![]() This, in my opinion, can be both a “right way” and a “wrong way” depending on your application and how they are used. I conversed with several Galaxie owners that had either reversed their shackles on a 61-64 Galaxie or new some one that had, and in all cases the result was bending or breaking a leaf shortly after reversing them.Īnother very common solution to a sagging rear end is air shocks. Seeing the position of the shackles begged the question, why couldn’t I simply reverse the shackle so that it would hang down rather than up? That would probably raise the rear of the car several inches but upon further investigation I learned it has the same consequences as over extending “hang down” type shackles. This means that lengthening the shackles would actually result in lowering the car rather than raising it. Instead, the shackles attach to a heavy steel bracket that comes down from the frame and then the shackles go up to the springs. In the case of my 62 Galaxie, shackle lengthening was not even an option because the shackles do not hang down from the frame. Also even though lengthening the shackles will raise the rear end, it does nothing to stiffen the suspension and consequently has no benefit of improved handling. ![]() The reason it is a bad idea to install shackles that are more than 1.5” longer than the originals is that over lengthening them puts stress on the springs in ways they were not designed to handle and will often result in a bent or broken leaf. If the increase is minimal, say Less than 1.5” than raising the rear end with longer shackles is usually not a problem, but since the increase on ride height is typically half the increase in shackle length, most often shackle increases of more than 1.5” are needed to achieve the desired ride height. With many older cars the shackles hang down from the frame and raising the rear is as simple as buying a shackle kit designed to replace the stock shackles with longer ones. Since the “right way” was not an option I wanted to use, I began researching alternatives and found the “wrong way” One of the oldest tricks in the book for raising a rear end on most leaf spring cars to modify the shackles. Under normal circumstances I would have no problem spending the money, especially when it is for the sake of suspension and handling, but my future plans for the car involve installing a Jaguar IRS unit that I already have but have not had time to put in and with that in mind eventually all the suspension parts currently in the car will be removed, so I really didn’t want to spend a lot of money on it. The obvious solution to this issue would be to fix it the “right way” and either replace the leaf springs or have them re-arched. ![]() The look was not horrible but I prefer the look of a slightly raked vehicle with about 1”- 2” more height in the rear. ![]() The second problem was that the worn out springs left the car sitting with its front elevated slightly higher than the rear. Upon further inspection I discovered that when you pushed down on the rear of the car it would easily go down and then slowly come back up. ![]() Every time the car would hit a bump, there would be a loud clunk in the rear end. I discovered this the very first time I took the car out for a real test drive. The first problem was that they were way to soft and spongy. After 47 years of use the leaf springs on my Galaxie left a little something to be desired. ![]()
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