shock mount trimming

I'm in the process of installing a 3" lift on my 88 Xj. I'm using V8ZJ coils and 2" spacers up front and an S10 bastard pack for the rear. In the front I can't get the control arms to line up for the life of me. I've had 3 jacks, 2 floor and 1 bottle type, and a come along all set up and still no go. I'm now pretty sure that the shock mounts are the reason. I did trim them already but am wondering if I can get maybe another 3/4 to 1" of clearance out of them. Here is what I have now:

What do you guys think? Don't really want to hear that I need to by aftermarket control arms at this point. TIA

Here ya go. Had a brain fart on inserting a pic.

stock lowers are kind of short to be putting that much lift onto, but i would bolt the arms up then try to muscle the springs in there.

Are you trying to get the axle to droop far enough to slide that spring in? I don't think you can get enough droop to get even the stock springs in/out with stock arms. I think its going to take a spring compressor. You might try to droop one side and stuff the other up as high as it will go. It won't give you much but it will help some.

i fit 4.5" springs in without taking the arms off. it can be done. do as bdiamond says and jack one side up as high as you can get it, this will help to dropp the opposite side. alst, disconnecting the track bar will help you to move the axle around a bit more and make getting them in there a bit easier. just a word of caution, you are going to HATE the way it rides with those coils and such a tall spacer on stock arms.

good luck.

take the extra few minutes you would use to cut the mounts (or cut them anyway for arm travel) and hit the local auto parts house. Buy/ rent a strut spring compressor (the type that mounts to the outside of the spring) and "shrink" your springs a couple inches. Just take care to keep the springs evenly compressed and keep the two compressors 180* apart on the spring. You'll be done in no time.

You may want to look into control arm drops also if you're getting close to the shock mounts too.

as mentioned above, disconnect the track bar and try... another thing to consider would be to disconnect the tie-rod at the pitman arm. a tie-rod end can only misalign so much.

Thanks for the replies guys. Got the control arms in as well as the springs. Discoed the uppers and got he lowers in first, was much easy to twist the axle for the uppers then. Got the springs in without a compressor. Now I just need to get the stinking trackbar in.