2004 Ram Hemi QC 4X4 SLT

I picked this truck up about a week ago for a pretty good deal. I got under the truck today to see if it was leveled. I noticed that the tortion bars are cranked all the way up to level it out (i'll fix this), but I looked at the front suspension components and have some concerns. In the picture i circled two areas that are either worn away OR have been grinded down. This is on both front wheels. Please take a look at the attached picture and let me know what you all think.

Thanks,


[IMG]local://upfiles/92144/B83CA99D9C274831865AFF52FC74ADB5.jpg[/IMG]

 

Those wear marks look to be from taking the steering wheel all the way to the stops in turns.

 

i second that

 

+2 the bump stops are wearing prematurely up topbecause the suspention is jacked up beyond factory specs. light wear marks on the stops are normal, but, on yours, it looks like the top is crashing into the a-arm more than it should.

on your second circle i couldn't really tell what is there. the camera focused on the bump stop.my guess is that they are not wear marks, but are tool marks. why? cause your lower balljoint boot looks new and the threads on the stud are pretty damn clean.looks like someone was in there to do some work and pulled the bj from the knuckle to replace the boot. i'm guessing the original boot wore out from the jacked suspention maxing out the ball joint more than it should.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to lower the tortion bars to reset the height.

 

I just posted similar pics of mine with same thing. They rub no matter what. Even if you lower. I saw a stock one with the same marks!

 

where did you post? like i said, wear marks are normal. say you have totally stock factory set suspension. if you go lock to lock everytime you steer and take a bump in the turn, then you're gonna wear your bump stops pretty hard.example; pulling into almost any driveway. remember, the knuckles (or uprights as some may call them) are aluminum. the lower a-arm is cast steel. it's gonna chew up that aluminum pretty quick. ialways try and makean effort not to go lock to lock when i steer. it's hard on thepump, rack and the stops. (andin some cases the cvj's)

 

Would you guys recommend me backing the torsion bars back down. In turns i both 2wd and 4wd, there is a cracking type sound coming from the front after i straighten out. Last night I drove over a speed bump and the front bounced violently and sounded like it bottomed out. I bet I was going no more then 3mph.

These must have been cracked up right before I bought this truck. You can see the rust on the threads where the orginal setting was.

 

that crackingmight be that your cvj's are messed up. could also be parts of your suspension, ball joints, steering link joints) are badly messed up. this may or may not be related to the whole speedbump thing. to sound that bad at only 3mph my guess is that the shocks are shot and/or the suspension is "topping out" on rebound cause it's cranked up so high. bad ball joints can also sound bad when going over bumps.

what i would do if i were you would be to get the suspension back to factory height firstthen start your trouble shooting from there. check upper and lower bj's, steering links, and cvj's. if anything is suspect go with the one cheapest to fix first. if a lot of things look bad or involve completely pulling the knuckles, then get the whole front end done in one shot including wheel bearings. it's the best way to go considering money/time spent and convenience.