Front End Donk

After changing to the new tires/wheels the truck still had a slight rake. Also, the new tires/wheels just cleared the front wheel opening by about 1/2" in height (and didn't clear the wheel opening on full turn - more on that later). The 1/2" clearance is inadequate, so my initial plan was to strip the front end, remove the Crown Vic suspension, add a 2" piece of square tubing to the bottom of the frame and re-install the Crown Vic suspension. However, as I got down to it, I started looking for lift kits and ran across "Donking". It turns out Crown Vics are a common platform for "big ballers" (those ugly (IMO) cars with huge wheels that look like spiders tip-toeing along the road) and there are "Donk kits" (lift kits) readily available. So my plans changed.

The 3 inch "donk kit" for the Crown Vic is simply a spacer that goes between the top of the strut and the strut mount. I didn't get a "before" picture, but here's the result:

     
The white "donut" seen at the top of the coil spring is the top of the actual strut. This normally sits in the strut mount and has three bolts that attach the strut to the mount.

To install the "donk" I unbolted the strut (top and bottom), jacked up the truck, lowered the strut, installed the spacer and put it all together again. I actually had to remove the bolt holding the rear of the lower swing arm to get enough drop in the strut to insert the spacer.

Here's the driver's side. The "donk" spacer comes with three bolts. The strut bolts to the bottom of the spacer using its bolts/nuts and the the new bolts attach the top of the spacer to the strut mount. Getting all bolts in place is not trivial, but with patience eventually it all comes together. A few of the bolts end up being a bit of a challenge to tighten because of limited access.
With the lift kit installed, the anti-sway bar didn't align properl. I needed to rotate the bar in its bushings but could not get them to move - as of now I've simply removed the anti-sway bars. If/when I can figure out how to rotate the bars in these rubber bushings, I'll re-install the bars.