Squeaky Dakars : Any advice from others with the Dakars ?

K

I'm not sure +/- a 1/4" makes much difference or if the only difference is OME indicates the discrepency and All Pro does not but whatever floats your boat

 

So I'm about to lose my mind with these damn things. My creak is beyond annoying. Depending on the day it may or may not happen but when it does happen, it does it over everything. When I'm launching from a stop it's like moving an incredibly creaky door super slowly. When I'm braking and I stop and the truck settles back down on the rear end it creaks. Literally every bump I can hear it making quite the loud racket back there and it's like nails on a chalkboard to me. I did the zip tie method precisely where you specified and it seemed to work for a few months and now it's back to its completely loud self again. I'm about to just ditch these things and go with another leaf pack. It's absurd that a company would send out a product that is consistently flawed and makes this much noise.

 

Have you tried power washing them

 

I'll give it a go but I don't see that being a permanent solution. I'm getting some dry moly and going to give that a shot.

 

Its not a permanent solution , its a maintenance thing

 

The more I think about my situation (which sounds like yours @I3uller) I'm thinking I didn't grease the bushings enough before mounting to the shackles. The zips ties seem to do fine with the noise from the leaf pack, but I know I'm getting almost all of my noise from my bushings b/c when I lube them with lithium grease, they go silent. I'm think about putting an AAL in the pack to get some rake back. If I go that route (garage clearance pending), I'm going to grease the snot out of the bushings and see if that solves the problem once and for all for me.

 

No need to be a dick about things. OEM makes no noise, Dakar makes an insane amount of noise with way more maintenance on them. It's already been shown in this thread that the Dakars are built without the silencers that should be there. It's just annoying that they send out a product that's had this issue consistently for years. I'm just trying to find out a way to rig them to be reasonably decent without pressure washing them every week.

 

I know when I put my bushings in, I excessively greased them but I'm also not sure entirely where the noise is coming from.

 

I'm not being a dick , I'm saying you still need to periodically clean between the leafs or you will still get noise

Somebody should start a thread to try to help people solve this problem

 

I don't think he was being a dick. Brevity can be key sometimes and Oz has answered plenty of questions i this thread. Nothing wrong with being short and to the point. Relax a bit man, we're all trying to find the right fix.

Another thing I read was to loosening the bolts in the shackles with the weight of the vehicle on, then circulate the suspension (i.e., jump up and down on the bumper a bunch) and then retorque to spec. Just Don't take the bolts out while doing this, just loosen.

 

Yea not being a dick at all. Thanks for the informative and helpful comments.

 

Thanks for the actually helpful tip. Have you tried this and had any luck with it? I'll probably give it a go regardless since it's quick and easy.

 

You're welcome

 

I think I read that after I tried loosening and re torquing; so I didn't cycle the suspension. My torque wrench has disappeared, so I'm waiting till I swing by my father-in-laws next to give it another go.

 

Lol touché. Busy morning and that creaking had me all riled up. You can see why I need to figure this thing out haha

 

sorry couldn't seem to find it, but what is the width of the dakars?

 

I called ARB USA and a rep recommended that I try this to help fix the squeak.
He said that he's fielded Many calls on this subject and they are implementing design changes soon(I can't remember the time frame he gave me). Personally, I'm going to do all 3 fixes:
1) Crom's Zip Tie Fix
2) Dry Moly Lube
3) Loosen the bolts securing the leaf pack to the shackles & frame and retorque them to spec after jumping up and down on the rear bumper

Call ARB and see what they tell you

http://www.arbusa.com/
(425) 264 1391
Toll Free: (866) 293-9078

 

I have dakars on the way, sorry I didn't read this whole thread, is there something I can do on the install to prevent this (poly bushings/ greasable shackes ?) These things ?

$25 APDTY 035181 Rear Leaf Spring Insert 20870046

http://www.amazon.com/APDTY-Insulat...rue&ref_=ox_sc_sfl_title_2&smid=AYUN1EXO5XQB3

 

I like the sound of this.