Need some Help. KYB shocks and front level kit..ball joint issues

[mb311]

2011 Tahoe LT 4x4 with 185K miles.

Problem is I cannot tighten my upper control arm ball joint, or tie rod end ball joint on either side after suspension work. They just spin after getting the nut a little bit tight.

I completed KYB Monomax with Moog 81069 springs out back. Raised the rear about an inch, sitting at about 38.5" from floor to fender now.

Today I completed install of KYB 4079 Coilover assembly with MotoFab 2.5 inch level pucks that mount on the top of shock. Immediately I thought things were raised way more than 2.5". So I got things as tight as I could, drove around the block a few times, braking, a few speed bumps to maybe let things settle. Settled a little but, front measures about 39.5" now, which is nearly 4" higher than my stock worn shocks. I can only assume my suspension geometry is whack, and not allowing me to tighten those ball joints. Online consensus seems to be 2.5-3.0" max for leveling. The KYB front coilovers don't advertise a lift on this set (they do have a kit with the lower strut spacers, but not mine). I found some reports online of the front coming up about an inch from the coilovers.

I guess my plan is to tear stuff apart tomorrow and remove the spacer pucks, and hope I can get my ball joints to tighten up. Just looking for some confirmation that this is likely my problem before I tear stuff apart again. Any other tricks or reasons to tighten those ball joints, or reasons why I cannot?

 

[mb311]

Sort of answered my own question. Rough Country has better instructions than MotoFab and I'm just blind from too much frustration.

Tie rod end links can be held at bottom stud with 10mm wrench and allow to tighten. UCA ball joint has a 7/32 hex head at bottom of stud to allow tightening. Good enough to drive around town a few days while I await maybe just a 1 inch level kit to arrive.

Hopefully this helps someone else at some point.

 

[mikez71]

Usually just pushing the arm/balljoint into the knuckle gets it to stay put..?

Had no problem installing the motofab 2.5" spacer with 200k mile stock struts.
2.5" feels like too much lift for stock upper A-arms and probably pretty bad on the CV's.
It works, but it doesn't feel great.

Driving around with the Rough Country 2" for a 2 years, everything seemed to hold up.

Personally, I went down to 1.5" on my old struts.. might go to 1"

Interested in a review of the KYB struts and as many pictures as you can please!