The other day I picked up a set of zj front coil springs for my xj. That afternoon I had to change the break pads on the front andgot to looking to see how hard or how easy it's going to be for the swap. I've dropped engines and trannys before but never done any kind of work on suspensions. What would be the best and easiest way to swap the coils?

 

Put the front on jack stands, disconnect the shocks and I prefer to jack up one side which pushes the other side down and pop them in. I'm guessing they are ZJ springs from a V8 otherwise they are the exact same spring as your XJ. The V8 springs, if in very good condition, will give you right at an inch of lift.

 

I had to take the shocks loose, unbolt the LCAs, track bar, and steering to get my axle to drop far enough to easily get my springs out and back in. Wasn't too bad really, just took a little more time than I expected, I spent a little over an hour doing mine, taking my time and using hand tools.

And like xjmarc mentioned, they have to be out of a V8 ZJ to give you any lift. A V8 ZJ with the upcountry package would be even better.

 

I told the guy at the salvage yard that I needed the ones off a zj with the v8 upcountry package and he said they were. I'm not sure of the actual height of either one but the ones I got are much thicker that what's on my xj. I was hoping I could do the swap today but its raining off and on. I'll have to wait till next weekend. I had forgot I read on here before about putting the jack under one side of the front axle to help lower the other side to get them off. I'll be trying that first, if it doesn't work then I'll be disconnecting the other stuff to get it done.

 

Well I started the swap on the springs.
Here is a pic of the springs. The one on the left is the xj spring.

 

Got them swapped out. I had 2 inch metal spacers in the old springs and nothing on the zj springs. It looks like it sits a little higher and rides a whole lot better. I let the axle free hang, disconnected the sway bar jacked up one side of the axle to take out the spring and had to do a little coonass ingenuity to it. The axle dropped just enough to be able to turn the spring. I took a 1" tie down straps and made my own spring compressor.

Before



After



But the tires still rub the finder flares but not as bad.