Made good progress this weekend. Friday evening I got the 9in mounted up and rear drive shaft figured out. Ended up using the back half and the 79 and the front part of the explorer shaft. Splines matched up and length was close enough to work at least for now.
Here's how it sits currently.
Here I have it hanging from my hoist in the back and on a jack in the front. Approximately where I want it to sit in the end.
Loaded up and headed to get all the brackets welded up.
I'm running 16in compressed 26in long bilstein 5125 shocks in the front and the radius arms were binding when the shocks were at 24in so we ended up tilting the radius arm brackets down a few degrees so they bind at the same time the shocks run out of travel. Also decided to move the axle back 1/2in as the tire was rubbing on the steering box at full lock to the right.
Here you can see from how compressed the shock is that my current springs even at full droop are severely limiting travel.
Just checking rear suspension travel so I could figure out what shocks to go with. Ended up ordering 14in travel bilstein 5125 (part number 33-185576). I don't think my rear will flex that much but at least I won't be limited by shock travel.
Here again you can see how the front only flexes a couple inches per side. I have some taller coils that came with the axles I'm going to swap to for now. They are a stiffer spring than the orange ones in the picture but at least it will set more level until I figure out what springs I want to order for the front.