What should I do about my CAB MOUNTS?
 

Hey guys. Little background, My truck is almost 32 years old and lived its whole life in this area(rust belt). I haven't driven it through a winter in years (and don't plan to) as it's not all rusted out. Frame is solid and the body's in good shape (thanks to me) But, one of the next things I should do are body mounts....and I'm not sure what to do about them. Couple of years back, I noticed that the cab had sank on the drivers side compared to the bed. Well, it turns out that the lower part of the body mounts are gone. There is NO cup shaped washer, and lower rubber is missing/looking dilapidated. To top it off, under the drivers side front- that little channel that is welded to the body (that the front body mount fits up to) is rusted away. Its gone. The front of the cab is actually sitting(or darn near sitting) on the frame rail.
On the passenger side, its pretty solid other than a finger sized hole that I found in the channel. The rubber though, is in the same condition as the other side. Same deal with the large washer...GONE. Here's something that's odd. The rear passenger side mount is perfect. Rubber looks good, all the metal looks good, and it still has that funky cup washer in good shape as well.

What are my options for fixing this? I need body mounts (which look to be unavailable with quick online search), I need new hardware(looks like the cup washers are unavailable), and I need a new channel for the body. I'm also not sure how I'd replace the channel (yes, new one could be welded, but space is tight and I don't know where id get one, unless I have to fab it myself).

Looking at the service manual I have- it claims that there are only 4 mounts. Just the cab is mounted this way. When ever I've searched online though, they show 6 being on these trucks.?!? What should I do?


I'm headed out to the building its in later, I'll take some pics to show you all what I'm dealing with.

The cab has four; the radiator core support, two. Total of 6 in the kits.

You'll either have to find a good donor to cut the tabs out of, or fabricate a set of tabs.

As to the bushings - you CAN buy the poly bushings. They may not come with the cup washers (mine didn't), but the cup washer is just a washer for the most part; a big enough circle of metal with a hole to fit the bolt will do the job just fine.

RwP

I had the same problems. See my thread about my resto project.
im going poly and building my own washers if I don't have enough of the old washers to do the job.
I had to buy a parts truck to fix the floor and mounts that are on the body.
They make replacements for the gen2 that are close in size but they'll cost you 250 for both sides

Thanks for posting guys. So there are 6. Ok, didn't know about the front most ones.
These are a hard part to get from a donor truck, unless I own a parts truck. I don't think the junk yard's going to let me take a truck to the shop to strip what I need, and I'm sure they're too lazy to put one on their lift and cut out what I need. Probably have to make what I need.:(

Ok, so what's available to buy, will fit? Last I looked, they looked different than what the manual shows...

I'll check that out Azboyinmi. Screw that $250 price tag.

Well, here's what I'm dealing with:
left rear
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7842/...85249de4_z.jpg
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4889/...f239da76_z.jpg

left front-most of the box on the body is rusted away. The cab looks to be sitting on the frame rail...
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7911/...dd69171c_z.jpghttps://farm5.staticflickr.com/4823/...d211a36c_z.jpg

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4888/...89409925_z.jpghttps://farm8.staticflickr.com/7844/...4f006453_z.jpg


right front cab mount- this one is still here...
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7801/...2d71a471_z.jpghttps://farm8.staticflickr.com/7866/...192693ac_z.jpg

right rear mount- this one is ALL still there and looks good.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4911/...2239484b_z.jpg

Here, im just showing how much its sagging.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7835/...e62c9f52_z.jpg

So...

Yeah plan on just building everything yourself unless you can find a rust free parts truck to buy.
use 14 gauge for the front boxes on the bottom of the cab. Same for the rest of the ones on the cab. As for the frame mounts themselves.....grab a couple 4ft lengths of 2x2 1/8 inch angle steel.
See my thread about my truck and you'll see how I fixed my frame mounts

As to the bushings themselves.... You can buy brand new rubber ones for the 2nd gen Dakota's. They're not exactly the same but they're so close it won't matter. But plan on spending some money.

Or you buy poly bushings and use flat washers

I bought cab mounts from (I think it was) Energy Suspension, they weren't that expensive.

What ZachN920 was looking for was the METAL portion off the cab. Also.

But yah, I've got a set to go on my 1988 Dakota, just haven't taken a weekend to do it yet.

RwP