So I had a "fun" night of turning wrenches on the X. The plan was to swap the springs.
The passenger side spring removal was going smoothly. Just a little hesitation on removing the nuts off the U bolt, but that was to be expected. Then, the bolt that held the the spring to the shackle decided to be difficult.
So 4 hours later, a still stuck bolt, and a bent shackle, the bolt still hasn't freed. For the sake of our neighbors, we stopped banging and will try again maybe tomorrow. I've never seen a bolt so difficult.
So this is how she'll sit until we can get that bolt out and the shackle straightened up. I'm thinking I'm gonna take the shackle to my fabricator friend's place and have him straighten it up and reinforce it, if necessary. I really hope the other side isn't this difficult.