I have a '97 XJ and it looks to me like the rear is begining to sag a little. I happen to have a good set of stock leaf springs I took off my '92 about 10 years ago. Does anyone have an idea if the spring rates are the same? My '92 sat pretty good before I put the lift on it so I'm thinking the springs are in better shape then the ones on the '97 now.

 

Your plan is to just swap an OEM pack with another OEM pack? What do ya think is gonna happen after a little while? Same thin that's happenin now. Just do a bastard pack or go the high road and get a good set of aftermarket leafs..

 

A "little while" is a relative term. Spring life usually degrades from abuse. The springs from my '92 still have a nice arch in them and the current OEM springs on the '97 are flat. I have nearly all the parts to do a 3" lift except for shocks and tires, so while that seems like a good idea I'm going to need to just recondition the Jeep to stock height due to limited budget right now. Since I have the springs from the '92 just lying around I figured I'd put them to use, assuming of course the spring rates are closely matched. I was wondering if someone had some techinal data about the stock leaf springs so I could determine if the '92 springs will restore the stock ride height. There's some obvious differences in body design between the two years but I don't know if the weight of the vehicle changed.

 

If all you want is to recover your ride height to OEM, then do the swap. The rates are going to be close enough if not the same.