Fellas,

I'm in the midst of repairing some rust spots in my floor pan and the two most egregious areas of concern were the floors (ahem, lack thereof) above the rear spring perches. I've got the entire interior out right now, the cancerous spots removed, and am about to start forming the replacement patches. Additionally, I've always known that the front spring mounts were a weak spot of these vehicles and I have wanted to reinforce them as a matter of preference, even though I don't actually do any serious off-roading with my Jeep - it just bugs me. So that said, I purchased these brackets, Rusty's XJ Rear Spring Mount Reinforcement Brackets, and I want to install them BEFORE I replace the floor patches so I can fully protect them with POR-15, etc.

Long story short, it's been awhile since I've removed the rear springs and just wanted to run my current procedure past y'all before I do it to make sure I'm not missing something...

Section I'm confident on:

• Chock front tires
• Lift rear of Jeep from under rear differential
• Place Jack Stands under rear portion of unibody frame (with boards/plates to distribute force)
• Lower jack slowly until weight is resting on jack stands, rear axle/wheels still in air/elevated at this point (slightly)

Section I'm less-than-confident on:
Option 1:

• Next, use air impact gun to remove bolt from front spring perch (both sides)
• When both front bolts are free, slowly lower jack/rear axle rest of distance to ground
  • Here is where I am unsure if the rear spring mounts and/or the driveshaft will allow the front springs to remain (roughly) in their mounting positions or if they will shift and come out of alignment and then Ole Matt is in a new kind of world of hurt...
• Install Rusty's Rear Spring Reinforcement Brackets on both sides
• Gently raise jack/rear axle assembly

Option 2:

• Instead of removing both sides at once, just remove one side/install bracket/reinstall bolt
• Rinse and repeat on other side

I know that Option 2 sounds a lot more simple, and it probably is, but what I'm concerned about with Option 2 would be the the side with the bolt still in it causing a torsional force (ie, a twist) to go through the entire axle/spring assembly, which could potentially make man-handling and forcing the spring back into position next to impossible for a single person.

I apologize for the long-windedness, but I want to make sure I'm doing this right and don't get myself or my Jeep hurt.

Thanks!

-Matt