Spring Shackles

[Skytrooper]

I want to bring the rear up just a whisker. I was thinking of going old school and just toss on a pair of Hotchkiss spring shackles. I know the best route would be new or competition springs, but need to use the money on other items. So, for this year it's shackles or nothing.
Whattya think ?


1971 440 Charger R/T

 

[493 Mike]

Extended shackles=degraded handling.
How about air shocks/helper spring shocks?
Add a second #2 spring leaf.
Mike

 

[TBONE]

I added a second spring to my 72 Charger, as 493 Mike said, and it handled great.
Picked up a couple from the junk yard and cut them to length. The second one from
bottom is the one I added.

 

[Don Frelier]

I think it would be fine. Too bad I scrapped the rear shackles from the Plymouth.
My son could easily have modified them...

 

[69a100]

Extended shackles=degraded handling.
How about air shocks/helper spring shocks?
Add a second #2 spring leaf.
Mike

Or just crank the front end down some. It will still mess with alignment & stuff. Good Luck

 

[andyf]

The Hotchkis shackles aren't long enough to cause any handling issues. I think they are only about 3/8 of an inch longer than stock. Try them and see what you think.

 

[Cranky]

Small 'adjustments' usually won't affect things....at least not enough to notice unless you are really tuned in with your car. Even lowering the front end a small amount won't affect things enough to have to realign it. I like to add more negative camber and positive caster to my cars anyways and lowering the front end generally adds positive camber. Anyways, I've never been a fan of longer shackles and would use air shocks before doing that and using them to raise the car 1/2" to 1" isn't going to hurt the top shock mount. If it does, it wasn't in good shape to start with.