[2000taco]

just wondering what to expect.

 

[Jeff]

Honestly? I thought it was pretty hard. Well, the front was hard. But, this is the first front-end suspension I've ever done.

You'll be MUCH better off if you have a lift to put the truck on. And plan on it taking an entire day. The front took 80% of the day, and the back was a breeze.

Oh, and another tip, before you install your rear shocks (buy aftermarket shocks, btw), look at them and make sure you install them with the end down that says "this end down". I recently figured out that I had installed both rear shocks upside-down. They weren't damaged, but I heard that they can easily get damaged if they're upside-down.

Make sure you check out the PDF copy of the DJM instruction sheet in the tech area and check out photos I took while I was installing my kit.

 

[2000taco]

yeah i got access to a lift and a alignment rack.

 

[rainman]

I'll have to agree with jeff. It took me a total of 7 hrs. to install the kit and the front was about 6 hrs. of that. The problems I ran into were removing the mounting shaft from the stock control arms and I have a knocking sound in my front end now. My truck is a 2001 and there must be a slight difference in the width of the control arm because I tightened it down all the way and it has about a 1/4" of play from side to side. It appears that the stock bolts that mount the control arm to the shaft are too long and need additional washers to make up the difference.

 

[Jeff]

Oh..and one more thought to go along with my comments above: When it gets to the part about installing the greese fittings on the new control arms. By God, INSTALL THEM! I didn't. And now I have an embarassingly squeeky truck.

By the way, anybody got a tip on how I can squirt some greese in there to stop the terrible squeeking?

 

[2000taco]

i would think just screw in those fittings and blast it with grease.

 

[Miniac]

If it were so easy.... actually, you have to drill a hole into the urethane bushings, too, so you'd have to pull the whole arm apart to do it.

 

[2000taco]

how did you get the mounting shaft out? dam that was hard, i couldnt even use the press machine to get it out. i had to use a mechanic's mini jack hammer to push the bushings out. that's the only thing that held me up. it took me 5 hrs to complete the drop front & rear. but i did not drive my truck home because the toe in was really bad, so i'll align it when i get back to work. btw the djm kit is sweeeet i'll post a pic asap.

 

[Jeff]

Good deal. I also had LOTS of problems getting the factory control arm apart. We ended up using a jack hammer to get them out, too. I guess it would have been helpful to say that beforehand.. heheh

Post pics when you can!

 

[Miniac]

I kinda rigged it up in a bench vice to get the shaft out. Take a long junk bolt and stick it through the shaft and use the vice to squeeze the bolt and the A-arm. Then take a big screwdriver and a hammer and lightly tap the bushing out, working your way around the bushing. It's likely that the bushing may get trashed, so if you ever plan on putting everything back to stock, you might need to get a new set of bushings.

A while back, I sent an illustration on how to do this to Jeff... Hey, Jeff: if you still have that pic, send it thru.

p.s. Jeff has a Quick Tip in the tech section from me about how to do a quick alignment... (if you ask nicely, he might let you see it before it's posted)

 

[Miniac]

Attached is an illustration of how I extracted the shafts from my factory control arms.

 

[2000taco]

i tried that but no luck, an air compressed chatter gun did the job though.