DirtDawg
"It'd be alot cooler if you did"
Well all my parts finally showed up and this past weekend I lifted my LX. My goal was to have a 2-2.5" lift (using the AHC system), while keeping close to stock travel characteristics and stock neutral pressures.
Components Installed:
KING KTRS-79 Coils (sourced from eBay seller sparesbox_auto)
AHC Shock Spacers (sourced here: AHC Spacers - Possible Group buy)
2 x front sway bar links
2 x rear sway bar links
2 x rear sway bar bushings
Front Spacer Install:
- Remove the wheel & tire
- Unbolt the sway-bar
- Unbolt the bottom bolt of the shock
- Using a pitman arm puller (or similar), detach the knuckle from the upper ball joint. This allows the lower control arm to droop low enough for you to insert the spacer.
- You need to drill a 1/2" hole to bolt the spacer to the lower shock mount. Bolt up the spacer through the bottom bolt so you can locate where to drill. I used a step-up bit and made quick work of it.
- Once the hole is drilled, go ahead and bolt it all up. Remember to use the included spacer on the lower bolt. (I had to shave quite a bit of material off of the spacer in order for it to fit.)
- Reassemble upper bj to knuckle and sway bar.
- Remount wheel & tire
- Your'e all set. Remember that this alone will not change the height of the vehicle. The AHC will just compress the shock further, so be sure to adjust the height sensor.
Front Sensor Modification:
- To lift the front of the vehicle you need to modify the linkages to the height sensor. The linkage is basically two 'ball joints' connected by a rod. One side is reverse thread. You need to shorten that rod in order to lift the vehicle.
- There are different methods to shorten the rod. You can simply just screw them all the way in, but this will only net about 1". The other option is to cut the rod shorter on both sides so the joints can be screwed all the way down, making it as short as possible. I did a mixture of the two and only cut the normal-thread side, then tightened down the joint on said side. The other side I simply just screwed down all the way. This netted me about 2.25" of lift in the front.
Rear Spring and Spacer Install:
- Jack up the rear of the vehicle and put jack stands under the vehicle. Remove tires & wheels from both sides.
- Unbolt the lower shock mounts and the sway bar. Disconnect both. I also disconnected the linkage to my rear height sensor at the time as to not damage it.
- Go ahead and flex the axle to replace the coils. I found that a jack under one side of the axle and a friend pushing down on the other, practically causes the coil to fall out. Swap out each side that way.
- The rear shock spacer is simple, just droop the axle lower than the bottom eyelet of the shock (enough to fit the spacer in), rotate the eyelet 90*, and bolt up the rear spacer.
- Bolt back up the sway bar and remount the wheels and tires. Lower vehicle.
Rear Sensor Modification:
- Two methods of adjustment here, first, you can move the linkage all the way up on the adjustment slot, but this only netted me about 1". To go higher, you need to make a bracket that moves the linkage up higher. I simply used a 1" x 6" strip of sheet metal with holes and an adjustment slot drilled in it.
Correcting Neutral Pressures:
- First I started up tech stream and got my baseline pressures (going from L to N). First pressures read front: 8.3 / rear: 7.1. This was after coming from stock height with pressure in spec. I also lowered the rear by 1/2" after this reading because it was a little too high for my satisfaction. We're looking for front: 6.9 +/- 0.5 and rear: 5.6-6.7
- I cranked the T-bars 2 turns, drove around the block and booted back up tech stream. Front: 7.9 / rear: 6.7
- 3 more turns, front: 7.1 / rear: 6.5
- 1 1/2 turns, front: 6.9 / rear: 6.5 (now were getting somewhere) I decided that on a worn out system I would want to get my front pressures just a little lower.
- 1 1/2 more turns and were at front: 6.5 / rear: 6.5
Before:
After:
So in the end I still have full range of my AHC shocks, no bottoming out, while maintaining stock pressures. As for ride quality, I would say that it is just a comfortable as before, but with a firmer ride. The front is just as cushy, while the back is firmer, but still handles the bumps well. I think next weekend I am going to reinstall my rear 30mm spacers to see if I can lower my rear pressure to a good level. I believe the king springs may work better with a lower pressure. I gained 2.25" in the front and 2.5" in the rear. No issues with vibrations or anything else. The spacers will creak a little at first 'til they settle in. Also my CVs are slinging grease due to the change in angle, but I have a reboot sitting in the garage for another day.
