[Davo86]

Hi guys

I know a lot of people don't advise using extended shackles to allow fitment of longer springs up front due to bad caster angles but if you fit castor shims does it fix the bad handling? I Live in north west, we don't get to many hassles about lifts up here so I'm not worried about the cops. I bought the car with extended shackles and a 2 inch lift already on it and it handles like a pig. Any idea what angle shims might help?

Cheers

[bumstein]

Put standard shackles back on. You'll likely find that helps the handling.

If that doesn't help start looking at other faults in the steering/suspension setup.

Oh and relating to longer springs, a 2" lift doesn't necessarily mean the springs are longer. Depends what the previous owner has done.

If the springs are longer then you'll need to perform a proper RUF conversion to make it work correctly. Have a look in good tech for the RUF thread

IMO you either need to do the RUF properly or don't do it at all

[MrRocky]

Theres quite a few varients on ruf
Moving the forward spring mount, redrilling the rear spring hanger or using a stock lwb rear spring to bolt in.
I would argue all gove a decent improvement over stock

[Davo86]

Yeah I might go the lwb route, it seems the easiest. Redrilling the spring mount Also seems fairly easy, does anyone know how far back you drill to fit Swb rears and what size shackles for a decent shackle angle?

[MrRocky]

About 20-25mm for stock swb rears

[Toomanycars]

Does it still have a sway bar fitted. We took the sway bar off one of our suks when we did the "virtual lift" and converted the front suspension to 1/3 Vitara (top mounting), 1/3 Jimney (bottom diff mounting) and 1/3 Jeep(springs and shocks) and it was horrendous to drive until we put the Sway bar back on and now it is soo much better on road..

[Davo86]

Good point. I'll try that

[Gwagensteve]

Toomanycars wrote:

Does it still have a sway bar fitted. We took the sway bar off one of our suks when we did the "virtual lift" and converted the front suspension to 1/3 Vitara (top mounting), 1/3 Jimney (bottom diff mounting) and 1/3 Jeep(springs and shocks) and it was horrendous to drive until we put the Sway bar back on and now it is soo much better on road..

None of that is relevant in any way, and doesn't make any sense.

Sierras do not require the sway bar to be fitted to handle properly.

Davo:

The problem is most likely the extended shackles. Because of the reduced caster and increased leverage on the shackle hanger bushes, the car is both more reluctant to turn in (caster) has more play in the steering (leverage on the bushes)

Adding a sway bar will help, but not for the right reason - the problem isn't due to roll stiffness, it's due to alignment and play. The increased contact points between the chassis and axle will bind up some of the play, but mostly you'll bend/break swaybar mounts etc.

Shims will improve turn and and tracking but won't improve play. Urethane bushes will reduce play somewhat, but if the shackles have a centre bar welded in it's possible the shackle is too wide (exerts too little pressure on the flanges of the bush) so even with hard bushes the car will still feel vague.

If you have long shackles fitted to cheat a RUF without a chassis extension, you've just found out why I don't recommend it.

Perhaps post a photo of the shackle angle with the car at ride height.

Steve.