Friday night after work I decided it would be a good time to install the rear springs and shocks. I read through a few other rear suspension install threads on MUD and felt comfortable with my game plan. Unfortunately I do not have many pictures to share with you. Shooting suspension pictures at night really does not work well. The item(s) I want to highlight is either blown out from the floor light or obscured by darkness.
The process was pretty simple, first I removed the spare tire. This was a good thing to do anyway since I had never checked it since we bought the truck. In hind sight it was a very stupid thing to not do earlier. In my case there was nothing to worry about; the stock tire was is great shape and doubt it’s ever hit pavement. Tire pressure was a little on the low side at 27 lbs. I decided after reading another build thread that I would work on one side at a time, thus leaving three tires on the ground at all times.
Passenger Side – Shock removal.
1. Block front tires.
2. Remove sway bar bolt.
3. Loosen lower shock bolt.
4. Loosen wheel lugs
5. Jack up truck.
6. Place jack stands under vehicle.
7. Remove wheel.
8. Place spanner wrench on the top shock bolt.
9. Place a floor jack below the rear axle and jack it up so this it’s just barely supporting it.
10. Use pipe wrench on shock body, twist until top nut comes off.
11. Once the top nut is off push down on the shock to compress it, and then remove the bottom of the shock.
One thing I did not realize until after I was done with both shocks is you can access the top nut from the spare tire location. For me, I worked from the wheel well. Sliding my arm up between the frame and the muffler and held the wrench there. Although this worked fine it’s not the most comfortable position. I think you would fine it a much more comfortable to remove the top shock nut from the spare tire location. If anyone has worked from here please post up and let us know if you can access the top shock nuts from here.
Passenger Side – Spring removal.
1. Return to the spare tire location, remove the two bolts that hold the rear brake line to the axle. One bolt is attached to a bracket holding the brake line and the other bolt is just holding the brake line itself. This will give you that little bit of length you will need to slip the rear spring out with out stretching the brake line.
2. Return to the wheel well. Lower the floor jack slowly until you have enough room to slip the rear stock spring out. I had to push down just a little on the axle to slide the spring out. Just keep an eye on the brake line and make sure you are not stretching it.
Passenger Side – Spring install.
1. Locate correct spring, (PS or A), this information can be found on the small white tag located on the spring. One side the of the white tag will read the spring code 865 the other side will read either (PS or A, DS or B).
(*) Note the OME 865 springs, both of them had a tag but the numbers were exactly the same. They were both also the exact same height. I called and spoke with ARB USA about this. They confirmed that for the 865 rear springs they are the exact same height. It makes no difference which one goes where. Other spring models may or may not have a DS or PS specific side.
2. You will find it much easer to install the new OME spring since it's shorter in length then the stock one.
3. Make sure you have it seated correctly in both top and bottom. Rotate the spring until it’s in the right location on the axle side. It’s quite obvious where it need to be once you are looking at it.
Passenger Side – Shock install.
1. Install lower shock mount.
2. Place the correct hardware on the shock body (washer, bushing, and washer) and insert upper shock mount into its mounting hole.
3. Jack up rear axle until the upper shock mount is seated correctly and there are enough threads so that you can get the top hardware on (washer, bushing, washer, nut).
4. The Bilstein shocks have spot on them that you can place a 7/8s open ended wrench on them. This will hold the shock in place while you turn the spanner wrench on the top nut. I am not sure if the OME shocks have this design feature. You may need to use a strap wrench to hold an OME shock while you are tightening the top nut.
5. This is where I wish I knew if you could access the top nut from the spare tire location. I used one hand on the spanner wrench and one hand on the open ended 7/8’s wrench. I could turn the spanner wrench about a quarter turn every time. This is going to take while so get comfortable. Although this took some time it was not the worst job I have ever done. A little uncomfortable “hell yes”, tedious and long “you got it” but not the worst job you will even do. I think I could have breezed through it if I had tried it from the spare tire location, live and learn.
Once the shock is installed use the floor jack some more to get the sway bar links to line up. One thing you will need to do is to check that the links are line up correctly as you jack it up into place. You may need to jack once or twice then check and adjust the links to make sure they are lined up correctly. Again this will make sense once you are doing it.
Now repeat this process all over again on the driver’s side. After you are done with both sides return to the spare tire location and install the two bolts holding the brake lines and the spare tire.
Post lift
The only issue I am having is a height difference between the drivers’ side rear and the passenger side rear. Right now the drivers’ side (rear) is ½ inch higher then the passenger side. I called and spoke with the tech support at ARB USA. Their solution, raise the passenger side torsion bar and thus lower the drivers side rear through opposite side force. I will give this a try this week and report back.
“Before” - Stock rear suspension with the front torsion bars set at 30.5 inches from the bottom of the 18” rim.
“After” – OME 865 rear springs with the front torsion bars set at 31 inches from the bottom of the 18” rim.
Now that all the suspension parts are installed I can order the tires.