Outer Limits 4x4 Board

G'day Guys- i just had the 7 leaf springs from APM fitted to the rear of my 1986 12ht cruiser. Here in west oz we are not leagally allowed more than 2 inches of lift over the original ride height without an engineers certificate. i am not 100% happy with the lift these springs gave- when i emailed Westralia spings (the australian distributor), they said that their springs are designed to give 2 inches lift above standard, yet they could not tell me what the standard ride height is, or where it is measured from. Anyone here know?
also, i get excellent flex out of these springs- (i can't see how coils would give any more flex, as with greaseable shackels the 31 inch tyres i have on were only 2 or 3 inches off hitting the inside of the mudguard). at this point however the shackles are angled forwards (inverted?). What is the story with inversion? my springs actually wrap around the shackle, so as weight is put on the spring, it lengthens and pushes the bottom of the shackle towards the rear of the car, essemtially impossible to invert them- are other springs different to this?

i have read through a lot of the tech bible and not found anything on standard ride height-haven't looked at the shackle section but thought i'd just throw it into this query.

cheers guys

You need anti inversion shackles on 2" lifted leaves.

dibbz wrote:You need anti inversion shackles on 2" lifted leaves.

or get a lift kit that is properly engineered to stop inverting shackles

Standard, you will have 19" between the centre of the hub and the wheel arch on the front and 18" in the rear.

ahhh from the centre of the hub- cheers for that

i am still a little unclear as to why i need an anti inversion kit tho- when the car sits on flat ground thy are never inverted- only when articulating- wouldn't an anti inversion kit limit the articulation? i guess what i'm asking is what are the consequences of not fitting a kit?

rowan wrote:ahhh from the centre of the hub- cheers for that

i am still a little unclear as to why i need an anti inversion kit tho- when the car sits on flat ground thy are never inverted- only when articulating- wouldn't an anti inversion kit limit the articulation? i guess what i'm asking is what are the consequences of not fitting a kit?

there not inverting... there moving naturally. when a spring flattens it gets longer... the shackle moves forward to compensate

when the spring gets longer my shackle moves backwards to compensate- are shackles supposed to point away from the spring at the bottom or towards it?

rowan wrote:when the spring gets longer my shackle moves backwards to compensate- are shackles supposed to point away from the spring at the bottom or towards it?

on the down stroke of travel (wheel gets further away from wheel arch) the spring ends get closer, and the shackle will move closer to the center of the spring.

on the up stroke, (compression, wheel going into wheel arch) the spring flattens out, spring ends get further apart, and the shackle moves away from the center of the spring pack

You'll know if you need anti inversion shackles because when off road and the wheel droops down the shackle may become inline with with the spring and when it compress's again the shackle may travel up instead of forward and away from the diff (with reference to the front axle of course because it is more prone to the problem).........and the car when on flat ground again will be all twisted up and the suspension will be hard like a rock on the inverted spring
and you will need a jack and wrecking bar to force it down into it's normal position!!!
if this isn't happening to you then you don't need anti inversion shackles