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In 1978 did AMC offer different leaf spring options for the 2 Door Cherokee?
My spring packs are heavy duty and I'm wondering if they are aftermarket or factory.

Thanks.

I read somewhere that the '78s and maybe the '79s had a factory 1.5" lift (all Wags and Cherokees). Dunno how much truth there is to it but that's what I read.

Group 11 in the '74-80 parts manual. Interpretation is up to you. Available on CD-ROM for under $25 at RockAuto.

Cherokee chief wide tracks i think had a 1 inch. And the springs were typically i think only like 2 or 3 leaves or so in the front. Rear mighta had more though.

But you can find factory springs everywhere if you look. Or get diff sized packs and weight limits http://www.newtruckspring.com/product-c ... af-spring/

candymancan wrote: ↑Sun Mar 05, 2023 5:16 pm Cherokee chief wide tracks i think had a 1 inch. And the springs were typically i think only like 2 or 3 leaves or so in the front. Rear mighta had more though.

But you can find factory springs everywhere if you look. Or get diff sized packs and weight limits http://www.newtruckspring.com/product-c ... af-spring/

Exclusively on the Chief? Weird. I'd have thought the regular w/t or at least the Golden Eagles would have gotten it.

I'm pretty sure any of the Jeeps were 4-5, maybe even 6 leaves stock. Jeep wanted them to ride pretty well, and they're obviously not handling cars, with the leaf springs, so there was no reason to beef up the spring packs.

Yea golden eagle had it i found one in the jy with a 1 or 1.5 inchs lift factory. It had only like a 2-3 pack spring up front it was weird.

Grand wagoneers had 7 up front. For a better ride. I think the earlier years didnt have many springs up front as the later.

My springs are the 97-402 from like 4-5 years ago when i did my springs. Theyre 1455lbs capacoty. So i believe thats 150-200lbs over stock for a GW.. and earlier models from the 70s only supported 900-1100 lbs or so.. So i have 300+ over them. Gave me 3 inchs of ride height lol. Of course my springs were sagging. But ironicly a 2 inch lift gave me only .5 inchs of lift. So i think these springs i got lifted me as well. I fit 31s just fine. They only rub on the factory brush guard on the frame after i put it on.


I was dissapointed on the lift when i did it. So much so i contacted the owner of Rustys off road and the owner of stanley springs.

And i concluded rustys is full of sht and they only test their add a leafs on sagged old springs. Not new ones. The stanly springs i got were better built than factory as well with a equal length 2nd spring under the nain spring to prevent the main spring from sagging by the eye bolt over time.

I kept the add a leaf and added a 1 inch lift block to the rear.. i fit 2 stacked hands between the tires and wheel well so thats all i care about. Nothing too crazy nothing too low.

In the end the add a leaf/plus heavier weight calacity helps with my heavy 5500lbs gw. Keeps body roll at a minimum when turning.. and with oil shocks my ride isnt TOO rough

Good info.
I'm gonna take a look at how many leafs in the front and back.
Definitely rides higher than stock.

6 leaves in the front
7 leaves in the back counting the thick short one on the bottom.

I suspect that's stock. Some guys on IFSJA have determined that the '78-79s (Cherokees and Wags) had a factory 1.5-2" lift, and a Jeep book I have (it's not always the best for accurate info but in this case it seems to be right) says the same thing. If you look at pics of the '79s in ads, they look to be sitting a little higher.

Springs were based on GVWR.

In general, 2 leaf up front is the HD pack (stiffest), 4 (five if you count the tiny one on the bottom) is the middle. 6-7 was the lowest GVWR, but nicest riding.

The parts numbers varied, as did exact specs, and ride heights. There were numerous different ride heights throughout the years, and many different GVWRs.

These days, ride height doesn't really matter. Any factory spring that came on any FSJ is going to be worn out and sagged down below where it was when new, and the spring rates won't match what they were when new.

Stuka wrote: ↑Tue Mar 07, 2023 3:12 pm Springs were based on GVWR.

In general, 2 leaf up front is the HD pack (stiffest), 4 (five if you count the tiny one on the bottom) is the middle. 6-7 was the lowest GVWR, but nicest riding.

The parts numbers varied, as did exact specs, and ride heights. There were numerous different ride heights throughout the years, and many different GVWRs.

These days, ride height doesn't really matter. Any factory spring that came on any FSJ is going to be worn out and sagged down below where it was when new, and the spring rates won't match what they were when new.

Hmmmm ... that's a good point about the wear out factor over the last 45 years. These may have been replaced because it has a nice rake back to front. And it's up there some.

Wondering if there is a calculation that could be made if I provided the distance from the ground up to the fender well above the axle. Then I shared the tire size. Can that be done to figure out if the truck has lift?

OldFarmTruck22 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 08, 2023 11:23 am Hmmmm ... that's a good point about the wear out factor over the last 45 years. These may have been replaced because it has a nice rake back to front. And it's up there some.

Wondering if there is a calculation that could be made if I provided the distance from the ground up to the fender well above the axle. Then I shared the tire size. Can that be done to figure out if the truck has lift?

The only accurate way is to measure axle to frame on driver and passenger sides for both axles, and then average the two.

Otherwise you have body mounts, tire size, and tire air pressure as variables that are hard to normalize with different people measuring.

The problem is that we do not know what these were from the factory. They did spec a "total height", but they gave one number for all models as I recall. Which would obviously only be accurate for one single model. And we don't know which one that is.

OldFarmTruck22 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 08, 2023 11:23 am

Stuka wrote: ↑Tue Mar 07, 2023 3:12 pm Springs were based on GVWR.

In general, 2 leaf up front is the HD pack (stiffest), 4 (five if you count the tiny one on the bottom) is the middle. 6-7 was the lowest GVWR, but nicest riding.

The parts numbers varied, as did exact specs, and ride heights. There were numerous different ride heights throughout the years, and many different GVWRs.

These days, ride height doesn't really matter. Any factory spring that came on any FSJ is going to be worn out and sagged down below where it was when new, and the spring rates won't match what they were when new.

Hmmmm ... that's a good point about the wear out factor over the last 45 years. These may have been replaced because it has a nice rake back to front. And it's up there some.

Wondering if there is a calculation that could be made if I provided the distance from the ground up to the fender well above the axle. Then I shared the tire size. Can that be done to figure out if the truck has lift?

Yeah, you could get a pretty close number with that. Only real question is if you can find somebody else with a stock height wide track (because the fenders are different sizes and they had different tires originally) who'll chime in to compare numbers with you.