Tips on adjusting Icon coilovers

This is more of a PSA than a walkthrough. I had some issues with adjusting my Icon coilovers so I thought I might be able to help someone else avoid my mistakes.



If you are adjusting your Icon coilovers be VERY careful when using an Icon spanner wrench to adjust the collar! The nub on the end of the spanner wrench is slightly too small for the hole and you can easily of 'round out' the adjustment holes in the collar. If you round out the whole, the spanner wrench can't get any purchase, and you won't be able adjust the shock.

My coilovers were extremely tight and took a ton of effort to move. In the process of forcing it I busted one of the adjustment holes with the spanner. Now the spanner can't get a good purchase in the hole that is accessible, and because I can't reach the other holes with the spanner, I can't adjust the coilover while on the truck. I'll have to take the coilover off the truck to make any further adjustments. Not cool. (Luckily I was able to adjust the coilover almost to where I wanted before the hole became unusable.)

A couple tips to make your life easier when adjusting Icon coilovers:
-Always jack the truck up to release any additional load on the suspension before you adjust!
-Use an allen wrench to loosen the set screw in the shock collar.
-Use a liberal amount of WD-40 on each coilover before you attempt adjust them. Let that stuff soak in. This will make adjustment a breeze in comparison.
-Be careful to have the spanner wrench seated securely in the collar holes before applying pressure to turn the collar. The collars aren't that sturdy, be careful not to force them.
-The Icon spanner wrench sucks. If you really want to do it right, don't buy the Icon spanner wrench for $30 (also it's a bit ridiculous this isn't included with a $3k suspension kit...). Get a local fabrication shop/welder to build you one using a strip of steel with a heavy duty bolt on the end. This will be cheaper, much more sturdy and will fit the coil collar better than the Icon wrench.

Let me know if you have any questions!

 

Also helps if you loosen the lock screw in the collar likebtoure supposed to do and jack up the truck so there's no weight on the suspension

 

Also I realized I posted this in 3rd gen builds and it should probably go somewhere else. Not sure how to move to the #suspension forum though.

 

@hx989 Great points. I did both of these but i'll include those tips in this post as well.

 

@tcBob Thanks!

 

If you did that the next step (so to avoid the result you got) is to use a spring compressor to get all load off the collar.

This may require tire removal but not shock removal

 

That might be my next move. Thankfully I was able to adjust the coilover to show 1 13/16" of threads before the hole completely failed. Icon says maximum is 2" so i'm damn close to where I need to be, and I don't think I'll need to go any higher. The only reason i'll need to adjust would be to offset the shocks to compensate for 'lean'. just got a 'custom' spanner wrench from a fab shop and i'm going to try to adjust with that- hoping that the slightly larger bolt will fit the busted collar hole better.

 

My rule of thumb: If you need to crank the coils more than one inch to get to where you want a longer stiffer coil is the ticket.

 

I learned it's so much easier to take them off the truck and use a wall mounted spring compressor. sounds like a lot of work but takes about 30 minutes to do that and your top shock collar won't look all jacked up when done.

 

I know this is an ancient thread but it helped me out recently. I just installed ADS coilovers with remote reservoir, and couldn't fit a spanner wrench no matter what. I ended up cutting off the tip of a large screw driver that was the same diameter as the wrench pin. Fit perfectly and the big cushy handle makes it easy to crank on.

 

even though OP didn't log in since 2018, I just wanna say thank you for the useful tip of using WD40. My coils wasn't budging before then!