I had to replace a ripped rear axleshaft boot and in doing so discovered an interesting situation.
In the manual it explains how the a arms need to be torqued at the frame mounts at a certain shock eye to eye dimension. That dimension happens to coincide with the vehicle being at ride height. What I discovered was that the a arms on my unit were actually torqued at full droop, not ride height. I have my rear shocks at preload 1 and always thought it rode rather stiff. At ride height each a arm was creating additional downforce because the bushings are bonded and therefore were in torsion when they should have been in a neutral state. I estimate the force per a arm was about 15-20 lbs. resulting in 60-80lbs. total effective additional spring rate on the rear. After loosening the a arms, rolling forward and back to settle suspension and retorqueing them at ride height it does indeed ride a lil smoother. Not fox shock smooth but smoother.(if the fox shocks also have bonded bushings they too would benefit from checking the intallation)
So, anybody that doesnt like the ride quality of their unit might want to check their bushings. When you loosen an a arm mounting bolt at ride height if they were torqued at droop you will hear the bushing unload while you loosen it indicating they were wrong.
I do want to give a shoutout to @joeymt33 for his video on cv boot repair. His tip on tapping out the cv ball cage assy. saves time and money if you only have to repair an outer boot. Thanks for the info.
In the manual it explains how the a arms need to be torqued at the frame mounts at a certain shock eye to eye dimension. That dimension happens to coincide with the vehicle being at ride height. What I discovered was that the a arms on my unit were actually torqued at full droop, not ride height. I have my rear shocks at preload 1 and always thought it rode rather stiff. At ride height each a arm was creating additional downforce because the bushings are bonded and therefore were in torsion when they should have been in a neutral state. I estimate the force per a arm was about 15-20 lbs. resulting in 60-80lbs. total effective additional spring rate on the rear. After loosening the a arms, rolling forward and back to settle suspension and retorqueing them at ride height it does indeed ride a lil smoother. Not fox shock smooth but smoother.(if the fox shocks also have bonded bushings they too would benefit from checking the intallation)
So, anybody that doesnt like the ride quality of their unit might want to check their bushings. When you loosen an a arm mounting bolt at ride height if they were torqued at droop you will hear the bushing unload while you loosen it indicating they were wrong.
I do want to give a shoutout to @joeymt33 for his video on cv boot repair. His tip on tapping out the cv ball cage assy. saves time and money if you only have to repair an outer boot. Thanks for the info.
