5100's help

My 2012 is set at 1.75" and I have no issues.

I am going to ask a silly question that I dont think has been asked or answered. Did you get it aligned after you lifted it?

I know another posted said they set their 5100s at 2.5" and had no issues, but everything I read on TW advised against setting them at 2.5" because it was basically over extending them.

I have also repeated read that if you raise it 2.5" or higher, it is highly reccommended to get new UCAs in order to have it correctly aligned.

I am going to ask another silly question, I assume you did something to the rear if you raised the front 2.5"...blocks or new leafs? Are you 100% that isnt part of the problem or contributing?

Just asking some questions to help us all understand the issue.

 

You're not over-extending the shocks by setting them at 2.5, you just don't have a lot of downtravel.

 

I also have mine set at 2.5" on stock springs. I've had them on for just under a year now with no issues. Other than caster that is.

 

I went out to fix my driver side top rubber piece screwup this morning. Since guy I did em with last night was tied up I went out and got a beastly 3 ton jack with 20" height max. Also got a ratcheting 19mm wrench for that freakin' top nut to make it easier.

Jacked up truck, removed tire, put jack under frame. Did the quick spring compress method again and just twisted the spring around and put it back in more carefully. I lined up the hole with the strut shaft and then very slowly jacked it, making sure things looked good the whole time. Side was complete in about 30 minutes, amazing I was able to get properly torqued bolts (used air gun last night) by hand. Yea, my hands hurt.

After I did this side, I noticed that the 'good' side (looked okay last night!) was no good either - this is where my clunking was coming from!

1. The top rubber hat thing that had been perfect looking last night, and the only reason I realized something was wrong with the other side, was now weird looking. Wuddafux?
2. Noticed spring didn't have much clearance behind it, nor side to side. It really looked like the spring didn't line up straight?
3. Got underneath the truck on drivers side and looked directly up, could see spring was like buckling almost, definitely not compressed perfectly straight up.

Did same steps on this side basically just rotating spring and SLOWLY jacking up the LCA with the top shaft lined up, making sure nothing stupid happened the entire time. This side took like 20 minutes. Both top rubber hat things look perfect now, I have much more clearance for the spring on the noisier passenger side, the place it was rubbing (pictured) is all good. Glad I only put like 4 miles on the truck until redoing it. Also glad it was a nice day out and that the bolts cooperated!











TRUCK RIDES PERFECT NOW. ABSOLUTELY ZERO NOISE OVER BUMPS/DIPS/ANYTHING. Hell, it even feels better than stock yet the coils are factory and I'm set to 2.5"- no lie!

Lay under your truck, under each side, and look up at the spring with a flash light. Does it have clearance on all sides?

 

so all u had to do is fix the rubber on the top and rotate the springs?

 

I don't think the rubber on top was even an issue with noise. I may have not even needed to twist the springs - just installing more carefully and controlled to make sure the rubber looked okay before I committed to putting top nut on and tightening everything else (again using the spring compressor-less method). Also before I put on the top nut I made sure the spring had clearance on all sides.

I honestly cannot see anything else that would clank or clunk on this setup other than the spring hitting its surroundings - I do not see any moving part or arm that would cause clunks and clanks. Really easy to see if others are having my same problem - use a flash light and see how close the spring is to the black metal that kinda boxes it in on the sides and behind it. Don't even have to take the tire off. You can also look from underneath.

All my stuff was tightened adequately, so shit, I guess if anyone wants to really eliminate two possibilities at once, go under with a 19mm wrench and a) look at the spring's clearance, and b) hit your bolts with the wrench and see if they accept any snugging up.

 

If its nice out ill be doing mine this weekend, hopefully i don't run into this issue but i will be sure to take ur advice. Only goin .85 tho. Glad u figured it out, You get an alignment yet?

 

Nah thankfully no alignment yet considering I just had to re-do it and would have fudged that up. I'm going to do rears tomorrow with a little luck and hope to align immediately after so I can drive straight. My steering wheel is still straight cause I marked alignment cams and it doens't pull excessively, but tons of positive camber. Maybe going up to 2.5" just makes it easier to screw up the stock coil placement and stuff, idunno..

But yeah, it's easy. It was 40-50* when I was doing mine. If you have any q's about the springcompressorless method let me know.

I followed this exactly. I took off my skid plate and loosened the two bolts (per side, kinda more towards middle of vehicle) to loosen sway bar (then completely removed sway bar bolts in the wheel wells, one bolt per side).

Attack the forward most lower control arm bolt from the front (hence skid plate removal). The second LCA bolt more toward rear of vehicle, loosen nut that faces back of vehicle. If you don't turn them much (seriously don't loosen til its freely spinning, just untighten) then your alignment cams will likely stay in place and the LCA will still droop enough. Mark your cams anyway with a marker or chalk.

That's really the only elaboration that post needed. Once you've removed the compression from spring and disconnect the top strut bolt, fiddle around with the sway bar connection and you can move it outta the way. Assembly comes out just like that - no need to completely remove sway.

Take your time putting everything back together, when ready to jack up LCA to compress spring, just be slow and use a flashlight in your mouth or sunlight to see the hole you need to get it through. That's just like one click of the jack or so, just get it lined up. Then crank slowly ensuring things look okay with each crank. After a minute you'll have enough threading poking thru top to put bushing and washer back on, then top nut. Don't do it in the dark like I did the first time haha, no bueno.

 

Do you have any pics of ur truck post install? Curious what it looks like

 

Thank u pugga I went back under and tightened the lca bolts I guess they weren't tight enough cuz after I did that no noise so to anybody looking to install these yourself it's extremely easy but make sure not to take short cuts and make sure all of the bolts are tightened down properly.

 

No problem. I re-tightened mine and drove right back to the dealership and made them re-do the alignment. If it was making noise, I'd do the same if I were you because it means things were moving and your alignment could be off. I couldn't get mine tight enough with the slid plate on so for the second alignment, I removed the skid plate and brought it back to the dealership (made it easier for them with the skid plate out of the way).

 

Does anyone have the tq specs for everything? We hit it all with an impact but i wanna make sure.

 

Yea I'd like to know this too

 

Top 3 nuts of front strut (don't need to remove if quick install method): 47 ft lbs
Lower control arm to frame bolts (the two ones that have your alignment shims on them): 110 ft lbs
Two bolts connecting steering knuckle to lower ball joint: 118 ft lbs
Center shaft of strut nut (one on very top) 20 ft lbs - yea, for a nut that has so much behind it, it's apparently only 20 ft lbs.
Sway bar nut: 52 ft lbs

Rear:

Single bolt holding shock at bottom: 61 ft lbs
U bolts - manual typo says 37, don't do it! I did 80 ft lbs since people said it meant to say 73 ft lbs.
Centering pin in leaf springs - Chris4x4's AAL install said there's no specific torque value for this, but to make snug. I did just that, it was pretty damn tight in the first place when I was removing it. I tightened it as good as I could with gorilla strength by hand, no breaker bar when tightening or anything. I did this cause I knew I'd be cutting the pin down a lot to make it fit under bump stop and I didn't want it to slip off the few remaining threads above the nut where I cut it.
All the little lines connected to frame/rear axle that you should remove- they're barely tight. 9 ft lbs or so should be fine. Make em as tight as they were when you removed, it seriously takes very little force to get em started.

Oh yea, I removed the driver's side brake line that was extending upward to the frame. I noticed it was tight as hell when I dropped the pumpkin (a little too much, too fast actually). I probably could have played it like a guitar string. So i raised jack and undid it-EZ.

Oh yea torque your wheels to 83 ft lbs

That should be all you need to do this job.

 

I did mine last night, I marked the alignment cams but somehow my alignment is jacked up lol gotta go get that fixed today, Maby it's cause I only marked one side of each nut ? Either way install was super easy.

 

Yea marking alignment cams is to just help you have a somewhat drivable vehicle to get you to the alignment shop. I can drive my truck straight with no hands but i know thw finer details of alignment are screwed.

 

I got my alignment done all is good now and truck sits perfectly level.