yj body lift and suspension; need guidance

[usafacadet09]

I have a '94 YJ and the guy who owned it before me added a 1" body lift and 1" add-a-leaf to get clearance for 31 BFG all-terrains. I am looking for a smoother ride and know that replacing the OEM bushings with polyurethane bushings will help. Since I'm replacing bushings, I'm thinking of replacing the leaf springs and shackles and getting rid of the body lift (which I'm not really a fan of). I only want to keep enough clearance to keep the 31's.
I'm thinking of removing a spring and the body lift and getting longer shackles. I've been trying to figure out if that's a good idea or not.
Any suggestions?

 

[HiHood]

a number of people now, I'm sure, sell kits for those. When I had my YJ's the best around for clearance and ride was Black Diamond. Leaf springs are inherently rough riding especially when under a short wheel based vehicle like a Wrangler. Myself, I always figured if I wanted a smooth riding vehicle I wouldn't get a Jeep but that doesn't mean you can't make it a little smoother with coils. I would advise not changing out the shackles and the body lift shouldn't effect your ride at all anyways. I would change to the Black Diamond or similar lift kit instead.

 

[Bounty__Hunter]

Poly bushings will make for a rougher ride, stay with OEM rubber for the softest possible ride. Go with a 2.5" spring lift and get rid of the body lift. Also keep the stock shackles, much longer and you open up another can of problems.

 

[jfrabat]

One way to soften the ride (not sure I would recommend it with stock shackles, though) is to loosen the shacklebolts a bit and use nylon locknuts to hold them in place. I did that to my YJ and the difference was day and night (but then again, I use stronger shackles with greasable bolts). For softness in ride, stock springs are the softest on the street. You could go SOA, but you'll end up with a LOT more lift than what you need (plus you'll open another can of worms with lots of stuff to fix along the way). What you COULD do is use stock suspension, remove the BL and use TJ flares (along with some metal triming). That should clear 31's I would think (other will surely confirm).