On Thursday, April 24, 2003, at 07:53 PM, Michael Clark wrote:
> Got home today and a RoadMaster box was waiting for me.
Got and installed mine today!
> Took 3 hours, mostly due to me taking a bunch of photos at every step.
Took me 3 hours too, but that's because I got confused along the way.
I've never worked with leaf springs before, and on my 2001 4x4 QC the
Roadmaster goes over the back half of the leaf springs rather than over
the front as with other examples. I didn't even see the back of the
leaf because of that plastic flap in the wheel well. So on my way
toward a wrong/bad solution I looked at my factory service manual, and
that's when I saw the light. :-)
Something else which threw me off was after getting the Roadmaster
installed I discovered the differential had sagged down just lower than
my floor jack would go. So after a few minutes of confusion I decided
to carefully lift under one of the shocks. Then I was able to get one
wheel back on and then lift from the differential for the other.
> The Axle Anchor Bracket (thing with the adjusting
> bolt in it) is designed slightly different. Instead
> of a cup washer type setup mine has round metal piece
> which pivots as the spring flexes. It came out of
> the box lubed up with plenty of white grease. I wonder if this
> is a new design to get rid of the squeaking some have
> reported OR if this is a GenII only thing....
Maybe a GenII thing? Mine had the greaseless cup. Which is fine. I
mean...if I'm going to get a cup, I don't want grease already in it.
Eww.
> The other difference I noticed is that my leaf spring
> locating bolt installs from the bottom of the spring
> pack. The GenIII's look like they go in from the
> top.
Yep, mine was on the top.
> Penetrating oil is for wussies, real men have air tools!!
Sadly my Roadmaster kit did not include air tools. :)
> I'll have more to report on how it handles after driving to work
> tommorow.
I only went out to eat and back after the install, but even with that I
noticed a difference. No more wheel hop when turning onto a road, and
it feels more nicely planted. I have the better handling package from
the factory, but even with that I've often noticed an uncomfortable
wandering when going around faster curves with dips in them. I'm hoping
the Roadmaster helps with that. I also ready about it helping deal with
wind on the freeway which would be very welcome. Haven't really hauled
much with my Dak yet, but I like having the better handling for that
whenever I do.
So now all I need (or so I tell my wife...and myself) is a sale price
on Powerslots, and a sale price on a K&N FIPK, and a sale price on. . .
. . . . . :-)
-- Tod Oace <tod@quay.com>
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