I thought I'd start a new thread on this to make it easier to find for others that may need to change the arm or bushings. My problems all started when I decided to upgrade the front suspension and add a leveling kit as a first step in my list of "improvements". I started with the drivers side and ran into a serious problem when I couldn't get the lower strut bolt out, so I thought "this is no sweat, I'll just cut it out and replace the bushing and bolt" as I had done on other vehicles before. I cut the strut mounting just above the bolt and when I pulled the strut out, the lower control arm sprung UP instead of sagging like it was supposed to. At this point, I had another brilliant thought "This is not good". The two lower control arm bushings were seized and in the process of trying to fix an alignment problem (I had pointed this out before buying the truck), the shop had put a lot of tension in the seized bushing causing it to spring the control arm up. I expanded my list of immediate things to do from 1 strut bushing to 1 strut bushing and 2 control arm bushings and went to the dealership with an exploded view of the front suspension (including Mopar Part Numbers) to buy the needed bushings and bolts. I placed the order, paid my money & went home feeling partially satisfied and started digging out all the pullers, presses, and torches that I felt I'd need. The next day, I went to the dealership and got my parts - they almost looked good, the bolts were OK, but the bushings were ALL the same. In my exploded view & in their catalog system, the lower control arm showed that it contained 3 bushings (which is correct), there was a part number for a rear bushing and a front bushing and there were supposed to be 1 rear and 2 front in the control arm, so one would expect that 1 of the "front bushings" would in fact be used for the strut bushing - not the case. The rear bushing was EXACTLY the same as the 2 front bushings, even though they each have different part numbers & there was no strut bushing in sight. So, to make a long story shorter, it took me over a week of working with the parts guy to finally conclude that somewhere in the Mopar chain, the data base got screwed up & what eventually happened was that I got a really good deal on 2 new lower control arms with all the bushings installed. I then proceeded to cut out both arms from the truck and to install the new stuff. Here's what some of the new and old look like along with some of my comments so that you aren't surprised when you go down this road.

First, here's a picture of some of the junk I took off the truck:

DakotaScrap.jpg

Next I'd like to show you 1 of the old control arms that I cut out. I used a couple of different sizes of angle grinders so that I could cut the 2 bolts on each side without damaging the frame or anything else that needed to remain. I first cut out the main section of each arm so that I could fit the angle grinder into the slot where the bushing goes into the frame mounting and then cut the head and tail off each bolt. Here are the pieces - you can see the head & tail of 1 bolt in this pic as well.

OldLowerControlArm01.jpg

Now here is a picture of one of the old control arm bushings (this is the front) - both the front and rear bushings are exactly the same size, shape, etc.

LowerControlArm02.jpg

Here is a picture of the strut bushing - this is smaller and apparently there is no listing for this one individually, so when I had melted the one I had on other side of the truck that was seized, I was "snookered".

StrutBushing.jpg

Here's a picture of 1 of the drivers side bushings on one of the new control arms - I'll use this to explain the cam bolt and associated hardware.

LowerControlArm01.jpg

Here's a picture of the "nut end" of the cam bolt - I re-used the old nuts and cam washers because I couldn't get them from the dealership and they don't come with the bolt part number, so when you take yours apart, use a heavy impact wrench (I used my large 1200 foot pound wrench to make sure I got the nuts off 1 way or another). The rest of the bolt will be destroyed, but you'll have the nut and washer that you need.

CamBolt01.jpg

Here's a side view of the nut - you can see that it has a different shape to the bottom end, this is made as a strong spacer and is necessary to get a good torque on the cam bolts when you finish adjusting them.

CamBolt04.jpg

Here's the inside of the nut so that you can see the spacer section:

CamBolt05.jpg

Here are a couple of pictures of the nut end of the cam bolt so that you can see the washer (It's shaped to fit over the formed bolt end and to move with the front cam properly) as well as how much of this formed bolt end sticks out - this is why you need the standoff section on the nut.

CamBolt03.jpg

CamBolt02.jpg

After all this installation is finished and the alignment is done, those bolts need to be torqued to 180 foot pounds.

Here's a picture of the nut the dealership supplied:

LowerControlArm-NewNut.jpg

Finally, here's a couple of pictures of the truck after a couple of weeks of wrenching, cutting, and swearing:

LevelingKitInstalled01.jpg

LevelingKitInstalled02.jpg

I hope this info is useful and if there's something I may have forgotten, let me know & I'll try to add it.

 

Here's an additional piece of info - to make life easier for future mods as well as alignments, I used the Cold Weather Extreme Pressure Grease to lubricate the bolts and bushing tubes on both the upper and lower control arms. This is the grease that's used on snowmobile bushings. I also use anti-seize everywhere that doesn't need to be completely grease free for operation or torquing.

 

Wow really nice job. You have skills. I went to replace the shocks on my 05 and had the same problem with the lower shock bolts. I ended up getting them out with heat, but that heat killed the bushing and stuff in the control arms. I bought new control arms off rockauto and brought them to my mechanic. He also had to cut the old control arms off to get them out of the truck. What a pain! More so for you since you were the one doing all the work!

I have never had a truck that has needed so much front end work and has had some many rusted bolts, bushings, etc. I just don't get it.

The good thing is, its really easy to tell when your truck needs front end work. Just walk around to the back, and if it says "Dakota" anywhere, you know the front end needs more attention.

 

Thanks, once your mind is made up, the rest is mostly a "brawn" job - there's a lot of cutting. If you should decide to do something like this, leave all the guards on the angle grinders - it doesn't take much for them to bind and fly right back at you.

 

Haha, sounds exactly like me 6 weeks ago. I too lubed all the parts to put back on so it would be easier if I had to do it again. VERY good write up.

There was a guy a little bit ago that said he found the strut bushing as a RAM part, pressed it in and everything... I wish I could find his post.
here it is: https://dodgeforum.com/forum/3rd-gen...placement.html
I wasn't able to find his part by researching online, but stopping in to a Napa might yield better results.

Good work Alfons, this will either help people do it themselves or scare people away entirely, either way they will know what to do from the get-go without having to realize it half way through the job.

 

Thanks FrenicX, I might have used that info earlier, but as it turns out, the way I did it was cheaper and easier for me. Just adding up the cost of the bushings was more than I ended up paying for the whole lower control arm and didn't need to burn out the old bushings and press in new ones. It's still a very bad design for joints that really need to be free moving at all times - in years gone by they would have added a grease nipple to each busing to keep the bolt from rusting to the through tube.

 

I'm dealing with the damn LCA's now. Trying to install my 6" lift, and the one and only issue i have ran into is removing the camber bolts, all 4 of them are completely seized in to the sleeve of the bushings. I spent a day and a half so far trying to get them out. Been soaking them with PB Blaster all day, going to try once more tomorrow before I just cut them.

Wish me luck, haha

 

Dont buy mevotech!

 

You're wasting your time, the bolts are locked into the through tube in the bushing. When iron turns into iron oxide, it expands several times it's original size (like water turning to ice) - this tends to lock the bolt in place and the rust from the tube combining with the bolt rust "welds" the 2 pieces together. Penetrating oil might penetrate to some degree, but it's not going to disolve the rust between the 2 pieces. If there was space to slide the tube through, I'd suggest that you melt the rubber and remove it that way, but the slot for the cam bolt is just big enough for the bolt to pass through, so you need to cut it anyway. You'll notice I cut the arms - this needs to be done to get in for the inside cuts (You need 2 cuts per bushing, not counting the cuts to take the main part of the arm off. 1 cut on each side of the bushing so that it will drop out of it's "cradle"). I used a 7" angle grinder for most of the cutting, but when you get part way through the bolt cuts, the 7" wheel size is just too large and would damage the mounting cradle for the control arm, so to finish the 2 cuts per bolt, I used a 5" very thin cut-off wheel to finish the job.

 

You shouldn't have to cut the arms themselves. If all you need to do is replace the main bushings don't cut the arms. They aren't cheap to replace. I managed to cut the bolts on both lower control arms with a 4-1/2" grinder. Wasn't easy, but it is possible. If you can get a larger diameter cutting disc then it might be easier.