Shackle Strap - 2-1/4" Long

Video Transcript for This Old Trailer: Replacing Shackle Bolts

Today on This Old Trailer, we are going to inspect and replace some shackle links. This part right here is a shackle link. And you can see here, we are actually moving it back and forth. That really should not happen. In fact, you can see if you pull it up how far the hole is worn out. Now, normally when you see a gap down here, it indicates that it is worn out too. That defiantly needs to be replaced. Now, we have the whole trailer on jack stands. And we have an additional jack underneath the axle just to help support it in case something moves around. To remove and replace them, you just have to remove these two bolts right here called the shackle bolts. However, this is a very old trailer and pretty much everything is rusted together. So at this point, we are just going to have to cut them off and start over new. We will go ahead and double check the equalizers as well. 0:51

Now we will go ahead and check the equalizer since we have it freed up. And we have a pretty good amount of play. So we are going to have to go ahead and remove this bolt and equalizer as well. And you can see here, with everything apart, you can see how the equalizer was just starting to wear down towards the middle here. It defiantly needs to be replaced and you can see how these holes are oblong. Now we will go ahead and install some new bushings for the springs. Now, it should be a tight fit. You might have to use some lubricant to help knock it in place too. We will do the same thing on the other spring and then we will install our equalizer. Here we have our old and new equalizers. When you a new equalizer, you want to verify some measurements. First off, you want to verify the actual diameters of the bolts. In this case, they are going to be all 9/16. And then you are going to need some distances between the center of this hole and the center here. And also, if you draw a line between the two, you need to know the distance between the top hole to the center. And that is the best way to match up your equalizers. 1:56

Then we will install our nut. Now you will notice this is a lock nut. So, it will actually only go on a few threads and then stop, if that. Next we will go ahead and add our new shackle links and our bolts to the backside. And then we will go ahead and run it through the spring. We have everything loosely assembled. Now we will go ahead and tighten everything down. And when you tighten them down, you do not have to mash them down. Go just enough to where everything meets together. Now, when you do drive them down, you want the bolts on the back side with the knurls to seat all of the way in. So you may have to run it down and then back off a little bit as well. The driver side of the trailer is finished. Now you want to go ahead to the passenger side of the trailer and go ahead and re-inspect that and probably replace as well. It is always a good idea to replace everything in pairs.