Hello fellow truck lovers!
I took the pictures of the noise we have been hearing in the front end of
our Gen III Dak's during a full turn. The lower control arm (A-shaped arm)
is colliding with the steering knuckle when the suspension is traveling from
jounce (up) to rebound (down). I took three pictures, so hopefully I got two
that are decent enough for the FAQ. We still have about 10 pics left on that
roll, so as soon as I get them developed, I'll scan and Email them to Andy
Levy.
Before we get these posted, you can check it out for yourselves, but you are
going to have to trust someone to sit in the drivers seat of your truck ;^P
Have them start the truck and turn the wheel all the way to one side, let's
choose to the left (so you are close to them is they decide to steal your
truck!). Locate the A-shaped piece on the bottom of the suspension. Find
where that piece meets the steering knuckle on the inside of the wheel. Just
before the A-arm and the steering knuckle are mounted to each other, you
will see an extremely close condition between these two components. This is
the source of our noise!!! When I looked before taking it to the dealer, I
was looking at the front of the suspension, not the back side. With the
awesome turning radius we have, they needed to add a little divot (for you
golf fans) or clearance notch in the knuckle or A-arm to prevent the
interference.
I do not know if we will have problems long term from this. As metal rubs,
it wears from the softer material. The frequency of this occurring is low
and the duration of the occurrence is almost non-existent when you look at
the overall mileage we put on these trucks. My bro-in-law knows people
inside DC (as he worked there for a while as a contractor) and I will send a
copy of the scanned images to them with my write-up.
Sean
'92 RC Sport 3.9L 5spd - 250,000mi!
'01 CC SLT+ 4.7L 5spd 3.92 LSD Mobil-1!
http://www.twistedbits.net/WWWProfile/dakota/DnuuSncssJujU
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