Can you use rear leaf springs on the front?

Hey guys,

I just received the new suspension lift I ordered for my 74 CJ5. I was holding the new ones up to the old ones just checking the lengths and how much lift difference there would be when I noticed that the new fronts look way to short to fit. I grabbed the rears and they look like they would fit both the front and the rear. My geuss is that the PO moved the spring mounts forward for some reason. I have contacted the company I bought them from and they said they would take the shorter fronts back and send me another set of rears.

My questions to the brain trust is: Would it be ok to run the longer rears up front as long as the mounts were ok? Or would I be better off moving the mounts to the original position? It is a 2" Superlift by the way, if that makes any difference. Thanks as always for your responses.

 

Rear springs are designed and rated to carry less weight than the front springs which have to support the entire front end, so they will probably wear out faster and you would probably have noticeably less control of your jeep while driving it.

Have you compared the width of the new front to the old front springs? The PO may have done a YJ or CJ-7 spring conversion. YJ springs are about half an inch wider IIRC. If the width is the same, compare the length eye-to-eye of the brackets on your frame to the length of cj-7 front springs.

There are other spring conversions that are common and may have been done so measure the width and length and post them here.

 

Smart thinking, I just went out and measured. The old fronts are roughly 44.5"L and are 2"W, the old rears are roughly the same length and 2.5"W. The new fronts are about 1.75"W and roughly 38.5"L. The new rears are the width and are roughly 44.5"L. Now I have now idea, because the widths are all wrong. Any help here would be great.

 

The 1 3/4" wide springs are stock application. The front and rear spring widths match late CJ or early YJ iirc. Hopefully someone will chime in that knows more on those.

 

Thanks guys, if anyone does know more let me know. I will call the supplier too and see if they have that info.

 

the 2" width is for 76- 86 cj's, the 2 1/2 is wrangler. Dont know the lengths

 

Thanks for the replies guys, I found out from the supplier it is the wrong set for my year. It has been swapped out to 76+