rear springs after lift could use some ideas

[godspeed7170]

Amongst other things finishing up rebuilding the suspension on my 93 explorer 4x 4 door.
the front got a James Duff 2.5 lift (JY find, go me)
warrior shackles in the rear
the front sits about 3 inches higher, and the left rear is about and inch lower then the right.
I have driven it down some dirt roads hopefully to get things to settle down, and didnt change much. The front needs an alignment bad so my questions
Can I have it aligned with the rear springs screwed up?
As far as the rear, was thinking of having them re-arced and swapping out the short helper spring for a full length one to help with articulation keeping the warrior shackles or should i use an AAL and the full length helper and stock shackles or any other ideas?
Thanks!

 

[Anime]

If the only thing on the front is a JD 2.5" lift kit, then it shouldn't be 3 inches higher than the rear if the leaf springs have WAR153 shackles on them, since those should lift the rear about 1.5".

What was on the rear of the Explorer you pulled the JD 2.5" lift from? If it has lift springs in the rear you should go back and get those since they may be JD 2.5" lift leaf springs to go with it.

Re-arching old leaf springs isn't worth it since the arc doesn't last. An AAL or even adding full length springs to the stock pack isn't going to do much. You really need either leaf springs made to give more lift, if the stock springs are sagged enough, you can do a SOA and get 4-5 inches of lift in the rear plus more under axle clearance. Keep in mind a SOA usually gives 5-6 inches of lift over stock so if the front just has a 2.5" lift and nothing else, usually the back end will then be way high.


You might be able to just turn the alignment cams 180 degrees and get a better camber alignment than what you have now if there's a lot of postive camber.

You can't really get a good alignment with the rear down low or up high since the toe and caster measurement depend on the vehicle being about as level as it would when driving on a flat paved road. Even camber is affected since the "top" of the tire wouldn't be at 90 degrees.

You can swap the leaf springs left to right and right to left to try and miminize that left side lean, though it will always lean some since the gas tank is on that side and fuel weights quite a bit, 15-19 gallons of it weighs a lot.

 

[godspeed7170]

Anime, thanks for the response, the lift was on a broncoII with an AAL, didnt think they would be stout enough for the 4 door.
Rethinking things now have made a hand full of calls have found new sets from stock to some custom stuff. putting things on hold for a week to sort it out.