Question about throwing in greasable bolts on Dakar leaf pack.

Hey Team,

Quick question. And tell me if I'm just being dumb here. Curious if it is at all possible to swap out forward and rear leaf spring bolts with grease-able bolts without entirely removing the leaf pack. I.E. leaving the U-bolts in place? Anyone done it?

Cheers

 

Grease won't do anything, except maybe keep the bolt from rusting.
The leaf spring bushings don't pivot on the bolt. The metal tube through the bushing is locked to the truck's frame, the movement of the leaf is permitted by twisting the rubber. Lubricating it won't accomplish anything.

 

From the other threads I've read my understanding is the greasable bolts will allow the grease to make it's way out to in between the bushings and the frame mounts. Which is where alot of the noise comes from along with the leaf shims being dirty, which I plan on cleaning as well. Right now my temporary fix is silicone grease which works well for a time. My main question is if it is at all possible to swap the bolts without taking the u bolts off, thereby removing the leaf packs from the axle.

 

Yeah you can swap the bolts out, I've done it on my truck with the leafs still on. You'll need to work the leafs back into position to line the bolts back up with the front/rear hangars and shackles.

 

Word. Was it enough of a PITA to just warrant taking the packs off entirely? I've got HD Dakars so they're not the easiest things to manipulate.

 

I think it's a lot easier than taking off the leafs, though even when you take off the leafs you still have to fight with them a bit to line them up...helps to have a sturdy pry bar on hand to help pry them into place.

 

Sounds like it could become a pain in the ass that’s not worth attempting just to keep from removing 5 other bolts.

 

I just did one bolt at a time which helped I think.

 

I think that's what I'll try and do and if it's not working I'll pull the u bolts off. Thanks for the beta. Damn Dakar's are painful to listen to haha. Second thing any of you gents have any other solutions/experience with fixing this squeak? Was gonna swap out the bushings/bolts with the Dobinson's bushings and greasable bolts then I was going to pry the leafs apart and clean/grease the spacers.

 

My fix for the Dakar squeak on my 1st gen was to swap them out for All Pro Expos lol.

 

Greasable bolts will help if the squeaking is coming from the bushings , but Dakars are also known to squeak from the leafs themselves (any leaf pack is prone to that really). I've heard some have had good luck putting rubber liners between the leafs to eliminate the squeaking

 

Yeah I've looked into that as well. Most of the squeaking seems to resolve when I hit the front bolts/bushings with lube so I'm hoping swapping the bolts with something that I can regularly grease fixes (most of) the problem.

 

Turn up the radio

 

Already got that approach covered

 

Thanks again for the suggestions!

 

My Allpros have teflon liners between the leafs. Even so, occasionally I just soak the whole mess in a penetrating preservative oil. I know the factory scheme for mounting leaf springs is to tighten the bolts and bind the rubber, but I quit doing that 30 years ago. I use nylock nuts on my leaf bolts and allow just enough play for the thing to operate as a loose pin. If you have longer than factory suspension travel, this allows the springs to move much better. In 30 years of hard wheeling, some of that on vehicles weighing over 9,000 lbs, I've never seen any downside.

 

OP, which greaseable bolts are you looking at?

I've done it and you absolutely have to remove the leaf packs to burn the bushings out and replace them (again depending on the kit used).

 

This seems like a winner for me, I'll be switching mine out tomorrow.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/change-the-front-bushings-in-your-dakars.479071/

 

Like another user already said, the squeak comes from the leafs themselves moving slightly when flexing. Lubing the bolts and bushings does nothing, trust me lol.

Jack up the truck one side at a time allowing the wheels to droop. This will separate the leafs enough to give them a shot of fluid film in between each leaf. Do this about every 4-6 months as needed and you shouldn't have a problem.

 

Interestingly, the leafs don't squeak for me. The bushing sleeve was rubbing on the front leaf spring mount and now they're quiet once I swapped the bushings