Ok so I caved and installed the spacer yesterday. Enlisted my 14 year old for some help and start to finish it took 2 hours. Likely a mechanic with a lift could do this in under an hour.
@TLC2013 you are correct, removing the top nut from the passenger's side sway bar bushing is the way to do this. My notes for others future reference:
- KDSS open (2.5-3 turns), jacked up and put on stands, wheels off, detached both shocks from the axle. Disconnect diff breather bracket and brake line bracket.
- Disconnect the passenger's side sway bar bushing at the top nut. A ratcheting wrench would be a godsend here. I did not have one so it took about 200-300 tiny turns to get it off. Before detaching take note how much thread sticks out of that bolt.
- Jack up the driver's side under the shock and compress it. Then push down on the axle on the passenger's side (a helper is very handy here), and the spring will twist out.
- Internal jounce stop out, press spacer onto the stop, reinstall stop in spring
- Repeat having the helper push the axle down so you can slide the spring in correctly. (I've done this before by myself but I felt like I needed a 3rd arm). Make sure the spring is turned and seated in the axle correctly (end of the pigtail fully turned into the lowest point) and that the top of the spring is correctly set in the upper lip
- Reinstall driver's side shock and tire. Lower driver's side to the ground and remove the jack stand on that side, as you'll need it for the next part
- Jack the passenger's side axle up under the LCA mount, and put your jack stand under the axle at the passenger's rear wheel. Then place the jack under the passenger's side sway bar arm and raise it up. If your jack is tall enough the end link will full seat in the mount and you can bolt it back together. If like me you're not quite that lucky, read on.
- If you know the height of your jack and prepared for the above you might have put a block of wood on the floor jack to make it slightly taller. That would've been smart. I didn't. What I did was to slip a ratchet strap hook over the sway bar at the center of the diff, and secure the other end to the frame somewhere (I used the round bar near the receiver hitch that secures the spare tire, but any secure spot will do). Tighten ratchet strap slowly to help pull the sway bar back into alignment. This is also where a buddy is helpful as I only needed to pull the sway bar about 2" back to get it aligned and push the end link bolt fully into the bracket, and the bar isn't straight so you don't want to crank to hard or your ratchet strap might slip off.
- Reinstall the bushing/washer/bolt and tighten. FSM says 22 ft/lbs but I don't have a torque wrench that would fit into that spot so I just winged it based on the original amount of thread I could see, how much the bushing seemed to squish, and just general "feel" for tightness.
- Remove ratchet strap first, then lower the jack
- Reattach passenger's side rear shock, brake mounting bolt(s), and diff breather mount bolt. jack up axle to remove the jack stand, reattach P/S rear wheel, lower vehicle
- Tighten shock bolts to 72 ft/lbs, lug nuts to 97 ft/lbs.
- Close KDSS valves and tighten to 10 ft/lbs
Before (no spacer), 200 miles after spring swap:
D/S rear: 24.375
P/S rear: 24.00
After 10mm spacer (>3/8") and 5-6 miles of city driving:
D/S rear: 24.375
P/S rear: 24.25
Huh, that's odd, I would have expected them to be the same, or very slightly more on the P/S side since my measurements pre-spacer were 0.25" to 0.375" difference. I'll re-measure later as I'm wondering if the fluid in the KDSS didn't quite equalize or the suspension is bound up a bit.
