Tuckerdee

Hey all. Finally getting my head above water... My daughter is 6 months old tomorrow(!) and I'm finally getting some time to work on some stuff.

So I'm reworking the front end on my D250. New bushings and new springs (7226s). (The ball joints are only a couple years old.) When I took the spring out I found an aluminum spacer on the bottom about 1" thick. It conforms to the shape of the coil like it's supposed to be there. Is this standard? I can't find any reference to it here, and I don't remember anyone mentioning it when they installed new coils on their trucks. My truck wasn't quite as saggy as some I've seen here. But she was getting a list to the left. So I'm not sure if somebody has been in there before I got the truck and lifted up a saggy front already. So does the spacer stay with the new springs or should I leave it out?

Thanks again.

jesussaves

I got my springs sitting in my bedroom, do you need any special tools to swap them out?

Tuckerdee

Well, I haven't so far. Just a lot of sweat and back spasms! I did have to get creative to separate the ball joints without tearing up the boots. I have pickle forks, but the ball joints are big, and the forks make mush out of the boots. I ended up putting a sledge hammer head in between the two balljoints (it just fit and spanned the distance). Then I backed the the nuts off. When the nut contact the hammer head it pushed the ball joint taper out of the bore. Sounds easy enough. But you really have put some grunt into it. I also banged around with a hammer while I was putting the force on the nut/hammer head arrangement. Comes apart with a giant POP!

jimbo486

those spacers aren't stock. however, someone did post a few weeks ago about those same ones you described. i believe it might've been an ebay listing for them. not sure. you could put the spacer in the bottom with the new springs if you'd like. it's up to you.

feets

I HATE PICKLE FORKS!!!

They're only good for tearing up boots and breaking stuff.
I use ball joint pullers. Even the cheapies work good if you use them correctly.
I got these from AutoZone.



I put them on the ball joint and make 'em tight. They won't always pop the ball joint on their own. I'll put as much torque on them as I'm comfortable with and then grab the BFH to smack the knuckle where the ball joint goes through.
They pop every time. Clean, simple, damage free, and fast.

Tuckerdee

Well that would explain why my truck had a lot less sag then most! I think I'll most likely leave them out. I don't want the front to be too tall. I don't have it buttoned up yet, but I do have the spring and spacer in and the lower control arm sitting on a jack. It was a heck of job trying to get it all stuffed in there!

Maybe I'll have to go pick on of those up. My hammer head setup worked. But I was a little worried it would all come spitting out at me at any point!

Tuckerdee

Well, thanks good ol' BC...

There's a dodge part number, 4322 629, for a spacer to fix a lean to the left. Though mine isn't rubber, I wonder if this was an early attempt to fix this problem before the service bulletin came out. I'll have to see if the right side has a spacer too.

1st gen wontabe

does the spacer look like this?http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1971-...item5638dcd96c

Tuckerdee

Yes! That's it!