Stock, the front springs should be just about dead flat, and the rear should have just a hair of arch if not flat.
What do you want to do with it?
500$ is not much, not enough for a good suspension.
I bought a 4" 420$ shipped Rough Country lift. It is the cheapest 4" lift on the market. So far with moderate to heavy wheeling, the rear track bar extension bracket has broken in half (along the welds, poor quality), 1 spring has broken, the front track bar bracket has needed to be modified to make it last, the brake extensions are not enough so I bent them more, and I have wasted the shocks that came with the kit.
So the only things I am running that are part of the original kit is the front track bar relocation bracket, the pitman arm, the 2 rear springs, and the brake line extensions (which I still had to bend).
So what I have done is; fabricate a new rear track bar with mount (free, because I know how to fabricate), replace the shocks with RS9000's (80$ each), fabricated a 1" shackle lift (free), and new rubicon express front springs (120$ a piece, BTW I pulled the bottom leaf to soften them up).
I have about 5" of lift for about 980$. It is a fairly flexy rig (I don't know it's ramp score) that is good in the rocks, trails, and dunes. If I were you I would just go buy the
Rubicon Express 4.5" Extreme Duty lift and be done with it. Otherwise if you buy something cheap and wheel it hard, you will be paying for the new parts anyways. Also, The RE kit comes with sway bar disconnects, greaseable shackles and Stainless steal NEW brake lines.
If you don't have close to a grand to spend right now, live with the ways it is and save up. In the long run you will be spending that much or more of your time and money getting the same quality as the RE kit.
