Nothing is ever easy ... or maybe it's my level of noob-ism. I just installed 2" levelling spacers on my F150 regular cab 2008 F-150. The instructions say to jack the A-arm up to re-connect the steering knuckle to the Upper A-Arm ball joint. Problem is the shocks will not compress. When I jack up the Lower A-Arm, the whole truck lifts.

How can I get the shock absorber to 'unlock' and compress? The shock looks like a sealed unit and I'm not seeing a release valve or any way to allow it to compress.

 

the shock is fine, nothing needs to be done with it, just there instructions don't work, happened to me the first time too.

so you are trying to attach the upper control arm to the knuckle, get a pry bar (if you ain't got one of those, use a chunk of steel, pipe, whatever that is sturdy)and have a friend push down on it, make a lever outta it, it's alot easier that way. also spray some lube on the uca stud so then you can get it on far enough so that you can get a wrench on the bottom to stop it from spinning. also make sure to torque everything back to spec.

 

I jacked up the lower untill the truck was almost off the ground and as Atom said pry the upper down. It's really a 2 man project. If you are by yourself you can use a ratchet strap and pry the upper down and tighten the strap so you can hook it all up. It's really easier doing this 1 tire at a time instead of having the whole front end in the air.

 

Hey fellows, thanks a ton for the info/advice. I finally ended up jacking the Lower A-Arm up until the other front side of the truck was nearly touching the ground.

Next, I pulled the front sway bar all the way off .... somebody got away with my tanker's bar, so it ebing right in the way, I just took the sucker off. It made a great prybar. Took it and pry'd up on the Lower A-Arm and it eased right up and the shock compress very slow ... with a fairly hard push.

Thanks again fellers. I had no idea it would feel as good as it does when driving it. But, since the tires have only 5,400 miles on them, I guess it would be unreasonable to buy some 10.5" x 33" tires. I have 17's on the truck and a 33" should have plenty of room to spare ... and they shouldn't stick out.

Can't wait 'til these dang Hankook stockers wear out ...



Jack