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OK. So far, I found it, bought it, tinted it, and then got it home, all in 2 days. Not too bad. The next step was a lift kit, of course. As you can see, the truck sat pretty low when I got it. Would you believe that there are 3" lift blocks on the rear axle in that picture?!? I didn't notice at the time. Anyway, I decide that it's too expensive to have one put on, and I'm fairly mechanically competent, so I can do it myself. Ah, to live in ignorance...
I'm going to write this up from my experiences as a raw beginner and what it took for me to just get the front suspension on.
Step 1. Find the right kit.
First off, I never thought it would be so hard to find parts for my FSJ, but nobody seems to carry after-market products for it. I did come across the SkyJacker kit ($795, not including shocks!), but it was WAY out of my price range. The only other company I could find that carried ANY suspension kits for FSJ's was Rough Country. They offer a 3" FSJ lift for $325 (with rear blocks) or $575 (with rear springs). Both options come with hydraulic shocks. Being cheap, I opted for the block kit. Had I known then what I know now, I would have bought the springs.
Here's what the kit looks like (plus assorted mounting hardware; the only problem was they didn't send a wider U-bolt to accommodate the differential housing on my D44 in the front. Don't forget to save and clean the old one, if it's in good enough shape and hasn't stretched).
This is the Rough Country Kit 
This is the original suspension: 
Step 2. Find a suspension shop and have THEM install the kit (Or, "Why everything hurts")
I naively assumed that I was up to the task of installing the lift kit myself, and I paid for that assumption. I DID, however, get the front springs on all by myself, with hand tools. Not an easy task, and one I will never, ever repeat as long as I can afford to pay a shop to do it. Anybody can do shocks, so I won't even mention them here, other than to say "I put them on."
Since I decided to do it myself, with hand tools, I'll go over my own experiences here.
Day 1 - "This will only take a couple of hours..."
Tools
First and foremost, be sure that you have the right tools to do the job. I thought I did, but I was wrong. The one thing I thought I had which I didn't was a good set of 1/2" Drive sockets ($19.95 at Wal-Mart), all the way up to 1" (you need a 1 1/4" socket if you're going to replace your Pitman Arm, which you DO NOT want to do unless you have an air compressor and an impact wrench. I tried and failed to remove the nut holding it on with my breaker bar. That will be discussed later) Here is a list of the tools I used the most during this job:
- My hammer. This was my best friend throughout the entire process. I wish it had been bigger - much bigger.
- My 1/2" Drive breaker bar (it is only 18" - buy a larger one, if possible).
- My 1/2" drive sockets. The ones I used the most were: 5/8 for the shocks (this could have been 9/16 - I don't remember). 13/16 for the NUT end of the shackle bolts. 7/8 for the BOLT head of the shackle bolts. You'll want box-end wrenches for this as well.
- A 3/8" 6-inch extension. This was used to hammer out stubborn shackle bolts.
- A large heavy-duty flat-head screwdriver.
- Jack Stands (at least 2).
- At least two jacks, one of which is capable of lifting the body from the frame. I used my hydraulic floor jack to lift the axle, while the bumper jack worked nicely in lifting the body and extending the suspension.
- A torque wrench - DO NOT attempt this job without one.
- Chilton's Repair Manual for 1957-83 Wagoneer/Commando/Cherokee - Publication Number 40600, bought at Kragen Auto Parts. Not entirely helpful, but has lots of nice pictures showing the proper orientation of parts.
Labor
*TIP*
One thing that will save gobs of time is to pre-soak all of the nuts
and bolts that you are going to try and turn with penetrating oil and WD-40. Let
this mixture sit for about a half hour, then take the parts apart according to the
instructions.
First, the instructions said to replace the shock, so I did. That was easy. That is, it was easy after running out to Chief Auto which was, thank God, open on New Year's Day. Why go to the auto parts store you ask? Well, almost all of the components had obviously been there a while. I needed to buy some WD-40 and a couple of cans of penetrating oil.
Next, the instructions said (and I'm quoting), "Remove old springs and replace with new ones". I started attacking the spring on the driver's side at around 11:00 AM, Friday morning. By 2:00 PM I had the old spring off. I also chose this particular weekend to quit smoking. BIG mistake, but I made it through.
So, now I just put the new spring on, right? Suuuuurrre. Uh huh. No problemo, man. So, by 11:00 PM I was tearing my hair out and starting to cry...
OK, here's some of the lessons I learned.
First, leaf springs have a different shape when they are OFF the truck, and will not just fit right into the hangers. Second, the axle must be at the right angle or the alignment pin won't match up with the alignment hole on the axle. This gave me much grief. When I first put the spring on, I bolted into the front and rear hangers, and then tried to crank it up into the axle. The pin was off center by about 3"!! After several failed attempts to get the spring to go into alignment, I finally gave up and decided that Rough Country had sent me the wrong kit. I went to bed very dejected.
As I was falling asleep I had an idea....