Front coil over install - maybe screwed up? Looking for some help

[rpold150]

Here’s that pic:

Thanks for the picture. I don't have a dead blow hammer, so maybe a piece of wood with some taps with a small sledge hammer.

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[Natetroknot]

Ok, feeling a little better, and a little stupid for thinking that was pulled out 3 inches from the diff.

I'll try aligning things up and give it a wack. I didn't loosen the axel nut. It sounds like I should to protect the threads on the axle bolt. Do you think I should try to bolt up the end link, ball joint, and tie rod, and then try to align things, or leave everything lose and try to align.

The end link doesn’t matter you can leave that apart, same to the tie rod. Things will be in much better alignment for tapping if you reinstall the ball joint and get it half ass tight.

Thanks for the picture. I don't have a dead blow hammer, so maybe a piece of wood with some taps with a small sledge hammer.

That’ll work!

 

[jhelrey]

A jack stand should be supporting the truck so use a floor jack under the lower ball joint/a arm and jack the front end up until it starts to align. When the front suspension is hanging with the upper ball joint unhooked, it will let it drop too far and swing out. The floor jack will let you slowly get it back into alignment because holding the knuckle assembly by hand isn't an easy task by any means.

This is easy to resolve if I had the vehicle in front of me and you are too far to assist in person.

 

[rpold150]

A jack stand should be supporting the truck so use a floor jack under the lower ball joint/a arm and jack the front end up until it starts to align. When the front suspension is hanging with the upper ball joint unhooked, it will let it drop too far and swing out. The floor jack will let you slowly get it back into alignment because holding the knuckle assembly by hand isn't an easy task by any means.

This is easy to resolve if I had the vehicle in front of me and you are too far to assist in person.

I've got the truck on jack stands in the front, under the arrows on the frame rail. I was trying to do exactly what you suggested, and I think that's why I was thinking something was wrong in the first place.

I loosely bolted the tie rod end link and upper ball joint, then put the floor jack under the knuckle and started lifting it. The knuckled travelled maybe an inch and then it started lifting the truck off the jack stand. It's like there's no upward travel.

The video starts with the hub just hanging, not touching the jack. In the first few seconds I bring the jack up to just touching bottom of the knuckle. Then I give it a couple half pumps on the jack. When I look at the jack stand, the truck is actually lifted off the jack stand.

I know these coil springs are stiffer than stock, but are they so stiff that a jack under the front hub will lift the truck before it compresses the spring or raises the UCA any?

I'm at a loss. I'm done for the night and will take a fresh look at it tomorrow. I've done front struts on cars, but never a 4x4 truck, so I'm not sure if what I'm looking at is normal. In hindsight, maybe I should have just paid the shop to do this.

 

[jhelrey]

I don't see anything glaringly wrong. The coilovers seem to be cranked up on the spring tension. I bet if you backed it down, it would look better regarding your angles.

 

[GIjoe]

Those eibachs will give you 2.5-3” of lift. With that much lift, or any amount of lift really, your cv axles will never be level and will always be off like that.

 

[Natetroknot]

That’s a lot of preload on the new coil over.

Take a pic of the spring perch if you would.

Did you loosen the lower control arm bolts? Not the LBJ, the bolts that attach it to subframe.

Nothing I can see in the video is out of place but something definitely isn’t right. Even a lot of preload shouldn’t be enough to lift the truck off stands before suspension compression.

 

[Natetroknot]

Nevermind with the spring perch pic, I was able to pause the video and get a look at it and that looks ok.

I'm starting to think you were shipped the wrong coilovers. If you look closely at the coil you'll see the following numbers: 1600 300 04505. That means you have a 16" spring, 3" in diameter, with a 450 lb spring rate. The stock coils are a helluva lot shorter, and then yours springs are at what damn near looks to be max preload. Somebody else should chime in on this, but the coils seem really long, and a 450lb spring rate is quite low. I don't have experience with this kind of work on an F150, but I've done it more times than I can count on Toyotas and on a smaller, lighter truck folks use 600lb coils, 700 if they have a steel bumper and winch.

I wish you had a pic of the new coils laying on the ground next to the stockers for comparison. They should only be a little bit longer from the perch to the shock eye. The springs don't necessarily need to be of equal length, but they should not be drastically different either. Can anybody who has installed this kit verify some part numbers for this guy?

 

[GIjoe]

16” springs and 450lbs springs are not uncommon

 

[3LGDOG]

Try removing the coilover completely and cycle the suspension, you will be able to see if your axle splines are in place

 

[rpold150]

Try removing the coilover completely and cycle the suspension, you will be able to see if your axle splines are in place

I think this is what I will do. I am starting to accept that the stiffness is simply the max preload that was set from Eibach and what I assume would be a stiffer shock and coil than factory. Taking this strut out is actually easier than the factory with the 2" readylift puck. The Eibach is actually slighly shorter, just enough to go in and out without pulling down too much on the LCA.

@Natetroknot, below is a pic of the stock passenger side and the Eibach coil for the driver side that I have not installed yet. It's slightly shorter in total length, even with the max preload.

I'm heading out to the garage to finish this up. I'll take the eibach strut back out and see if I have full motion or if anything is binding. If it looks good, then I'll proceed with the install and then do the driver side, and hoping that the test drive will show that my concerns were all for nothing.

 

[Natetroknot]

Thanks for posting that comparison pic, I was not expecting that! I wish I had some experience with leveling the Ford so I could help more but sounds like you have a game plan.

Good luck and keep us updated!

 

[PowerBoostSoCal]

I am NO expert at this ... but wondering if you "finish" putting everything together, put the wheels on and drop the truck off the jacks ... wondering if the weight of the truck on the suspension will actually push everything "together" ... again, no expert here just a thought.

 

[TheGoatman]

Can you see if the upper control arm contacts the coil at full droop?

 

[rpold150]

Passenger side is done, with quite a few breaks with family interruptions. I took out about 3/4 inch of preload, 10 full turns on the ring. It came from Eibach with the maximum preload.

I was taking apart the driver side and can't beat the pressed in lower shock bolts. I have to take these out because I have a 2" puck on the top so I have to drop the LCA 2 more inches than normal.

I think I need to take off the axle nut. That should allow more drop without pulling the axle out of the diff, right? Definitely need to go get a socket for this. Can anyone confirm that it's 35mm and what's the torque for reassembly. EDIT: looking at the PDFs that @Buyer2021 provided, it looks like the axle nut is intended to be one time use and torque spec is 184 ft-lbs. I'll have to check if my craftsman 1/2" torque wrench goes that high., and figure out some way to hold the axle shaft from spinning when tightening.

Are there any surprises with pulling the axle nut? Is anything going to fall apart if I pull the knuckle too far off the axle?

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