I have an 800 with a 4" shackle and 2.5" spring lift with SOA. I have NOTHING that even remotely resembles any kind of sway bar in the front. What will this do to my handling on the street?

My prediction: Bad!

Castor is about 0 and a two inch over shackle loses about 3 degrees so your 4 inch shackle is one inch over, about 1 1/2 degree negative (bad) castor. Unless you twisted the front end when you did the SOA ?

Add bigger tires and it gets worse.

Any kind of Hi-Steer? Stock axles? I'm not sure how the 800s were set up in front, but if it's the cheesy ball stud arrangement like the 80s, well then it's going to be terrible. I did a spring over on my 80 with the d27 axle and it has bump steer like crazy. (Also I have no shocks.)
Sounds like you have a good 10 inches of lift then?

It sounds like a recipe for a truck that will be all over the road.

When you say 4" Shackle, is that the length of the shackle, the length over stock of the shackle, or the amount of lift (:eek: ) derived from the shackle?

Well you didn't bother to give us all the facts! :shaking:

Full width or stock width?
Wheel offset, wheel width and tire size?
New springs or old worn out saggy ones?
Sill have the boat anchor IH mill in there?

http://www.afxracing.net/buckshot33/scout%202.JPG

SII dana 44's front and rear. the front was cut and turned and castor was added. The springs are both SII but rearched to 2.5" Shackles are home made by the guy I bought it from. He originally had it like this plus a 4" block in the rear for a total of 10.5 plus the SOA. I pulled the blocks out.

http://www.afxracing.net/buckshot33/scout%204.JPG

I dont know the offset of the wheels. the tires are 35"

It will not be Histeer to start off with. It will be a stock SII tie rod. If it needs histeer Ill put it on at a later time but right now I just wanna get it moving around. Jeep cherokee power steering box.

383 chevy 700r4 trans sitting on the sidelines.



***Please ignore the 1x1 square pine tie rod thats on it now, thats just so I can roll it around. and yess, Ive trimmed the u-bolts down.***

That looks more like a six inch shackle than a four inch shackle. If you twisted the front end the standard 18 degree and than added 12 degree pinion that would give you 6 degree castor. With that long of a shackle you may have lost all 6 degree.

Cool looking truck ! :D

Thanks for the replies! much appreciated.


It does have castor, you can see it when you crank the wheels but I dont know how much. Looks about as much as my 79 chevy pickup if not just a tiny bit more, a couple degrees at the most.

Ill put it together and drive it. I may build a sway bar if this thing tries to kill me on the hiway. that and a rollbar :)

A sway bar will counter-act body roll. Which may or maynot be an issue.

Handling on the other hand has little/nothing to do with a sway bar. Caster, toe, bump-steer, worn components tires.... those have more to do with handling.

With a Z-link (and you will need a Z-link if you don't go high-steer, stock DL won't work) you will have bump steer, guaranteed. How manageable it is will depend of the severity, shocks, roads, driving skill....

Until you get it together, you will not really know. Set a little bit of toe, a couple degrees of caster, make sure everything's tight, and learn to drive it with its new quirks. Its taller and softer now, it ain't no Porshe, don't drive it that way.