RE: Lift kit is in!

From: McKinney, John R. MHX (McKinJr@hpd.abbott.com)
Date: Wed Sep 01 1999 - 11:12:06 EDT


Hey Mel, IT'S DONE!!!
Got it aligned yesterday and it drives really nice. I must admit, it took
longer than I thought it would, but I'm glad I did it myself. The main
reason it took so long was that I was really taking my time and who ever
assembled my truck in Warren, MI must have been in those "worlds strongest
man competions" you see on ESPN at 2:00am because some of the fasteners did
not want to come loose.

The install is not really hard at all, just takes time and though it was
nice at times to have a friend help line things up or hold somthing in
place, it's really not necessary. I did probably 90% without help. Almost
all of the labor involved is on the front suspension, I completed the rear
lift in about 1 1/2 hours by myself. To anybody that plans on doing this:
Air tools make things oh-so-much easier and have patience--it's tempting to
just throw the front diff lowering brackets on, but take the time to make
sure they line up the first time!!

Drove it yesterday into town for the first time and let me tell you, it gets
attention!! Not because it's all that tall or outrageous looking, but
because you hardly ever see a lifted Dakota. You see lifted Chevy's all the
time so you don't even notice them, but when I drove up next to another
truck, between the humm from the swampers and the lift, people look. It's
nice to actually look down into the bed of the wanna-be Toyota Prerunners
and actually be able look eye to eye at somebody in a 3/4 ton 4X4 Ram!!

P.S. Hey Mel, make sure you grind enough of the lower part of the bumpstop
off so they can make the camber adjustment, I had to bring mine back and
take some more off.

John McKinney
98 4X4 5" lift 33" Super Swampers

> As a side note..........I'm 3/4 the way done with my install of the TC
> 5.5" list
> kit on the front end. I should have it all done this
> weekend. So far I have not ran into any major problems. The biggest pain
> was
> cutting off the factory bump stops off the frame
> and with John M. help, I finally figured out which way to bolt on the
> drivers and
> passengers side diff. brackets. But I do have
> to admit, I'm starting to see why Tony spent as much as he had to to have
> his lift
> installed. It is pretty labor intensive.
>
>
>
>
>
> ************************
> Mel Janousek
>
> http://www.superskunks.com
>
> ICQ# 40401129
> ************************
>
>



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