Have these in my garage waiting to be put on. Last visit to the Ford dealer showed a busted spring. Seems common. Looks like it had been
this way for years. Will not pass with the spring like it was. Got each Monroe assembly for 119. Doing both sides.

 

So looks like I found a shop who will swap the springs over for me for about $48. I'll shop around a bit more, but I think I'm going with new shocks only. Any opinion on whether or not this amount of rubbing will do anything to the integrity of the coil?

 

What size level do you have on there? It shouldn't affect the coil, but those angles aren't great on ball joints, cv's, tierods, etc.

 

I've got a 2.5" spacer from Fat Bob's Garage. Technically raises the front 3" at the bumper and have had zero issues after 5 or so years. Does something look off to you?

 

Everything looks fine to me, that rubbing looks about like mine, just the coating on the coil. A 2.5 inch is pretty mild for a level so you should be fine.

 

I think I'm ready to pull the trigger. Got it all in my cart, and ready to order. Going with KYB GR-2/Excel-G up front with original coils and KYB Gas-A-Just in the back. Contemplated the Bilsteins but don't want the stiffer ride. Also considered the Rancho RS5000, but read too many negative reviews about Rancho being garbage and making for a rough ride. I think it's the safest road for me, where I don't need anything too fancy. Probably going to be selling my rig in the next year or so anyway. Thanks for the help, all!

 

all you need is just shocks unless you're in the rust belt with a badly rusty truck. I paid $305 otd from autoplicity for 4 5100s shipped to my door. Go with the 4600s if u don't want to level it.

 

Make sure to let us know how the KYB's work out for you. Like I stated earlier, really liked them on the Jeep I built but have not ever used them on a heavier truck.

 

So, I attempted to swap out the shocks today. Big mistake. My biggest issue was the fact that my spacer made the strut push too far down, which made my control arm contact the coil. With the rest of the suspension stretched as far as it would allow, the coil still had a lot of pressure on it and I should have gotten some coil compressors just to be safe. My buddy and I proceeded to loosen the ball joint to the point where it was about 1/2" from being loosened completely when the ball joint started rotating with the nut. I can now neither tighten or loosen the nut, even with vise grips on, so there is about an inch of play in the ball joint and I gave up and put it back together. Probably just going to take it over to PepBoys tomorrow and let them deal with it. I have no air wrench to get the nut on the ball joint to go either way so I'm kind of out of options for DIY. Everything went smooth until that point. I did get the KYB Gas A Just shocks on the back and WOW, my truck feels like a sports car on the cornering. Took my stock shocks and put one end on the concrete and took me less than 1.5 seconds to completely compress them. They were completely dead. Loving the rear KYBs so far, but definitely a stiffer ride. Loving the silver monotube look also. I'll keep you posted on the fronts. I've been kicking myself for not compressing the coils before I attempted to take it all apart but I learned my lesson.

 

Must be that spacer. I can completely remove my coil over unit without removing anything else.

When you said you loosened the ball joint, I assume you meant upper right? When I changed mine the first time the same thing happened. I had air tools though and eventually it let go. I'd check those uppers for wear if they need to be removed anyway. The fact that the uca touches the coil when you're driving means those upper ball joints are getting put to their limits quite often.

 

Oh it's definitely the spacer. I still think I might have been able to remove the lower strut bolt and the strut might have expanded a bit more, but I didn't know how much, and I thought I'd be at the point of no return if I gambled. You're correct, the upper control arm was hitting, so I thought getting that out of the way take more pressure off of the coil. I let out as many threads as I felt safe doing, but the coil pressure remained. The upper control arms and ball joints look fine, but looks aren't everything, I know. With that 3/4"-1" play between the bottom of the ball joint and the top of the knuckle, would you think I am alright to drive it to the shop? I assume it is fine if I keep my speed down, but it is a risk.

 

You are lucky the strut nut didn't come loose for you. Very bad things would have happened. You absolutely do not change out the the 'shock' part of the strut with it still in the vehicle. You remove the whole strut assembly, compress it with compressors or a strut machine, remove the center nut, then replace the 'shock' cartridge.

 

I think you're misunderstanding. I never loosened a strut nut, nor would I ever unless I had a death wish. I loosened the nut on the ball joint that connects the upper control arm to the knuckle to see if that would relieve the rest of the compression of the spring, but it didn't quite.

 

OK, I gotcha now! I saw that you stated that you didn't have the spring compressors and misunderstood.

 

I've done this job before.

I understand the nut your talking about, I had to remove that and use a 2 jaw puller to get it apart.

But, If you raise the truck off the ground with wheel removed, there is no compression on the spring, don't get why you had to "relieve tension?". The weight of the steering knuckle assembly will be pulling the strut assembly apart, not together.

And what I did was placed a floor jack under the lower control arm to just get the weight of the steering knuckle off the strut, and it was easy. At that point the strut assemble has no compression or "decompression" force on it.