Conumdrum This is where the geometry gets a little tricky. to start with, I'll let you know that the inner pivit point on the stock centerlint is 5/8" too high. - (or the outer tie rod pivit point is 5/8" too low). If you notched and raised the crossmember 5/8" things would be perfect. But, not low enough, I'd guess. So, if you raise it 1 1/2", you have a 7/8" mis-match. You can swap the outer tie rod ends for hiems, and put them on the bottom of the steering arm, but that is a 1 1/4" flip, so you would havs a 5/8" mis-match the other way. How do you fix it? Well, you could move the steering box and idler arm mount holes up 7/8". You could heat and bend the pitman arm and idler arm up 7/8" - I hear you cringing, but it is possible - You could do the tie rod flip, and bend the pitman and idler down 5/8" - be warned that the tie rod flip forces you to run an 18" wheel or bigger with drop spindles - You could check into the Hotchkis center link, but I don't know how much of a drop it has at the pivit points, You could build your own centerlink with the inner pivits in the correct location, and Lastly, you could get one of our new rack and pinion kits (shameless promo) that mounts to the crossmember, so the geometry stays intact with anty placement of the crossmember. Our JT has a 1 1/2" raised crossmember and a rack. wheew, lots of choices.
CJ leafs can work very well, just ask Mary Posi, 11 time national auto-x champ. Shortening the bed = shortening the wheelbase. This is good for corners at spedds under 80 mph, but starts to make the trucks twitchy at higher speeds
