Change the front bushings in your Dakars

Ah yeah, you can use the extra bushing for the shackle. It's a lot of work though. The bushing in the stock shackle is captured by the steel sleeve. The easiest way to get it out that I've seen so far is to burn out the rubber then use a combination of a cut-off wheel and sawzall to cut and distort the outer metal sleeve enough to where you can get it out. Not impossible, but you might say a curse word or two in the process.

 

Ehhh screw that hahaha I figured if it was easier I would just do it. Wasn't sure if the other side was different where you can just pound it out one way. Ha I'm on the other side of the world from my Tacoma so makes it kind of hard to double check these things. Trying to having everything ready for when I get back next month. Someone on the Facebook Tacoma group talked about some Dakar's being older style and certain bushings not fitting. I didn't believe it til I saw the videos and now I'm paranoid about ordering those

 

Did you end up doing this then?

 

Damn. This was almost a year ago. Had to read back what I did.

And yes, I did.

 

@crashngiggles

Should be 89 ft/lbs, not 120.

 

I forgot all about that I wanted to do this lol

 

Just did mine yesterday. Was easy peasy.
Got a loaner BJ press from Advance Auto. Made things so much easier.
Used that with a socket and copious amounts of PBB to press those little suckers out.

 

Thanks for posting this thread GHOST SHIP, I’m experiencing this same issue. I’ll be replacing the bushings up front with some black poly ones I got from Wheelers soon.





The noise goes away if you can push the bushing the Dakars come with back into place but, it comes right back as they slip out soon after.

 

No problem. The good thing is since you’ve confirmed that your bushings move easily, they will come out without much effort.
Good luck.

 

I had to do this too.. had horribly pop/bang before

 

I’m currently refreshing my suspension and while the pack is off the truck I might pull it apart and repaint/regrease everything.

 

Thanks, I’m hoping to swap them out without having to remove/loosen the u-bolts. We’ll see how that pans out though...

If you look at the second picture, doesn’t it appear to show possibly too much space between the mounting hole/side of metal & where the new bushing would be?
I’m winding if I should source some plastic washers or something along those lines to keep the leafs centered in there and help take up the extra room(which of course will put more wear on the bushings. Any thoughts?

 

It can be done. I did it.

 

The new poly bushings fit pretty tight into the mount. There won't be room for a washer.

 

The replacement bushings have a shoulder that sits outside the leaf spring eye. This takes up a little more room within the shackle and centers the front spring eye. IMO, you won't need any other kind of spacer. Putting too much tension on the front spring eye could cause binding and would rob you of a lot of the rotational travel and performance that these leaf packs offer.

Secondly, removing the bolts would help a lot just to give you space to work and may actually be necessary. I had mentioned that if I had to do it again, I'd remove the pack from the truck completely just so I didn't have to twist and contort the complete the install. That may just be my old body talking since it takes me longer to recover from physical activity than it did when I was in my 20s, but a recommendation to consider nonetheless. In the long run, removing 4 nuts would be less of an inconvenience than the twisting and cursing and struggling to complete what should be an easy job.

 

Thanks, Doc! I was typing the long version as you posted.

 

Your explanation would be much better than mine, I am sure.

 

I did not remove the springs at all. Just the front bolt.

No way was I going to remove the entire pack. Not necessary.

 

That’s what I’m saying....it’s a whole project to do that. If it can be avoided, I’ll be going that route.

 

Oh yeah.....a pry bar will help.