suspension options for 69 wagoneer.

[choptopwagfan]

Hello all. thanks for checkin out the post. first off, I have a 69 wagoneer. It has a buick 350 and th400, both of which I plan to keep. I have a rear dana 60 from a 70's ish f250, and I want to run a full size dana 44 up front from an older chevy, or dana 60 if I can find on(probably not). Right now the Jeep is sitting on its stock dana 27a up front and 19 spline d44 in the back. I know and am prepared to be doing all custom work for the suspension and mounts anyway, but I want to do it the best way. I tried a SOA conversion with my own mounts for practice since I wasnt going to keep the front axle and lets just say I learned a lot...my pinion points at my oilpan:o. In the future, i see myself with 35-37's, running as much lift as needed for that (my fenders are trimmed pretty heavily) and it has to be street legal. I would love to build a daily driver quality rig, but I obviously want it pretty capable off road too. Now to the guts.

Can I run TTfabworks shackle relocation kit or fab up something similar?
Should I be looking for the rear spring set up from a suburban if I am not planning on running a 14bolt?
Should I use stock springs with something new, or fab up mounts to mimic the 76 and after wag suspension set up so that I can just purchase a leaf spring lift kit?

I am at square one here and am ready to get to work. any info will be much appreciated.

[DAHoyle]

First thing you need to do, is slow down a bit. Some of your ideas are pretty good, and some of them are so far out in left field, that my impression is that you have spent more time gleaning information from the internet, than you have actually looking at your rig. Nothing wrong with prepping yourself, but it is just the tiniest part of the job. You need to spend an equal amount of time actually measuring things. Figure out what range of spring lengths will work, and what obviously won't.

First, the idea about duplicating late model FSJ front spring hangers is a very good one, depending on how simple you want to keep things. It certainly makes spring shopping easy. That said, since you will be welding the hangers anyways, You could just as easily pick any set of springs, and set your hangers appropriately, so shopping for springs could be just as easy, and you could potentially build more flex into it, depending on spring choice.

Second, I really don't have any idea if suburban springs will work with a fabworks relocation kit. Don't even know what year suburban you are thinking of. I believe it is pretty much fixed to the original hanger location, with an inverted shackle. It might, but it might not. That is where real research comes in. You have to go look, and measure.
Don't rely on someone else to do it for you.

Your second question makes virtually no sense to me, but maybe someone is reading it differently. If you aren't installing a 14 bolt, then don't worry about what a 14 bolt will fit on. Stick with what you're dealing with. If the question is really, can you use those springs with your Dana60, then the answer is yes.

What you need to really concentrate on is spring lengths, from eye to eye, and to the center pin. Those dimensions will tell you if a Fabworks kit will work like you are thinking, where your hangers need to be, and give you an estimate of the lift you will have. A leaf spring suspension swap is not easy, but if you ask yourself the right questions (those I listed above), then it is certainly within the reach of just about anyone who can weld. How good it comes out, depends on how thoroughly you answer those questions.

[Tad]

Can I run TTfabworks shackle relocation kit or fab up something similar?
It can be done but it's a modified version of the kit, requires welding. I've sent out several sets that way, like many things, I don't hear back.
You can also fab your own (or buy some generic) hangers. Some move them under the frame.

Should I be looking for the rear spring set up from a suburban if I am not planning on running a 14bolt?
Your 69 wag springs are about 52" long in the rear.
Going with a longer spring (56's, 63's, etc) does increase articulation. Also can pose some spring wrap issues but my 63's are holding pretty well after 3 years.

Should I use stock springs with something new, or fab up mounts to mimic the 76 and after wag suspension set up so that I can just purchase a leaf spring lift kit? My original plan was to move my front hangers to the 75-91 placements, for the same reason, longer, better flex. Plans changed a bit so I'm going to try some 63-73 3" lift Rancho's and see how that works out.

In my sig you will see a link to "The It's Time Picture Index", they used to be part of a writeup that got lost when another site went off line.
Pretty similar to the majority of your questions.

Welcome