Put on Bilstein 5100's, took off stock struts and AS 2.5 Spacers.

First. Free the ball joint on the UCA.

Once you do that, loosen the UCA mount bolts, slide the UCA as high as you can go, and retighten. That gets the UCA out of your way completely.

I'd say the ball joints were in pretty good shape after 80,000 miles, but the extreme angle caused by the AS 2.5 wore the boot pretty good.

I'm going to start researching Camburg UCA's...a mod for another day.

I did the lower strut bolt first, because I could use my floor jack to move the Lower control arm up or down to get the bolt free.

Then I did the three nuts on the tower.

Compressing the spring was something else. At one point, one of my arms on my chinese $80 compressor started to bend...that is a pretty hectic moment as you're trying to wrestle the compressor, and relieve the tension. Luckily, I'm a woodworker, and I had two small Pony pipe clamps. I put them on both sides, and tightened three screws instead of one, and that made it easier, and I felt safer.

Needless to say, my compressor is in the garbage. I'm taking a guess that I'll never do this again, as I'll probably buy a complete aftermarket strut unit next time. Even if I didn't, I really don't want to be around compressed springs again...

Wife's Jetta was no problem...but you got to figure my tool was a little out of it's range with the HD springs on my F150.

The stock strut had a silver cap on top, which prevented the lower coil seat from sliding over, to be used on the Bilstein strut. Took a little tapping with a cold chisel, but the cap came off, and the coil seat slid off.

I used the highest setting out of three on the Bilstein, and I'd say it's close to the old AS 2.5 set up, maybe a little less, as I noted better clearance between the UCA and the coil spring.

I installed the lower strut bolt first, guiding the three studs on top of the strut , into the tower, but leaving the studs loose.

That gave me some play to slide the lower strut bolt in without fighting it.

Once the lower was tight, I tightened the three nuts on the strut studs and finished.

Then I loosened the UCA, and lined up the ball joint, and put the nut on finger tight.

Next, I used my jack on the lower control arm, and lifted the truck just off the jack stand, to compress the strut a bit, then I tightened up the ball joint.

Lastly, I tightened the UCA mount bolts, and remounted the wheel.

I had a few monster sockets and wrenches, that were recommended by Autospring, for that installation. I would not attempted any suspension work without this minimum of tooling. These are big fasteners, and you are putting some huge torque on them , sometimes with breaker bars.

The first side took about 2.5 hours, and the second side took about an hour, because I got smarter with time.

I have an 8am appointment tomorrow to get the front end aligned, and that will be it.

 

Nice!
I'm getting some confidence from some successful members, and I will try this my self in the near future. Good explanation.

 

Just curious, how the your front end ride with the HD Springs?

 

Front End. You can't note much with 6,000lbs. Mainly, bad shocks makes alot of body roll.

Stock, the rear end was really high. Now, the truck is just leveled.

 

I wanted to add one tidbit. I was researching front end alignment, and found that Ford has a Lower A-arm bolt kit to allow finite adjustments to caster/camber. If a mechanic suggests that these adjustments can't be made without the kit, the mechanic is not enough of a pro. It didn't happen to me, but I read about it somewhat.

Shocks and Struts complete. It rides like new. I'm not sure why we always wait until its absolutely necessary to replace suspension components...we drive everyday...it should be a good experience.

 

how do you adjust it without the cam bolts? is it twisting the upper strut mount? the slots up there are slots, not holes. i put my as 1.5 kit on and one of my wheels is cambered out, and its the side where the bolts are in the middle of the slot, the other side is perfect o degrees and they are bottomed out in the slots (all the way to one side) on that side. is this how?

 

no response? what is there to adjust?

 

Any pix?

 

No Pics, Sorry.

Camber, Caster, and Toe-In are the three settings you can affect. Steed, I read your other post about being "out" on one side. Very strange that you are maxxed out on that adjustment. I can't see the slight movement that the slots in the strut tower have, as offering any help for your problem. The lower A-Arm, moving in and out is your caster/camber, and your tie-rod is the toe-in adjustment.

The bolt kit I mentioned, essentially does the same thing as the stock bolts. If something is not bent, then you could have an out-of-spec lower A-Arm, or UCA. Thats all I can think of.

 

oh i thought you said there was an adjustment to camber without the cam bolt kit. nevermind. thanks for the info

 

I have a friend who has two leveling kits stacked on his f150. The truck CANNOT be alligned do to it. they told him if he bought longer uppers it would work. i dont get it. it looks like hell. i have a picture somewhere. looking now. cant find it. i posted it on here somewhere.