Fox 2.5 Rear Install Help (lower mount bushings)

I installed my new Fox 2.5 coilovers (880-02-361) up front on Sunday without a single issue. It was surprisingly straightforward I thought.

Yesterday, I started on my Fox 2.5 adjustable rears (883-26-007) and thought it would be even easier, but man was I wrong.

First getting the stockers off took way longer than it should've because the tab on top that's supposed to be used to prevent the shaft from spinning broke off. I had to use an angle grinder to get the shafts to a point where I could get a good enough grip to hold it in place and then I was able to remove the top nut.

Now I'm finding it difficult to get the eyelet to fit into the lower mount properly. Everytime I managed to get it in the mount, the bolt hole would get partially covered with the bushing seemingly because the mount width isn't large enough, or because the bushings on the Foxes are too wide. I ran out of daylight and called it quits.

I'm planning on trying today with some lithium grease and some more finagling with the pry bars.

Has anyone else experienced difficulty getting the eyelet into the lower mount to line up properly? If so, was there a trick to getting these to fit?

Also, off topic but the shocks I received have a remote reservoir. The ones pictured on Fox's site have a piggyback reservoir. Does anyone know if the remote reservoirs are an older style?

 

To get old rears off. Hold the shock body with some channel locks and turn nut on top. The bottom use a crescent wrench to open them up a little more. Once you get shock in there and tighten it up it will bend back

 

They have different bushing sizes for the bottom. I had to press mine out with a clamp and put the new ones in. They should have sent another size that will work.

 

Thanks guys. This is my only ride so I'm going to try to get this to work with the bushings they came with. No other bushings were in the box. Just the hardware for the reservoirs. I'm waiting on a reply from the vendor. Hopefully they'll get me another set of bushings soon.

 

Had the same problem. I believe they were designed for a Tundra. Use the bushings out of you stock shocks. I think that's what I did? It's been a while.

 

Not entirely the same, but I just installed my 2.0 rears, and yes, the bushings need to be swapped out. Even with the proper bushings it was a tight fit. Used some heavy grease, compressed the shock and got it on top of the mount, then pry bars and a rubber mallet to get it in. Once close, I used a machinist punch to lightly line up the hole, then more prying to get the bolt through. It was fun...

 

had the same issues with my icons, had to trim the bushing to make it fit kind of a piss off.

 

The rears are on! I used the spare tire rod (socket end) to widen the lower mount, shaved off a bit of the rubber bushing, sprayed some lube, compressed the shock with a jack and voila!

 

One thing I noticed with the rears is that if I mounted the resi bracket where the install instructions say to mount them for the driver side, then thr self tapping screws they provided would've drilled right into some hydraulic lines (looks like for the brakes).

 

Yeah kinda sucks that I had to shave off some rubber. I'm trying to get the vendor to still send me the proper bushings in case I need to change them out in the future.

 

The vendor requested a picture of what Fox sent me so I'll update this thread later on when I get confirmation.

 

I had that same problem... I took a razor knife and shaved the bushing down

 

Please let everyone know how you like this set-up compared to stock. I for one was thinking of going the exact same route.
Thanks in advance!

 

Just an update. I cant really say anything good about thmotorsports other than getting a decent price for these 2.5s. They passed me off to Fox directly after me explaining the issue multiple times and getting nowhere.

So I spoke with someone from Fox and he had me send him an email with some information. He said he'll send me the smaller bushings. He also said they only make 2 different bushings for the rears and the size difference is marginal. He didnt deny the possibility that the wrong bushing was installed and apologized for my experience, but did say that the lower mount on the Tacomas for the rear shocks are really small and that for them to source the exact OEM size wouldn't be cost effective or something along those lines.

He also gave the impression that Fox's off road dept is growing so quickly that they're having a hard time keeping up. The image of the piggyback shock on their website is a stock image. The remote resi is the only one they make for adjustable 2.5 for the Tacoma.

I'm glad Fox is growing. I had some adjustable piggyback shocks from Fox on my Triumph and they were quite an upgrade compared to stock. The 2.5s for my Tacoma are also a definite upgrade over the stock Off-Road ones, but honestly the experience hasnt been all that great. I wasnt expecting this much trouble to get the correct bushings which I still have yet to receive after having spent over $2k.

 

Fox sent me the bushings as promised. Here's what they look like, which I can confirm is different from what came assembled on the rear shocks. The ones that came on the shocks had the Fox logo on them and stuck out a fair bit past the sleeves. That's the excess portion I needed to shave off.

As you can see from the pics, these bushings sit near flush with the sleeves.

I'll take a pic of them next to the mount to see how the overall size compares later on.