Budget Boost advice please? (extreme budget!)

Hey ... my rear leaf springs are sagging pretty bad ... about 1.5 inches lower than stock.

I'm thinking of going to the junkyard and just getting another pair of old springs, and taking the long leaf out of my current springs and adding that to the other springs.

Do you think that would work, or should I just get a new pair of springs and add my extra leaf to them?

I want about 1 inch of lift over stock height.

montanaman said:

Hey ... my rear leaf springs are sagging pretty bad ... about 1.5 inches lower than stock.

I'm thinking of going to the junkyard and just getting another pair of old springs, and taking the long leaf out of my current springs and adding that to the other springs.

Do you think that would work, or should I just get a new pair of springs and add my extra leaf to them?

I want about 1 inch of lift over stock height.

Click to expand...

Yes... It will work....Others have used S10 leafs and Dakota Leafs for the same effect. You can get to +4 inches of lift from this approach quite easily. Because you are using junkyard parts mentally be prepared to build it a couple of times before you get it exactly the way that you want it.


Here are some links of people that have done simular spring packs for 3-5 inches of lift

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=57737&highlight=dakota+lift
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=50083&highlight=dakota+lift

Ok ... when I go to the junkyard, I'll be looking for a decent set of stock XJ leafs -- since I only want about 1" of lift.

Anybody know what the standard arch is on a set of stock leafs when they are removed from the vehicle?

Dunno what the unloaded arch is, and we're having a snowstorm here at the moment so excuse me if I don't shovel a path to the shed to measure for you.

Having done this, here's what I found. Don't use the "long" (second) leaf. Take apart your donor pack, cut the bushing eyes off the main leaves just short of where they start to turn up to form the loops, and use those. Put them directly under your main leaves, which you can leave in the vehicle, then put your second leaf under those (moving the second leaf down to the third leaf position).

Using old donor springs in an old Cherokee, I gained a gross lift of 1-1/4" doing this. Other folks with newer Cherokees and/or newer donor springs seem to gain around 1-1/2". The one I did was sagged about 1/2" so I ended up sitting at 3/4" higher than stock, which was perfect. The spring rate was increased for better load carrying, the ground clearance was slightly better, and it still rode very well.

If you are really sitting at -1-1/2" now, putting in just a second main leaf will just about bring you back to stock height. If that's all you want, then that's all you need to do. If you're looking for a bit of extra height, then I'd suggest you install the main leaves from the donor pack plus the second leaves. Mark the tips of the second leaves before you disassemble the donor packs to show where the third leaves come to (actually, the rust pattern will probably show that pretty clearly anyway). Then cut the tips of the donor second leaves so the ends will fall halfway between the second and third leaves in your existing springs.

Then when you reassemble, the order will be

-- Original main --
-- Donor main --
-- Original Second --
-- Donor Second --
-- Original Third --
-- Original Fourth --

This will add about 1/2" to the thickness of the spring pack. The OEM U-bolts are long enough to handle one additional leaf, but I don't think they're long enough to handle two, so you'll probably need new U-bolts. Get good ones. The factory ones are 12mm, which is almost 1/2" but not quite. The ones I've seen in the chain stores are 7/16, which is smaller than 12mm. Go to a spring shop and get 1/2" u-bolts made up. If there isn't one near you, get in touch with Husky Spring

www.huskyspring.com

Thanks for the long and thoughtful answer, Eagle. I'll try to return the favor some day!!

Your advice is very good. Also, when I said the "long" leaf, I meant the one with the eyelets ... probably not the right word for it.

So ... now someone has offered me a set of quadratec HD springs with only 8 months of use on them for pretty cheap. You think I should get those or just build some leafs from two old packs?

Thanks!!

One of the best things about building up the leaf pack as stated above is that you do not need to remove the main leaf from your rig. Search under "broken shackle bolt" for a long list of horror stories on that topic.

My $.02 is to do what was suggested above. Get yourself back to stock height or a little above. Depending on the year of your rig, every inch of ride height more than 2 over stock starts costing $$$$.