not yet. axle swap this weekend. possibly get the front bags done.

axle flip. typo. yep, static. and add my front sway bar from the junkyard (WOOT!)

that still hasnt happened. went to work on it, and realized i wouldnt be able to get it all done in the few hours i had to work with at the borrowed shop space. its in limbo on that truck right now. just moved again, havent had time or money to work on it or my toyota. up front i took 1.5 rotations of the coil off. and i put in a front sway bar. nothin in the back as of yet.

WOW, am I ever glad I found this site!!  I recently bought an '81 2wd Ram shorty, and have been planning to drop it 2"-3" in front and 4"-6" in back. No luck anywhere else, no-one has pre '94 parts. I really didn't want to convert the front suspension to something else, and I don't like cutting springs, or riding on the stops.  Now I know about the Dakota spindles, THANKS GUYS.

Good to know. I'm definately a low budget, do it myself, type of guy, but in this case I needed a starting point.

as far as the ford 5X4.5 bolt pattern, thats just the bolt pattern for the rotor, doesnt mean the spindles are the same or will work.

How much do you want to lower it? If your only wanting a couple of inches, Bouchillon Performance is now making lower control arms that will lower our trucks 2",but they are very pricey.They look almost identical to the old Chisholm arms.

Those are very nice pieces, but WOW $$$$
I'm going to have to get under the truck and do some looking and measuring, (in the spring when it warms up)  and see if something like that will be OK. The thing is I don't want to be riding on the bump stops. I may remove them, and use the S-10 springs, but I prefer the drop spindles, because the only thing thats lower is the truck, the rest of the suspension remains the same.
I'm even toying with the idea of using a racing type tubular lower arm, like one of these http://www.howeracing.com/Suspension/Index-Lower-StrutStyle.htm

I'm assuming you did look through this thread about what and how to do the Dak spindles. About a page or two previous theres pics and explanations. That might just be the best route.

 

I found this on Dodgetalk.com:



http://www.dodgetalk.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2288964&postcount=25

It's kind of expensive, but what do you expect to pay for custom built parts for these trucks?  I sent the guy an e-mail to see if he is still making them.

I got an e-mail back from the guy.  I asked him if they are still making the kits.


eric@midamericacustoms.com

I wish somebody would prune off all the "bad" information and keep the good ideas.  Maybe somebody could do a write up on each lowering method.

I have the 1 ton control arm front drop. (net about 2.5 inch)
and Chevy 2 inch drop shackles in the rear,

I am running 245/60 R15 front tires and 295/50 R15 rears. (both about 26.6" dia)

I plan on placing 3/4inch rubber spacers under the front coil to help level the truck a bit and regain some travel up front.

But over all the swap worked great and the look is really good.

The basic break down is this.

The Pockets really give too much drop, with the factory 1/2 ton springs (thats why i want to run those 3/4" coil pads) 

cutting the bump stops in half, or running rear bump stops in the front is a must as well.

The 1 ton arms came in two versions, 1 utilizes the same ball joint as the 1/2 and 3/4 ton, and the other used a larger one (I think it was depending on what year the trucks were).  I was unable to find the control arms that uses the smaller ball joint. So I also had to get the lower portion of the steering knuckle with the control arm, so it would match the large ball joint. 

The fun begins when you now have to drill out your mounting point for the lower arm because the hardware is larger.  this is again a problem when mounting the 1ton lower steering knuckle to the 1/2 ton spindle.  Instead of the drilling out the spindle and re-tapping for the larger bolts, I got some tubing and sleeved the smaller bolts so that they would fit inside the larger dia holes on the lower 1 ton knuckles.

The final problem is the outer tie rod.  Again the 1 ton uses a much larger tie rod.  one person I think in this thread used all the 1 ton hardware (center link, idler, pitman, inners and outer tie rods)  but I had just replaced everything so that was not going to happen.  I went to a parts store and went through a tie rod book that lets you pick by each dimensions (length, threaded end dia, taper angle and nut dia)  I was able to find one that matched all the 1 ton stuff for the knuckle side, and all the 1/2 ton stuff for the sleeve side.  the only difference was that it was shorter.  So I had to buy a longer sleeve and cut it to length.  I wrote the part numbers down, I will have to try and dig them up.  If I were to do it again I would have just created my own outers using spherical ball end joints.  Lighter and stronger.

It was a bit confusing the end result was good tho.  Maybe this winter when I have the truck apart for some other things I will snap some photos and do a write up.

End result was about 2.5 inch drop.  my tires are small dia (26.6) and they are almost tucked at ride height, andy compression and they tuck, honestly I have barely 1/2inch of clearence to the fender and it has never hit.

I see a bunch of people on here want pics of lowered RC's and rams
searchin around on google I found this website
http://www.geocities.com/standardbyker88/
id have to say my favorite is the first 1988 RC

I beg the differ.  If you mimic what I did I think it would be possible

If I wanted to be real cheap I could have left all the original stuff on the junkyard arms (ball joints, bushings)  I picked up the control arms for 60 bucks with the lower spindle brackets and all related hardware.  You can get some tie rods from the zone for under 30 bucks, or even figure out what vehicles they came on and go back to the junkyard.  And the rear Chevy drop shackles were I think like 60 bucks.   So I think it totally doable,  maybe give yourself another 25 bucks for misc. 

If you don't have money then you will have to be creative and increase the amount of manual Labor.  there is no real way to get it both cheap and easy.

Jump in with both feet,  you can look online all you want for your answer, but It still if going to require you to tear into it. 

I got fed up reading and just started doing. 

yeah. that site is me. i did it all like 5 years ago. i have a few pictures of other rams and rcs bagged now that a few have been done.

mine still hasnt been touched much really. ill get it running again this weekend, and hopefully get my new doors and hood on. we'll see.

anyways, i get alot of emails from that site, and i basically tell them to do cut 1 ton coils or 94-01 3" drop coils. and that the steering shaft gets close. and an axle flip in the rear. im going to z the front suspension of my truck to where the front crossmember is even with the frame. and bag it. i have the bags, valves yada. and the dakota spindles. ill run a dakota rack. i just need to get some extra money rollin in. dunno when. but it'll get bagged. as for the rear, probably 4 link it but might go independant. as long as i have a seat back there, no matter how rough the base is to sit on, ill be happy. its gone a much more lead sled route. its stayin flat black and not getting many more body mods other than the shave job it has. so...later kids.

The info on here is great!! I will be lowering my truck with the help from this site. I figured this would be a good place to ask this question! What is the bolt pattern and offset I need for a set of 20 or 22" wheels on my 1989 dodge d100.

first post, hello!

anyways i started this project this week, 73 crew cab shorty. cut the stock 3/4t springs 1 1/2 coils and ordered a rear flip kit from mid america customs, should be in next week.

a problem i am having is with the front shocks, the stock ones are too long, what ones will work?

thanks.

guess worst that can happen is i order some and might have to return em.

Ok i was wondering here, since S-10 drop coils will work up front, AND they sell air bags with the bolt on cups made specifically for S-10s, in theroy, if one were to bag the front of a RC, all they'd have to do is buy a front bag kit for an S-10 with the bolt on cups. Cut off the bump stop mount and relocate the shock and you'd have a bagged front with minimal fabrication. Heres a set i lost you somewhere.
http://www.suicidedoors.com/files/S-10FrontKitwith200PSISPSlamRE-7Bags12AirlineandFittings.jpg

cool truck

Ive been following this one. http://board.moparts.org:80/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=5506647&an=0&page=0#Post5506647

Here's a few pic's of my '89 D150. Shockwave air suspension in the front and air-shock style shocks in the rear. Control arm re-construction in the front with no coils and flip kit, 2"blocks, and c-notch in the rear. It drives straight and very smooth as well. I'm running 20" in the front and 22" in the rear. I have a sway bar in the front and am getting ready to mock one up for the rear as well. I so wish it was a 4-door....but it'll do for now...lol....