New England B.S. Thread

I'm gearing up to put on my suspension Saturday. Any tips/tricks/headaches from the experts here? I've put so much Fluid Film on my frame all the lower bolts look OEM new. My front upper top hat bolts are rusty but I hit em with PB blaster tonight and I'll hit em again tomorrow. I will also hit the UCA crown nut too.

I don't forsee any issues but if there's something to avoid or do, it'll be cool to know. I've got my rear TSB leaf / AAL prebuilt and just rented spring compressors.

Looks like I just remove the rear leafs, disconnect the axle and unbolt the rear shocks out back. Up front undo the UCA crown nut and lower bolt, pull out the assembly and swap the top hat to the new setup.

I have my fingers crossed that I can get a decent caster rating going with the Eibach @ 0.85 and the ARB sag.

 

Use lots of anti seize.

Be careful when separating the UBJ from the spindle. I like to remove the castle nut, then thread it back on so it sits flush with the top (bottom) of the UBJ threads. This way, you protect the threads while you're separating it.

 

You don't need to remove the rear leaf pack completely . Just unbolt the unbolts,center pin and add your leaf and put back together . Just make sure you have the truck high enough to droop the axle .

 

I think he is replacing his leaf pack with the TSB pack that he put a AAL in.

Mike most of it makes sense once you start tearing into it. One thing I saw a lot of people struggle with was the sway bar link bolts. Make sure to clean out where you put the allen wrench in so that you do not strip it out. I use a pick and make sure I get all the crud that likes to pack in there out

 

Oh I must of missed that part .

 

Good luck man, look forward to seeing how it all comes out!

 

Watch the brake lines in the rear, I had to unbolt them from the axle in the center to gain a little more droop and avoid stretching them.

Also, with the front, I didn't have to unbolt the UCA. I undid the sway bar but didn't separate the spindle from anything. It takes a little finagling but you can get the shock in there without unbolting the spindle if you don't want to mess with it.

 

I also didn't unbolt the UCA. It definitely takes some patience and finagling but it'll go.

 

Much easier to just unbolt the UCA. Remove 1 nut, done

 

Trying to take out that UCA bolt is a pain, you have to bend the sheet metal to take it out all they way. I would try to leave it in.

Mike, did you get new UCAs, or are you keeping the stock ones in?

 

They're talking about removing the spindle from the UCA, not the UCA from the frame.

 

I believe they were all taking about the nut at the end of the UCA for the ball joint that goes into the spindle.

 

Ninja

 

When I put my coil overs in, I unbolted the lower balljoint. Made it easier the get the lower shock mount in.

 

Me too

 

I knew that, I didn't know if he was replacing the UCAs as well. But is there not enough room to get a new strut into place without removing/ opening up the UCA from the spindle?

 

You can get a new strut in without disconnecting the UCA from the spindle just fine. Some just like to make it easier by disconnecting the spindle/UCA connection.

 

Other reason I detached the lower balljoint. I was able to lift the the UCA to slide the coilover into place, and be able to push the LCA down to slide the lower shock mount into place. Removing the sway bar is nessacary.

 

Oh, okay, that's what I thought. Sadly, I didn't put my front lift on my truck, since I don't have a spring compressor that can work with our trucks springs.

Edit: Jason that also makes since to do that, I helped my dad with his new struts on his Tundra, and we had to use a board to push down on the LCA to get the bottom of the new strut to line up.

 

Correct. I've got the leafs ready to go. I just really need to put another coat of paint on one side then once they're on the truck I'll douse them with Fluid Film.

Thanks! Pics to follow tomorrow hopefully.

I'll keep that in mind, I will have a floor jack and my OEM jack, so I'll be trying to keep everything supported as much as I can. I will probably break the UCA connection to make my life a little easier, but we will see.

For now I'm going to use the stock UCAs with my fingers crossed that the weight of the ARB will drop the front down enough to get the caster where it needs to be. Eibach @ 0.85 is very much borderline, so we will see what happens and how it rides.

That makes sense, I wished I had done my LBJ when I did lowering springs / adjustable struts in my old Accord, but that's a whole other story. For now I'll start at the top and take the bottom apart if I need to.

I rented one from Auto Zone, so hopefully you don't read about me on the news tomorrow. "Local idiot kills himself with coil spring".