Ram 1500? Never thought of that, so starting with the longest top mounting leaf instead of having a few inch gap on each side bring it right to the bolt mount?

Original (Dakota second leaf):


Ram 1500 second leaf (further up):


Ram 1500 third leaf where Dakota second leaf was?


Ram 1500 fourth leaf where Dakota third was?

 

I will get a few together tomorrow, I have one pic on my phone. I still have the bed off and the bags off but I will start a thread sometime tomorrow evening. I will take the camera out and get a few detailed pic of some things that would have helped me along the way.

 

I used the springs from both trucks and dont recall the order so I will get pictures and a good description tomorrow.

 

Thanks!

 

I'm fed-up with being broke no matter how hard I work there is no end, by the time I have enough saved up to do all my suspension over snow will be on the ground (rear shocks, leaf spring bushings, front shocks, control arm bushings, springs, and spring cushions). Plus I was going to get the good $40 shocks by KYB, but my truck is just too boaty and I can't imagine trying to make it through this winter I would rattle other things loose on my truck SO I bought a set of 4 shocks for $10 each! $50 total including shipping that should get me through the spring but it is certainly not going to level out my front because the springs are dead.

MONROE "heavy duty" :
Front- #20734
Rear- #20735




They claim "heavy duty" but little 5'5" 120lb me can compress these shocks by hand....I have installed OEM shocks in cars that are so stiff I can barley move them by hand:

 

I got a set of polyurethane body mount bushings they say it stiffens your ride so I assume it will add to body roll....but here in New England our roads are so heavily salted a lot of us can't grow grass by the road edge so I bet they will last much much longer!



Here are the old bushings; left is front upper, next to the right is the rear upper, and the one all the way to the right is the lowers (apparently all the lowers are the same?)



What doesn't make sense to me as I started to install them is it's a 12-piece set (6 sets) and all 6 of the lowers are the same part number. Four of the uppers are the same part number and the remanding two are the same, the two have a smaller diameter shoulder. I realized these two are the only ones that fit in the smaller rear frame mount, two of the four uppers fit in front frame mount. You can see the the brass ring on the smaller rear uppers sitting on one of the six lowers with the fronts to the left:



This is one of the four uppers inside one of the six lowers, notice how snugly it fits....well the upper rears do not fit anywhere snug since all bottom six are the same wider diameter is this normal/correct?



This leaves two of the wider sets like above are these for an extended cab? I thought maybe my radiator core support but they look too wide at a glance what do you think??

 

They should be harder to pull out than to push in. Shock absorbers (with the exception of air shocks and coilovers) are not intended to support any weight. So they will not compensate for sagging springs or give any lift. All they do is dampen spring oscillations.

 

Thanks!

I installed them....egh rust:



I'm thinking about building a rolling chassis and dropping my body on it, that way everything can be rust sealed with POR15 and I will start with a clean chassis:

 

I installed 4 of the 6 bushing sets (not sure where the remaining 2 sets go... radiator core support?) I wire brushed all surfaces and sprayed with silver Rustoleum because the can says it stops rust. Here are the rear cab mounts:




The fronts have a bad rust problem...look at the middle of the passengers mount it's thinner than the sides and cracked:




The front drivers side has a very bad rust problem which I am bummed out about, where the crack was on the passengers side is completely rotted out on the drivers side! Also as you can see there is a gaping hole in the body support...and when I jacked the body up with a 2x4 under the drivers side I heard a little bit of crunching and sure enough it pushed my floor pan in I hope the rust is not too bad under the carpet/rubber:




The polyurethane mounts might have been a mistake...they really do transmit the rough roads and tiny bumps BUT improve corners a little bit, all in all I should have gone with factory rubber which is probably more expensive and harder to find.