UPDATE on the trashed shackles

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TrailBeast

AKA Mopars4us on Youtube
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From my other post, this is where my rattle was coming from.

Betcha I don’t break these.
1/4 x 1-1/2 plate and 1/2 shank bolts with nyloc nuts.
The bolts have the heads cut off and welded into the holes in the plate.
I used 1-1/2 plate because the poly bushings have a 1-1/2 outer section between the plates, springs and body mount ends and I want those fully supported.


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nice. as we say around these parts now it is le beouf.

question: why lop off the heads and weld? clearance?

i don't have a strong opinion one way or the other on it, i'm just lazy efficient and if i don't have to break out the welder and prep/buzz/finish/paint and can just slam a bolt in there i'm all about that.
 
Greg, can you weld? Side to side movement on these can be reduced considerably by welding a piece of scrap across them, if room, both front and rear
 
nice. as we say around these parts now it is le beouf.

question: why lop off the heads and weld? clearance?

i don't have a strong opinion one way or the other on it, i'm just lazy efficient and if i don't have to break out the welder and prep/buzz/finish/paint and can just slam a bolt in there i'm all about that.
Yes, clearance.
I moved the spring brackets inboard 1/2 inch front and back as well as the spring perches on the diff so I could put 10 inch tires an rims on.
Without doing that the tires just barely touched the leafs.
That 1/2 is all I could go anyway because of inner fender clearance.
Darts don’t have a ton of room like some other A bodies do.
The outer lip has been trimmed as well, to get the tires out farther so they don’t look so tucked under.
BTW my welder is always hooked up.
All I have to do is turn on the gas and hit the switch.


Greg, can you weld? Side to side movement on these can be reduced considerably by welding a piece of scrap across them, if room, both front and rear

If you look at the pics you will see another hole in the middle of the plates.
This was going to be for another 1/2 bolt.
Unfortunately the shackles are just short enough where it would hit the subframe.

I’m going to build another set 2 inches longer and that cross bolt will be included in the new ones.
If I just welded a plate across them it would have to be cut to get them off for any reason.

One thing I am considering is to add a block in the center of the longer ones that is welded to the frame side plate and bolts to the outside plate.
Kind of the same idea as the ones above, except a bolt would go in the center hole and into threads in the block.
I’m sure that would also take care of cross stiffness.

I almost stopped while making these and started over making two inch longer ones.
 
LOL I had not noticed that the bolt can not be reversed ? on the frame mount.
 
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