Installing Beltech 2/3 kit,many extra bits needed?

[Tonyrodz]

I had no idea it was this involved. Closest mod I ever did, compared to this was putting lowering blocks on my Typhoon, which killed the ride, imo, so I took them out.

 

[Rocket Man]

Yeah, I remember putting lowering blocks on a Dodge Dakota 5.9 R/T and that was the roughest riding rig I've ever been in. Ran with 8 bags of sand in the bed to soften it a bit but still needed a damn kidney belt. But hell yeah it looked good! Damn kids.

 

[Tonyrodz]

Did look good as hell!! It had the rear auto ride in it, kept blowing fuses even with the rod shortened. Oh yeah, rode like crap but looked cool as hell!!

 

[CrashTestDummy]

I had the same question when I installed my DJM's but it works. Sucks that DJM sometimes leave instructions out. Like Tony said, you do need to move the swaybar over for clearance from the frame. That new nut and bolt are a ***** to install, BTW. The e-brake cable should clear better as soon as you lower the truck back down if I remember right. The clearances all change as soon as you lower things back into place. As it sits with the suspension hanging is not how it looks once it's back on the ground. You can't leave the bar centered unless you leave the end links too long to have it parallel to the ground. As far as front end links, I suggest going with Energy Suspension. You'll need shorter ones and need to install the old stock ones at least temporarily so you can measure to see how long the new ones need to be. If you buy stock length, your front sway won't be parallel to the ground. If you go to www.energysuspension.com and click "download catalog" , on page 7 or 8 they have a good chart and explanation of how to measure. I also had to modify (utility knife or grinder works) the poly bushings that came with mine as they didn't fit the holes in my DJM front swaybar. When lowering these trucks, there's always things that have to be worked out no matter how prepared we try to be. Good luck, and remember it will be worth it.

Edit: I seem to remember bending my e-brake bracket but like Tony said, you can always cut the brackets off.

The front end lowering was accomplished with an offset spindle, not lowering springs, so the orientation of the front sway bar with the lower control arm didn't change, or shouldn't have. The front sway bar links, though, did look a bit long, even in stock form. I may have a look at the energy suspension parts to see if I can get something that fits better. I had to replace the front end links anyway, as the factory units were blown out.

 

[CrashTestDummy]

Yeah, I remember putting lowering blocks on a Dodge Dakota 5.9 R/T and that was the roughest riding rig I've ever been in. Ran with 8 bags of sand in the bed to soften it a bit but still needed a damn kidney belt. But hell yeah it looked good! Damn kids.

The Eibach spring kit was your friend in the R/T. Great drop, great ride!

 

[Rocket Man]

The Eibach spring kit was your friend in the R/T. Great drop, great ride!

Yeah I remember doing the Eibachs in a S-10 way back when and it rode great.

 

[CrashTestDummy]

I had no idea it was this involved. Closest mod I ever did, compared to this was putting lowering blocks on my Typhoon, which killed the ride, imo, so I took them out.

Quite involved. I thought the front would be the hardest amount of work, but with the exception of having to try a couple of methods to get the lower balljoint to break loose, it
was straight-forward compared to all the fiddly bits in the back of the truck. Now the front was a fair amount of heavy-lifting, but no real brane teaser like the back end.

My wife was instrumental in getting the job done in _only_ two days, and the factory service manual was very helpful with some of the missing information. I know Tony can probably do this job in his sleep, on a lunch break, but I'd plan on a weekend to accomplish it, and that's if nothing breaks.

 

[CrashTestDummy]

We FINALLY got a break in the rains so I could get under the truck and have a look. I now see what Tony was describing. Thanks for the head's up on this, too, Tony, as I wasn't even looking over there. At full jounce, the passenger side of the sway bar can make contact with the panhard bar mounting bracket on the body of the truck. Unfortunately, you can't push the sway bar too much to the passenger side, as the lower shock mounting bolt becomes an issue.

I now have the adjustable Eibach sway bar links, and when it dries out enough that we can get the truck back out to the shop, we'll get it up in the air, and play with cycling the rear end through it's range of motion and see just how short we can (or even IF we can) get the end links and still have clearance. We haven't done the free range mod to this truck, and I think that's going to be too much. With that, we may be able to have clearance with the diff sitting on the bump stops if I can get the end links adjusted to just the right length.

Updates as they occur.

 

[Rocket Man]

At full jounce, the passenger side of the sway bar can make contact with the panhard bar mounting bracket on the body of the truck. Unfortunately, you can't push the sway bar too much to the passenger side, as the lower shock mounting bolt becomes an issue.
.

It's just the 1/2" or so that the DJM instructions show. If you take the left mounting bracket and move it to the right so the left side of it is now utilizing the right hand hole in the frame and then drill a new hole for the right side, that's about 1/2 " if I remember right. The shock mounting bolt is close when the suspension is hanging but as you lower the truck the clearance is fine.

 

[CrashTestDummy]

Finally got the Hellwig adjustable end links installed. We ordered the P/N 7960:

http://www.hellwigproducts.com/products/sway-control/end-links/
http://www.hellwigproducts.com/products/sway-control/end-links/
I think they're set to about 7" total length. The bar is not completely level, but close. I moved the differential around some with a floor jack, jacking the right end up as far as it would go, then repeating the process on the right side. It looks like it will clear in all instances, even with the axle against the bump stop. They are still a little offset, the bar is not the same width of the old bar, so the links don't hang straight down, but the offset is not that bad.

I bolted everything up, re-checked the front end (and got measurements for the front end links), and sent the truck on it's way for road testing (re: let the wife drive it). So far, so good.

Before I did this, we were getting a strange thumping noise from the back end. I couldn't place it, and it actually seemed to thump less the harder I drove the truck. It never was consistent, but seemed to 'thump' more often when we were driving down our long gravel driveway. While looking around under the truck, I could see nothing that seemed to be hitting anything. I then started checking elsewhere. I even checked the vapor recovery valve and tubing that I had replaced a year ago. It looked good. The only thing I could find that might be it was the rear bumper cover. It seems the tab on the passenger side where it is pinned to the rear bumper was broken, and I 'fixed' it with a zip tie shortly after we acquired the truck. It was a service vehicle, so things like that would be expected. Anyway, as I tapped on the cover, it would move, and hit the tab, causing a fairly loud thumping noise. I tightened the zip tie some, and so far, we haven't heard the noise again.

Anyway, we're enjoying the new look and added handling so far. Time to turn my attention to the Caprice drop.