lower the rear at all. Call me stubborn. By "plenty of clearance" in the rear I just mean it looks good (actually it looks perfect in my opinion). I guess I'm just being picky about the raked look, but if I've lived with it for 10 years, I guess I can live with it 10 more. I did order some 6.5" long front shackles online a few months ago. They clearly said they were for 76-86 CJs (and apparantly Suzuki Samurais). When they arrived, they measured 2.5" inside width. Both my front and rear shackles measure 3" inside width. So these wouldn't even clear the mounting point on the frame. Maybe it was a sign from above not to mess with the shackles anymore...

 

Because of the shackle reversal you probably use a wider shackle in the rear of the front spring. How is the shackle mounted to the frame? Is it underneath the frame or through it? What is your currant caster angle? As I recall the caster angle is maintained with the "kits". You will throw your caster out of whack with longer shackles.

My wrangler springs (put them on my 74) came with longer shackles. I ended up cutting them down because I disliked them. My 77 has shackles that are probably in the 3.5" range like your current ones.

I personally don't like long shackles because of the detriment to the handling characteristics of your jeep. It probably wouldn't be as noticeable with the shackle reversal. But I am not a fan of that either.... guess I am not the guy to give advice on that set up....