Figured I would start a new thread for this topic. As everyone knows I recently lifted the front and rear of my 06 dakota 2". Although at regular static height, the truck's rear brake lines seem to have plenty of slack, it seems that when allowing the suspension to droop, as if you had the truck on jack stands at the frame, and let the axle hang, that it is pretty close to tugging the brake lines.
To remedy this, I decided to crawl under the truck and address the few areas that needed to gain some slack, here is how I did it:
(KEEP IN MIND: I have 2" rear blocks, with rough country extended rear shocks, and a rear axle sway bar. The sway bar is the limiting factor for the rear end. If you have a TRX4 edition dakota, with no rear sway bar, none of this applies to you if you are wearing the extended rough country shocks. In THAT case, you should either extend your brake lines, install a sway bar, or stick to stock length shocks to have a limiting factor as to not stretch your lines.)
To remedy this, I decided to crawl under the truck and address the few areas that needed to gain some slack, here is how I did it:
After inspecting your lines at full droop, put the truck back on the ground, and put your jack and jack stands aside. It is easier to do this with the truck down on the ground, this way you can reach the areas we need to address while laying on your back.
Crawl under the truck and look to the left of your driver's side rear shock, you will see this square bracket that holds a soft brake line, and another soft vent line. we will address the soft vent line first. As you can see in the picture below, the line is only held on by 1 plastic clip, simply unclip it, or cut it off if you have no intention of saving it.
Now this is what the bracket should look like with the vent hose off:
Now it is time to find a new home for the vent hose. The hose is about 1 foot long, and has valve on the end of it, so you can put it in any safe area where it will not rub any suspension components and remains high to stay clear of water. I choose to use the hole in the bracket (that had the original clip, to affix a small drop down bracket too, and zip tie the vent hose to that. You can use wire, just zip ties, or whatever you want, the hose is light, and can be held up easily. The point is to gain 2" of slack because it gets tugged at full droop. You could also just buy a longer hose, or make some sort of hose extension.
The other line on the bracket, the soft brake line, has enough slack at full droop, no modifications are needed. (this is with 2" blocks, if you even went to 3", you would probablly need to check this line again)
Now there is only 1 more line to address, It's the hard line that runs from the front end drivers side, along the frame, through the rear driver's side wheel well, and across the top of the rear axle (it gets attached to a bracket above the axle "pumpkin".) Under full droop, there seems to be a little pressure at a hanger in the rear driver's side wheel well.
Get out from under the truck and go to the rear driver's side wheel well, you will see the line immediately being held by a metal hanger thats bolted to the frame ( see picture below).
Get yourself a 13mm ratchet, or wrench, and remove the bolt holding the hanger. Once you remove it, you will notice that there is another hole in the frame, about an inch below the hole that you just removed the bolt that held the hanger on. This is perfect, Dodge must of known I would be trying to get some extra slack on this line! Place the bolt and hanger in the new lower hole, and tighten it up, and your good. See the picture below for details: (you will see I drew an arrow to a bolt that looks like it contacts the brake line. It does not contact, it has about an inch of clearance, and the line is hard enough that it should never touch it, BUT, you can deal with this however you want, you can cap it, or cover it, whatever makes you happy. Here is the picture:
That's it! Go ahead and jack up the truck again to check to see if everything looks better. Everything now has enough slack.
Good Luck!
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By doing this mod you have opened yourself to huge law suits. Brakes lines are secured tightly to frames because vibration cause steel lines to crack, then you have brake failure. You really should fix the problem you have caused. Good luck with that inferior mod.
By doing this mod you have opened yourself to huge law suits. Brakes lines are secured tightly to frames because vibration cause steel lines to crack, then you have brake failure. You really should fix the problem you have caused. Good luck with that inferior mod.
For starters, nothing has been changed, at all. The same brackets are being used, hooked up the same way they were before.
Many lift kits have brackets that move stock brake lines, I can bring up links to instructions if you would like.
Nothing has been changed TOO much: a bracket was bent, and a hanger was moved down 1"
Take a breather both of you... no need to get heated.
sdsdsd, he didnt insecure anything from what I can see... its just a relocation. Chill buddy!
Monkey, maybe make a disclaimer saying it worked for you, blah blah blah I think its a good idea for the mod you have done, on my old dak I moved and completely bypassed old lines before...
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Silver Truck Club Member #57
Last edited by lghtngblt02; 03-05-2009 at 02:03 PM.
I'm not gonna pass judgement on whether I agree with the mod or not, I've extended brake lines plenty of times, but personally can't remember moving any existing ones. I well may have though.
But we aren't gonna play this game of insults or personal attacks here. It's already been brought to my attention and I'm gonna nip it in the bud right now!
You don't agree with someone, fine, this is a forum. But you can not agree and still not sling around insults!!!
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4.56 Gear Club Founding Member
Yes, that is a gun in my pocket and No, I am not happy to see you!
Ok, well I apologize for coming across brash, and in my post I did mention that I do not recommend this mod for offroad use, and to test it out for yourself, and make sure your not pulling any lines.
I just took the time to take pictures and everything you know?
No one has to do this if they don't want too. I am not made of money, if I was, I would have everything done as perfect as possible.
I have no problem at all with your post, as a matter of fact, I appreciate the how to post, especially taking the time for the pics. I'm sure the Dak mods feel the same way.
It's the post after yours I have the problem with, but it would have been nice had you show'n the good taste to not retaliate.
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4.56 Gear Club Founding Member
Yes, that is a gun in my pocket and No, I am not happy to see you!
Considering brake line length, I think I would get a couple of -4 SS Teflon lines that were longer by the same length of the blocks. (ei, if you use 2" lift blocks, get lines that are 2" longer than factory lengths). For those lines, if you go to your local hose shop, they should be able to make them for a reasonable price. If you consider Goodrich lines for my Talon, I have 8 of them total. The kit was around $130 for 8 lines pre-fabricated. I will do a little research to see how much they would be from my shop. I will get back to this one in a few hours.
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06 Dakota 4x4 ST
-Mopar Tow-Package, and tow hooks
-Mopar Skid plates
-265/75/16 Goodyear Wrangler Advantage A/Ts, TM leveling kit
How to gain extra slack for rear brake lines
Place the bolt and hanger in the new lower hole, and tighten it up, and your good. See the picture below for details: (you will see I drew an arrow to a bolt that looks like it contacts the brake line. It does not contact, it has about an inch of clearance, and the line is hard enough that it should never touch it, BUT, you can deal with this however you want, you can cap it, or cover it, whatever makes you happy. Here is the picture:
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