Leaf springs

Ok, I was going to run the dakota/XJ spring combo and now when I look at the before pictures of my oringinal springs I realize mine suck. Looking for a idea to come up with about 4-5" of lift out of a spring pack. I have a junkyard with a pretty good selection of springs. Can I run my main leaf and beef it up enough to hit 5" or am I better off finding something diffirent? I don't have the chicken for new springs so Iam trying to go on the cheap. Any help is great! I have some lift shackles and a 2" block and AAL but this sounds like it will kill whatever springs I come up with? Right?

I am hoping to do very similar to what you're working on, shortly. I have a pair of Wagoneer rear springs, Scrambler rears, and YJ fronts, that I'm going to mix and match with the factory main leaf to get 6" of lift. Will let you know what I come up with.

Cool, also will leafs from a ZJ work? There was a 94-95 that had leafs at the yard I was looking at but I didn't have a tape with me. Let me know what you find out, I appreciate it!

A ZJ with leafs would be interesting, since it came with coils . Anything with 2.5" wide leaves will work with a grinder and a drill.

i'm using 98 Dogde Dakota leafs in my 91 and i fine them good
i have them and 2" blocks
got 6" in the rear

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=39128

Fred H

I'm using springs from a 00 s10 blazer zr2 (off road) edition. I just stuck one of the leaves into my existing pack (I already had a short 2" add a leaf) and with a RE 1.25" shackle, voila...5".

-Keith

oh, and it rides like a friggin cement truck. but flexes well. go figure.

brokexj said:

Ok, I was going to run the dakota/XJ spring combo and now when I look at the before pictures of my oringinal springs I realize mine suck.

Click to expand...

What makes you think your springs suck? You cannot tell by eyeballing, you have to measure.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=38911

even if they "suck" you can still stick your main on top of the dakota pack and be pretty well off.

a good shop can also re-arch your old springs for not-o-lot-a cash.

First, let me say DUH! Went back and looked at the pictures and saw a 98 XJ, not a ZJ. I say the springs sucked because I have a definite ass down look, with nothing in the back. If I can just use the existing main and repack the leafs (if it will work) I'll do it. New to leaf springs, used to car coils, so I am working in the blind except for what I learn from here and keeping my eyes open. Appreciate the help!

I will say again, you CANNOT judge from appearance, you MUST measure. And even if your leaf springs have sagged some, it does not mean they cannot be saved. Measure from the center of your hubcaps/wheel centers straight up to the bottom edge of the flares. This dimension should be 17" +/- maybe 1/4".

The '88 XJ I refurbished last year was down to 16-1/2". I used another set of XJ main leaves with the eyes cut off as add-a-leaves and picked up a gross lift of 1-1/4", leaving the rear at +3/4" above the "stock" height. I would characterize that as "saving" the old spring packs, since I reused all the original leaves.

However, if your goal is a lift rather than to just restore the stock ride height, the Dakota spring pack is a good weay to go. You need the packs from older Dakotas (I believe up until 1996?). Cut the eyes off the Dakota main leaves, leave the XJ main leaves in the XJ and remove all the other leaves, put the Dakota leaves under your main leaf in place of the XJ leaves, and you should get about 5" of lift.

I just did this. I have an 89' with 233k, so the springs werent the best condition. I had a springs from a 93' 2WD S-10, only the main leaf, second leaf, and the overload. (it was to level out the S-10, one leaf missing I think)
The S-10 leafs only had about 60K on them and have been in my parents attic for 7 years or so. Anyway, I cut the eyes of the S-10's, and did XJ/S-10/XJ/S-10/XJ/XJ/S-10 overload. And they are sitting at 5" of lift. I am hoping they will settle to around 4". They do seem really stiff though..

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=23381&highlight=leaf


if you do the homebrew lift/refurbish of pieces of leaf packs, then read the second post in this thread here. good info

What if the flares ain't there no more?

I think a better reference would be the beltline on the vehicle in front of the wheel arch, either front or rear. That beltline isn't going anywhere....

Eagle said:

I will say again, you CANNOT judge from appearance, you MUST measure. And even if your leaf springs have sagged some, it does not mean they cannot be saved. Measure from the center of your hubcaps/wheel centers straight up to the bottom edge of the flares. This dimension should be 17" +/- maybe 1/4".

Click to expand...

do a search.. there was a thread a while back about measuring stock height and there were spec quoted regarding axle to frame measurements..

im ruinning the main leaf from my xj with a set of mj springs with the eyes cut off under my main leaf and with the day star shackle im sittin at about seven inches of lift matches my fromt perfectly and ride really nice and i have heard but havent tested the flex there suppost to do good there to. very easy swap also. a grinder and a couple of c clamps and a new center pin is all
good luck to you.

ryan

Appreciate all the help, hope to get to these in the next week. After two weeks with PB Blaster, the front spring bushing sleeve still spun out of the bushing!