kkarnage
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #1
So, upgraded my regular AEV springs to HC ones recently (2022 392), and took it out for a shake out yesterday on a nearby trail. As the trail got more technical, every time the suspension compressed on the driver's side, I could hear metal on metal. On inspection it turns out the spring was bowing and catching on the bump stop as the suspension compressed on that side. Passenger side was fine. No bowing, no catching.
Today I took the wheels off and after much back and forth between the two sides, as well as some interweb searching, I came to the conclusion that the spring pigtail for the driver's side was toward the rear of the vehicle, and not toward the front, as the passenger side was. After dropping the axle (getting those 8100 shock mount bolts in and out of that bottom bracket is a right PITA!), I spun the spring through 180Âş on it's vertical axis so the pigtail faced forward. The problem with that though is that now it's not sitting in the correct grooves in the isolator.
The isolator is labeled "L" on that side, so it's clearly the correct one from the factory. It does, however have a flange which means it only fits one way: pigtail facing the rear. I ended up taking a hacksaw to it and cutting the flange so that I could spin the isolator to have the pigtail groove facing forward so that the base of the spring sits correctly. This has corrected the bow, and whilst I still need to take it back to a trail to flex things again to test, it's looking a whole lot better.
I doubt the isolator will miss its flange and spin or anything, but it triggers my OCD a little that there isn't a neat solution for this. I've reached out to AEV support already. They usually take a day or two to get back to me, so we'll see. But I was wondering whether anyone else had any opinions about the pigtails both facing forward on the front coils? The bit of information I managed to find on the interwebs suggested that they should face forward, but it wasn't JL specific.
Today I took the wheels off and after much back and forth between the two sides, as well as some interweb searching, I came to the conclusion that the spring pigtail for the driver's side was toward the rear of the vehicle, and not toward the front, as the passenger side was. After dropping the axle (getting those 8100 shock mount bolts in and out of that bottom bracket is a right PITA!), I spun the spring through 180Âş on it's vertical axis so the pigtail faced forward. The problem with that though is that now it's not sitting in the correct grooves in the isolator.
The isolator is labeled "L" on that side, so it's clearly the correct one from the factory. It does, however have a flange which means it only fits one way: pigtail facing the rear. I ended up taking a hacksaw to it and cutting the flange so that I could spin the isolator to have the pigtail groove facing forward so that the base of the spring sits correctly. This has corrected the bow, and whilst I still need to take it back to a trail to flex things again to test, it's looking a whole lot better.
I doubt the isolator will miss its flange and spin or anything, but it triggers my OCD a little that there isn't a neat solution for this. I've reached out to AEV support already. They usually take a day or two to get back to me, so we'll see. But I was wondering whether anyone else had any opinions about the pigtails both facing forward on the front coils? The bit of information I managed to find on the interwebs suggested that they should face forward, but it wasn't JL specific.
Sponsored
