Question for OME Dakkar Owners

[ballardcruiser]

I installed OME Dakkars on my FJ62 about three months ago. I love the ride, and have had no real issues. Since then, the rig has only been use as my daily driver on paved roads.

Today I noticed that a couple of the plastic sleeves around the metal brackets that bundle the leaf springs have broken or are cracked. Is this normal? Should these thing stand up or do they eventually fall apart on their own?

The other weird thing is that they only seem to be breaking on the driver's side rear leaf spring. All the other little plastic bracket things on the other three leaf springs look fine. Is this one spring somehow defective and shifting too much? Am I just too paranoid?

I know some of you guys hammer your rigs. Basically wondering, is this expected? Do I need a replacement?

Like I said, I love 'em and the ride is a big improvement over what I had, just want to make sure this is normal.

Thanks!
Jason

 

[ballardcruiser]

Here's the other one that's damaged...

 

[Adventure Teq]

Oh those are just on there to make you think you got your money's worth . jk. Those springs will probably last that cruiser the rest of its life or if not that long at least another 100 years or so , I'm sure that they will be fine without the plastic, which will eventually fall off anyway. If it were me I'd not worry bout it.

 

[cruzerfetish]

I just went out and noticed a similar pattern on my dakar springs. I never even noticed the plastic until your thread. I am not worried about it. Seems like the part that is cracked is superficial. But I really don't know.............

 

[Fearnofish!]

I have the original "made in Australia" springs (no difference) and they are doing the same thing. My rig hits the trails pretty often but not the rocks and such. For normal use I think you should expect them to rotate a bit and eventually fall off.

 

[dogboy2]

Jason,

Hop in that Cruiser and take a drive down to ARB. They are located right there in Seattle, on Spokane St. down by the shipping piers, south of the ballpark. Get one of the tech guys to come out and take a look. Ask for Rob -- he's been very helpful to me in the past.

Also, you are going to want to take a cut-off tool/grinder/sawsall/hacksaw to those u-bolts and cut off the excess length you've got right now. You'll curse yourself for not doing it the first time you hang up on them and bend the ends of the u-bolts to the point where you can't remove the nut, in which case you will be cutting off the entire u-bolt and replacing it with new if you ever need to service your springs.

HTH,
-dogboy- '87 FJ60

 

[ballardcruiser]

Thanks. If I can get the time off work, I think I will head down to ARB ... in the meantime, I'll keep driving.

Grinding the u-bolts down is next on my list. How much bolt should you leave on? An inch?

jason

 

[euclid]

None. Cut them right at the nut.

Thanks. If I can get the time off work, I think I will head down to ARB ... in the meantime, I'll keep driving.

Grinding the u-bolts down is next on my list. How much bolt should you leave on? An inch?

jason

 

[cruiseroutfit]

...Hop in that Cruiser and take a drive down to ARB. They are located right there in Seattle, on Spokane St. down by the shipping piers, south of the ballpark. Get one of the tech guys to come out and take a look. Ask for Rob -- he's been very helpful to me in the past....

They recently moved to Renton... check out their new dig before you head to the old one

 

[ballardcruiser]

Thanks for the tip, Kurt. Renton is a bit further of a trek...

So... anyone else have experiences with these plastic do-dads breaking/cracking/falling off?

 

[Tapage]

Just curios .. but in my OME spring the plastic pads on driver side go out after some moths. A make a question to Jim Jackson about this, and hes refer to other tchenisian, that tol me about my driving practices.

Check this, and I'm noticed about normaly I turn right much faster than left .. maybe the explanation in this issue.

 

[FinHJ60]

I don't think they are there for anything else but redusing some squeeks in extreme turningn and flexing. Mine have cracked and fallen away, but I don't mind.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

PS... ARB/OME does offer these as a replacement part... ~$5 for a kit (not sure what a kit contains as I have never ordered one, but I will )

 

[macneill]

I think ya need more rust on there before you can be sure...

 

[RoddQLD]

My springs don't have those plastic bits on them at all. I think that the only thing that they would do is stop a slight clunk that you 'might' hear sometimes when the leafs shift a little. The clamps are only there to hold the leafs together otherwise over time they would 'splay'.

 

[ballardcruiser]

Thanks Kurt. Who knew.. you can replace them! I don't think I'll do it, though. Seems like a PITA to do it and they'll probably just break again.

Besides, there's nothing like a horn that goes off on its own and often to remind you that little things like broken plastic do-dads on the bottom of your truck are really unimportant.