Installing Koni Shocks

[jharrell]

250 lbs-ft on the torque wrench is no joke, I was doing a pull-up on my 1/2" torque wrench to get that on my track bar looking at shocks seems like no good place to get the torque wrench in a good position. Getting them off with a good impact should be easy.

Looking to change my shocks soon and don't look forward to getting it torqued back down properly.

[nomad10th]

Originally Posted by jharrell

There is no way changing a shock on the F53 can change alignment. Camber is set by the shape of the solid axle, the axle has to be bent to change it. Caster is set by the leaf spring attachment points, shims are needed to change it. Toe can be set easily by yourself and is determined by the tie rod length. Caster could change slightly from ride height, shocks don't effect ride height, helper springs might but it would be a slight change something like 1 degree caster per 4" of ride height.

Sorry its just physically impossible.

Haha ok.. $1500 later.. We’ll just call it a coincidence then.

[jharrell]

Originally Posted by nomad10th

Haha ok.. $1500 later.. We’ll just call it a coincidence then.

Tire wear on the outer edge means toe or camber. We will assume it wasn't camber because that would mean your axle would need to be bent to fix it, which leaves toe.

Either your toe was to much for some time and you didn't notice or it was changed along with the shocks, either way just changing the shocks by themselves cannot affect toe, just look at the tie rod vs shocks and see for yourself.

[John Wayne]

In my 70's done it twice factory to Bilstein's to Koni's with out air tools not that big a deal.

[jharrell]

Originally Posted by John Wayne

In my 70's done it twice factory to Bilstein's to Koni's with out air tools not that big a deal.

Mind sharing any tips on getting the shock bolts to 250 ft-lbs?

[Peter M]

Originally Posted by jharrell

Mind sharing any tips on getting the shock bolts to 250 ft-lbs?

Even with a 30 " torque wrench, it takes a lot of effort.
On my 24K chassis, the front shocks and rear PS are torqued to spec. The DS rear bottom has insufficient room to allow me to use an impact gun to loosen or TW to tighten the fasteners. I had to use a box wrench and bottle jack to loosen. Retorquing that fastener I tightened with the box wrench than a little extra with the bottle jack.

Heat will help loosen the fasteners as will PB blaster. Degrease fasteners and use blue Loctite when reassembling.

[JSPERRELLA]

Originally Posted by jharrell

Mind sharing any tips on getting the shock bolts to 250 ft-lbs?

I will be attempting to change my shocks later this month and plan to use a 4X multiplier on my Torque Wrench so I will only be using the force to do 62.5 pounds. I am hoping it will fit in the space.

[creativepart]

I just bought 4-Koni FSDs for my 24k lb Adventurer. I’m not going to even attempt to do this job myself. A local independent RV service place in San Antonio will do the install next week for between $200 and $300.

Worth every penny to not have to deal with all that.

[jharrell]

Originally Posted by JSPERRELLA

I will be attempting to change my shocks later this month and plan to use a 4X multiplier on my Torque Wrench so I will only be using the force to do 62.5 pounds. I am hoping it will fit in the space.

Yes I was thinking multiplier too, please let us know how that works out.

Maybe torque sticks on an impact gun?

Seems like many here are just doing locktite and forgoing getting up to 250 lbs-ft.

[leadman]

I did the shocks on my coach twice. First to KYBs then to Konis. The first time had to use a bottle jack to get the lower nuts on the rear loose. My coach is from Canada and has some rust.
The top front bolts were real easy to access by taking the engine cover off and laying on the floor. Impact worked here.

[Dav L]

For those using a torque multiplier...don't forget to add about 10% for torque loss in the tool.