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Front shackle, track bar

Snowracer

Snowracer

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 25, 2020
Member Number
2176
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508
know its day early for stupid question Tuesday :homer:

current build has front shackles and im getting conflicting info on if i need a track bar or not. i have always been under the impression that you need one with front shackles but seems all the YJ guys say no. now im not building a yj, its 1 ton ford diffs and rather stiff leafs under a full size.

so do i need one or no

pic of current build just cause :smokin:

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I don't think you need one, but I can see how they may help handling once everything kinda wears in. My 4runner drove great when it was fresh, but later developed a death wobble. I never added a track bar, but Scooterloo2 added one to his similar 4runner iirc, maybe he can chime in with how it worked out.

My samurai doesn't have 1, but it's spua and has metal bushings in the shackle hangers :laughing:

How much street driving are you planning?
 
You don't need one, but it will improve steering feel, especially when the bushings get good and broke in. If you find that you have a lot of bump steer a properly designed track bar can remove that.

Shorter shackles and poly bushings may eliminate the need for one completely.

If it were me I'd drive it first and add one if I felt that the steering felt to vague, or I had a ton of bump steer that made it annoying to drive. If it is offroad only I wouldn't bother at all.

Lots of front shackle vehicles didn't have them from the factory, cj's, samurais, scouts, etc. The YJ may be the only vehicle that did...
 
The 85-97 f350s had a trac-bar mainly because the front shackle was an unstable, narrow little dogbone thing carried over from the TTB trucks.

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ok thanks guys, that is pretty much what i figured. no street but FSR roads ect for now maybe some street next year but even then not much. will try it as is and see how it feels.
 
u2slow said:
The 85-97 f350s had a trac-bar mainly because the front shackle was an unstable, narrow little dogbone thing carried over from the TTB trucks.

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Can confirm. My worn out '95 +4" POS had bad deathwobble, cured by putting a trackbar back on.

m715front2022-copy-jpg.579462
 
YotaAtieToo said:
I don't think you need one, but I can see how they may help handling once everything kinda wears in. My 4runner drove great when it was fresh, but later developed a death wobble. I never added a track bar, but Scooterloo2 added one to his similar 4runner iirc, maybe he can chime in with how it worked out.

My samurai doesn't have 1, but it's spua and has metal bushings in the shackle hangers :laughing:

How much street driving are you planning?
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A track bar was necessary for my rig due to the "Orbit Eye" springs I used. It does work well as far as leaf springs go.
 
Why not reverse shackle it? Drives way friggen better?

Scouts used a "spring steel sway" bar between the shackles up front that tied them together.
 
Slander said:
None on my front shackle solid axle swapped Tacoma, stable up to 80mph.
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You expect us to believe that the official vehicle of hogging the left lane at 60mph ever gets up to 80?

:blackflipoff:, but also half serious.
 
Winchested said:
Why not reverse shackle it? Drives way friggen better?

Scouts used a "spring steel sway" bar between the shackles up front that tied them together.
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did it to help keep the truck low ish. its a Ford OBS frame with 4" lift SD Deaver springs and doing a reversal would have given me another 3-4 inches of lift
 
I think lift springs make it worse. The arch lets the axle flex side to side, unlike straight springs. Look at that Comanche- no arch, no DW.

4d6ef90fb507bbe6c365518f6bf9f533.gif
 
subybaja said:
I think lift springs make it worse. The arch lets the axle flex side to side, unlike straight springs. Look at that Comanche- no arch, no DW.
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stock SD springs are negative arch so the deavers im running have a little postive arch but not much i still have more to add to the front of the truck but this might give you a better idea

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I think the geometry of a curved spring makes DW possible. Hold an archery bow by the tips and push on the grip, you get a rotation and movement. Do the same w a broomstick, and nothing.

It seems super individual, though. I'll bet there are a half-dozen variables, and it takes 3-4 to cause it. I had arched springs, no trackbar, 1-2* caster, questionable alignment, crap surplus tires, 250K front end.... I added a trackbar and it went away.
 
My old samurai had shackles forward and it worked really well (granted it was a much lighter rig). As long as the shackles are not to long and you use good poly bushing it should be fine. You can always add the track bar later on if its needed.
 
Is the affects of the “wander” more at the spring or the shackle bushing? What if one ran poly on the springs and brass or something at the frame side so the shackle couldn’t walk around?
 
[memphis] said:
Is the affects of the “wander” more at the spring or the shackle bushing? What if one ran poly on the springs and brass or something at the frame side so the shackle couldn’t walk around?
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Thats how my samurai is, but only because it's what I had :laughing:

It came as a project with YJ leafs that had a wierd bracket to relocate the shackle hanger, it used steel bushings in the factory shackle mounts in order to make it a hard mounting point.

When I swapped back to Sami leafs because the YJs were bent, I put them back in with a bunch of grease. I figured it would make it more stable. Works fine, flexes good and drives decent for what it is.

Some UHMW or similar would probably be a much better idea. On my 4runner, I made the hanger bushing much wider than the spring to help with stability.
 
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