Support the LCA with a floor jack and remove the strut mounting nuts.
With the LCA still suppored with the floor jack so that the knuckle is not hitting the strut, remove the ball joint nut. Quick tip, COMPLETELY remove the nut, this cleans the threads. THEN reinstall the nut just a few turns, and hit the flat spot of the knuckle with a hammer (dont be shy).
Then just use a pry bar to take the load off the nut, take the nut off, and the UCA will rise up out of the way.
Then let the LCA Drop.
FOR THOSE WITH SPACERS: Yup... you still have a lot of work to do...
FOR THOSE WITH STOCK VEHICLES: At this time, you can try to put the spacer on the strut. If theres a second person helping you they may be able to push down on the spindle to get enough clearance to put the plate on, then just jack the suspension back up in place, then put everything back together. If you're doing this by yourself you may need to try spring compressors as shown below to get adequate clearance with minimal exertion (updated after installing spacers on Sean's vehicle in Maryland)
For us guys with spacers, or doing this solo on stock or OME suspensions ... you'll need to install some spring compressors. I put the compressors on with the suspension at full drop, then use the floor jack on the LCA to compress the suspension incrementally as i tighten the spring compressors. This makes it 1000% easier since you can simply tighten them by hand since the floor jack is using the vehicle weight to compress the spring. Once all of the weight is taken up, then use a wrench to tighten the spring compressors a few extra turns.
Then you can drop the suspension back down. If you have 2" spacers already installed like me you'll probably have the same issue i had, even with my axle nut removed the studs were not clear of the body, so i could not get the spacer in. So I had to remove the lower fork bolt. NOTE!!! Do NOT remove the lower fork bolt if there is not some clearance between the top of the strut mount and the unibody!! Remember, you will need to get that bolt to line back up. If there is not ~1/4" of clearance, then tighten the spring compressors up some more!!..... obviously you dont need to remove the lower fork bolt if you can get the spacers in, so make sure you try first.
It was easy at that point... install the spacer:
Here's an important step. Snug up all of the strut mount nuts. This will raise the strut assembly up as far as possible. With this done, and because I made sure there was almost 1/4" of clearance before removing the fork bolt, I was able to line up the lower fork bolt with relative ease. With body weight and a pry bar it's easy to flex things into place (and im a measly 170 lbs). Also, i coated that bolt with a ton of antisieze!
At that point... you're ready for putting everything back together.
I'm not going to give you a reverse step-by-step. If you're doing this job, you should be able to figure that out!!
A few tips:
1) Do your FINAL torque on the strut bolts after you put the vehicle weight back on it.
2) Use a pry bar to push down on the UCA while you're tightening the ball joint nut... this will prevent it from spinning.
3) Quadruple check all of your bolts... make sure you tightened everything up!
4) Primarily for those with lift spacers installed, make sure no lines are stretching at full drop.
5) As always, have your alignment checked after driving it around for a day or so. The toe will need to be adjusted.
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