Sway-Away does not make bars for Dakotas. I had called them to order a set
and was told that all their bars are splined, not hexed. I ordered the
2000lbs V8 bars from my local Dodge dealer. They cost about $125 a side.
My axles are at the tranny shop right now getting rebuilt with new gears and
a rear locker. I should have them back early next week.
I'm going to have to take the truck back down to the exaust shop because the
3" Y-pipe I had made last year will not clear the front drive shaft after
installing the 4" TrailMaster suspension kit.
When done, the truck will have a 4" suspension lift with cranked torsion
bars in the front and an add a leaf in the rear, a 3" body lift and 35x13.50
Mickey Thompsons. I figure it will sit pretty high. I also picked up the
front and rear dual shock kits with a dual shock steering stablizer.
I'll be uploading the first batch of pictures of the disassembly next week.
Walt Felix
88½ Dakota Sport 4x4, 2000 Ram 1500 QuadCab Sport 4x4 and a 67 Barracuda
Coupe 340/4Speed
Walt@Walt-n-Ingrid.COM
http://WWW.Walt-n-Ingrid.COM
http://WWW.MoparsinMotion.COM
>------------------------------
>
>Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 17:46:53 -0500
>From: "Kyle Kozubal" <grndak4x4@home.com>
>Subject: DML: Re: Lifing the Dak
>
> > Now that my Dak is paid for, its time to have a little fun. I want to do
>a
>mild suspension lift so's larger (31x10.5r15) tires will fit properly. My
>shopping list right now has: Sway-a-way torsion bars, Bilstien shocks, and
>some sort of add a leaf for the rear (recommendations?). What is the
>maximum
>I can lift with the torsion bars without severely shortening the life of my
>CVs? My plan is to go an inch, but if the after market bars, CVs and
>steering linkage can handle more I'll do that.
> > I'm assuming this or something like it has been done before, so any tips
>or pointers would be welcome.
>
>Mike,
>I was under the impression that Sway-A-Way didnt make torsion bars for our
>Daks because they are hex shaped and not splined like others? Do you have
>info that they do indeed make tbars for our Dakotas????????? I think not,
>but please prove me wrong. I would love to put a set of those on my Dakota.
>My plan is to just swap in some tbars meant for the V8, which means they
>will be 'more heavy duty' and should be able to handle and actually hold a
>tbar lift better than the 'stock V6' tbars. If you even want, you could
>pull
>a set off of a Dak in the junk yard to save alot of money. Just make sure
>they arent bent. Rear add-a-leaf springs should give you an additional 1.5"
>of lift in the rear, and you can crank up the front tbars 1" or so and
>should be able to fit 31s with no problem. From the measurements I took on
>my Dakota relating to the wheel well diameter, bumpstops, and front/rear
>axle compression, I can fit 31's with nothing other than a mild tbar crank
>adjustment; and the 31s wont even come close to hitting the body at or
>during full suspension compression. You can put on a 2" body lift(or even a
>3" body lift) relatively cheap if you dont want to do the tbar crnak/rear
>add-a-leaf lift, and should also be able to clear 31s with no problem. For
>the Bilsteins, the cheapest I have found is Autozone for $49.99. Most
>likely
>they will have to order them, which took my Autozone 3 days to get in and
>there isnt and special ordering fees involved. I know a guy with a 90ish
>Nissan 4x4 pickup, which came with the LT235 tires(same stock size as out
>Daks) and he did the tbar crank lift and the add-a-leafs like you want, and
>was able to clear 32's with minor rubbing on the frame, only when turning.
>He had no body rubbing problems at all. Best of off, he only spent like $60
>for the add-a-leaf kit and was able to clear 32s! Good Luck. Hope this
>helps.
>Kyle
>93 Dakota 4x4 V6
>
>------------------------------
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 11:53:26 EDT