Shock mount repair/swap

My upper shock mount on the driver side is severly bent and needs replacement. A guy at work is parting out his 83 CJ and I'm thinking about swapping both his upper mounts for mine. Q: Is there a reason I shouldn't do this and replace it with an early or intermediate upper shock mount? I am also kicking around the idea of getting his springs and hangers and change over to the wider springs and possibly a shackle reversal. Q: Is the ride quality going to improve that much or should i just convert to the YJ springs like everybody else? Thanks

 

If you want to improve ride quality without dicing up your Jeep check out the longleaf springs at www.holbrookspecialties.com. I put a set of these on my 75 and they are awesome.

 

The spring swap is a target of opportunity project. If I can get them at a good price from the part-out and the ride improves substantially I would probably do it. I have read the posts about how great the YJ spring ride is and was wondering if the later CJ springs would be similar. If the later CJ springs are only a little better than the stock springs I think the money could be better spent on other things. I should probably do some more research on the CJ/YJ spring specs. As of now, I can't afford to pay for the long leafs.

 

A major obstacle in converting to YJ springs is that they are a few inches longer than needed, so you have to stretch your frame somehow. This screws up your approach angle. The ride quality is excellent however.

 

I went over and checked out the parts jeep today. I won't be able to use his springs afterall. 2 of the packs are damaged and the fronts are outboarded. Aside from the upper shock mounts I will be getting a vacuum power boost brake system and power steering (complete w/ saginaw box)

 

Sounds good. Did power steering on mine. Pretty simple, except my 75' CJ has 3 mounting holes for the manual box and the saginaw box has 4. Aside from that it went in smoothly.

 

Yes, that's expected; the manual bracket has three tabs.

The 4-tab bracket has been known to break - BTDT. You might want to add a cross-chassis brace to add some extra strength to the mounting.

 

If you are going to go through the work of cutting spring mounts off two jeeps and reinstalling, get online and order up a set of F-250 mounts. I think I paid $12/ea for mine plus shipping.

 

what year f250 mounts?