Lets see... where to start?
Avoid hidden challenges by setting up efficiently.
You're going to have to backdrive the hinge bolt on the UCA's. They tell you where to bend the edge of the pinchweld out of the way... it DOES clear after you do this, but JUST THE PINCH WELD. They fail to mention that you need to also remove the battery and its tray on the left and you have to snake the bolt past a piece of tubing on the right which you need to have the hood OPEN and be READY for by unsnapping it from its clip.
When you go to put in the new UCA, you'll probably find that it doesn't fit around the shock tower without some leverage. Have a piece of scrap metal and a prybar. I put metal against the side of the shock tower to dissipate the pressure of the prybar as I levered the control arm open so that it would reach around and accept the washers... you'll see... if you don't support it, the prybar will probably ding the shock tower pretty badly.
Tightening down the spring is a btch. At first it goes just fine, but then it becomes necessary to crank hard. Forget the bilstein wrench they send with it. I have no idea why thats in there, even they tell you its not the right tool. You're supposed to use a quarter inch punch. Stick it in one of the holes and you have a lever... only even THAT doesn't work well. Mine bent. I used a large craftsman strapwrench from sears. At first you can strap around the top nut, but then it gets low enough that its behind the UCA. Make sure you do all this torquing while the thing is in FULL DROOP with the WHEEL OFF so that you have plenty of room to cuss. I ended up putting the strap wrench around the BOTTOM of the spring and then torquing on the spring actually turned the nut on top along with it. When it got even harder, I used the strap wrench to torque the spring, and I used the punch to torque the nut. It took a LONG TIME to get the springs down where I wanted them. Now that I've wheeled it for a while, I need to adjust it down a touch more... I can't wait!
To do the rear end efficiently, replace one part at a time so that the axle doesn't move too far out of position. Be ready to use a come-along to force the axle forward or back the last half inch when you're putting in the last link member. Get the links adjusted PERFECTLY to length first. Remember that you want the threaded hole for the e-brake cable bracket to go on top.
In order to do the springs, I first jacked the rear axle with the jack head under the pumpkin and removed both rear wheels. I jacked it WAY UP and then lowered it onto jackstands that supported the frame instead of the axle. I then let the rear axle droop as far as it would go before I got worried about the brake lines, then I supported the axle too. I had to use spring compressors to pull the rear springs. I got a cheapo pair from autozone and it wasn't challenging... just tedious. I did the springs, then I replaced the brake lines and bled the brakes. Last, I did the shocks which were no big deal.
Tighten the $#!+ out of everything. I should have put threadlocker on the hinge bolts/nuts. I lost the nut off the hinge bolt on the driver's side UCA on one of the first few runs I did after changing out the suspension. I also lost a bolt out of the upper link member in the back. I wrenched the crap out of these... or so I thought. Threadlocker would have been helpful.
If you got the reservoir shocks, loosen them all the way and then count clicks as you tighten. I have 7 in the front and 5 in back... for now.
For the front springs, the amount to crank down kinda depends on what stuff you've bolted on. If you have a bull bar and a winch and front skid plates and extra engine parts... then you'll want to crank down a bit more. I have a bunch of stuff and I started by cranking it down to 3 1/4" measured from the top of the aluminum colored portion of the shock cylander to the top of the nut, both sides... I'm since cranking it down to 3.5"
Hope that helps! Good luck and enjoy
A last minute question
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