I was going to put the body mounts on tomorrow but my better judgement forced me to back off. I have to work on the wife's car. Ever since I told her the struts and brakes were shot on her Jeep she has gone squirrely on me. Now she thinks her car is unsafe and is gonna run it into a ditch. I shoulda never said anything. If I thought I'd have no problems putting in my mounts I'd do it tomorrow but thinking there will be no issues is fantasy. I'll be getting all her parts in by Friday or Saturday so I may as well just wait on my truck.

But it hasn't stopped me from thinking about these body mounts. The question that keeps popping in my head is wondering how the core support is held up. Yes, the rear fender is held up by a body mount but is there anything holding up the core other than the fender? I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around this.

 

The core support sits on the frame and is bolted to the fenders also.

What part are you having problem with? I mean, that's the FRONT pair of bushings, the core support.

And you'd be surprised how well that bolts together, the inner fender, the outer fender and the core support.

RwP

 

Sits on the frame? Sits or is it attached to the frame (makes a difference when jacking up the cab I would think)? I just think of the core support as the skeleton at the front of the truck that holds stuff like radiators, headlights, grille, etc. And thinking the fender attached to the cab and then extending all the way to the front of the truck with no other place of attachment just seems unfathomable to me. I see where many trucks and cars have body mounts at the front of the vehicle. Now, that makes sense to me! But the closest body mount to the front of the truck on my Dakota is clear back to the fender where it meets the cab. That's a lot of stuff in front of it just hanging by the rear of the fender (albeit heavily formed sheet metal using strong fasteners to hold it to the cab). Perhaps I don't give enough credence to your last sentence.

 

The front "cab mounts" are what bolt the core support to the frame. You remove all three bolts on one side, the front one is into the core support.

Look at the instructions with the bushings again. Also, check the frame diagram from the parts list - here, let me link that here also as a PDF.

The front bushing (parts 1, 7, 8, and 9) go into the core support; the other two bushings on each side go into the front and rear of the cab floor (well, brackets off the cab floor anyway) respectively.

RwP

 

Geez, I have got to get back under that truck again. I have no idea what I am looking at now. That diagram clearly shows that mount being at the front of the truck under the core support exactly as you say. So what I was looking at has me completely befuddled now. Dammit Ralph! Now you got my OCD triggered. How am I supposed to sleep tonight? I know I'll end up going back out there tonight. smh

BTW, how do you link a PDF page like that?

 

You know what I think? I aint got the right body mount kit. My truck has FOUR body mounts per side, NOT three like the ES diagram shows. My kit includes only three bushing sets per side (six total). My kit must be for a standard cab, NOT an extended cab like I have. This has to be the source of my confusion. I can clearly see three body mounts on each side of my truck. One is at the very back of the fender just in front of the door, the next near the back of the door, and the third at the very back of the cab just in front of the bed. I never saw that one under the core support until now.

That diagram answers my concern about no support for the core support. There IS, IN FACT, support for the core support and it is at the very front end of the frame. My engineering intuition holds. That core support is NOT being held up by the fender alone.

However, I have a new issue. How do I get the correct body mount kit? Is it the same as the one I have but I have to somehow procure another cab mount for each side? Are they dimensionally the same?

 

For that part, I dunno.

I do know the separate bushings ARE available; however, there's a bit of lead time (10-12 weeks) from one supplier - Energy Suspension bulk-4117 bulk-4117 | Energy Suspension Parts for the top, and Energy Suspension bulk-4078 bulk-4078 | Energy Suspension Parts for the bottom. (That's cribbed from the ES list.)

The parts list, alas, don't list but two for the cab floor pan so I don't know if they're the same or not. (To make matters worse, each set has a different part number OEM ... )

I would be willing to bet that yes, just procure a pair of the upper and a pair of the lower bushings, and you should be good to go.

But I don't know. Eh. It's only money ... and someone else's than mine

As to how do I attach a single PDF like that? Simple. I load it up in Foxit Viewer, pick the page, and pick "Microsoft Print to PDF" (or something like that; might be "Microsoft Save to PDF" but it's "Microsoft blahblah PDF" in any case!), select the page or pages I want, and print it out as a separate file. Foxit --> PDF like that keeps the original resolution; Foxit and both Microsoft and CutePDF are smart that way.

RwP

 

I went to the same site to see if they had separate pieces and could not find it. You're a parts hound.

I did the math. I could buy the complete kit to get the extra part sets I need. Factoring in shipping costs, it would cost me only $21 more getting it from Amazon vs purchasing the bulk parts but I'd have them in a 1/2 week vs 12 weeks. I'm waiting for them to wake up in CA so I can call ES to see if they have any info on the extended cab version. I suspect not but I'll try. If not, I may ask you to measure a couple things on your cab for comparison. It's not only the exterior of the parts but also the interior portion where the upper bushing drops into the frame hole. Of course, we cannot see that without lifting the cab. And if I have to lift the cab I'm doing it only once. If the parts don't match up or are unmodifiable then I can always return them as a worst case scenario. I suspect they should work though.

I wonder if OEM parts are available. RockAuto doesn't list any so I suspect not. At least not from them and they're normally complete.

 

OK Ralph, maybe you can help me out here. I called ES direct. Their notes say the 5.4106 kit is for the standard cab ('87 thru '96). It does not say that on their website or distributor's website but they will add it now that they know. Furthermore, they never made a mount kit for the extended cab only because they never looked at one (add that it isn't in the FSM as you discovered and they had no chance). I asked if he knew if the cab mounts were the same for the extended cab vs the standard cab. Unsurprisingly, he could not say but, like us, felt there was a good chance they were.

I measured the outermost diameter on the bottom cup that the bottom bushing sits. All 8 of them are 3" diameter on the nose. The diameter of the lower bushings in my kit are 2.85". It kinda makes sense the bushing would be a little smaller to allow for some smoosh...in my mind anyway. I suspect my bushings will work, at least from a diameter standpoint. Can I talk you into measuring one of your bottom cups to make sure they are 3" diameter too? If they are, then I'm just gonna go with these mounts.

Thanks for the help.

 

You mean the old ones, or my ES or Prothane ones? (Forget which brand I have offhand ...)

RwP