Re: Re: Re: Front Control Arms

From: srp@cox.net
Date: Wed Nov 09 2005 - 01:34:42 EST


For the people who don't want to tackle this-- I have the arm cores in stock, and have a pretty steady rotation going now.

Here's a link to check them out:

http://www.socaldakota.com/performance_mopar_dakotadurangoram_suspension_controlarms.html

Have a few people try the do it your self route, and blew a lot of their time on it... It's not exactly a walk in the park-- as we've discovered-- there's quite a variety of 'condition' of the balljoints, and how cooparitive they'll be about coming out.

I can offer these without powdercoating, without energy suspension bushings, and without inner/outter tie rod ends for people in a bind. Email me for details.

Sam
www.socaldakota.com
619-274-1292

>
> From: "Josh Battles" <josh.lists@omg-stfu.com>
> Date: 2005/11/09 Wed AM 01:29:04 EST
> To: dakota-truck@dakota-truck.net
> Subject: Re: DML: Re: Front Control Arms
>
>
> Woodruff, Jason P said:
> >
> > There's probably a good FAQ somewhere, but here's what I remember when I
> > had to drill out the bumpstops.
> > Pull the front wheel, pull the caliper (7mm allen required!), pull the
> > rotor, pull the shock.
> >
> > Insert spring compressor, squeeze until the spring is a little loose in
> > the pocket.
> >
> > Wedge the ball joint separator fork between the knuckle and lower
> > control arm. Bang with hammer much harder and much longer than you
> > expected, it'll pop loose eventually. Pull coil spring. At some point
> > separate the upper ball joint in the same manner. Unbolt the control
> > arm to frame bolts (Large Torx sockets required!), remove control arms.
>
> If you support the lower control arms with trans jacks (or support the
> vehicle on jacks under them if you don't have access to a lift) and just
> seperate the control arms from the spindle, you don't have to remove the
> shock, spring, or any of the control arms. It's much less work, I was able
> to replace all 4 joints this way in about 4 hours.
>
> > Use a corded drill and healthy drill bit to drill out all the rivets (3
> > per ball joint?). Use the highest quality hardware (nuts and bolts) you
> > can get to install the new ball joints.
>
> I used an air-hammer with a wide flat bit shave the heads off of the rivets.
> They're much softer than the control arms are so you don't have to worry
> about damaging the arm in the process. On my 2wd, the upper joint is mounted
> above the arm, I shaved the rivets off of the bottom of the arm and used the
> air hammer to pop it off of the top as one unit. The bottom is a little more
> difficult, the joint is sandwiched between two pieces of metal. It was
> easiest to shave the tops of the rivets and then use a punch to drive them
> out the bottom. The joints slid right out then. The upper joints are held
> on by 3 rivets and the lowers by 4. (My truck is a 2000, there may be some
> difference between the two years)
>
> The joints I purchased (DANA) came with all the hardware. They use grade 8
> bolts and locknuts. If you look at the locknuts, the threads start out round
> and end up oval at the top, once you put them on there they're NOT coming off
> easy. I wouldn't recommend using anything else besides the hardware that
> comes with the joints you buy, it comes along with it for a reason. It's
> still plenty easy to remove should you have to replace the joint again in the
> future.
>
> --
> - Josh
> www.omg-stfu.com
>
>



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