King Coilover Top Hat Bearing Play

[Xtremluck]

So I've been chasing down some clunking and looseness in my front end. After using a pry bar under my tire I noticed that there was some play at the top hat of my King coilover where the shock body would move a couple of MMs within the top hat on the driver side. I originally assumed that the spherical bearing in the top part of the shock was worn but at just under 1.5 years and 17,000 miles I was surprised it would be gone so quickly.

After dissasembling the top hat it appears that the top hat bolt has play within the bearing spacers. I'm not sure if this is normal allowable tolerance but hoping there are folks on here who have done complete shock rebuilds on their own. Here is a video illustrating the amount of play in it. Thoughts?

King Coilover Too Hat Spacer Play - YouTube

 

[honda250xtitan]

So I've been chasing down some clunking and looseness in my front end. After using a pry bar under my tire I noticed that there was some play at the top hat of my King coilover where the shock body would move a couple of MMs within the top hat on the driver side. I originally assumed that the spherical bearing in the top part of the shock was worn but at just under 1.5 years and 17,000 miles I was surprised it would be gone so quickly.

After dissasembling the top hat it appears that the top hat bolt has play within the bearing spacers. I'm not sure if this is normal allowable tolerance but hoping there are folks on here who have done complete shock rebuilds on their own. Here is a video illustrating the amount of play in it. Thoughts?

King Coilover Too Hat Spacer Play - YouTube

id say thatll cause noise and added wear to the bearing. i didnt check mine when i installed lol.

 

[Jetboy]

That's odd. Looks like a half inch bolt for a 14mm misalignment. Or a 9/16 misalignment set on a 14mm bolt.

I took my fox 2.5s out this weekend again for trashed lower bearings. Mine have consistently lasted about 15k miles on the lowers, never had the uppers go bad. I have the opposite problem. I had to cut one of them out again. It's getting old. I don't know why mine are getting seized so bad. But I almost maxed out my shop press to get the bolt shaft out of the misalignment spacers. So... They're really tight. Same up top. Spacers are basically welded to the spherical bearing too. I think I'm going to have to cut the bearing apart to save the spacers.

Anyway, I'd measure the bolt shaft any spacers and see if maybe you didn't accidently get the 9/16 misalignment set on your shocks. It's not normally a press fit, but pretty close.

Good luck.

 

[honda250xtitan]

That's odd. Looks like a half inch bolt for a 14mm misalignment. Or a 9/16 misalignment set on a 14mm bolt.

I took my fox 2.5s out this weekend again for trashed lower bearings. Mine have consistently lasted about 15k miles on the lowers, never had the uppers go bad. I have the opposite problem. I had to cut one of them out again. It's getting old. I don't know why mine are getting seized so bad. But I almost maxed out my shop press to get the bolt shaft out of the misalignment spacers. So... They're really tight. Same up top. Spacers are basically welded to the spherical bearing too. I think I'm going to have to cut the bearing apart to save the spacers.

Anyway, I'd measure the bolt shaft any spacers and see if maybe you didn't accidently get the 9/16 misalignment set on your shocks. It's not normally a press fit, but pretty close.

Good luck.

i had similar experiences on my fox shocks with my titan. odd.

thats funny off the top of my head i was thinking maybe the OP should try the comparable metric bolt and see how it fits. it fixed the slop on my 2001 f150 shocks when narrowing down clunks and rattles.

 

[Xtremluck]

That's odd. Looks like a half inch bolt for a 14mm misalignment. Or a 9/16 misalignment set on a 14mm bolt.

I took my fox 2.5s out this weekend again for trashed lower bearings. Mine have consistently lasted about 15k miles on the lowers, never had the uppers go bad. I have the opposite problem. I had to cut one of them out again. It's getting old. I don't know why mine are getting seized so bad. But I almost maxed out my shop press to get the bolt shaft out of the misalignment spacers. So... They're really tight. Same up top. Spacers are basically welded to the spherical bearing too. I think I'm going to have to cut the bearing apart to save the spacers.

Anyway, I'd measure the bolt shaft any spacers and see if maybe you didn't accidently get the 9/16 misalignment set on your shocks. It's not normally a press fit, but pretty close.

Good luck.

Thanks good advice. I'll see if I can measure it out. I wouldn't be surprised if the spacers were incorrect. After disassembling the driver side coilover I found the top hat bolt completely loose. I ordered these things at the height of COVID lockdowns so Im sure things could have gotten missed in the craziness.

I also have the same issue with the misalignment spacers on the lowers. They are completely seized in and the passenger side will probably need to be replaced relatively soon. Ill use anti seize next go around so I dont have to keep buying those spacers.

 

[Xtremluck]

i had similar experiences on my fox shocks with my titan. odd.

thats funny off the top of my head i was thinking maybe the OP should try the comparable metric bolt and see how it fits. it fixed the slop on my 2001 f150 shocks when narrowing down clunks and rattles.

At this point Ill try anything. A clunking front end drives me absolutely insane. Even when its super minor and probably something most people wouldnt even notice

 

[Jetboy]

Thanks good advice. I'll see if I can measure it out. I wouldn't be surprised if the spacers were incorrect. After disassembling the driver side coilover I found the top hat bolt completely loose. I ordered these things at the height of COVID lockdowns so Im sure things could have gotten missed in the craziness.

I also have the same issue with the misalignment spacers on the lowers. They are completely seized in and the passenger side will probably need to be replaced relatively soon. Ill use anti seize next go around so I dont have to keep buying those spacers.

Getting the wrong misalignments when they were assembling the shock would be pretty easy to do I think. Especially in a situation where you have someone on a relatively small assembly bench set up doing shocks one at a time. Maybe somebody put a set back in the wrong bin or something like that. When they assembled it they probably never noticed. I don't know how Kings customer service is, but it might be worth reaching out. If it was Fox I could probably go ask my 2-year-old and get a more useful answer.

It's funny that you say the passenger side. That's actually where I've had the problem too. Every time. I have never been able to remove the passenger side without cutting it out. And I go crazy with the anti-seize on it. I put the hardware in reverse direction - meaning that the through bolt goes from back to front so I can hammer on it with a sledge to see if I can knock it back out. I use new hardware. Stainless hardware. Doesn't seem to make any difference. Here's the weird part - the driver's side has always come out pretty easily. Three times in a row it's been the passenger side that's been seized up. I can't imagine there's anything different, it's just randomness. But it is a little strange at least. Especially when you had the same situation with King shocks. I know they both probably use the same lower hardware. But it's just an oddity I guess.

My buddy has icons on his Tacoma and I think he abuses it harder than I do mine. Most of my miles are highway driving. And he's gotten something like 100 k without any issues so far. We live in the same place, so the road condition generally are pretty comparable.

I ended up putting my factory shocks back in this time because the passenger side leaked out about a cup of oil when I turned it on it's side after removing. I'm going to see if I can come up with an alternate solution to the spherical bearing lower eye. I'm going to get some measurements and see if I rubber bushing manufacturer has some option that they think will work instead. I'll let you know if I come up with anything. It's probably going to have to be an off-the-shelf part that fits or something I can machine down to fit. I don't think it'll be economical to custom make a one-off set of rubber bushings.

 

[honda250xtitan]

Getting the wrong misalignments when they were assembling the shock would be pretty easy to do I think. Especially in a situation where you have someone on a relatively small assembly bench set up doing shocks one at a time. Maybe somebody put a set back in the wrong bin or something like that. When they assembled it they probably never noticed. I don't know how Kings customer service is, but it might be worth reaching out. If it was Fox I could probably go ask my 2-year-old and get a more useful answer.

It's funny that you say the passenger side. That's actually where I've had the problem too. Every time. I have never been able to remove the passenger side without cutting it out. And I go crazy with the anti-seize on it. I put the hardware in reverse direction - meaning that the through bolt goes from back to front so I can hammer on it with a sledge to see if I can knock it back out. I use new hardware. Stainless hardware. Doesn't seem to make any difference. Here's the weird part - the driver's side has always come out pretty easily. Three times in a row it's been the passenger side that's been seized up. I can't imagine there's anything different, it's just randomness. But it is a little strange at least. Especially when you had the same situation with King shocks. I know they both probably use the same lower hardware. But it's just an oddity I guess.

My buddy has icons on his Tacoma and I think he abuses it harder than I do mine. Most of my miles are highway driving. And he's gotten something like 100 k without any issues so far. We live in the same place, so the road condition generally are pretty comparable.

I ended up putting my factory shocks back in this time because the passenger side leaked out about a cup of oil when I turned it on it's side after removing. I'm going to see if I can come up with an alternate solution to the spherical bearing lower eye. I'm going to get some measurements and see if I rubber bushing manufacturer has some option that they think will work instead. I'll let you know if I come up with anything. It's probably going to have to be an off-the-shelf part that fits or something I can machine down to fit. I don't think it'll be economical to custom make a one-off set of rubber bushings.

heres a link to Daystar's shock bushing size sheet


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