Hey guys a couple of questions,

1) I got a 1.5" levelling kit for my truck and went to get it installed at my buddy's shop, didn't wanna tackle it myself because the instructions said I needed a coil spring compressor. Anyways they got my strut and spring assembly out and the bolt on top had no threads on it and the bolt was all rusted to hell. He called Carquest and they quoted me $180 a piece for the struts. Is that about average for price? He said if I called the dealership they might be cheaper. Anyone else had this issue? I live in Ontario, Canada and my truck only has 109,000 KM.
2) Is there much for aftermarket front end parts on the 3rd Gen Dak? While looking for my levelling kit I only found it and a 3 inch body lift, no real suspension lifts. It seems the aftermarket has turned their backs the Gen 3 Dak? I had 2 2nd Gen 6 bangers and there was tons of parts for them.
3) I want to get 265/75/16 Hercules Trail Diggers to replace the street car 245/70/16 Goodyear's that came on my truck. Will I be able to accomplish this with the 1.5" kit or sell it and find a 2"?? Through reading on here a 2.5" kit will put undie pressure on my CV shafts and I don't need that.

Any help provided would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Mitch

 

As for the struts I would go with rancho and don't pay $180 you should be able to get new struts for under $120 each. There's not much aftermarket for these trucks at all.

 

First off, Welcome to DF.

Here are some answers to your questions.
1) Most of us have installed new struts in our Dakotas. We never replace them with OEM struts, that's just nuts. Your choices are:
a- Monroe, part # 71100. These will be a little stiffer than stock.
b- Rancho, part # RS5757. These will be even stiffer than the Monroes, but that is what I have and would definitely recommend them.
Monroe struts should cost around $70 a piece, and Ranchos around $100.

You can order them through rock auto, and a few other sites, I got mine from streetsideauto, they were delivered in 2 days.

2) Our only options is the leveling kit and body lift, yeah it kinda sucks for us.

3) The 1.5 leveling kit should be good enough to fit 265/75/16's. I have the same 1.5" leveling kit and have 265/70/17 tires for the winter, that's the same size as 265/75/16. You might have to trim a little bit of the front splash guard, but maybe not. Some guys fit that size on stock suspension. 265/70/16 is a stock size tire on the Dakota, so you're only going up a little bit, the 245/70/16 size tires came stock on some Dakotas too.

EDIT-- I just looked at Hercules Tire website and the tire that you want is 32", about a half inch larger than my tire of 265/70/17. That is probably due to the aggressive tread of the tire. I'm not positive with the 1.5 lift will be enough, it might be okay. Maybe a 2" spacer would be better for you. And yeah, the bigger the spacer, the more potential problems could appear. Although a few guys have the 2" spacer installed without any issues.

 

2.5 since 3 years no CV problem yet

 

Thanks for the welcome and the info guys. I'm gunna look into those Rancho's especially if I can get them cheaper than OEM pieces. I'm not as bummed out now. I wanna post some pics but my truck is looking pretty embarassing. She's all stock with the exception of a Back Rack.

 

haha...no worries man, we al gotta start somewhere... welcome to the forum by the way!

 

True true, still debating on where I want to go with this bad boy in terms of all blacked out or chromed up. Decisions, decisions.

 

I picked up my Rancho struts for $180 shipped when I had a 20% off coupon for Autopartwarehouse.com.

Did a quick search and you can get 10% off with coupon code APW10, bringing the struts there down to $192 shipped. Not sure if you can get them shipped to Canada though.

Heres the link to the strut:
http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/sk...gs+Best+Seller
It comes up as "shock absorber" but the part number matches. This is the same exact product I ordered and it came as the RS5757 strut assembly.