You need to use LR bottle jack. Usually, you can wedge it between radius arm or axle housing and bumpstop bracket. It's easier to remove the four front driveshaft bolts, in my opinion (instead of crossmember, especially, if you live in the rust belt). Just make sure you have plenty of jackstands in place, you're on a level surface, rear wheels chauked/blocked and l usually put the floor jack somewhere for added security...since you are getting under neath without wheels. Also, put the upper spring rubber cushion through upper bracket first, temporarily start nuts to hold it in place, then once you've jacked enough space between bottom mount and upper...it should clear. You'll never have enough clearance the way you are doing it, bolts add considerable length to overall diamention.

 

If you plan on wheeling that D2 you'll be removing that front cross member anyways trust me! If you don't live in a rusty area (D2 looks clean to me) spray the 4 bolts down and remove the front cross member.

First with a lifted D2 the drive shaft will hit that cross member and it could damage your front drive shaft, second if you have a front drive shaft break a U-Joint the drive shaft will bounce off that cross member and bash a hole into your transmission. With the cross member removed if a U-Joint breaks the drive shaft has a chance to drop to the ground vs bash into your transmission.

All 3 of my D2's with lifts have it removed and I cruise on the road at 80MPH with zero issues. When I off road I get full flex without grinding my front drive shaft into that cross member. Some people swear by that cross member and add spacers to it, but then you just have a super low point to get caught on trail obstacles.

Once that front cross member is out you'll probably gain another 1-3inch of axle drop, then as mentioned above use the LR bottle jack, and also secure those top retainers loosely then stick the top of the coil in first, then slide the lower spring perch plate into position.

I can usually do a complete D2 lift in 45min to an hour. Sometimes the hardest part is removing the darn wheels due to messed up lug nuts!

 

Thanks all! Finally wrapped it up ... in about 8-9 times what it would have taken Best! The rear was much easier and I used the bottle jack trick, but I still had to compress every single spring; that's a lot of wrenching!