I installed my refurbished axle and springs using 109 shackles onto my new frame. The diff looks to be pointing too far down… are there shims for these to correct the diff angle? Or maybe it will balance out once the engine and body is put on?
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I installed my refurbished axle and springs using 109 shackles onto my new frame. The diff looks to be pointing too far down… are there shims for these to correct the diff angle? Or maybe it will balance out once the engine and body is put on?
I just recently went through this on my current 66 109. The stock shackles leave only about 3/4" clearance between the frame and spring. If you have a gap that's larger than that on the front springs, you likely have the wrong shackles. I purchased some shackles, which were sold as 109" shackles, but were longer than stock (but not near as long as the military shackles). Just that extra length (about 1.5" now) was enough to make the driveshaft angle extreme and necessitate a double cardan driveshaft and axle shims (although I didn't figure that part out until later).
Increasing the shackle length levels the front out, but does two negative things, it increases the driveshaft angle, but also greatly increases positive caster angle. And too much caster angle will cause the front to shake momentarily when hitting bumps.
I liked how level my truck is, so I got a double cardan driveshaft and axle shims from Tom Woods to correct those issues. I went with 4deg shims, but probably could have gone as high as 6deg with my current setup. Military shackles up front are too much. I put them on just to see, and quickly took them off. Photos of my current truck below as well as my old 67 109 SW with stock and military shackles.
Tom Woods site: https://4xshaft.com/collections/land-rover-products
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