Ok, the input that you guys have given me has been very helpful so far. This has really got me thinking.

As 75F350 mentioned, I am not really gaining any strength advantage with a leaf spring setup. There is a slight "cool" factor in the swap, but that really isn't the goal of this truck, and is a lot of work just for that point.

I had considered setting up the 3/4 ton axles so I could still use the coils, but I had nixed that idea previously because I didn't know how to get the wedges on the axles, I didn't know you could buy them as a weld-on part, thanks for that advice straightsix. Btw, do you have a link for those? I can't seem to find them on JBG.

I had also had a previous thought about swapping the 4.10's from the leaf spring axle right into my coil spring housing but I was worried about setting up used gears and getting the pattern right so it doesn't eat the gears. The more I think about it, though, since this is only the front axle, and will only be used occasionally at lower speeds offroad, It probably isn't as big a deal as I thought. I have experience setting up gears; I installed the 4.56's in my DD 05 F150 myself and have had no problems in a year and 20K miles.

So here is what I am thinking at this point: keep the stock axle housing, fix the stupid spring bucket, like 75F350 told me to do in the first place... . Swap in the 4.10 gears and 8-bolt spindles, as well as the D60 to gain the gearing that I want. Still only have the amount of the replacement bucket invested to this point.

Once this is accomplished, I can then move on to the steering, which needs an improvement anyways. From what I am gathering, I can just get the linkage setup from a 78/79 1/2 ton and this will be the inverted T design, correct? Will this setup bolt right up to my steering box and the 8-bolt spindles?

I can then add a little lift to clear the 36's without much hassle (it clears 35x12.5s right now with no problem, and one spring bucket is collapsed).