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Firestone Ride-Rite Air Helper Springs - Double Convoluted - Rear Axle

2185 reviews

Code: F2400

Price:  $457.40

• Vehicle Suspension
• Rear Axle Suspension Enhancement
• Air Springs

• Heavy Duty
• Firestone

5,000-lb Capacity. Ride-Rite air springs enhance your factory suspension for safety and stability when you are hauling heavy loads. They reduce strain on your rear axle, keep your vehicle level, and adjust to load size for a consistently smooth ride.

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How to Install Rear Air Helper Springs on a 2006 Ford F-250

Today on this 2006 Ford F-250 we are going to install Firestone Ride-Rite air helper springs using part number F2400. We are showing you now the components that are used to install one half of the kit. There is going to be two of everything for both sides of the vehicle. We are going to start off on our install by doing the driver side of the vehicle. The first thing we need to do to get started is to remove the old factory bump stop which is right here. There is a bolt on top that you have to get from the back side of the frame to unbolt it and it should come apart. It is a good idea to spray it down with some lubricant too to help remove it because that bolt does get rusted pretty easily. Moving on to the upper bracket, that is this piece right here, and it is going to wrap around the frame and it is going to have the spacer block that will go on top just like this. 00:54

There is going to be a bolt that goes through the bottom back through the original hole where the original bump stop used to be and there is going to be a 3/ 4 inch bolt that is going to go through the center here and hold everything up against the frame. We are going to loosen up the wire loom right here, the wire harness, and we are just going to pop it up and out of the way. We are going to install our bracket just like this and we are going to run our bolt from the outside in and let it sit on that for now. There is going to be a flat washer that goes behind that also and then the lock washer and the nut. We are just going to leave it loose. We will install the spacer right here and we will install our counter sunk bolt right here, it has got that little Allen head on it. We are going to run up from the bottom up through the original hole in the frame and then we are going to install the big flat washer, 3/ 8 thick washer, that is going to go over the bolt and then the 3/ 8 lock nut will go on top of that. At this point we can start tightening down our bolts. We will do the small ones on the bottom first and then we will do the big ones. Now we will do the top bolt. 02:18

We are going to start off with some preassembly for the air bag now for the second half and we are going to take the air bag, flip it over, and there is a threaded fitting here. This bracket is going to go right into that. We are going to take our little 3/ 8 bolt with the red thread locker on the bolt and run it into the air bag and bracket and just leave it finger tight so you can still move it around. Then our second bracket is going to fit on here and this part will slide on to the jounce stop that is already on the axle. It is going to be attached with four bolts and we can tighten these down right here. This part here is designed to touch the axle itself. Some versions of the vehicle have three different options. One we will use it just like it is, there will be one that maybe needs a little bit more space so we can use that spacer, or it might be pretty tall and it might need a spacer like this. All three of these come in a kit which is fine. Basically you have to go up there and take a test fit and see which one actually works the best. In our case we found out that on this particular vehicle that one worked. You can tighten those down also. 04:01

Next we are going to put our connector in. This is the part where the air line actually goes into the air bag. We are going to thread that in and tighten it down. Lets install this on the suspension. You are going to have to work it through the lines a little bit to get it into position and then just push it over the jounce stop right here and just slide it up next to the springs themselves. There is a U-bolt that is going to go around the springs and hold everything together. Make sure you get it as straight as possible and then tighten down the U-bolts. When you tighten down the U-bolts you want to tighten them down as evenly as possible. The next thing you need to do is get the air bag to fit into the hole into the upper bracket however it is not inflated so it is just not going to reach. What we are going to do is make a temporary air line connection, we are going to run this line into the air bag itself and we are going to fill it up with air and make it stretch and do the work for us to get it started for us. This is one of the valves that comes with it. All they do is push together and give a pull back and it releases. To release the line pull down on it a little bit and push back and kind of work it out and it will come back off. We will put the air valve on. We need to leave it aired up so we are going to thread everything over the air line. Put a lock washer on that will go on through then we will thread our nut through it until we get it started. It is a fine thread so it might be kind of hard to start. Once we have it started we will release the air and then take off the air line so you can put a wrench on there and tighten it down. 06:16

When you get close to tightening up remember there is a little stud that is pointing out of the plate of the air bag itself and it does line up the hole in the bracket. When it gets close start lining it up. We are going to find a spot to locate our air line to fill up the air bags with. You can see we have already got the passenger side done, we put it right next to the license plate which is a good easy spot to get to so we are going to do the same thing over here. Again we will install our line. We are going to push right down into the fitting, do a quick pull up, and we are good to go. Lets run the line alongside the frame rail and out to the bumper. Pull the line through the hole that we drilled out and we will just cut it off leaving a few extra inches and install the valve. Push it on to the line. It is going to get a stainless steel washer on the back side. This part will go through the hole and the nut will thread and hold everything together. All you have to do is snug it down and you are done. Now you need to zip tie the lines into the frame to make sure they do not go anywhere. The next thing you will do is put the wheel back on, add some air to the air bags, and see how they work. Lets add some air to the air bags now. You want to keep a minimum of about five pounds of pressure when you are not really using them just to help keep their shape when you are going down the road. We will put some air into them and you can see how they expand. With that quick test over with it looks like everything works. There you have it for part number F2400 from Firestone on our 2006 Ford F-250.