Squeaky Dakars : Any advice from others with the Dakars ?

Very nice! Consider yourself lucky - I called multiple shops in Colorado Springs and Denver today. Most pointed at each other as my best option, and one actually recommended I go to a dealer. Only one said they could actually do this, while quoting me a $200 cost. Looks like I'll learn to live with some squeaking...

 

Sorry to hear that @Norton the place I went said no problem , guess I was lucky! So far no squeaks as well so it works so far

 

The place I went actually builds leaf Springs, on.my 07 they bent me a custom, full length " add a leaf "

 

Wow. Strange. Maybe they have too much work? Must be nice.

 

Try Slee?

 

I think you'll only get this kind of work done at spring shops.

Did they say if they drilled out punched the holes?

I've drilled the tow hitch which was 3/8 with titanium coated drill bit and it was surprisingly fast. Just wondering,
Thanks.

 

Im.not sure but I did ask for the springs to be "drilled and isolators installed" , here is a pic, I can't tell from it one way or another, though I would expect some deformation around the lip of the hole if it was punched. Looks like I'll be giving each hole a shot of paint, too

 

Where did you get them, I'm about to buy some and put them in mine before I put mine on my truck this weekend!

 

@moe2o4

 

When I went to pick up the leafs springs from the shop, they had only completed one, I waited all of ten minutes for them to do the second, so the process was very quick

 

Thanks again.

 

Thanks right back atcha, @Crom I've had the pleasure of linking to the sections of your build thread from your first post of said build thread, great stuff. Anyone reading this, I can recommend it highly, lots of good and original ideas to be found there.

 

The best tool to diagnose the squeaking is a mechanics stethoscope. I have this one

$24 Lisle 52750 Stethoscope Kit

from Lisle. It's great. Lots of uses!

In my experience, the squeak comes from the ends of the leaves, so that's where you'll want to lube. What has worked for me, has been to chock and block the front wheels, then jack the truck by the slider and put jack stand under frame. The rear suspension needs to fully flex out, so it's unloaded.

Then take a screwdriver and hammer into the sides of the leaves to pry them apart. This will be easy. Then spray the lube.




Use care to wiggle the screwdriver out. Repeat for each leaf, leaf ends, and each side of truck.

 

Drilling for the inserts today. I'll be successful, but I think it would have been worth $10 a hole to let a spring shop do it.

How the zip ties looked after six months and about 7-8k miles.

 

Not sure how my above reply mixed into your quote, I'm still a rookie at this forum stuff

 

Finished! Now that it's done, I'm glad I did it myself. Once I learned to start with small drill bits and slowly enlarge the holes with bigger bits, it was a breeze. I used a lot of cutting oil, but my drill bit set faired pretty well.
And the Dakers are quiet as a mouse!

 

I installed my Dakars last weekend. Armed with knowledge from this thread, I prefurbished them first: took them apart, removed the spring spacers, removed all grease with brake cleaner. Then gave them several coats of slip plate, and when that was dry, fluid film. Replaced spacers, then installed delrin channels from Easton between all pertinent leaves and finished up w. Moly grease before reassembling.
It's been a week with zero squeaks, and the ride is fantastic!

 

At Yodaman, Santa Rosa CA, a pile of leaf Springs shows isolators on all leaves. Wonder why ARB doesn't follow suit, as it looks like industry practice.