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Only a few weeks after installing
the OME HD front coils and Downey 1.5" spacers, I had problems. My
passenger side CV boot split open wide, and spit a bunch of grease out.
It had been spitting grease since I first lifted my rig, but not much.
I guess the extreme lift was just too much for the CV. And at the same
time both my upper ball joints spit all their grease out. Lucky me.
So I take her into the shop and have both the CV boots replaced. I let
the ball joints go because they said they did not look too bad. $400
later the problem was solved.
So I needed to bring her down some, but still maintain enough lift to clear my tires. I did some researching (OK the guys from the trailtalk board informed me) and found that due to the design of the Downey spacer, I was over extending my suspension. Its a little bit hard to explain, so bear with me. The upper shock mounting hole is recessed down into the spacer. I could hardly get a wrench in it to tighten it. What I didn't realize was that this made my whole coil over assembly about 1" longer. That put my lower control arm at a greater angle and putting my upper ball joint at an extreme angle. I measured before and after and it was in fact 1" longer with the Downey 1.5" spacer. Funny, the Downey spacer measured 1.5" but it actually gave me about 2.5" of lift. I wasn't aware of that when I got them. So I gave Dave at www.cornfedsuspension.com a call to pick up some 2" Cornfed spacers. With his 2nd gen spacers, the shock mounting point is not recessed down in the spacer. Here, take a look. Corn on the right, Downey on the left. This is a top view, where the upper shock bolt mounts: So the end result is a less extreme angle on the CV's and ball joints. Note I said "less extreme" meaning that it is still extreme. The new spacers only brought me down .5" but took 1.5" of angle off my front suspension. But it's still an extreme angle. I guess the OME springs are giving me about 1" of lift and the spacers are giving me 2". It took me about 4 hours to install the corns. That was with basic hand tools and a manual spring compressor. I'm kind of impressed with myself.
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