I have a 98 and recently I got rear ended going fifty. The guy snapped my shackles. obviously they were rusty from being up north but becasue Im not currently living up north no one will touch them. Ive thought about doing it myself but ive wondered how hard would it be? I have no car lift so to make it easier Id just remove the bed but I mean what am I looking at? I know Id have to cut the rivets out on the old ones. Replace them. Has anyone ever done this?

 

Replacing shackles are really not a hard job to do at all. An hour at the most really. Should not be any rivets you need to deal with, just 2 bolts to take them out, one on top and then one that goes through leaf springs.

 

Even with all the rust underneath the truck? Im afriad if I start doing it Im going to end up busting bolts left and right?

 

Get some PB blaster and soak them down 1 hr and then again 30 mins prior to you wanting to work on it. Get a breaker bar to help as well. Bolts should not bust, should being the important word :P

 

If it was anything like my shackles its going to be a pain in the ***. You will probably need to get new nuts/bolts for them as well. Also, are you sure it was the shackles that broke and not the bracket? These trucks are known for the bracket rusting out and breaking...

Sean

 

As one of the responses said already, you need to be sure its the shackles or the shackle bracket? (could be both?) My experience from doing the shackle brackets on my '92 is that the tasks involved are difficult and time consuming. My truck has alot of rust on the entire chassis and undercarriage. The 2 shackle bolts were very difficult. Getting the nuts loose and off wasn't too bad. Alot of PB blaster, some heat and breaker bar. The tough part was getting the bolts to "slide out." Remember, the bolts are surrounded by a rubber grommet, and all the rust inside (that you can't see) made it very difficult to extract them. I don't have cutting torches, if you do, it would make the job much easier. Remember though you still have to get the bolt out of the rubber and that's very hard even if you cut the head off the bolts.
The shackle brackets, if you have to replace them, are rivited on. Removing them is time consuming. If you have cutting torch it's obviously easier then drilling them out.
Good luck

 

Umm idk honestly. I think its both. Can anyone find a picture? Theyre all rusted and broken haha

 

your search button is your friend...

https://www.ranger-forums.com/f43/re...hackles-97011/

 

Go to Google, type in: Ford Ranger shackle bracket. you can then look for replacement parts, prices, pictures, and directions.

PS based upon some of the responses here and other similar websites, the rust problem on the shackle bracket is more common than it should be. It has nothing to do with location of vehicle, I suspect Ford built these with sub-standard steel.

 

I have a set of stock shackles for sale that I took off of my 05' (55k miles) Ranger if you want.