It does seem that the shop you took it to blew it. Do they have a clue how to center an axle? After all this is not a typical procedure done on road going cars and trucks.

Any chance that the hemi joints also traveled past their range and loosened the jam nuts?

Anyway, the bump stop "adjustment" looks like the way to go in your case. Assuming you rarely (or never) bottom out with your new lift while driving you can upgrade to harder bump stop material. That will stop most of the squish so you can enjoy the full articulation of your Jeep loaded or unloaded.

IMHO new springs will not help unless they are so stiff you can never compress them or they "coil bind" and act as a bump stop. You will still end up in the same place under compression ... on the bump stop.

Wheel spacers will help with the tub side rubbing, but will do nothing for the front and rear of the well.

 

This was a 4x4 shop, "Arabia's Overkill" in Campbell, CA. FWIW, I don't think it was incompetence, I think it was negligence (that is, they just didn't attend to the rear track even though I asked them to).

I was wondering about this possibility. The range of motion on the heim joints is pretty extreme though -- probably about 140 degrees or so (I haven't tested it). It does seem like if a Heim were to bind up prematurely, it would be placing a lot of stress on a relatively weak spot in the "misalignment spacer." I have to assume that FT and others that use Heim joints design their kits so this doesn't happen...

Yeah, that's a really good idea actually. The only mod I've seen for the actual rubber bump stop bumper is an upgrade to some crazy Fox hydraulic setup for $400 (presumably for a pair), and from the pics it looks like it's front-only:

http://project-jk.com/wp-gallery2.php?g2_itemId=7660

Any idea where I might find harder material? Is that bumper some kind of standard size or is it different for each vehicle?

... my thoughts exactly. Thanks for your help!