I Notice Alot of Cj/RUF Questions

[HardLuk]

The more vertical they are, the more prone they can be, when there's a lot of droop involved to actually invert the shackle, which is NOT good. 

I've seen shackles invert, and a lot of times the suspension has to "duplicate" or "simulate" the action it took to get the shackle inverted, to revert, which can snap leaf springs sometimes.

So, the shackle angle you have looks really good.  It does not look even possible to invert that shackle, while also not possible to compress it too far either.  Looks perfect.

[samurayo]

Well, not totally vertical but yes more vertical then what I have at the moment due to the RUF install

[HardLuk]

How does it ride/work compared to before the RUF install?  That should say it all.

[samurayo]

So far I've only had it On road and on bumps (specially speed bumps) it feels softer. And lifting it with the jack it does have more travel. In essence the RUF does it's job. I was just wondering if the shackle part of it wasn't done well. But with the comments said so far it looks like everything is fine and ready to be tested Off Road!!!

[abraham_monge]

Samurayo show us all the pics for the work that we did yesterday and all the complete RUF.
Yesterday I completed my RUF in the front part.
Regards.

[madbob]

For those of you who have done this, how much arch do the front (formerly rear) springs have?  I used the trail tough kit w/missing links.  I've got lots of flex but the (now) front springs are nearly flat and instantly go into negative arch, which is bad.  is this normal, or do I just have a tired set of springs?

[samurayo]

The first set of rears I put on the front had very little arch. So when the car was sitting flat the leafs were flat. It rode well and the problem I had was similar to what happens to you, they would allow A LOT of negative arch and thus wouldn't be good for wheeling hard, and my tires hit the flares quite often. But now I put other ones that had a HUGE arch (about two inches more) then the first ones and now it sits a whole lot higher and with the little riding around I've done they have no problems with negative arch. I'll hopefully have some pics up soon to show how it did on some flexing testing.

[redidbull]

For those of you who have done this, how much arch do the front (formerly rear) springs have?  I used the trail tough kit w/missing links.  I've got lots of flex but the (now) front springs are nearly flat and instantly go into negative arch, which is bad.  is this normal, or do I just have a tired set of springs?

You can also add some different springs in to the pack to get what you want. You can add some of the front leaves to get more arc. I had a couple pirs of springs so was able to fine tune. Jim

[samurayo]

you can also do some height tuning with shackle length. I fixed mine by moving the rear shackles to the front and vice versa. They were different lengths (didn't know that until recently!! )

[samurayo]

Small write up of the CJ/RUF install on my local board. If anyone doesn't understand Spanish just let me know and I will be more than glad to translate.

http://www.runboard.com/basociacin4x4extremocostarica.f7.t11013

You can view all the pics of the CJ portion of the swap here :
http://s252.photobucket.com/albums/hh11/mecariel/CJ/?start=0
and of the RUF portion here:
http://s252.photobucket.com/albums/hh11/mecariel/RUF/

As a side note. Most if not all the info I got that made this change possible was from the Zu. So thanks to everyone that has posted up info on the swap.

[Errol]

you can also do some height tuning with shackle length. I fixed mine by moving the rear shackles to the front and vice versa. They were different lengths (didn't know that until recently!! )

The stock ones are different lengths?

[abraham_monge]

Errol in the stocks shackles all the 8 shackles are the same, but the in the samurayo´s car they have home made shackles thats why the reason.
regards

[samurayo]

Don't think so, in my case they were both custom lift shackles. I just never knew they were different lengths. I never checked them before.

dang, he beat me to it! And it would be 4 shackles not 8!!!

[Errol]

Ok that's what i thought but i had never measured the stock ones.

[abraham_monge]

if you want to install RUF you need to change the shackles or install M/L
regards.