Just dragged my big butt out from under the truck
The DT trac bar is in. Not too bad a job, but not a simple bolt in either due to having to drill two 3/4" holes through one side of a crossmember and relocate one brake line attachment hole. Some notes from the field...
1) The DT Profab folks make a 1st class piece for our Rams.
2) Getting the old trac bar out was fairly easy using Kroil penetrating oil and a ball pein hammer. I spun the ball stud castle nut to the top of the threads and alternated whacks on the bracket and castle nut till it dropped out.
3) Follow the directions line by line, I printed the ones from the DT web site cause my printer is better than theirs so the pictures were more clear than the ones that came with the kit.
4) Drilling the cross member - Repeat after me...
"I WILL WEAR MY SAFETY GLASSES!"
There is huge shower of metal splinters generated by the 3/4" hole saw. This is a glass eye makers dream, wear the glasses unless you want to spend a very unpleasant evening in the emergency room.
I bought a new 3/4" bi-metal hole saw from Sears for the job cause I did not want to futz around with a dull one. The Sears item has the removeable pilot bit as required. (Not really removable, but it's got two places to lock the set screw, one of the settings burys the bit in the saw) Don't forget to use lots of oil on the saw teeth and pilot bit.
5) Relocating the brake line - Take your time on this one cause the potential for disaster is there. When you redrill the brake line mounting hole make sure the line is not hitting metal anywhere. If it does, vibration over time can wear through the line causing a loss of front brakes.
Once we had a truck in our caravan to Baja loose brakes due to bad line locating. Good thing we weren't on our way back comming down the Grapevine
OK, that's it for now. Gotta go center the axle and take a test drive
Linear Mode
