One time I took way too much of a risk and ran it so low that I put 24 gallons in mine, not looking to come that close to being stranded again! Even in the Neon it leaves a couple gallons in the tank when it starts flashing lights and beeping at you.

 

is there an easy way to identify sway bar sizes for front and rear. seems to be 2 options for front and 3 for rear.

 

I measured mine with a pair of calipers.

 

i found mine and did the same, i have the 1.4" front sway bar and rear 18mm sway bar.

just ordered the front and rear frame sway bar bushings and the front control arm sway bar bushings. next will be the rear sway bar links and the front inner and outer tie rods. along with balljoints and control arm bushings.

i believe its my from drivers side control arm bushings that are causing things to go a bit crazy while going over a series of bumps.

i will post pics and comments shortly.

 

the summer has gotten to me. been a bit lazy to keep going on the D.

so far i have rear sway bar links and rear sway bar frame bushings, and i also have the front sway bar control arm and frame bushings. in the next couple of days i will be getting the inner and outer tie rods.

i have been having a debate on my head for a few weeks now, debating between replacing the control arm bushings and ball joints or just getting new control arms with them already on. i think i'm going the route of new control arms, the current ones are probably original to the truck, and i think in order to keep my sanity and making life a little simpler I'm just going to go that route. it will take me a bit to get them.

is there anything else i should consider doing while i'm in there for the control arms, sway bar bushings and tie rods?

and i would also like to say thanks to all that have assisted and this forum has been extremely valuable in the research and maintenance of my D, so once again Thanks.

 

Finally got around to doing the much needed work.

did the lower control arms (funny story further down), upper control arms, sway bar bushings, tie rod ends, and lastly calipers (funnier story further down).

altogether around 18-20 hrs of work.

bought a 26gal 150 psi craftsman compressor on sale $200 with air ratchet and impact gun. impact gun worked fine on buddys car, would even take the lug nuts off the D, had to go get another one. old one was rated 400 ft/lbs new one is 580 ft/lbs. all is good in that dept. I actually dunno why it took me so long to get a set. things are so much easier and simpler with the air tools.

also i was able to get a groupon deal for a remote starter for the D and also went ahead and got it tinted, 20% in the front doors and 5% everywhere else. (will post pics today or tomorrow)

the things you learn when you are working on these bad boys. i forgot to loosen the drive-shaft nut, and only realized it when i went to remove the lower ball joint from the steering knuckle. everything else was out at this point, shock, upper control arm, brakes. had to put the new upper in, tighten stuff up, put in the wheel, lower and loosen, because the air impact gun wasn't strong enough.

also the nuts on the upper control are were killer. the front one was ok, the back one was so rusted that i started with the right size socket but had to go down one size and hammer it in and get a helper on the ratchet because that thing was there to stay. this happened on both sides.

now the lower control arm, the torsion bar did not want to leave its home. after many unsuccessful attempts i finally decided to cut the old control arm at the torsion bar, since i had new ones to put in anyway. from there life was a whole lot easier.

now the brakes, i had removed the brake line from the calipers just to make work a bit easier. when i went to put everything back and bleed them and swap the fluid, the bleeder screw had seized on the caliper. quick trip to Autozone and $86 plus tax later i had new calipers and proceeded with the process.

all went well, now i needed 4 new tires, after some deliberation i settled on the Firestone Destination A/T. and i also decided to go to Firestone to get the tires and lifetime alignment on the truck.

got there at 4.30pm didn't leave until 8pm, i mentioned i did all the work, and could they please set the height of the truck, because of all the new components. they proceed to tell me that they don't do that. i said its a torsion bar suspension and the manufacturer calls for it.
couple of hours later I'm growing impatient and i ask for an update, this tech tells me that they only work with manufacturers specs and since i asked for the height to be set its custom alignment. i said how is that possible if I'm using oem parts and once again the manufacturer calls for the height to be checked and adjusted per their own service manual, they apparently they were having some difficulty getting it to jive.

they finally say its done and they did the best they could and it pulls a little to the left. i drive home, that was ok. these trucks have such a nice smooth ride. next day to work was fine, had to run some erons and go into NYC, i start hearing these noises like something is loose or not right. after i get home i decided to check the height like the manual calls for.

only to find out that they only messed with the drivers side, never touched the pass side and the drivers side is lower by 1" compared to the pass side.

so this morning i dropped it of along with the service manual page that calls for everything to be done. and the tech starts with, we dont set the height, it doesnt need to be done. and i calmly pointed him to the BOLD NOTE that says for 4x4 check and set height before alignment and the other that says if components are replaced height needs to be set. Well it took them 4 hrs and they call me that its ready for pick up. so i drive to work and i measure.

grrrrrrrrrrrrr

they only raised the drivers side to match the pass side. so i call them and they said, bring it in the morning.

how can it take 3 visits to get these things aligned.

its simple math, the truck has 31" tires and with some load the distance to the ground is lesser. so lets say 14.75", the manual calls for a diff of 2.9" + or minus .1". so lets go to the minus to be higher. 14.75-2.8=11.95 lets round that to an even 12" measure to center of the bolt on the rear part of the control arm.

sorry for the rant.

finally my question. should i just set the height myself and tell them to align it?

is it still 4 full turns to get 1" lift?

thanks for reading

 

you can compare stock tint vs what i did from the older pics. also got HID bulbs in the original housings.









thanks for reading

 

Bump!

 

finally came from the Firestone auto repair place with another alignment. 3 alignments in 3 days has to be some kind of record. but today its actually done right.

i walked in again with a fresh copy of the service manual page. the guy looks at me and recognizes me and says whats wrong, and i said the truck is still too low. it needs to be 12" from the back control arm bolt to the ground on its own weight.

suffice it to say that 1.5 hrs later tech comes with a measuring tape and i look at it and said needs to go up another 0.5 inches. half hour later he comes back, i look at it and its perfect.

i said thank you and left. here is the before and after

BEFORE



AFTER


ORIGINAL - When i first got it

 

8 turns is 2" between 4-5 turns should be 1" (springs don't exactly behave in a linear fashion).