Hey everyone.
I'm a new member, and this is my first post. I recently bought an 05 F150 and decided I didn't like the factory rake in the truck. Since I don't plan to do a ton of heavy hauling I decided to buy a 2.5" Rough Country strut extension leveling kit. I am no vehicle expert, and haven't done much work on them but the videos and instructions that came with it made it seem fairly simple for someone with a mechanical mindset, so I took it on. I ran in to a couple issues the first day I worked on it. After spending way longer than I intended, I put everything back together without installing the kit. Two weeks later I thought I had done enough research to give it another try and failed, yet again.

So.. this past Friday was my latest failed attempt. Here's the first issue; the passenger side ball joint nut has seized up and the bolt it threads onto spins along with it. I have tried using a pry bar to compress it down to turn the nut, but have had no luck. As it sits the ball joint nut will not loosen or tighten and is stuck in place. The second issue, I got the driver's side nut off and had everything apart. I installed the strut spacer on top of the coil spring, but after I put the spring back into place the lower control arm would not reach up high enough to connect back to the ball joint. Once I finally got it somewhat high enough to get the nut onto the first 4-5 threads of the ball joint bolt, the upper control arm that surrounds the ball joint was pressing up against the spring. I am at a loss and have spent about 15 hours dinking around with this when in all reality it should have taken 3-5 hours tops. What am I missing? Please help.

 

I'm not sure what you are doing. You don't need to take the upper control arm off to put a strut in nor the lower ball joint. Do you mean the upper ball joint in the control arm is spinning? If so, spray it down with Liquid Wrench Penetrating Oil or something, tap and let sit then use a wrench on the lower square part, I think mines 10mm, to hold it in place while you loosen the nut. The upper control arm is pressing against the spring? You mean it is up and you can't force it down far enough to put into the hole? A crowbar put into the strut and prying it down works.
As for the lower control arm I don't understand what your problem is. Can you rephrase it? The ball joint presses into the lower control arm, then you put the steering knuckle onto it a few turns of the nut to hold it there. Jack up under it until you can put the top control arm ball joint through the top of the steering knuckle hole and tight down. Tighten the bottom and put everything back together then let the vehicle down and torque to spec.
Am I missing something?

Keep at it. What you are doing can be done as I am proof! I just did both sides, upper control arm, lower ball joints and tie rods. Ball joints were a pain but pretty straight forward and the tie rods on both sides took about 4hrs including lining them up.

 

 

As far as not being able to get the ball joint nut off I ran into that issue when installing my lift kit a little while ago. One was so rusted I had to grind it off but here's what worked to get the other off. Take a big ole pry bar and slide it above the upper control arm (UCA) and shove the end up under the strut mount. Then apply pressure (I had my wife practically hanging from it in my case) to force the UCA down and seat the taper into the knuckle. This should give it enough friction that you can remove the nut. Also what diver64 is referencing is the hex portion of the threaded part that you can slip a wrench on to keep it from spinning (see pic with arrow below). Once the nut gets down far enough to cover it you're out of luck unless you can fit a socket in there and turn the nut with a wrench. I couldn't do it that way so I opted for the pry bar method. Unfortunately you can't use the same technique to get it back on since you're hitting the coil spring like you said.

 

 

From what I understand the upper control arm hitting the spring is normal with a leveling kit. Once the truck is on the ground the spring will compress so it won't hit anymore unless you're at full droop (which you are when the truck is in the air). As far as getting it back together I'd jack up the lower control arm as far as you can then try using a socket on the hex end of the threaded portion and a wrench on the nut since you said you got it threaded on just a bit. If that's not doable then try the pry bar method, should be able to pry down on the UCA and just push the spring a little bit. Once it's all bolted up and on the ground that won't be an issue.

 

Great pictures. Yes, that is what I'm talking about and pictures are worth a thousand words. Thread the nut back up and spray the threads down then use a wire brush to clean them up and proceed as described. You should be able to get it off using a wrench on the hex end.

As for the control arm bending down quite a ways, so does mine with the leveling kit. As was described, once the truck was on the ground it came up and appears to be working fine. Installing a strut after putting on a leveling kit is a trial to be sure but keep at it