Lowering my truck today. Need help.

Ak47bravo · Sep 17, 2016

Hello all,

So I am at my buddies and we are doing the belltech lowering kit.

We already ran into our first snag. The bolt where the rear shock mounts at the upper mounting bracket. It is extremely hard to get a wrench or socket inside due to placement and frame interference. We are at harbor freight trying to get a socket short enough to fit inside.

We will see. I'm probably going to be on here frequently posting issues and problems. So if y'all are around and can offer help it would be much appreciated!

Only thing I foresee really being a problem is setting the pinion angle.

Thanks in advance!

12vrunner · Sep 17, 2016

Not 100 percent sure but cant you take out wheel well plastic.

adurm · Sep 17, 2016

The plastic liner does come out. Not the easiest thing. We used a socket on that top bolt. It seems a little larger on the backside than the front. It needs to be a little longer than you expect since there is a strange lip on the backside. You cant get in there with a regular box end wrench or short socket. Ours was about 1.5 inches long. You should be able to match up the sizes by checking the bottom bolt of the shock. Just saying, my truck had a slightly different size bolt head compared to the nut.

I assume you haven't done the front yet. Brakes are fun! We couldn't get the arms down low enough without taking the calipers loose. The brake lines will break with the amount of movement you need. I think they are two 15 mm bolts on the backside. Clothes hanger to get them out the way. Then big ass crowbar or floor jack handle is good leverage. Then some pliers to compress the pistons back to slide it back on the rotor.

charonblk07 · Sep 17, 2016

Stubby wrench on the back side for a backup and use a gear wrench with a doubled up wrench on the outside to get it off, it's the only way I was able to do it without using my 24" extension to get over the fuel tank.

Uaintlo · Sep 17, 2016

When I did the rear of mine, I started on the passenger side, (did not take the wheel well liner out) it took forever to get the top bolt out, (biggest p.i.t.a. of the whole lowering job.)
So on the driver side I spend the 5-10 mins to remove the wheel well liner, and the bolt was 1000 times easier to do..

Ak47bravo · Sep 17, 2016

So I was able to get it out with a vice grip. We went by harbor freight and autozone. Neither had anything that seemed it would wok really.

I got a shorter 21 mm socket so we will see how the passenger side goes. We just installed the mufflex 14". It was a pita to get off. Have some exhaust leaks but I'll worry about fine tuning that later when I get back to Houston (doing the work at my buddies in San Antonio).

We just came in for a break. We are about to install the sphon upper and lower on the passenger side. I'm going to just adjust the arms to the same length as stock for a reference. The problem with adjusting the pinion is from what I have read you want to be down 1-2 degrees (less than the front tranny/driveshaft angle) in the rear while the truck is just sitting so when under acceleration and the rear axle pivots slightly upward, the driveline will be equal.

I think adjusting that will probably be one of the most difficult things to do.

Will keep y'all posted.

Ak47bravo · Sep 17, 2016

adurm said:
The plastic liner does come out. Not the easiest thing. We used a socket on that top bolt. It seems a little larger on the backside than the front. It needs to be a little longer than you expect since there is a strange lip on the backside. You cant get in there with a regular box end wrench or short socket. Ours was about 1.5 inches long. You should be able to match up the sizes by checking the bottom bolt of the shock. Just saying, my truck had a slightly different size bolt head compared to the nut.

I assume you haven't done the front yet. Brakes are fun! We couldn't get the arms down low enough without taking the calipers loose. The brake lines will break with the amount of movement you need. I think they are two 15 mm bolts on the backside. Clothes hanger to get them out the way. Then big ass crowbar or floor jack handle is good leverage. Then some pliers to compress the pistons back to slide it back on the rotor.

No we have not done the fronts yet. I hope we don't have to do anything to the brakes. ... I hate messing with breaks.

DavidRam · Sep 17, 2016

This little stubby worked great for me... that top bolt is a ***** though... Btw, a good alignment shop can set your pinion angle too. Especially the shops that work on custom cars and hotrods.
I didn't remove the wheel well liner the second time around because it was such a ***** to do the first time I did it. I did drill holes in the liners just big enough to use a socket through it.

Ak47bravo · Sep 17, 2016

DavidRam said:
This little stubby worked great for me... that top bolt is a ***** though... Btw, a good alignment shop can set your pinion angle too. Especially the shops that work on custom cars and hotrods.
I didn't remove the wheel well liner the second time around because it was such a ***** to do the first time I did it. I did drill holes in the liners just big enough to use a socket through it.

I was looking for something like that at both harbor freight and autozone but neither had one. We just got the panhard squared installed. Got the spohn upper and lower control arms on.

I don't know the torque specs. We have the mounting bolts for the arms set at 90 lb. ft. We didn't really have any issue taking the liners out. I used a cordless drill to back out the bolts. Reinstalling may be more tedious lining up everything.

We used a 1.5" long 21 mm socket and extension and were able to get a decent hold of the shock upper mount bolt. I got it tightened down but not torqued to spec. Anyone know the torque spec on this?

We have to now install the spring and lower shock mount. Then move to the driver side. And we still haven't even began to do the front. Hopefully it won't take nearly as long.

I am definitely nervous about trying to adjust everything right. I remember someone saying the belltech kit had specific springs for rdeiver and passenger side. Both of the rear springs have identical product numbers on them. So from what I can tell they are exactly the same, so I don't know the validity of a driver and passenger side. I know some guys have complained about their trucks sitting lower on one side than the other.

DavidRam · Sep 17, 2016

Ak47bravo said:
I was looking for something like that at both harbor freight and autozone but neither had one. We just got the panhard squared installed. Got the spohn upper and lower control arms on.

I don't know the torque specs. We have the mounting bolts for the arms set at 90 lb. ft. We didn't really have any issue taking the liners out. I used a cordless drill to back out the bolts. Reinstalling may be more tedious lining up everything.

We used a 1.5" long 21 mm socket and extension and were able to get a decent hold of the shock upper mount bolt. I got it tightened down but not torqued to spec. Anyone know the torque spec on this?

We have to now install the spring and lower shock mount. Then move to the driver side. And we still haven't even began to do the front. Hopefully it won't take nearly as long.

I am definitely nervous about trying to adjust everything right. I remember someone saying the belltech kit had specific springs for rdeiver and passenger side. Both of the rear springs have identical product numbers on them. So from what I can tell they are exactly the same, so I don't know the validity of a driver and passenger side. I know some guys have complained about their trucks sitting lower on one side than the other.

this should be all of them

Ramunit · Sep 17, 2016

Take the liner out and use extensions

Ak47bravo · Sep 17, 2016

One of the first things we did was take out the wheel well liner. The bolt on the backside is still extremely difficult to get without a specialized tool. The frame dips down and thus you can't get a normal size socket into the nut.

We have finished the back. New shocks, sphon arms, the 4" lowering springs, adjustable pan hard bar. I still need to adjust the whole rear end though which we will do tomorrow.

We have the fronts partially disassembled. We are struggling to get the lower control arm to release and thus lower so the spring can be removed(have followed the belltech instructions, except we went ahead and removed the sway bar end link, which at this point in the instructions were not instructed to) so We unbolted the sway bar end link, upper ball joint nut. It should just drop but I'm assuming that lateral tension from the upper ball joint bolt and end link bolt are preventing the control arm from freely falling.

We are stopping for the night. Hopefully tomorrow we can get the lower control arm to drop. Anyone have any ideas? I have to drive back to Houston tomorrow, so this needs to get done.

Thanks all for the input.

moregrip · Sep 17, 2016

DavidRam said:
This little stubby worked great for me... that top bolt is a ***** though... Btw, a good alignment shop can set your pinion angle too. Especially the shops that work on custom cars and hotrods.
I didn't remove the wheel well liner the second time around because it was such a ***** to do the first time I did it. I did drill holes in the liners just big enough to use a socket through it.

what size are those brother?

DavidRam · Sep 18, 2016

moregrip said:
what size are those brother?

13/16"

What makes it easy with that wrench is that you can hook it onto the nut and let it sit there without holding it and then go to work on the bolt with both hands.

Ak47bravo · Sep 18, 2016

Does anyone have any advice on how to get the lower control arm to separate from the upper?

The upper ball joint nut is removed.

This is literally the only thing right now holding me up.

The sway bar end links are removed. It's just the upper ball joint bolt going through the top spindle hold keeping this thing from dropping for the spring removal.

DavidN · Sep 18, 2016

Loosen the bolt of the UCA ball joint (but keep it on!) and lower the LCA.
If you don't have a big enough ball joint separator (like me) you can put a 10mm nut on the UCA ball joint end and try to turn it back and forth.
The ball joint should get loose.
Good luck!

DavidN · Sep 18, 2016

Or try that:
https://youtu.be/z_JzIdlolfg

charonblk07 · Sep 18, 2016

If the upper control arm nut is loose, just start hitting the UCA and spindle with a 4lb sledge, seriously. Keep the nut a few threads on the ball joint, it will pop down once the taper tension is broken.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

adurm · Sep 18, 2016

Is that the big bolt that spins if you don't hold the square shaft?

DavidRam · Sep 18, 2016

adurm said:
Is that the big bolt that spins if you don't hold the square shaft?

That's what she said! :roflsquared:

Lowering my truck today. Need help.

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