I picked up a '91 2WD pickup, base 22RE manual at the beginning of the year as a project truck. Only 80k miles on it, rust-free, super clean. As I understand it, the original owner was in the Air Force and spent a lot of time on deployment, so it sat parked in a hanger in AZ and CA a lot.

The guy I got it from had bought it as a project himself, took off the front bumper & grille, and decided he was in over his head so it sat in his driveway for about a year. He also put bigger wheels on it.

Anyway, pretty much everything rubber needed to be replaced (AZ heat), the radiator had a small leak at the top, and overall it just needed some TLC. I replaced all the bushings, hoses, belts, shocks, radiator, all AC components, leaf springs (dead flat), spark plugs and wires, fluids, lights, and rubber brake lines. While I was in there, I did a 3" body lift kit, a ball-joint lift in the front and axle-flip kit in the back.

When I did my initial assessment I didn't realize how flat the factory leaf springs were in the back, so it looked like doing the ball-joint lift in the front and axle flip in the back would result in only a slight height difference between front and back. The actual result is that my truck looks like a cat in heat. The back wheel well clearance is 10-1/2" vs 7" in the front.

My question is...what, if anything, can I do about this? I'm still planning on adding a Tonneau cover, and there is no spare tire hung under the back right now, but even so when I (220lbs) stand on the bumper it doesn't go down all that much. I've had suggestions of heating the rear springs a little bit to relax them from guys who lower their trucks, but I'm not sure that is a great idea and I'm not sure if it can be done in a way that guarantees it will end up level. It doesn't seem like there's a whole lot that shorter shackles or other easy mods can do.

Any ideas?


Side view.

Yes, I'm going to repaint it soon.

 

I'd remove the axle flip and go with longer shackles to get a little bit of lift to help match the front.

Or, if you wanted to go the other way, try finding some lift spindles for the front to help level it out.

 

I've pulled a leaf or two from my 4x4 springs when they are new. Give them time to settle and then add a leaf back in as they settle. Yeah it's a bit of work but my crawler is constant maintenance they way it's used. It's not that hard and it's free.

You can stop by a spring shop if there is one near you and see what they have to say. Or try Robert's suggestion.

 

Thank you both for the input.

The springs on this 4x2 base model are only 3 leaves. Really 2+1 overload, so not a lot of options there. I cranked the tortion springs up front but it makes the ride suck and it still isn't as level as I'd like. With all the mods I had to do to get the axle flip to work, I'd rather not undo that if I can avoid it.

Honestly I kinda dig the height in the rear, so I'm going to look into lift spindles for the front. The front spacers I have in there now are 1.5" I think, so depending on the spindle length I get (4" seems common) that may give me some room to play with ride/spring adjustments. Hopefully not too pricy as I'm still saving up for seats, headers/cat/exhaust, stereo, and paint.

 

You can try changing out the factory bump stops with some universal low profile poly ones for the upper control arms. They will help with the crappy ride in the front, somewhat. It's still going to be stiff from the torsion bars being cranked up but it wont be ridding on the bump stops all the time. Also make sure your upper ball joints aren't being maxed out.

I didn't do a rear flip kit but I went through all this years ago with my 2wd before going long travel.

 

the axle flip kit is going to yield what, about 3.5" lift? its been a while since i measured an axle tube. how much of a BJ spacer did you use? im going to guess 1.5". that means you still need another 2" or so of suspension lift and youd be hard pressed to get that from torsion bar cranking and maintain any kind of ride quality. i like what others said and either pull a lead or go spring under with a shackle lift.

or my favorite alternative, SAS it and swap in a 4wd tranmission/tcase lol

 

You're either going to have to take out the axle flip kit or lift the front if you want it to be level. I'm not sure what they have for options on the 2wd's but I'm sure there are some taller options