xjbub93

I'm startin work on putting together a home brew lift and I'm trying to decide between an s10 bastard pack or chevy 63" springs. I know the s10 springs would be easier but it seems like just an add a leaf concept to me and I have the tools available to do the shackle relocation for 63's. I guess what I'm asking is which setup performs better and also how much lift I can get from 63" chevy springs. I'm only lookin for about 3" of lift but as much flex as I can eek out of it. Also any suggestions about what to do about the front? I've heard of people using tbird springs?

kirknd4spd

I have no idea how much lift 63's will give, but they are very long springs that can perform well. If I were to use 63's, I'd just use the main leaf and build my own 3-5 leaf pack with thin leaves. Those springs will be roughly a foot longer than the stock XJ springs, its going to take more than a shackle relocation to put them in the Jeep. You're either going to have to make new hangers and shackle mounts, or just new shackle mounts and stretch the wheelbase.
FWIW, I'm building a set of springs that will probably end up in my XJ, using leaves from a 56" Chevy spring pack. The center pin is offset 4" forward on the 56's, so from the front of the leaf springs to the center pin is the same distance as from the center pin to either end of 52's. With stock springs being around 51.5" long iirc, that should keep my stock wheelbase and I'll only have to make new shackle mounts to get longer, slightly flexier springs.

For the front, just buy some 3" lift springs. If you really want it to flex, go to long arms. Add in extended brake lines, adjustable track bar, upgrade the steering, and get some good shocks all around (Bilstein, or other quality monotubes), and you could possibly have a very capable Jeep, if you do it right.

xjbub93

I misspoke I actually meant moving the shackle mounts forward and stretching wheelbase a bit. But what you're doin with the 56's sounds good too. So are you putting the stock xj springs together with the 56's or building a whole new pack from something else?

xjbub93

I misspoke I actually meant moving the shackle mounts forward and stretching wheelbase a bit. But what you're doin with the 56's sounds good too. So are you putting the stock xj springs together with the 56's or building a whole new pack from something else? I guess I'm not really lookin for ridiculous flex just better than stock haha. I might go mid arm one day when my fabrication skills are a little better.

xjbub93

Didn't mean to post that twice but I don't know how to delete. Stupid app haha

kirknd4spd

I'm throwing the XJ springs away altogether. This is the third HD spring pack I've destroyed in the past two years of wheeling, so I'm building them from mostly 56" Chevy leaves.

Also, I was mistaken about the wheelbase, I forgot XJs have an offset center pin as well. My way with the 56's will end up stretching my wheelbase roughly 2.5", if I'm thinking correctly. And I don't know how well the 56's are going to work, just an idea I had yesterday, so I started digging through my parts pile and putting things together. In theory, it seems like it will work great, if I can keep from making the springs too stiff (they are stock rear springs off an old Chevy K30, so they are pretty stiff to start with).

One more thing, I read somewhere (maybe on pirate), that someone put 52" Chevy springs in the rear of an XJ and got around 3" of lift. And knowing that replacing 52" springs on a Chevy with 63's will lift it, I'm thinking 63's would probably give way more lift than you want, unless you're willing to go to a spring under. I'm really hoping I can get under 3" of lift out of the 56's, but I'm not sure yet. I'm not doing it if I can't get it down to around 2" of lift, 3"+ is too much lift for me.

xjbub93

I'll definitely have to look into the 52's then if that'll give me the right lift. Let me know how your 56's go when you do it cuz it sounds like we're going for relatively the same thing. Thanks for the advice. Do you know what the 52" springs come off of? Maybe I'll start collecting parts at the JY soon

kirknd4spd

FWIW, if you aren't looking to do anything crazy, you can improve flex without doing all that work. Right now, my 87 is around 3" of lift on 35's. Up front I have 3" coil springs, RC fixed lower control arms, RE Superflex adjustable uppers, RE adjustable track bar, 4.5" lift shocks, stock replacement YJ brake lines (longer than stock), and extended bumpstops. The rear is 1.5" HD springs and 1.5" shackles with 4.5" lift shocks and bumpstops. Both sway bars were removed and thrown away as well. And it flexes much better than stock. Despite still being on short arms, I have enough droop in my front suspension to unseat the coil springs from the upper tower, I have limiting straps to keep the coil springs from completely falling out again. And overall, I have less money invested in my suspension than a 3" RC or Zone kit would cost, and mine easily outperforms those kits both on and off road.
Just saying, you don't have to go through all the trouble of fabricating and swapping non Jeep suspension in if you don't really need it.

kirknd4spd

Chevy 52" springs came on the rear of K5 Blazers and 1/2 ton trucks and Suburbans. Don't remember what year they started using the 52's, but 73-87's definitely had them (up to 91 for the K5 and Burb). Some 3/4 tons also had 52's, iirc, but most 3/4 ton and all 1 ton had the 56's.

xjbub93

Sweet man thanks gonna do some junk yard research and see if I can hunt down some of those. Still gonna be a bit before I have all of the parts together for the entire lift but I gotta start somewhere. And you said you're 3" on 35's? You had to have trimmed quite a bit and I'm planning on going 3" on 33's eventually you got any pics of how you sealed up the gaping hole in the rear wells from trimming out the little spot welds?

xjbub93

And as far as the mods you were talking about those all are definitely on the list I just gotta get her off the ground first haha I'm on a bit of a budget so I'm pickin away little by little. And the work is really what interests me because I'm a machinist/ fabricator (in training, not exactly the best yet) and the practice I'll get from my xj is definitely welcome plus it'll leave me with a nice capable jeep.

kirknd4spd

I didn't really trim much. Just a very minor cut and fold on all 4 fenders, and bumpstopped to keep the tires out of the fenders. Didn't take out anywhere near enough to have any holes anywhere, just enough to get rid of the bolt holes for the flares.

xjbub93

3" and 35's with only cut and fold 😳. Man I'm rethinking my entire setup now...haha

xjbub93

Found a pair off an 86 k5 for 30 bucks. cant beat that haha

xjbub93

Maybe a dumb question but since the 52's are longer from front eye to centerpin and it'll stretch the wheel base somewhere around 3", am I going to have to replace my rear control arms and everything?