Rough Country lift HELP!

[DannoWS6]

I hate to be the new guy and join with a problem, but it seems like "other" communities have a lot of dead air, and from the looks of it most of you guys have been there and done that.

Any of you mind taking a look at the following thread and advising a fella on what they think is going on and any urgency to the issue?
http://forums.trailvoy.com/showthread.php?t=96259


I've contacted a rep at RC a couple days ago and I am expecting an email or call from them soon I hope.

Thanks in advance!!!

ADMIN NOTE: HERE'S THE INFORMATION FROM THE OS

So I installed a rough county 2" leveling kit and new bilsteins, couple days later got an alignment, then a day after that I took an offramp slightly spiritedly (nothing stupid), then I heard a slight pop or clunk if you will. For a day after the vehicle was kind of unsettled on the side I heard the noise. I figured it was an end-link....nope.....see attached.

It appears that the strut must have deflected and pushed away from the rubber bushing's and slammed into the side of the hat/spacer, as you can see where the washer stopped it. So what did I do wrong here? Was the nut not tight enough? When I put the spacer on top of the spring and decompressed it looked slightly crooked if you will, but I lined up the studs to the spring so I dunno. What you guys think?

Kit is similar to BDS, here are the instructions.
http://www.roughcountry.com/install/289.pdf

[navigator]

was your shock nut tightened all the way down? I have the RC lift and I seem to recall more thread sticking above the shock bolt. As long as you put everything together in order my only other thought is maybe the spring isolator (rubber cushion) being worn. I saw from the other thread that you rotated everything 180 so that was my only other thought.

I know it is a pain but you might take apart the other side and compare side by side to see if you missed anything.

[Trail X]

Is the top strut bushing/isolator present (photo 4 in their instructions)? Could it be upside down? The bushings should have a small shoulder/step that goes into the hole in the RC upper shock mount.

I'm surprised to see that they do not have a spacer inside their bushings, as BDS does. The spacer should get compressed completely, which yeilds proper compression of the bushings.

[DannoWS6]

was your shock nut tightened all the way down? I have the RC lift and I seem to recall more thread sticking above the shock bolt. As long as you put everything together in order my only other thought is maybe the spring isolator (rubber cushion) being worn. I saw from the other thread that you rotated everything 180 so that was my only other thought.

I know it is a pain but you might take apart the other side and compare side by side to see if you missed anything.

Thanks for the reply, honestly I've had it apart probably 5 times by now. I really do not think I am missing anything. The lower isolator did get a little banged up on the inital hit, the last time i put it back together I did screw a couple more threads down on the center nut, but I could not find any instructions on torque specs on the various install I looked at, if I had to guess 40ftlbs?

It does seem like the passenger side is more problematic, so here's the thing too, right now both sides are kinda pulling in towards the center after flipping 180* (pass side ended up resting on the big top washer (probably due to groove now there), but it seems to help the deflection a lot 180'ed lke that.

BUT unlike the 1st time I had a problem the shock center nut will free spin along with the strut (which is suppose to happen with the allen key not holding it) When it screwed up the 1st time I could actually tighten the nut with OUT the allen wrench which tells me at that time the strut was jammed up. So this is what I'm facing.

-I take them out, back to stock.
-I drive as is, is it safe? (maybe tighten nut down a bit more? while on car, if that does anything)

If I got with option 2, get aligment again, do you think I would face any issues seeing as there appears to be a bit of play with the top of the strut rod possibly moving when the suspension starts moving? I just don't want to keep throwing $ away on alignments either.

[DannoWS6]

Is the top strut bushing/isolator present (photo 4 in their instructions)? Could it be upside down? The bushings should have a small shoulder/step that goes into the hole in the RC upper shock mount.

I'm surprised to see that they do not have a spacer inside their bushings, as BDS does. The spacer should get compressed completely, which yeilds proper compression of the bushings.

Yes the bushing "shoulders" are facing each other going into the spacer. Thats the thing, how can the rubber bushings "only" properly center the strut using only the compression from the center nut, it would seem thats is the bulk of the problem? (Especially now that the spacer is chewed up)

[navigator]

I went out and checked mine and I have about an inch of thread showing on my new Bilsteins.
I thought there was a good bit of thread left because I had thought about stacking washers to effectively lengthen the shock.
That may not be it but I would expect if that isn't tight(using up all the threads) then it would allow for some play.
You might be able to tighten it on the truck but you might have to pull it again and use a spring compressor etc to get it compressed enough to get it tight.

[fishsticks]

Navigator is right. Those shock nuts are loose. Way loose.

Tighten them until there's at least an inch if threads showing and the bushings are squished nearly flat. An impact gun would make it easy while they're still installed.

If you leave it, you'll mess up the threads on the shocks and then you wont be able to fix it.


Also, pics of your WS6 please. There are a number of current and former F-body guys here.

[DannoWS6]

Wow really, think that might be it huh. That would be kind of frustrating as I tried to match the thread length to the stock setup and thought I got it close, plus the directions don't mention anything regarding how far to torque down the nut. But I suppose it makes sense.

So question, so now that one of the spacers is notched out from impact/rubbing, the shock wants to settle into the notch and is stopped by the washer hitting the edge. It doesn't feel like anything is binding though, do you think I can just crank it down if its slightly off center by that half inch or so?

Thanks again guys, I really appreciate it!

I am still waiting on RC to tell me anything....

Also, pics of your WS6 please. There are a number of current and former F-body guys here.

Not to go off topic but yeah, I've had the car for nearly 12 yrs, pride and joy
H/C/12 bolt/ stall, etc.....
(pic from last summer)

[Trail X]

Wow really, think that might be it huh. That would be kind of frustrating as I tried to match the thread length to the stock setup and thought I got it close, plus the directions don't mention anything regarding how far to torque down the nut. But I suppose it makes sense.

So question, so now that one of the spacers is notched out from impact/rubbing, the shock wants to settle into the notch and is stopped by the washer hitting the edge. It doesn't feel like anything is binding though, do you think I can just crank it down if its slightly off center by that half inch or so?

Pull it into place with a ratchet strap or something before tightening it down. I wouldn't tighten it with it offset from center. The shoulder of the bushings needs to go into the hole in the lift block.

[DannoWS6]

I got ahold of RC. They seem to agree that the center nut it not torqued down enough. They are sending me another front spacer w/ hardware. So thats good.

I was thinking about welding the notch and trying again, so this is even better. They didn't seem to have a good torque spec for me so I'll try to get about a full 1.5" of thread this next time.

[v7guy]

Dan, did you get this fixed up?

Might fine WS6 you have there.

[DannoWS6]

Dan, did you get this fixed up?

Might fine WS6 you have there.

Thanks , and yes I believe so, I was just going to post up the results of last evenings efforts.

So RC sent me new hardware and a new spacer without question, which I received yesterday. I spoke with a representative online and via phone and I think what it all comes down to is not having the center nut torqued down nearly enough. Following the provided instructions it gave me no inclination I had to compress the bushings and go much tighter than what I thought was correct. I simply figured that having the same amount of exposed thread compared to stock would be adequate. But either way, RC stood behind their product and made it right for the customer!


So here we go,

This time I went very tight on the center nut. I got a full 1" of exposed thread, maybe 1/8 more.



Here is a better shot, you can now see the bushing expanding under the concave side of the washer as its being tightened. Campared to my old pics you do not see this and I only have about half the exposed thread.



Here is the pass side assembled, still has some kind of weird deflection going on slightly that the drivers side does not have. You can see the hat/spacer slightly lower on the left side. In order to get a straighter assembly on install I made sure the downward angled faced out (toward me) as the mount point on the vehicle is angled opposite slightly, as you draw the nuts up and tighten the spacer to the truck it will slightly bend the spring straighter, otherwise it will favor the angle more.


Now since I originally posted my issue I have barely driven the vehicle, and from this pic you can see the other spacer was just starting form a grove from the strut stem, but I caught it in time.




So now that I have it all tightened down and back together I think I'm gonna be ok I'm no mechanic, but I've turned enough wrenches and aftering doing it this last time I don't know how it never struck me odd. I should mention that installing the assembly was much easier this last time with the nut an extra .5" down, I was able to get the strut arm back on the control arm much easier, I was fighting tooth and nail last couple times. Thanks to all those who posted up responses you guys helped me out more than you know! Now off to get 1 more alignment to be safe. I hope my experience helps anybody else who bumps into similar issues.

Took this pic over the weekend while waiting for the extra parts, gives it just a tiny bit more aggressive stance and the bilsteins are so much better than stock. Gonna put some airlift bags in the rear this weekend, should be MUCH easier haha.



Thanks again guys!

[navigator]

glad you got it straightened out.

[fishsticks]

You have them in there correctly now.


Keep that old spacer, it still looks serviceable!

[DannoWS6]

You have them in there correctly now.


Keep that old spacer, it still looks serviceable!

Yep, I offered to send it back, but if they don't want it maybe I'll see if it can be repaired.
Hopefully I didn't go too tight on the nut, they came back and said 52ftlbs, but I probably went a good 20 over that, suppose I can just back the hardware off a bit.

[fishsticks]

You have them in there correctly now.


Keep that old spacer, it still looks serviceable!

Yep, I offered to send it back, but if they don't want it maybe I'll see if it can be repaired.
Hopefully I didn't go too tight on the nut, they came back and said 52ftlbs, but I probably went a good 20 over that, suppose I can just back the hardware off a bit.

I wouldn't worry about it.

[DannoWS6]

For what its worth, my alignment showed my toe off .1* on both sides probably attributed to the slight ride height adjustment tightening those nuts. With that said if I went though the same procedure again it would probably not affect my alignment.

[Trail X]

Tightening the upper shock nut has no effect on ride height.

[DirtyBacon04]

This is what would've happened if you waited on fixing that.
And if this spacer is still serviceable, yours sure as shit is!!

[DannoWS6]

Tightening the upper shock nut has no effect on ride height.

As you tighten the nut you can see the spring compress slightly, I was guessing that alone might influence how the car sits. I got over .5" of extra thread, in comparison thats pretty loose. Just a guess, you may be totally correct.

When I got the inital alignment after lifting my toe was out + .4xx, they set it to almost 0. After tightening the nut and getting it aligned again it was at -.1, I figured due to compressing and shortening the assembly. Either way, I'm just happy it seems ok now. I was just mentioning that if you remove the strut assembly and put it back in as is, that step alone appears not to affect alignment.