The upper mount (the big piece of steel that the top of the strut assembly bolts to) is welded to the frame. I mentioned a few pages back that if was bolted, it would be easy to slot the holes or drill new ones to adjust ride height or accomodate different length struts.

 

Ok, must of missed that

 

OK guys, here's your setup But seriously, this is thefront suspensionfrom a Mitsu Raider that ran Baja in this thread; https://dodgeforum.com/m_1254773/tm.htm

Doesn't everyone need custom King triple bypass, triple reservoir shocks? What really caught my eye is that they appear to have modified the lower control arm so that they could use a shock with a standard "eye" mount on the bottom. Certainly would open up the choices for front struts!


[IMG]local://upfiles/81674/B9748754BD1F4055B384E80B2B2D838E.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/81674/233EA20C16F9445E9C99F0D67AB1ACEA.jpg[/IMG]

 

haha, wish there was more pictures from the other side of the hub lol

 

what about cutting the ram spring to fit better?

 

ok, now ive just spent the last hour almost, reading this. now ive got an 06 4wd and i just went the cheap way for now with the 8$ twist in spacers for now, looks pretty good, now im a welder and fabricator sooo im thinkin. at the bottom where the fork is, who is to say that we cant weld 2.5, 3 inches of 1/4" plate on each side of those things and then brace the heck out ofem. a piece of that plate on each side to box it in and i guarantee the wont bend or break, no matter how much $&^%*# you put them through..... i think im gonna get up with LKQ this week and get some stock dakota struts so i dont mess up mine..... let yaw know what happens. what do you think djsilver???????

p.s. those little twist in spacers get rid of some of that "bouncy ball" effect....

Ben

 

06Dakota08 -

As a welder fabricator...is there anything sketchy about welding on a cast steel part like our A-arms?

 

Welding on cast parts is not "sketchy" but it requires special procedures that most folks aren't prepared to do inthe garage, like pre-heating and post-weld heating/stress relief/controlled cooldown.

In looking at the pictures again I see that they're actually running two shocks but only one has a coilover spring and they're mounting the bottoms on either side of the original shock mounting point. On top the coilover shock is mounting in the original location, but again they've modified the mount to accept a normal "eye" mount. The smooth shock is the same way but obviously mounted to a fabricated bracket. If someone wanted to run two "eye" mount shocks on a Dakota, you could do it by replacing the bolt that holds fork in place with a longer (hi-grade) bolt and some spacers and do something similar at the bottom without needing to weld anything. The top would require a custom bracket but it could bolt-on and wouldn't require welding or cutting on the truck.

Boy are we getting off track now! (but isn't it fun)

 

djsilver is right, most shops are not setup for welding cast, the only way to weld it is to preheat the whole area and get the proper rods to weld it with, there is no good and safe way to weld on cast suspension parts. the only other way is to buy nickel welding rods and use low heat and gently weld it back together about an inch at a time, my welding teacher and i worked on a cast iron tractor block for about a week to repair a crack 6 inches long. THERE IS NO SAFE WAY TO WELD CAST SUSPENSION PARTS. if you try to weld something to them it will weaken them and they will break.

 

HMM the whoas of trying to lift a dakota, or even trying to get a better ride quality.... WOW you guys are really trying... wish I could help... I should be back from Iraq in 28days!!!! I think i'm just gonna settle on the tm kit with a body lift for now... keep up the research!