As long as you are not cutting the spring perch off the axle, I doubt your going to add enough spring lift to change the pinion angle much, unless you interchange the 4x4 axle for the 2x4 axle. The 4x4 axle should be mounted under the springs, and the 2x4 axle should be mounted above the springs, swapping those would really change your pinion angle.
The thickness of the spring leaf you are adding is as important as the length. Thicker leafs add more capacity.
From your extra spring packs, add a matched pair (read that as 2 the same length and thickness) of long spring leafs to the truck that needs more lift, and a pair (or 2 pair of different lengths) of shorter matched spring leafs to the truck needing more capacity. Don't forget to pick up a couple pairs of spring center bolts, and I would also pick up a couple pairs of the spring alignment brackets to add at the front edge of the newly installed extra springs in each pack. Gene
no, not swapping rear ends. Both trucks are daily drivers, wife drives the 4wd I drive the 2wd at the moment.....
yup I know about the center bolts, no biggie there, and the alignment brackets/ clamps to hold the spring pack together so the leaves don't fan out. figured on those. and new U bolts.
and I have a chop saw to equalize length of what ever leaves that I decide to use.....
when I had my 75 Cordoba I had those springs redone, and wound up with pinion angle issues, all they did was to re arch and add a long leaf. same thing they had done to every set of leaves I had done by them, and only car that gave me that problem afterwards.
these trucks have the 3 leaves with the heavy (like 2x thickness) short one on the bottom, edges of which only touch the bottom leaf of the other 3 when loaded. Im on the computer, not under the truck at the moment but I think that heavy leaf, while on the bottom, is longer than the 3rd leaf. was gonna add in my new leaf either between main leaf and 2nd leaf. or between middle leaf and 3rd leaf.
and Yeah, I know about staggering lengths progressively from longest (main) to short.
and looking at 70s and 80s trucks (and prior) I remember the 3/4 and 1 ton trucks had as many as 8-10 leaves then a sub pack of 2-3 leaves ("overloads") where the newer trucks Ive seen "1-ton" trucks with as few as 3-4 leaves total, with no "overloads" this makes no sense to me. (Yeah I know this thought has no bearing on what I am trying to do here)
