Custom Build Your Own Spring Pack

Wrapless--custom build your...        read full caption Wrapless--custom build your own spring pack.

The first step is to remove...        read full caption The first step is to remove your stock Wrangler packs and get your hands on another set of Wrangler leaves (two fronts and two rears). You can use the front main leaves as your second leaves since the front packs aren’t all that great for a spring-over anyway.

Cut the ends off of the front...        read full caption Cut the ends off of the front leaf packs as close to the eyes as you can. A chop saw is probably the easiest way. Then disassemble all of the leaf packs without mixing them up.

A large vise and a prybar...        read full caption A large vise and a prybar are helpful in bending the spring clamps out of the way. Do not cut them off. They are needed for your wrapless pack to work.

Take the eyeless main leaf...        read full caption Take the eyeless main leaf and add it to the rear leaf pack just below the main leaf (left finger). Then take the second leaf from the front pack and install it on top of the rear main leaf (right finger). Your leaf pack will now be seven leaves thick. Flip the plastic sliders on the top leaf as shown. Reinstall all of the original galvanized leaf spacers as well.

Longer center pins will be...        read full caption Longer center pins will be needed to put the packs back together. Allen bolts work great but double-nutted bolts can be used in a pinch.

Get out the big hammer and...        read full caption Get out the big hammer and pound the clamps back into place. It’s a tight fit but a little sledge work will mold them around the spring.

Here’s the completed...        read full caption Here’s the completed pack (top). It might not look the same as a spendy snail-wrap pack (bottom), but it functions similarly. The third wrap on the eye isn’t the main component that controls wrap anyway.

The top leaf does most of...        read full caption The top leaf does most of the work when controlling axlewrap. However, the increase in spring rate and loss of flexibility are minimal. It actually flexes better now that we don’t have a traction bar. Notice how the top leaf is uncompressed at full stuff. It just barely interferes with the frame.

Axlewrap is about as fun as a house full of cats on laxatives. The wrapping can cause a loss of traction, break axles, and pitch driveshafts. Flexible leaf-spring suspensions (mostly spring-overs) are prone to axlewrap. However, a spring-over on a YJ is perhaps the easiest method of achieving about 5 inches of lift with extraordinary flex. For almost a decade many people have swapped YJ leaf packs onto earlier Jeeps to get a soft and flexy ride. Most of these spring-flopped Jeeps received a traction bar of some sort on the rear axle shortly thereafter. All kinds of traction bars have been cobbled together to eliminate the wrapup while attempting to allow the suspension to move freely. Most designs bind at least a little, and they use up ground clearance. We wanted to cure the problem at the springs.

Like many others, we built our Jeep with a spring-over using stock Wrangler rear leaf packs. The fronts and rears are pretty much the same length so they are interchangeable, even on a stock YJ. The rear packs have five leaves and are more resistant to wrapup than the four-leaf front springs. Our Jeep had bad axlewrap regardless of which packs we used. A V-8 and heavy 35-inch tires didn’t help. We lost one driveshaft and a transmission due to the axlewrap. We then tried adding an additional main leaf (relieved of its eyes) to each pack for a total of six leaves in each spring. The additional leaf helped some, but the axle would still wrap enough to cause the rear driveshaft to bind under heavy acceleration. It also increased the spring rate, which in turn lifted the Jeep about 1½ inches.

We could have added more leaves to try and eliminate the wrap, but the added spring rate and lift were something that we didn’t want or need. After designing and building several traction bars we finally settled on a single bar mounted to the underside of the axle. It worked but not in Reverse, and it sucked up precious ground clearance.

During several years of making-due, we spotted custom leaf packs on desert race trucks that had what are called snail-wrap leaf packs. They are basically military wrap springs with additional half leaves that wrap around the eyes and limit axlewrap. Several companies have come up with custom spring packs designed specifically for Jeeps with spring-overs to control wrapup. Being as cheap as we are, we knew we could build a set just as good for a lot less coin. Check out the captions to see how to build your own set of axlewrapless springs.