I don't mind saying that this rainy weather we have been having here is kicking my ass into the dirt, oh what I'd give if i had just a car port right now.
Had to build some lift stand blocks today to get the front of the truck high enough to start the lift install, by the time i had the truck lifted i was soaked so came in and put in dry stuff, rummaged around and found my old Gortex fishing jacket then went out and made a make shift rain cover, by the time that was accomplished my pants were soaked again so one more dry cloths change.
Started on the driver side, supported the axle with my floor jack, unbolted the spring mount bolt nuts , it quickly became apparent that the bolts had rusted tight inside the steel sleeve, no amount of impacting, jacking or hammering with my mini sledge would budge the bolts, i gave up and got my Sawzall and put a metal blade in it and sliced thru both sides of the bushings and mount bolts front and back to get the first spring off, at that point i realized that the stock shackle bushings in the frame are pretty warn too so i'm not going to assemble without new bushings or possibly replace with heavy dust shackle kit from ORD:
http://offroaddesign.com/catalog/hdshackles.htm
I'll call them on Monday and see about ordering both front and rear shackle kits, sure wish i had thought about this earlier! If anybody has another solution for just bushings or shackle kits or advice I'm all ears.
I decided i may as well at least mount the spring to the front mount point and to the axle I got the front bolt in with a little dead blow hammer persuasion to the spring to get it in place, but having a little trouble with the thru bolt on the spring pack going into the hole in the axle housing, but at that point the weather started getting pretty nasty with gusting winds so i decided to wrap it up and call it a day, then cleaned up and took my wife to a nice restaurant for dinner. Tomorrow after i try to devise a better rain cover i'll get back to that spring pack bolt issue then hopefully get the same done on the passenger side.