How to install stock arm coil overs

[BigBadSmoosh]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

Can you adjust the spring when its upside down ?

yes, but i'd rather adjust it out of the truck, in my posts i gave all sorts of measurements as to where to tighten the spring seats down to to get a specific ride height.

it is easy enough to take them in and out once you've done it a few times..Also the springs as is are close to hitting the inside of the upper control arm, that is mounted upside down. You'll see once the truck is on the ground how much adjustment is needed.

 

[E-Rue]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

your gona have slight issues with either option..... if you install them upright, you will have to clearance the upper mount as needed so the spring cup doesnt bind in the upper shock mount and cause a shock failure. if this can be done without weakening the upper mount then it will probably end up being the preferred method.

installing the upside down gives you better clearance in the upper shock mount but requires you to do spacing tricks to get the clearance at the bottom you need to stay off the steering and CV. the bushings were having to be shaved down to get enough lateral spacing to clear, and its my preference not to do this unless its absolutely necessary.

if the upper shock mount can be made to clear the large spring cup, then i believe we will have a better method of instalation, but i would make ABSOLUTELY sure that under full motion the spring cup does not contact the frame/upper mount. the shocks will fail under these conditions.

e

 

[BigBadSmoosh]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

again, I've driven 1500+ miles on these installed upside down.. no problems what so ever...

Infact Mattw will be at my house tomorrow and we'll take the truck for a ride so he can make a decision on getting them or not for his projects.

 

[MRKING]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

what was the original reason for having them upside down?

I wanted to be able to turn the shock knob from the top through the engine bay . It seemed like it wouldve be inconvenient to crawl under the truck every time to set them when figuring out whats best .

I couldnt adjust the spring in the truck . It may be possible , but you will leave tool marks on the shock . Some may not care , some may .

 

[George Blake]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

Got mine out and started putting them together. Where are the poly bushings for the shock eyes? Is that something I have to go buy separate? Mine just has the teflon eyelets. I drive mine daily and those aren't gonna cut it. Is there a part number for those?

 

[George Blake]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

http://www.energysuspension.com/pages/sk_bsp1.html

There's the link to the poly bushings. Any idea which one it is?

 

[George Blake]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

Part # 9.8140R (red)

Has the closest dimensions. I ordered them and will let you know how they fit. I'm attempting to take my stock shock tubes that the bolt slides through and put it in and do them this way. Thank you so much, Smaug for taking those pics. I'm gonna trim mine to fit like yours and put up some pics.

http://www.energysuspension.com/pages/sk_bsp1.html

There's the link to the poly bushings. Any idea which one it is?

 

[BigBadSmoosh]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

Part # 9.8140R (red)

Has the closest dimensions. I ordered them and will let you know how they fit. I'm attempting to take my stock shock tubes that the bolt slides through and put it in and do them this way. Thank you so much, Smaug for taking those pics. I'm gonna trim mine to fit like yours and put up some pics.

I wouldn't trim ahead of time.. test fit, test fit, test fit.. over and over again. every truck is different and the changes will be different per truck..

I got the poly bushings from QA1 directly vis E-rue, they are listed on e-rue's site or on summit..

while you are in there, if the ball joints haven't been replaced.. you might as well replace them with some moog parts.. then get ready for an entirely different truck. :tup:

 

[George Blake]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

I bought all of the stuff from Eric. Bushings, ball joints, tie rod sleeves, everything. The shock bushings would've been nice to have in there. It's all there but bushings. It would've been nice to have gotten them as part of the kit since the teflon ones are not meant for a daily driven vehicle. I'll call QA1 but I've already ordered the others now. I need to get this truck put back together. That all that's left is brakes and the front suspension. I'm really close.

I wouldn't trim ahead of time.. test fit, test fit, test fit.. over and over again. every truck is different and the changes will be different per truck..

I got the poly bushings from QA1 directly vis E-rue, they are listed on e-rue's site or on summit..

while you are in there, if the ball joints haven't been replaced.. you might as well replace them with some moog parts.. then get ready for an entirely different truck. :tup:

 

[BigBadSmoosh]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

I bought all of the stuff from Eric. Bushings, ball joints, tie rod sleeves, everything. The shock bushings would've been nice to have in there. It's all there but bushings. It would've been nice to have gotten them as part of the kit since the teflon ones are not meant for a daily driven vehicle. I'll call QA1 but I've already ordered the others now. I need to get this truck put back together. That all that's left is brakes and the front suspension. I'm really close.

the teflon come with the shocks.. the poly are an extra $25-30 or something, most people don't want to pay the extra $

 

[E-Rue]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

I bought all of the stuff from Eric. Bushings, ball joints, tie rod sleeves, everything. The shock bushings would've been nice to have in there. It's all there but bushings. It would've been nice to have gotten them as part of the kit since the teflon ones are not meant for a daily driven vehicle. I'll call QA1 but I've already ordered the others now. I need to get this truck put back together. That all that's left is brakes and the front suspension. I'm really close.

whoa whoa whoa..... ok. first off the reason you had to wait a few extra days on your order was because i had to order some more shocks that had the rod ends rather than the poly bushing ends, because the poly bushing ends will not work with jeff scotts a-arms. your install is totally different from what everyone else is doing here with the stock a-arms. i wish i had known you wanted the polys, id have told you upfront they dont work. if you look closely at the assembled suspension you will notice the shocks are not perpendicular to the end mounts when you use jeffs a-arms. i know the prefered method is to have poly bushings because they never wear out, but they will be in a pretty bad bind if you use them with the aftermarket a-arms. the stock a-arms keep it almost perfectly straight but jeffs put the mount at much more of an angle. i dont want to discourage you from trying new things..... cause honestly thats how we progress as a group, but i believe you will find that this option has been explored several times, and designated a failure. also, the poly shock bushings are propriatary and i think that anything you order from ES is not gonna fit properly in the end of the QA1 shock. on a more promising note, the suspension with rod ends will last you roughly 1-2 years of daily driving before they need replacing and the replacements are only about $50

e

 

[George Blake]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

I'm not mad at you E. I just need to get this thing together. There are guys tired of waiting on me to do their stuff. So your saying with the JS arms, the urethane would be forced at an angle and the shock eye will cut into it. Am I following you right? Even rubber shock eyes wouldn't tolerate that. And also that the QA1's are available with eyelets that are set up for poly bushings. But it's not like you can take a teflon setup QA1 shock and put a QA1 bushing and sleeve in it. All of this is good to know. So I need to just go ahead and put the teflon in it, get it lined up and go with it (since I have JS arms). This will save me 4 days waiting on bushings. That bushing number I gave is within a 1/16" of the needed diameter for the QA1. I was just gonna turn them down. That sounds like wasted effort now.
I'll do that. I'll go with the teflon. Get it in and go with it.
What is the highest ride height that I can go with one these? They are a lot shorter than the stock shocks and looks like I'm gonna have to drop it down a little. I was just concerned with the shock extending out from spring pressure. You guys know this stuff a lot better than I do. Is it anything to be worried about or does the shock dampen the extension enough that it protects the internals from being "sprung" out when weight comes off the wheel. Does that make sense? I'm not sure if I'm asking that right.

 

[BigBadSmoosh]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

hell I didn't even know you had the JS arms.. in that case it should be pretty much bolt in once you have everything.. no grinding or anything..

the teflon will work fine, but i had my shocks in and out 20+ times.. the metal sleeve ended up being pretty loose in there.. since poly was available I wanted to try it and I was able to get it to work.

my suspension squeeks but that is because I just don't have the time to check everything out, I know nothing is rubbing and causing any problems. Mattw can attest that I beat on these coil-overs and they took whatever i threw at them. When we were on a test drive I took a 20mph on ramp at 60mph+ The truck held flat the entire time, I ended up with some wheel hop towards the end and I had to get out of it so I didn't hit the curb, but it was as sold as a 3800lbs truck can be making a turn that sharp.

that is the last time i take that on-ramp that fast as well, don't want to slide into a curb or anything.

=)

 

[George Blake]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

Hey, Smaug(I'm just calling you that so it's not confused with the other, better looking Eric ).

This will be my third poly suspension but first coil over install. Something that may help you. I used the grease supplied with the bushings and put a coating on everything. It pretty much takes solvent to get it off. When you tighten the bolts, do them with the suspension loaded. What I did was I had a jack stand at it's lowest setting as a safety under the frame. Then I put a jack with a rubber strut bushing thing on it and put it under the lower control arm and then jacked it up just until the load was all on the arm which kinda squishes everthing together. Then I put a jack stand under the front frame crossmember and get under there and torque everything. I don't know if this directly prevents the squeaking but I've never had a squeek out of the first two that I did this way.

 

[E-Rue]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

the JS suspension still requires a little clearancing...... there is normally a color instruction booklet included with the JS kit. i recommend getting this from jeff as it will definately help with your install george.

e

 

[George Blake]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

Yep. It needed clearancing in the same spot. The front upper control arm bracket needs clearanced. The front alignment bolt needed the head ground down some and there is a large bracket to the rear that needs grinding to clear the spring.
I got the instructions off the website. This thread is a lot better.
Is it OK then to just use washers to set the positioning of the eyelets of the shocks on the shock bolts with the teflon setup? I'm sorry to ask here but this thread is pretty much all inclusive now. I'll put some pics up.
I'm gonna attempt to set my ride height at 27.5" to the cladding lip if possible.

 

[E-Rue]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

yes you will want to use washers to space the shock more forward or rearward in the upper and lower mount so that it has clearance under load as well as on jackstands (hanging) once you drive it around a bit put it back up in teh air adn look for any witness marks on the springs. these will indicate your still touching somewhere. the clearances are all very tight so sometimes it takes a couple tries to get it correct. you also have to be careful not to space it too close to one end or the other on th eupper mount or the spring cup will touch the upper mount and while in motion try to pry the spherical bearing out of its poly race.

e

 

[George Blake]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

OK. Did a bunch of grinding and figured out the pics. I will put some up. There is a large bracket that gets completely cut off to make room with the JS/RPM style kits. I tell you, it cuts off a hell of a lot faster with a sawzall than trying to grind it down. Makes a ton of room.
Got it in today on the driver's side. Passenger side should be a breeze now that I got it figure out. 12mm washers for spacers. I have an 1/8" gap between the top shoulder of the shock and the shock tower on the frame. Any less than that and the alignment would be impossible. It looks like everything will clear. I used the Edelbrock tie rod sleeve that E supplied and it added at least a 1/2" of room. When I get the CBR's on and can twist the steering side to side, I'll check clearance. It felt pretty good to finally get that in there and it clear.
Oh, and mine are installed upside down as well. Meaning spring down. It just wouldn't clear right until I did. Then all kinds of room opened up. It will be a lot easier setting ride height and suspension firmness as well.

 

[George Blake]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

When you guys are doing these, how much are trimming off the bump stop?

 

[oboym]

Re: How to install stock arm coil overs

so far i took a 1/4 to a 1/2 in. off the bottum A frame bump stop
I got front sitting 27 1/4" off the ground (255-50-16 tires)