Icon 2.5 CDCV Coilovers - Requesting advice from those who have installed

[dspa]

Hi All,

As the title suggests, I'm in the middle of installing the Icon 91823C kit on my truck.

I managed to damage the boot on the upper ball joint. It's probably one of the stupidest mistakes I've ever made working on a vehicle, and totally my fault for getting into a hurry. It'll be 2 days until the replacement control arm gets here (no serviceable ball joints up top), so I decided to go ahead and do some test fitting while I wait.

Firstly, despite what Icon says, it is basically impossible to adjust the preload of these without compressing the spring. I saw information in videos that made it look like it could be done, and even Icon themselves said it could be done when I called them, but it cannot. The spanner is stretching/ovaling the holes on the threaded mount. My "widowmaker" spring compressor is too bulky to fit between the coil and the shock tube, so I'm looking for an alternative tool. Best I can find locally that may do the job is the PowerBuilt 641429T that AutoZone sells. I'm hoping it'll fit around the 2.5" shock tube. I'll know tomorrow.

Secondly, and the main point of this thread... has anyone who has installed these noticed that the supplied hardware is sort of small and doesn't seem to be the right size to fit the mounting holes, top and bottom? The top mount holes are a bit wider than the supplied bolts, and slotted. I understand they are slotted for alignment purposes, but the side-to-side play seems like an awful lot. Icon doesn't even provide flat washers for up there... just split locks. Looking toward the LCA, the lower bolts, 7/16", are positively swallowed by the holes in the lower control arm (pictures provided).
None of this really gives me warm fuzzies for a tight, secure installation. Does anyone who's done this have any thoughts on this? The stock coilovers have a taper on the bolt that goes into the control arm to center the coilover's lower mount. Nothing like that with these.

I may just be overthinking this... it's been a bad shop afternoon. But I want to make sure I'm ready to go, mentally and physically, when the replacement control arm gets here.

Thanks!

Dustin

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[Cooder_Graw]

I did the 2.5 with the knuckle and no problem

 

[dspa]

That's wild, Cooder_Graw... I was literally writing a follow-up to my original post when your reply came through! Thanks for that... makes me feel better. How do you like those UCAs? Any increased NVH over stock?

To follow... I'm going to sort of answer my own question(s) here...

I did some additional research and measurements after my post last night and learned that the holes through the LCA are exactly 5/8" in diameter, and approximately 1-1/2" deep. Then, I found that Hillman makes a steel spacer that is exactly 5/8" OD by 1/2" ID and 1-1/2" long. I had to drive all over Albuquerque to find 4, but I did - 2 at Tractor Supply and 2 at Lowe's. Online stock statuses are laughable, to say the least. Anyway, those spacers reduce the hole diameter to 1/2", into which a 7/16" bolt fits relatively well-centered. There is still a little play but much less than before. The spacers fit absolutely perfectly in the LCAs and I applied a little black RTV around the outside of them to keep them in place in the LCAs so they don't rattle, as their length is just slightly shorter than the depth of the LCA hole and they won't be compressed in any direction when the coilover is tightened down. If I ever need to take them out, I should be able to punch them out.

Up top, I'm going to add 3/8 grade 8 flat washers to each of the mounting bolts. That should allay my concerns about those.

I spoke with Travis at Icon tech support this morning and expressed my disappointment at the poor fit of the hardware. I was nice about it, of course. They are going to look into it. I don't know if anything will come of it, but I at least felt I should make my feelings known on it. I also explained my plans for the spacers and the top mount washers and was given their blessing. Finally, I discussed the difficulty I had adjusting the preload on the spring. I was told that they should absolutely be adjustable under spring tension. Following some advice in a comment on the Icon YouTube instructional video showing how to adjust these, I am going to use some PB Blaster to penetrate and lube the threads and a 3/8" long punch with a cheater bar to adjust them. The Icon spanner is just not up to the job. Tech support agreed on the PB Blaster, as well. We'll see.

The only other thing I'm trying to figure out is how I'm going to tighten the control arms once the suspension is loaded. I have a 2-post lift that I do most of my work on, but I'll probably have to jack up each wheel individually to load the suspension properly before tightening everything down. Hopefully that goes okay.

One last thing... I put the Icon 2.5" CDCV shocks on the rear last week and I LOVE them. Last year I had tried the Fox 2.0 and the Bilstein 5100s and neither seemed to improve the manners of the rear over stock to any noticeable degree. These 2.5s made a huge difference. I've only driven with an unladen bed so far but the bouncing in the rear is completely gone. Hoping the fronts are a similar upgrade.

 

[Papp]

I did notice I needed to add washers on the upper bolts for the top shock assembly. Other than that, everything was perfect as far as fitment goes. I was also easily able to adjust the ring for a bit more preload. I didn’t need a spring compressor... unlike my fox 2.5's which were near impossible to spin even when compressed. Def try the penetrating oil.

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