OME Dakar lift ordered for my 85

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vegasfj40

vegasfj40

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Jan 13, 2011
Threads
109
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1,378
Location
Corrales, NM
So I just ordered a kit for my 85 from Cruiser outfitters! Should be arriving next Tuesday. Wanted to check with others that have also installed their springs. Looking for any tips or info on the installation that would be helpful. Also will be putting in 4.56 gears with 31 inch duratracs. Also have on order an ARB front bumper! Pretty exciting stuff! Will post pics.
 
Get a corded sawzall and some blades that were made for cutting through high strength metal.
 
The bolts in the shackle can rust and make them near impossible to remove. and the bolts on the end of the rear leaf spring closes to the cab can be a real PITA to remove. When I was pulling my old springs out I pretty much cut every bolt.
 
Also that bolt closes to the cab on the rear leaf spring isn't included in the lift kit. It's considered reusable
 
OK. This truck has absolutely no rust and has been in Vegas all of its life. I replaced the front spring and shackle bushings about a year ago and had no problems with bolts. Just turned right out ! Hopefully the rears will be as easy as the fronts were.
 
I was told the rears come with a sleeve on the pivot end bushing. Will that be a problem on installation?
 
I don't think so. Just coat the inside of the sleeve in anti-seize. That sleeve is what gave me problems, and the gas tank side was a pain since I couldn't access the other side of the bolt to hit it with a hammer.
 
Well, my truck lived a long time in Palm Springs. When I went to replace the rear springs the sleeve and the front bolt were rusted together. Removal was not going to happen. I had to cut them. I knew this was probably a problem, so I already had 18mm replacement bolts and a drill bit ready to go. Problem solved forever.
 
Well. Just for kicks I went out to see if that front bolt would be giving me problems. Just loosen the nut and tap bolt!

IMG_20161106_123252057.webp


IMG_20161106_123300853.webp
 
I just ordered the same kit (mostly) for mine today. Replacing the same springs that are now 18 years old, over 150K on them, they are tired and the front ones are flat. Time to refresh.

CS009FA/B front heavy springs
CS009R rear medium springs
New bushings, shackles, greasable pins.
New steering stabilizer (OMESD16)

Shopping for U-bolts, TRE's, brake parts now. Considering swapping the shocks, not sure if I want to give up my Bilstein 5100s.

I'm paying a local fab shop to put all this stuff on (ScerbFab Offroad and Performance, he's right down the street from me), I've gotten to the point that I don't have the time or energy to deal with suspension stuff anymore, and I'm too old to be rolling around on the floor fighting with getting the stuff swapped. Fortunately I can now afford to have someone else do it. I'll probably take the driveshaft out to get rebuilt and balanced. I have access to a nice parts washer, blast cabinet, and paint booth here at school, so I'll do all that tedious stuff.

When I swapped the rear springs the first time, the fixed pins came right out. I still have them, I've never seen a set that nice.

Bolts1.jpg
 
The kit that I ordered are the same springs as you are getting KLF. I cant wait to see if the ride quality improves. Cant get any worse!
 
I ran the OME springs with std Bilstein 5100's under the front of Patch, my old '84 Xcab. Rode very nice, and could move out pretty good when chasing desert racers as well. No LA is ever going to keep up with a built IFS in that use, but it was quite far from embarrassing itself. Ran GM 63's in the rear, so no idea how well the rear OME's might work. Have a set of rear OME's for the current '88 4rnnr, but I'm waiting on the front 7100's before I install them and the rear 7100's.
 
Rear OME's sucks unless you change the shackle angle. I've got at least 650 pounds on the rear end of my truck at all times and they've barely changed since I'm using the heavy duty springs
 
That's what I've heard most people do. IIRC you could also get the 89 and up rear leafs as they are longer to change the angle.
 
Shackle angle properly should be at about 4 o'clock when at ride height. I know that you can adjust the effective spring rate up or down by varying that angle, but it can be tricky if you need to more than simply fine-tune. Ideal shackle length for a compression shackle design like these is for the shackle's length to be the difference between the straight line eye to eye distance and the length along the spring leaf eye to eye distance when the spring is fully unloaded (i.e. uninstalled).

These are the inter-leaf shims that I added to the 4rnnr's OME's:
i-BXnmKt5-M.jpg

They are an experiment, but their purpose is to reduce internal spring friction for a more supple ride. I only shimmed those leaves that have tip sliders, no point in shimming those without sliders.
Note the two lowest leaves, both are over-loads. One short and the other longer. I'm going to try them with both, but if the ride isn't good enough I'll be yanking the short ones. If that still isn't good enough I'll be flipping the long ones upside down to delay when in the compression stroke they start to go to work. I don't want the lift required by using the 63's SOA, but if I have to I might be convinced to make a set of mounts to use them in a SUA configuration.
 
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