Help! Fox 2.5 res. coilovers

Yeah i tried adjust originally when i mounted them while still on the truck. loosened the allen bolt and tried a spanner and also tried a screwdriver but it wouldn't budge. noticed that mine only came with the one ring as opposed to the 2 so i emailed fox and that when they told me they would need to be taken off or put under some sort of compression. idk why mine only came with the 1 ring though and not two

 

yea the new ones only have 1 ring. idk y the change though

 

weird. would like to adjust mine without having to take them to a shop

 

Fox changed the design from two rings to one ring with a pinch bolt. You CAN adjust the one ring shocks on the truck. You just have to be careful not to over loosen the pinch bolt. It should be just loose enough to allow the ring to move. Normally that would be half a turn. Use a good moly lubricant liberally on the threads of the shock. Raise the truck so that the suspension is at full droop, and make your adjustment. Snug the pinch bolt and lower the truck. Fox no longer has the double rings, so you can't even buy them to retrofit. The new pinch bolt rings are bullshit.

 

That's good to know. Thank you for the info its much appreciated

 

You're welcome! The old 2 ring setup was foolproof. It really irritates me that Fox chose to save 2 bucks on a $1500 product, and create this problem, but there you go. The single ring does work, it just requires more care. The reason Fox says to remove the shock and use a spring compressor is to cover their ass from the liability that they created. If you do back out the pinch bolt too far, the threads on the adjuster ring can shear off,.....and Fox knows that.

 

Use two punches! I have the same setup minus the reservoirs. Jack up front end so suspension is at full droop, unscrew set screw in collar (i never loosen to the point where screw isnt still connected to other side of collar), one 5/16" punch or cut off screwdriver or whatever on right and one on left side holes. I've spun mine without lube no problem but probably best to use something so threads spin freely. Using two really gives you the leverage needed and makes it veryeasy. Ive taken coilovers off a few times but cant imagine taking them off just to adjust. Learned this most likely from someone on this site

Was told by fox 1.2" of thread from factory was ABOUT 2". I purchased from Poly performance and wanted to lower back to the Factory setting. They emailed fox and were told 1.925" of thread= "Our shocks come set at max advertised height". Which leads me to believe that some 2.5"s are sent out set closer to 2" and some are sent out set closer to 2.75" from factory. I dont know because fox may be the worst customer service ive ever dealt with. Seriously bad! but really good shocks.

 

Good stuff guys. I didn't get a chance to mess with the truck last night cause of my brothers bday dinner.
I have a 5/16" punch ready to go as well as the spanner for when I get home this afternoon.

 

did you take the wheels off?

 

@Rudyp.27 ive always just left them on. Plenty of room to get in there. It was kinda scary the first time i spun the collar but ive dont it so many times getting to where i wanted to be its really easy and quick . Just need jack, wheel chocks and whatever tool you're using. Just try to do it sometime around when you are getting an allignment. Unless you dont care about tires

 

Once you get that initial movement in the collar its all good and goes pretty smoothly

 

Probably a stupid question but i'm gonna ask it anyways.. I have stock UCA's.. how bad of an idea would it be to adjust these so that the truck is as lifted as possible with them?

 

Anything over 2" and you will never get a good alignment. You really should start saving for UCAs, because even at 2" you will be running minimum caster.

 

Yeah that's the plan. It's pretty obvious when looking at the truck head on that the alignment isn't as it should be.

 

Ok guys. Sorry for not posting earlier. Got caught up at the end of last week. Had to do this stuff before going to the Mint400. So I did the coilover adjustment. I had my new tires and wheels installed first and then I came home to do the adjustment. I lifted the front end of the truck and had enough room to adjust with the tires and wheels on. I put on 285/70R17s and they looked pretty bad ass. I used the shitty Fox Spanner Wrench, Alot of Blaster break free, 11/16" Allen for collar screw, and 8MM Allen to turn the collar when the spanner wouldn't fit.

I loosened the collar allen a few turns, but not all the way. I sprayed the threads pretty much after every turn to help. Since the spanner sucks and doesn't fit on every turn due to the reservoir, I used the 8MM allen more. I had 16 threads showing for 2" so I figured I would go with 20 threads showing for 2.5" of approx lift. I made sure the collar allen screw was re-tightened and on the front side. Here is 20 threads showing.


And here it is lowered back to the ground



Took it in to Big 0 Tire and got a really good alignment with the 3 year unlimited alignments package. They were really helpful and the techs knew their stuff.

 

Looks good man! Quick question though for you and or anyone else. I see that you have a "front diff drop kit" what exactly is that for?

 

Link below is to a post i just made. Mine only seem to have 11 showing so what would that equate to inches wise? lift wise?

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/suspension-question.479647/#post-14598785

 

Diff drop is supposed to correct the CV axle angles but on 2nd gen trucks the effect is thought to be unnecessary or perhaps actually detrimental. On 1st gen trucks the drop does actually lower the front diff but on 2nd gen it's more of a rotation. So you decrease the angles in one plane but increase them in another. Plus you change the front driveshaft geometry. Point is the end result is you probably don't really decrease the wear on the CV joints but can create secondary issues, new vibrations, etc. I don't run a diff drop personally.

The threads per inch is 8 so 11 showing should be 1-3/8". But it does depend on coil length, coil spring rate and how much your front end weighs. The real measurement is from the fender lip to the rim lip, wheel center or some other similar, from the ground to the fender, etc. As a comparison my truck measures about 22.5" from the center of the wheel to fender and that's about 2.25" or 2.5" over what it was before the lift.

FWIW, this is what my driver's side looked like originally after installing and leveling the truck. The passenger side was/is considerably (about 1/2") lower.



About 2 months ago I put longer and stiffer springs on, in this case 14" King 650 lb/in (the original FOX were 13" and 600 lb/in). On the shocks now I have about 1-1/8" of threads showing on the driver's side and 1/2" on the passenger.

 

Do you have aftermarket bumper or any extra weight up front @DaveInDenver ? Or a pick of truck by chance. Did you notice much difference positive or negative with the 14" springs?
My Coils sagged quite a bit

 

I do have an aftermarket bumper, an ARB bull bar. Don't have the winch installed yet so it's a little lighter than it will eventually be. Can't say the length of the springs made much difference. The increased spring rate did stiffen the ride up noticeably. It may be a bit too stiff at the moment to be honest, but not offensively so. I hope the winch will help with that, though.