Simple Tech: Home Made Lowering Shackles

Here's a short tech piece on lowering the front of a 41 Ford Pickup with home made lowering shackles. The spring mounts in front of the axle on this truck, so using lowering shackles is easy.

I just lowered my truck 1.5" in front. This gives the right look with my setup. The spring is old and has sagged some too. The stock shackles are 1.5" hole to hole. I took 1.5" x 1/4" steel and cut a 4" long piece. I then drilled two 7/16" holes 3" apart and made them square with a hand file.

Here's a pic showing how much longer the new shackles are:


And here's a pic of the finished product:


Mike

 

If you take your grinder and round off those sharp corners, maybe you wont poke yourself with them. It would look nice too. A panhard bar is a good idea to prevent sideways movement with long shackles.

 

The panhard bar is a good idea, as you have lost some sideways locating force with the more vertical shackle. The target is for the shackle to be at 45 degrees, so that the sideways control is controlled by the spring. On your set-up, you can rock the axle sideways within the shackles.

Good thinking, but consider the panhard bar.

 

I have the same setup on the rear also, a little longer longer, and I'm not noticing any need for a panhard bar. I have another friend with long lowered shackles in the rear like mine, and he has no problem either.

I thought about the possible need for a panhard bar, but I am not getting any lateral movement of the front or rear axle.

 

Mike,

Were the shackles I sent you of any use?



Ed

 

do you have a side shot of it? i would like to see how low it looks.

thanks

 

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do you have a side shot of it? i would like to see how low it looks.

thanks

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Here ya go. Not too drastic in the front or rear.

 

[ QUOTE ]
Mike,

Were the shackles I sent you of any use?



Ed


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Yep, I'm using them on the rear. I cut them down after I figured out which holes to use. There is a little movement in the rear, but I have to install rear shocks yet. I'll see how the movement is after that and then decide if I need a panhard bar. Thanks for sending them out!

 

Cool. I'm glad you found a use for the shackles... they definitely weren't doing anything in my garage.


Ed