I have the new to me 2014 FX4, ended up replacing almost everything on the front end, if I don't pay for labor, I can replace more parts, and have longer piece of mind. I don't enjoy taking it apart when it was just recently torn down lol.

It did have a broken drivers side coil over, so I bought 2 new KYB SR4443 Strut-Plus coil over assemblies, and have some KSP 2.5" leveling pucks to go on top. drivers side went in just fine, had better luck mounting loosely to the a-arm and lifting the a-arm and shock up into the frame/mount. Holes lined up easy enough. The passenger side is very close to having the studs go through the top holes in the frame. Same process as other side, but I can't tell if the shock needs to rotate ever so slightly? Is that a common thing? Next thing I try will be to mount the top first, and bring the a arm up to the shock. I think I prefer the 2011 style shocks, with the large cross bolt, over the strap/plate that has 2 bolts to the control arm.

I dislike the alignment bolts I bought, as they have to come in from front/rear, which removing the rear hits your sway bar. I wish the nut controlled alignment, rather than the bolt head. Would make a-arm install/removal much easier.

Pic for attention of the drivers side thats done and on the ground. Rear is on air/helper bags, no lift other than that. The 2011 I'm moving on from has bilstein 5100's set to the highest setting (2.1"). Unsure how I feel about going up to 2.5 yet lol, will know more when I get to drive it. I did buy Amazon KSP 2-4" lift upper control arms, and axles (TOP NOTCH Extended Travel) that support some lift as well.

 

I just did this to my 2014 Fx4 with the same KYB struts. I started 3 nuts up top first and then the 2 at the bottom, used the tire lug as a pry bar to get the bottom in place so the bolts would slide down. When using a spacer you have to install the strut backwards. The bottom plate is angled, the spacer flips the bolt pattern. I took a large crescent wrench and angled the plate the correct way, it's just in a rubber bushing.

 

As stated the pucks will mess with the geometry of the suspension likely requiring you to twist that lower two bolt bar. You have the axles unbolted from the hub right? I did mine without disconnecting and it made it more difficult to align. In my opinion (as well as many many others online) a 2" max for the puck levels. Also if you haven't installed the KSP uppers you'd be better off returning those as they're chinese garbage. I replaced mine in less than 6 months. Rough country honestly didn't last much longer. So i'm going back to OEM or possibly spending a bit more for some actual quality parts. A 2" leveling puck will work just fine with OEM UCA's.

 

Appreciate the response. I tried that way initially, and that was the first side. I couldn't get that plate to line up to the LCA to save my life. As I've now had it bolted to the LCA, and pry'd it upward to the frame, its probably helped free up that plate/bushing, so I'll try going back to that method.

 

The spindle/hub is not part of the conversation at this point. I do have the axle hanging there, but LCA/UCA are not attached to the spindle at all. The whole front end was off of this thing. Only things being reused are the sway bar, new links, 4WD actuators, and wheel bearings. I didn't intend to throw as many parts at it as I did, so I drew the line somewhere lol. I've had plenty of 4WD actuator issues in the past on my 2011, so if they're working, I'll run them until they don't. Wheel bearings seemed fine as well. Appreciate the feedback on KSP, I don't think I'd have a lot of luck trying to return them, as they're already installed, greased up etc. I wish I didn't have to pull the coil over to swap these, so it makes me think about swapping it before hand, but as long as I've drawn this out, I think I'll run them even if briefly. If I'm going to throw them on the iron pile, I might as well get 6 months out of them.....and stuff should come back apart easier than it did this time, I doubt any of it had been apart in its life so far.

 

I was kind of in the same boat myself. I didn't really do a lot of research on them and by the time I received them it was easier to just install them and hope for the best. I hope you have better luck with them than I did. The biggest thing I didn't like was the ploy bushings. I was taking the bolts loose to make sure I got some grease in between them and the housing they seated into. The ball joint never failed but the boot was destroyed in just a few months. I greased them the same way i've greased tons of other ball joints and this is the first one I had problems with. When you mentioned alignment bolts were those for the LCA or UCA? I wonder if they're throwing the LCA off enough for the strut to be slightly twisted up top? Do you have any more photos you can share?

 

I can take pics this weekend, they are LCA alignment bolts. It definitley affects where that thing sits, but as I'm allowed to adjust them, they are set as far away from center of vehicle as possible. Further inward made it 10000x worse. I can try putting top in first again, when I did that initially, that bottom plate had zero interest in rotating. But I may have loosened it up with it bolted at the bottom pushing the whole coil over around.

 

Well top first went a lot better this time than previously. Got her out the door of the shed at least. Will probably haul it to alignment shop as its really toe'd in. Couldn't get the old tie rods to Crack loose and have other stuff to get done out here. At least she's semi mobile and I can get everything put away thanks for the feedback.