Sway bar contacting coilover despite relocation bracket

I put on king 2.5s (w front res) and SPC UCAs about a year ago and have pretty much the whole time heard one or two loud click / pop when turning through a dip (like turning into driveways or offroading). I always thought it was just squeaky UCA bushings or something, but it’s not.

As expected, the sway bar is hitting my coilover on the driver side (see picture of contact spot on spring).

Before describing more, I would like to keep the sway bar on.

A couple details:
- I have eibach 700lb springs on the coilovers. The dimensions are exactly the same and several shops assured me that eibach springs on my king shocks should be just fine.
- the remote reservoir mount from king actually already includes a sway bar relocation (drop and forward), so theoretically they shouldn’t contact.
- the hoop to attach the sway bar to the bracket has the open side facing forward, which is how it should be I’m pretty sure

any ideas why this is contacting / how to fix it?


Drivers side w contact

passenger side no contact

 

Welcome To TW..somebody will chime in soon

 

Loosen the sway bar mounts (on the relocation brackets) and use a dead blow hammer\mallet to make sure the sway bar is evenly spaced on both sides from the coils. Sounds to me that you just got it slightly pushed out of alignment a little bit when reassembling.

 

One way to fix is just to take the sway bar off

 

This ^^^

 

Thanks, I’ll give this a try!

haha expected these comments wife and soon to be kids, so I prefer to keep them on for the time being

 

There's really no reason to keep the sway bar on with that setup. Truck also drives significantly smoother with it removed. Even if you want to keep it, I'd still test with it removed and see how it feels. There is more roll but you'd still have to be excessively stupid to end up in any trouble because of it.

That said, making sure the sway is centered and installed properly front to back and checking if you have misalignment spacers on the lower eyes of the coilover to be able to push the shock further back a bit would be all you can really do (not sure if King uses different sized spacers). If all that checks out, I guess you could grind some material away from the sway.

Those also don't look like King springs, are they 3" ID?

 

If your pics aren't playing mind games with angles it does look like your end-links are both angled to the passenger side which would mean it's pushed over that way just a lil bit. The end-links should be straight up and down.

 

You’re already on upgraded suspension, just turn the dial on the shock to firm and give it a try. As well I have a wife and a kid and they have not said a word. I’m on 5100’s at bottom clip with OME 885x.

 

My guess, the coil is in just the wrong spot to where it shouldn't be. The fix would be to rotate the coil so that there is a gap there instead of coil, if that makes sense.

Using the bottom of the shock as a (not great) reference point, you can see what I mean. Notice how on the drivers side where it's making contact, you can't see the blue part at the bottom of the shock but on the passenger side, you can.

I say it's not a great reference point because one side could be compressed more than the other at ride height, so my theory could be off. That's my guess though.

 

The reducer bushings used to connect the coilover to the LCA clevis, are they all the same length? I know Icon uses a longer spacer toward the front and a shorter spacer toward the rear, purposefully to position the shock away from the sway bar.

Most Tacoma coilovers have standardized to COM-10T-size bearings, which means the spacers should be interchangeable, so you can give the $60 Icon P/N 611067 service kit a try.

 

Also make sure the sway bar mounts are pushed as far forward as they can be. Doesn't look like you need much here

 

Not a bad idea. Kings are all uniform size spacers, so it's not an installation error, but offset spacers could be enough to fix it, so long as it doesn't cause CV shaft interference.

 

Damn, lots of good ideas here, thanks everyone!

I need to get a better look at the spacing on the lower eyes of the coilover, from first glance it seems like the driver side could be sitting a little bit more forward than the passenger. Sounds like I'll need to take the wheels off and better inspect things. This is a good idea though.

Nope they are eibach 700lb (king 700lb had crazy lead times when I was getting my suspension), but they are 3" ID (same dimensions as the 550lbs that came with the shock new).

From what I can tell, it looks like that spacer should help seat the shock a bit farther back than stock, right? If the sway bar loosening / re-aligning and all that doesn't work, then this will probably be my go to.



And then if all else fails I guess I'll cave and try removing the sway

 

Why doesn’t anyone run extended sway bar links?

 

^Sway bar then hits the tie rod at full droop. Had this happen with All-Pro heim joint sway bar links which are slightly longer than factory.

 

Nobody makes an extended end link like the factory, but with the longer link?

 

^The longer link length is what causes the sway bar to hit the tie rod. The joint design is incidental. The link itself doesn't hit the tie rod, the bar does.

 

Throwing in another wrench at it!

Perhaps the ball joints on the links are worn excessively. Looks like you wheel your rig hardcore?

 

^Was that a response to me or the OP? The OP has 3 posts; we don't know how hard he sends it