How To: Adjust the Fox Shock Perch / Height / Level the Front

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BigJ

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Supporting Vendor SDHQ Offroad (click here) has put together perhaps the most comprehensive "how to" regarding adjusting the Raptor's Fox Shock perch setting. All material below is courtesy of Ryan and SDHQ, and all credit belongs to them. Great writeup guys and thanks for letting us host it here!

A couple quick notes before the writeup:
-The net result is approx 2.5" lift in the front, bringing the nose level with the rear.
-Yes, you will need an alignment done after this adjustment
-According to an SVT engineer, the factory warranty on the Fox Shock is 3 year/36k miles (click here)
-According to an SVT engineer: "[Leveling the nose via the perch adjustment described below...] It all depends on what you want to do with it. Using the detents would raise the front ride height of the truck and would give you more jounce travel, but take away rebound travel. This would really change how the truck rides and handles on and offroad especially when taking in consideration how we tuned the bypass shocks and how they ramp up damping force. This would also potentially void the warranty." (click here)

And here's SDHQ's writeup!

Here are a couple pics we snapped while we were leveling out the Raptor. Hope this helps...

Stock height before tire removal
1.jpg

Stock height bottom of fender
2.jpg

Remove tire/wheel
3.jpg

Disconnect sway bay link
4.jpg

Disconnect tie rod
5.jpg

Remove nut on upper ball joint to remove upper control arm
6.jpg

Remove upper shock bolt and lower shock bolt
7.jpg

Remove shock assembly from tuck
8.jpg

9.jpg

10.jpg

Place shock in spring compressor & remove coil spring
11.jpg

Remove set screw to move lower mount
12.jpg

13.jpg

We moved the snap ring to 3rd notch for the most lift
14.jpg

Reassemble shock
15.jpg

Reinstall shock & reconnect upper control arm
16.jpg

Reconnect tie rod
17.jpg

Reconnect sway bar linkage
18.jpg

Double check all hardware, brakelines, etc.
19.jpg

20.jpg

Back on the ground 2.5” higher
Check over & road test then to alignment
21.jpg

Stock
22.jpg

23.jpg

After adjustment
24.jpg
 
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chartguy

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Do these guys understand the concept of internal bypass shocks? They have a range in the middle where some of the oil bypasses the valving, but all of the oil must go through the valving outside of that range. In other words, they're soft in the middle of their range of travel, but stiffen up at extremes.

Doing what they've done here puts that soft range in the wrong part of the shock's travel.

If it was that easy to make the truck handle better, I think the SVT engineers would have done it. This may make the truck look better to their eyes, but I think it would be bad for the high-speed handling on rough surfaces. That handling is why I'm buying one, not its looks.
 

KaiserM715

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Do these guys understand the concept of internal bypass shocks? They have a range in the middle where some of the oil bypasses the valving, but all of the oil must go through the valving outside of that range. In other words, they're soft in the middle of their range of travel, but stiffen up at extremes.

Doing what they've done here puts that soft range in the wrong part of the shock's travel.

If it was that easy to make the truck handle better, I think the SVT engineers would have done it. This may make the truck look better to their eyes, but I think it would be bad for the high-speed handling on rough surfaces. That handling is why I'm buying one, not its looks.

That is not quite right... The soft part is when the wheel is at full droop and stiffens as the wheel compresses. There have been some reports that the engineers at Ford wanted the middle position but were not allowed to due to other restrictions.
 

RaptorScrew

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I'm having mine moved to the middle on Wednesday. Was quoted about $200 (incl alignment). We'll see how accurate that will be then.:peace:
 
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