caster & shackles

7

77SSII

Member
Hey all
I have 7 degrees of shims to get me 0 degrees of caster.
Instead of a cut-n-turn should/can I ditch my 5"shackles and get some 4" springs w/stock length shackles to use less shim and get 4-6 degrees of caster? Can I get a reverse shackle kit w/no lift?
Now when I let go of the wheel after a turn it wont come back to straight ahead and it wanders like a mo fo.
I turned the saginaw box adjustment screw about a half turn and improved it a bit but it did nothing for the return to straight after a turn.
Can I crank the screw in a turn to a turn in a half without a negative consequence? I have new ball joints, tie rod ends, wheel bearings, etc.
 
That would help a bit with the caster issue.

But then your pinion angle will get worse (especially adding a few inches of lift).

Same issue with reverse shackle.

Best option is a cut & turn.


Edit: why do you already have shims? Is it SOA/lifted?
 
Don't need a lift kit in order to install the reverse shackle kit. Oem springs are fine unless they are worn out. I agree with looking into the cut and turn method.
 
The truck came w/a traditional mongrel lift. Not sure who's or how much.
Then I ended up putting a 5" lifting shackle on it so I need the shims to get me w/0 degrees of caster.
 
If you put shackle on that gave you 5 inches of lift then they would be 10 inches long! For every inch that you lengthen your shackle you only gain half of that in lift due to it lifting just one side of the spring.
If your running 10 inch long shackles then hell yes you need to get rid of them! That would cause major handling problems and there is no adjustment on a steering box that will fix that.
If you need a 5" lift then you need a 4" lift kit and 2" longer than stick shackles. I would never exceed 2 inch longer than stock shackles on anything I wanted to handle worth a damn on the street.
Every Scout front Dana 44 I have ran into has 0 degrees of caster. This was a poor decision made by IH, my scouts all started handling better with 4 to 6 degrees of caster. Every vehicle is different and there is no number that magically works for all.
 
Nope, no 10" shackles, they are 5" from bolt to bolt.
I'm going to get a reverse shackle kit and leave everything else alone and see how it drives. I will of course check the caster and shoot for 4-6 degrees. Hopefully it will have too much caster with my current shims (4 + 3 degree). I'll see if Jeff has what I need in a steel shim and not my current potted metal ones.
 
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