I'm planning to replace my leaf springs when I swap out the bed. Should I replace the shackles and u bolts or reuse? They are in decent shape but I'm wondering about metal fatigue.

 

Never seen either break. When I redid my leafs i reused my shackles and u-bolts, but with new, oem bushings. I don't use poly because I think they do stress the metal.

 

Thanks for feedback. I use OEM bushings too. I prefer OEM after reading other's experience with noise poly's make and having to salvage the metal sleeves from old bushings to use with the poly's.

 

did you take it to a shop ?

 

No. I'll be doing the work.

 

If they are in usable shape, you can re use them.

 

So I decided to reuse the u-boIts and shackles. Sprayed them multiple times over a week. However, I way underestimated how crusty the ends of the u-bolts were. I had to break the nuts free with a breaker bar and cheater pipe. An impact didn't touch it. After fighting with the crusty mess for awhile and making little progress getting the nuts off, I decided to order new OEM u-bolts/washers/nuts. Picked them up this morning. Rain today and tomorrow so back at it on Friday.