King coilover adjustment

I am about to install my king 2.5's with external reservoirs and reading the instructions for adjustment it says that you need to have them in a vice to be adjusted. Just curious if anyone is adjusting these on their trucks or taking them off for all adjustment.

 

Dude it's a pain in the ass to do on your truck. I just took mine into my 4x4 store to have them ajust. There's a thread on here of ppl doing all different ways. Save yourself the headache bro.

 

Mine don't even have resi's and they were a bitch to adjust. I ended up alternating a 5/16" punch and an allen wrench with a wrench on the end for added leverage.

 

I was impatient and put them on without adjusting. Took it to a 4x4 shop for an alignment and asked them to adjust. They pulled it in and looked at it for 30 min and said they couldn’t adjust it while they were on the truck. I called BS, bought the tool from king (the one with the curved tip) for $30-40 and adjusted them myself. Took me no time at all.

 

thanks for the info guys. No one seems to be open on Sunday around here so not sure If I should put them on to see how much lift I get before I adjust.

 

Just do it on the truck. Just make sure you jack up the front end to take the stress off the springs. You can use a drill bit ( the chuck end) to turn the adjuster. Good to wear a glove when turning. Also good to apply some antisieze on the threads just below the adjuster. I’ve done mine that way several times as I was dialing it in and adjusting after it sagged a little.

 

It's not hard to adjust them on the truck if you're mechanically inclined. It's probably easier actually and saves you from potentially damaging them in a vise BTW.
1. Just jack up the front end of the truck so the tires are off the ground and the suspension unloads.
2. Spray a little WD40 on the adjustment collar (top and bottom) and give it a few minutes to soak in. You don't need a whole bunch, just a little to reduce the friction a bit.
3. Loosen the set screw a turn or two and then use a straight punch (or adjustment tool) in the correct size to turn the collar.

People can and have messed up any one of those three steps and the potential errors are as follows:
1. leaving the truck on the ground means you're fighting the loaded suspension and compressing not just the springs but also trying to "lift" the truck as you're adjusting the collar.
2. no lube means rough going and you could gall the threads. Remember these are aluminum parts not hardened steel. Too much lube (WD40, grease, boogers, etc.) and you're just making a goopy mess of your new suspension. You seriously just need a bit. The beauty of using WD40 is that it will evaporate in a few days and there's very little reside that could attract dust and whatnot. Some people have used anti-seize on the threads prior to assemble of the suspension components and while that doesn't necessarily mess anything up, it just looks messy after being exposed to road debris.
3. The king collar (and Fox BTW) is a clamp style design (*where Icon uses a set screw that bites into the threaded shock body). if you loosen the tensioning set screw too much, you run the risk of opening the collar and potentially jumping a thread and you'll need to completely remove and disassemble the shock to reset. Lastly, using the correct sized tool to adjust the collar is important (be it a straight punch or the King adjustment tool). Again, aluminum parts means if you use the wrong size, you'll tear up the adjustment slot and cause it to be oval shaped. Similar idea to rounding off a bolt: it might work once or twice, but after that you're fucked.

The spirit of this thread is to DIY, but there's no harm in admitting when something is above your skill level. Nothing is hard if you understand what you're doing and have the correct tools.

FWIW, I've adjusted Icon, King and Fox the same way and never had any issues.

Good luck.

 

Well ghost ship I am an aircraft mechanic by trade but this is all new to me. So mechanically speaking I think I am ok but I do have so hesitation since they cost so much money I didn’t want to chance it. I needed some reassurance that this has been done before with success. Thanks for your advice and I just might give it a shot tomorrow.

 

All of this, and get the right tool. You can’t adjust them with the straight tool that king sends with the shocks.

 

Roger that

 

You'll be fine. report back if you have any issues.

 

Will do. Thanks again for the info guys

 

Ive never used them, but these have worked for some people: I have Icon suspension and their proprietary tool with a curved end and a straight punch on the other. The curved side only works if you have non-resi shocks. With the reservoir hose in the way it's useless and you're better off with the straight side.

 

Ok. I also have a wide variety of punches and drifts so if the tool that came with it is too long then I might be able to use one of them if needed.

 

I have Kings with the resi, the straight punch provided will not work because the resi is in the way. You will need the bent tip, or you could make your own tool.

 

I bought the billet spanner wrench type tool and that shit does me no good with the resi line in the way. I need to take some preload off but ive been lazy to try it again

 

Got all of the suspension installed yesterday. I did try to adjust them on the truck and the adjustment ring moved however, I think I am going to need that tool from summit in order to get enough rotation out of the ring to pick up another hole.