Stiffening up suspension with little/no drop

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randeez

randeez

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thanks :cheers:

should handle pretty good, speaking with the guy providing the coil over brackets he said it would be best to use a double adjustable shock up front to keep the wheels planted. At this point i think my stock shocks are about done anyway. I wanted to get everything converted over and find the ride height/spring weight i want. They should be an improvement over worn out stock shocks.

Parts if anyone interested, this will be specifically for what should be a 2" drop(I will update if different):

QA-1 DS403 single adjustable coil over shock
QA-1 COM8 106PK is a the full steel bearing kit, the shock comes with a plastic bearing that doesnt hold up long at all. this bearing kit is also 1.5" wide that matches up with the mounts.
QA-1 7888-110 spanner wrench and thrust bearing kit for adjusting ride height
Eibach 1000.250.0800, 10" 2.5"ID 800lb/in springs
Atomic F&P GMT900 coil over brackets

Planned on getting the DJM bars, Tony mentioned he started selling the Eibach sway bar set that has a thicker rear bar, so i went ahead and ordered them. I'll get some new poly end links when i figure out what length i need.

Rear shocks have been great, plenty of travel left on them to go lower, they have an "o-ring" on the shaft that lets you know how much theyve traveled - in one of the pics it's only about an 1.5" up guessing thats where it hits the bump stops at the moment. The parking brake cable on the driveside was on the shock and started to wear a mark in it, I pulled whatever slack there was in it to the back and tried to form some more bend in it and it seems to be away from it.
 
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randeez

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Welp already messed up :lol:
Brackets arrived, awesome fast shipping, powder coated.
bearing kit is wrong. Needs to be 1"wide not 1.5".
The bearing included with the shocks is the right size but plastic/poly. Correct part number is com8t-102pk.

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992dr

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I'm definitely in to see how it turns out.
Should be a HUGE improvement.
 
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randeez

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That girth :eek:
Thanks again Tony! @NORCAL SS and retarded fast shipping...I think I payed Thursday night..delivery was supposed to be monday but weather delayed to tuesday

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992dr

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What are the size differences between the stock and aftermarket sway bars?
Are they hollow?
Do they come in black?
They look great.
 
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randeez

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What are the size differences between the stock and aftermarket sway bars?
Are they hollow?
Do they come in black?
They look great.


not to sure on stock size, looking at replacement bushings for stock seems to be 30mm or 36mm(ppv?) front , and 29mm rear. These are 38mm front/ 32mm rear as shown from the manufacturer
says "tubular" so im guessing hollow, shipping weight of 41lbs seems pretty accurate.
i havent seen them in black from eibach, about every other manufacturer is tho

correct bearing came in, still waiting on thrust washer and spanner set. hopinggggg it gets here by friday so i can put it all in this weekend

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992dr

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Thanks for the info Randy, much appreciated.

I certainly hope you get everything by Friday, I'm dying to hear a review on the new set up.
 
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randeez

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wasnt sure if parts are coming in to get coilovers done so i went ahead and put sway bars in.

both bars are a very easy to do provided all the hardware isnt rusted to hell. mine wasnt to bad, had one front bushing bolts start to round off the head - was using one of those husky "universal" sockets. I grabbed a regular 6point socket and saved it though, came out and went back in clean. with just the drop spindles shorter links up front arent necessary. I will need some when i drop some more so i put old ones back on. the eibach bars only come with new bushings, they reuse the stock "straps"

Both of the eibach bars were not, physically, much larger in diameter than my stock bars. the stock 36mm/29mm F/R is probably true to the eibach 38mm/32mm F/R. however in weight the eibach bars were substantially heavier and thicker. simply hitting the stock bar against something/ground would sound like a hollow pipe, where the eibach would just thud.

rear bar is getting closer and closer on the passenger side to the shock, i will probably play around with the panhard bar this weekend and try to get a little more separation

Only got a little bit of seat time so far, I will be able to notice more of a difference on my normal driving routes so i'll update in a week or so prob.

Not much pics...a few sidexside of rear bar
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randeez

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Nothing showed up.

but I didnt want to wait, and i had a little calm between rain storms

So i put together the coil overs, put a little pre load on the spring (about 9.5" installed height) , jacked the truck up. swapping them out is pretty easy actually- it was nice.
got the first one in assembled it all loose, everything looked good so i tightened it down.
moved on to the other side, no problems everything went pretty smooth.
took first side off the jack stand, let it down to the ground - it was noticeably lower (still having the other side on jack stand tho) thought alright not bad.

took the other side off the jack stand and started lowering....lower...lower...lower.... jack stuck! :lol:
was wayyyyy to low, tires buried in the wheel wells.
jacked it back up, took another inch out of the spring (about 8.5" installed height), tire back on, lowered back down, was still tucking tire. back up one more time, down another 1/2" - tires back on back on the ground etc... and tires were about even with wheel well :eek:

soooo im thinking springs need to be a whole lot heavier, jacked it back up, threw stock shocks/springs back on. got rained on , it sucked...onto some more research :chewie:

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992dr

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The bars look great. I'll eventually replace mine with some aftermarket ones. I was eyeing Hotchkis bars.

Wowza, that's loooooowwww hahaha.
When you ordered your brackets from Richard, did you go over your set up with him to spec out the correct size/length of the coils/shocks?
From what I've been reading, 1200lb coils seem to be a popular rate. I think 800lbs is too light.
I'll be going with 1200lbers when the time comes.
 
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