Change the front bushings in your Dakars

Ok, sounds good. I’ll make sure I have mine readlily available when I attempt it.

 

sub'd

 

@ready6delta

 

my dakars came with all poly bushings ...are they referred to as the "updated version "

today i pumped grease up into the holes through the isolater pads and squeak is gone for now

 

I have a set of el096r coming. Are the bushings all the same? Any particular brand over the other?

 

I used the wheelers bushings So far so good

Some use OME bushing or Energy suspension..

 

Bushings are common size. I know Energy Suspension makes some in different ODs but you’d have to specifically order them or royally fuck up to order them by accident. Wheelers is a good source (what I used in the first post) I’ve since switched to Dobinsons and can say they’re really good as well. Also can’t go wrong with OME yellow bushings.

 

Did that dakkars stay squeak free for good once you did that replacement ? planning on getting the heavy duty pack once I get my rear bumper

 

as far as the tool goes...
so the edge of the pipe sits on the edge of the spring bushing hole and the bushing is pulled from inside the spring into the space inside the pipe?

 

Ohh, a pry bar was needed for sure.


It was a bit of a pita but, I replaced the front bushings in the leafs. I’m still hearing a bit of a knocking sound though... I’m going to check to see if I torqued the bolts on both sides of the packs to spec after work today.

 

Knocking huh? Not sure what that could be.

Are the squeaks gone?

 

Yeah, no squeaks currently. It sounds like something is loose....hence the knocking. I was super tired when I swapped out the front bushings so...lol, I’m going to have to recheck everything. It might be totally unrelated to the recent work done on it.

 

Just installed a 5+1 pack from blackout14 and I noticed the front bushing sleeve extends past the bushings. However my factory leaf pack looked exactly the same. The factory front bushing sleeve also extended past the bushings so I thought it was fine upon installation. Is there a problem with the sleeve extended past the bushing? I noticed it seems some other packs the front bushings and sleeves are even.

 

Leaving this here for reference, hopefully it helps for someone who’s on the fence about doing this due to having to press bushings out.

Knocked this out in about an hour with a ball joint service kit I rented from autozone and an impact. Made quick work of those bushings...

 

Did the same thing.

 

Got my eyes on a suspension refresh at some point this summer, there's some good reading in here. Thanks for all the tips guys.

For the rear: ES poly bushings for the rear Dakars, adding a leaf to the pack while I'm in there so they'll be coming off the truck anyway. U-bolt flip with Timbren bumpstops to finish it all off.
For the front: Rebuilt OEM LCAs with ProForged ball joints, and Whiteline bushings.

All the bushing sleeves got treated to some polishing, based on a tip I found in this video. I am still on the fence about the washers/narrowing the bushings, but I've got time before install to make my mind up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al506SoN5uw

 

Old thread I know but I only recently found it. I just did this and I thought I would share my experience.
I've had the old style dakars on my 1st gen for a long time. I thought the squeaks and creaks were normal for these springs so I just put up with it I ran across this thread doing research for a rear clunk I had so I decided to try it. The passenger side was easy but the driver side fought me. I even stripped some threads on my homemade puller. This mod got rid of my clunk! I suspect it was the passenger side spring eye slamming into the hanger because the bushing had shifted off center. Since I did this job last weekend I have driven around 300 squeak and clunk free miles. Besides the quiet I'm also really happy about the ride improvement. As GHOST SHIP said this makes the ride a lot smoother. Better late than never, right?

I went with this Daystar kit because it had everything I needed to replace both front bushings, including greasable pins.

I hope OME has addressed this issue with the new style dakars. I would probably want to replace whatever came with them with with greasable poly bushings anyway. A huge thanks to @GHOST SHIP for this writeup!

 

I did this job over the weekend. After 3 years and 12k miles on my Dakars they had developed an annoying clunk that I would hear on turns, especially those with height differences. My experience was similar to @Tacotimer , the clunk was coming from the passenger leaf spring as the bushing shifted around. Appreciate @GHOST SHIP documenting the job here, especially the details about the DIY bushing puller.

Could be in my head but I also feel like the rear end is riding a lot smoother after the swap.. Very happy with the upgrade!



If anyone has difficulty getting the main eye realigned, this was my technique:

 

Glad you got it sorted out! There’s something to be said about getting rid of annoying suspension noises that we’ve become used to.

 

Thanks to the Op @GHOST SHIP for the write up. I bought the OME lift kit several years back during a group buy. The lift makes the truck look great but the squeaking drove me nuts. There have been several threads on here about noise and people trying to figure it out. The other day I was checking something out under the truck and noticed the rear leaf bushings were disintegrating. Did some searches on here for new rear bushings and came across this thread. When I changed both front and back bushings I found the same thing that the Op posted. No more squeaking! Pics below of old and new.