Bilstein 5100 on OME Coil Install Help

Hey y’all, so I got my struts pressed and ready to put on, but realized they’re about an inch or so longer in length, and I’m having trouble installing the strut assembly. Any tips for this? Tried leveraging it in off the caliper, still not enough room, and tried unsuccessfully putting a 2x4 between the lower control arm to try to get some extra room. All help welcome, or even if you want to belittle my techniques please go ahead!

 

What about loosening the LCA cam adjusters and undoing the lower ball joint connection on the LCA? You can then use a floor jack to press it back in place upon reassembly.

 

I will go ahead and look a YouTube vid up on doing this. Thank you!

 

Did you disconnect your sway bar end links?

 

Yeah you need to disconnect the sway bar, and possibly the lower ball joints.

 

So I did end up disconnecting the sway bar and just using two breaker bars to add a bit of leverage and both struts fit in Thanks for the help yall.

 

Which coils did you use and how much lift did you get? @shifty` needs this for educational purposes

 

Nah, I ordered 5100/884, should be here in 3-4 weeks. I'll be the Guinea pig on installing the 884s.

I figure I'll never add weight of armor up front to help drop it more, and I prefer a little rake vs. levelled, so opted for the 884 for 1/4" - 1/2" lower in front. That's enough for me, every AC owner I've seen with 5100/885 ranged anywhere from near-level up to 2" squat in the back without blocks/AAL, and depending on whether they're 2WD or 4WD.

If things are totally whack looking w/884 or doesn't quite give me enough front clearance, I'll probably add strut spacers for a while to make up the difference. And in the event I have zero rake, I've got 1" blocks I can toss out back to help restore some rake.

 

Good plan!

 

Guinea Pig! Did you order the struts pre-assembled or are you doing it yourself or at a shop? I've been through some serious shit by buying separate parts and assembling them at a shop. They put one strut together, then broke my shock pressing the other, which I had to get warrantied by Bilstein. Finally got it back in and pressed, and after breaker baring my way to get the struts on, everything nice and torqued, I realized a serious issue. The bozo who compressed my strut didn't put the bushings on correctly so at the top main bolt of the assembly, it's just the nut and a metal washer, which as metal on metal goes with suspensions, doesn't feel nor sound good. So now I have to take both struts out, order new mounts, and have someone who isn't a complete dipshit put it back together Whole process could of been done in a few days but has taken a month. It's a learning process!

 

Pre-assembled. I've squeezed enough coils in/out of struts in my lifetime, I've got nothing to prove. I legitimately don't enjoy it, thus don't mind paying a little extra to save/shave time in half. Can I do it? Absolutely. Do I enjoy doing it? Hell naw. Does anyone truly enjoy doing it?

I'd rather do it myself than let a shop do it, frankly. I've never paid a place I'm buying from to pre-assemble, but I suppose if they get here and things are F'ed up, it's on them, guess who gets to replace things? Slight motivator for them to be assembled right. Local shop has no skin in the game.

Honestly, I didn't know buying custom mix-match assemblies online was a thing you could get inexpensively until I saw it on here recently. I've bought plenty of strut assemblies before for lowering, I'd never seen places that would assemble your choice of spring and strut. But I don't get out much these days.