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Ramblebee, your truck looks SWEET!!!! What is your wheel and tire size? That truck sits perfect!

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255/50/17 front, 275/50/17 rear on American Racing Hoppsters.
The rear tires will be for sale soon its getting tubbed.

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Great looking Truck

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Truck looks great ! Good job

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Can you tell Bigdad I like your truck too

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Im not sure what year truck you are working on, if its 79-93 you should be able to use your stock tierod ends with the 91-96 Dak spindles. The Dak steering arm is shorter than the Ram so you may still need to use the longer C-body adjusting sleeve. I used the 91-96 spindles on my 73.The van ends I used carry the same part # as 79-93 Ram. From what I learned while doing my truck, use 87-90 Dak spindles for 72-78 Rams and 91-96 Dak spindles on 79-93 Rams this should allow you to use the stock tierod ends. You can use either spindle on any truck its just a matter of finding the right combination of parts.I did a quick summary of parts earlier in the thread. If your truck has the larger inner wheel bearing(84-up) then that makes it that much easier.
Let me know if you need help. Im always lurking on here.

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Sorry, yes, it is a 1985 D100. So what should I ask for at the parts store for the adjusting sleeve? I don't know what a C body is

Do you know if there are any good springs out there that will lower the truck about 2" ? I think the dakota spindles plus a 2" spring drop would be perfect for what I want.

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Ask for Moog part #ES440S 76 Newyorker adjusting sleeves. As for the springs there is a member here that is selling a 4/6 kit for our trucks now. He has two inch coils in the kit and I think he will sell parts seperately. I think the name of the company is Mid America Customs maybe someone else will chime in with the name.

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Im not sure what year truck you are working on, if its 79-93 you should be able to use your stock tierod ends with the 91-96 Dak spindles. The Dak steering arm is shorter than the Ram so you may still need to use the longer C-body adjusting sleeve. I used the 91-96 spindles on my 73.The van ends I used carry the same part # as 79-93 Ram. From what I learned while doing my truck, use 87-90 Dak spindles for 72-78 Rams and 91-96 Dak spindles on 79-93 Rams this should allow you to use the stock tierod ends. You can use either spindle on any truck its just a matter of finding the right combination of parts.I did a quick summary of parts earlier in the thread. If your truck has the larger inner wheel bearing(84-up) then that makes it that much easier.
Let me know if you need help. Im always lurking on here.

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Sorry, yes, it is a 1985 D100. So what should I ask for at the parts store for the adjusting sleeve? I don't know what a C body is

Do you know if there are any good springs out there that will lower the truck about 2" ? I think the dakota spindles plus a 2" spring drop would be perfect for what I want.

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Ask for Moog part #ES440S 76 Newyorker adjusting sleeves. As for the springs there is a member here that is selling a 4/6 kit for our trucks now. He has two inch coils in the kit and I think he will sell parts seperately. I think the name of the company is Mid America Customs maybe someone else will chime in with the name.

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so can you give a rundown of what parts exactly i need to get? i have an 85 ram and i just want to do the spindles and swap the rotors to 5x4.5

so far i see 91-96 dakota drop spindles
and modify the dust shields?


right now my truck has the axle flip in the back and cut stock coils up front. it bottoms out all the time and rides like CRAP! i daily drive this thing!

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I would use 91-96 Dak spindles. This will allow you to run your factory tierod ends.

Use 76 Newyorker rotors others will work but I know for a fact these will bolt to the 91-96 Dak spindle and give you the 4.5" pattern. They are on my truck now.

You may still need to use the Newyorker adjusting sleeves. Try your factory sleeves first they are longer than the 72-78 sleeves.

You may have to trim the lower control arms a little. I used the dicontinued Chisholm arms,I had to take about a 1/4" off the ends for rotor clearence. Im not sure what you will need to do on the factory arms (if anything).

You will need to slightly bend a brake line for clearance (only one side I dont remember which).

As you stated you will need to trim the dust shield. The Ram shield will bolt on the Dak spindle it will be obvious where to trim. I doubt that the dust shields changed much between 73-85. Take a look at the pics on this thread they may help. Its trial and error.

Bottom line is just dive in man its not a hard mod. Just take your time.

Now all this info is for is for 79-93. The earlier trucks (like mine) are a little different.

Start wrenchin bro.

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one more thing, with just the drop spindles how much will it drop my truck?

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Im not sure with just the spindle swap how much drop you get. Chisholm claimed 2" for the arms I used. I got 5" with the spindles and the arms. But I like em low

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one more thing, with just the drop spindles how much will it drop my truck?

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Not to be a smarta-s, but ah, 2" drop spindle---um, im thinking 2" drop---at least thats what they did on my dakota---so im thinking they'll do the same on my '85 ram. And of course if you change to a smaller tire at the same time, that'll drop it more too.

The old out of production chislem arms are fabricated and can have variences, as well as springs (new or old), so these types of things can cause the vehicle to have various dropped heights---also depends on what kind of weight is in the front--big block, small block---steel stuff vs. aluminum--etc, and dont forget, no two MFG's tires of the same size will neccesarilly have the same circumfrence either---further propergating a varience.

Sooooo, generally, a 2" drop is what your going to get IF nothing else is changed---again based on my experience with these spindle on a dakota.

Your drop may vary, and lets us know how it turns out if you do it---im waiting for some spare cash to redo the whole front suspension at the same time, my spindles are nice and comfy in the livingroom .

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one more thing, with just the drop spindles how much will it drop my truck?

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Not to be a smarta-s, but ah, 2" drop spindle---um, im thinking 2" drop---at least thats what they did on my dakota---so im thinking they'll do the same on my '85 ram. And of course if you change to a smaller tire at the same time, that'll drop it more too.

The old out of production chislem arms are fabricated and can have variences, as well as springs (new or old), so these types of things can cause the vehicle to have various dropped heights---also depends on what kind of weight is in the front--big block, small block---steel stuff vs. aluminum--etc, and dont forget, no two MFG's tires of the same size will neccesarilly have the same circumfrence either---further propergating a varience.

Sooooo, generally, a 2" drop is what your going to get IF nothing else is changed---again based on my experience with these spindle on a dakota.

Your drop may vary, and lets us know how it turns out if you do it---im waiting for some spare cash to redo the whole front suspension at the same time, my spindles are nice and comfy in the livingroom .

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The 2" drop Dak spindle will Lower a Dakota 2". But I never measured it in relation to a stock Ram spindle so i cant say exactly how much drop the spindle will give. But yes I would say 2" is in the ball park.

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Dak spindle...in relation to a stock Ram spindle

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Long ago I was told by a friend with a Hollander interchange manual that Dak and large bearing Rams ('84+)used the same spindle. This is why I wish they didn't cast the steering arm into the dropped spindles.

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Dak spindle...in relation to a stock Ram spindle

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Long ago I was told by a friend with a Hollander interchange manual that Dak and large bearing Rams ('84+)used the same spindle. This is why I wish they didn't cast the steering arm into the dropped spindles.

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I tried to get Moog part #ES440S 76 Newyorker adjusting sleeves, but was told that they were no longer available. I went to NAPA and they had 269-1121 but they only had 3 in the country. I bought two of them. About $43 with shipping to my local napa. Just a FYI

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Ramblebee...Sent you a PM...Lemme ask here also...I have a 78 D200 Clubcab...3/4ton..I'm lookin to do just a small drop....What are my options...Wil be rebuilding my frontend in a couple weeks time is now if i'm gonna do it..

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