2/4 Drop

I did a search, nothing came up. Looking for a how to on lowering a 2005 1500. My buddy ordered some 20's and a 2/4 lowering kit. Putting it all on Saturday. Be nice if I had something to reference from at the start. Come on guy's, this is what these forums are all about. Going to take a bunch of pics before and after, try to get the before pics on here thursday or friday.

Shoot Hemibabe a pm...she JUST did a drop on hers!

What kit are you doing as the spindle drop is a little easier than the spring drop? A flip kit is straight forward affair. Whatever you do, you will quickly realize the OEM bumps will need to be removed. Ask specific questions and you should get an answer. Good luck and welcome.

Mcgaughys 2/4.5 spindle kit. Would like pics of any or all of the install would be nice, I'm sure I can do it, but a reference would make it go faster

I didn't really do a how to on mines, but here's my drop thread. Lots of pictures and stuff. http://www.ramforum.com/f46/project-handle-like-porsche-2117/index2.html

Yes, my OEM bump stops in the rear are hittin over small bumps, I ordered some aftermarket ones that are smaller but I still dont think it's gonna help much.

The rear:

-Take off wheels.
-Undo the bolts for the U-Bolts, and leaf springs on both sides. You can remove the -Ubolts. But don't try to take the bolts out for the leaf springs, there is too much tension on them.
-Put jackstands underneath your axle as low to the ground as you can go.
-Find a spot to jack up the body, ie: rear bumper, hitch
-Jack up the body of the truck as far as you can, this should take most of the tension off the leaf springs and shackle bolts so that you can knock the loose bolts out.
-If you can, put a jackstand under the body of the truck to keep it at that maximum height.
-Once you removed all bolts, you should be able to pull out the leafsprings and shackles.
-Simply put the leaf springs under the axle now and put the bolts in to hold them and your new shackles in place, don't tighten them yet. You can also put your leafspring perch on now and try to snug up the Ubolts. I welded my perches on instead of leavin them sittin there.
-Once you get that all done, slowly let down on the body, until it's completely down and there is weight on the axle again. Now, you can tighten up all your bolts.
-Now, just jack up on the axle, and put your wheels back on.
::: That should cover it all, unless I missed a step but you get the overall idea :::

For the front:
-Take off wheels.
-Then, you will need to take your caliper off the rotor, and set it up on the upper control arm.
-Take off your rotor and set it aside. You'll need to use a ball joint press of some sort to get the upper ball joint off without messin it up, unless you want to buy new ones.
-Then, just unbolt the 3 bolts or so that hold the stock spindle in place.
-Before puttin the new spindles on, put some grease in the center holes
-Put the new spindle on and put everything back together.

::: This should help this is the most I can remember from doing it ::: I don't have pictures sorry:::

This will help for the rear: McGaughy's Dodge Ram SRT Lowering Kit - Leaf Springs - Truckin' Magazine

Here's what mine looks like in the rear now, this is what you're shootin for:


BEFORE:


AFTER:

Are you doing the work on a lift? If you are on the ground, get the truck up high as you can with good frame support. The spindle is easy as all that is needed is to have a floor jack under the lower Control Arm and remove the old spindles. I was able to smack my ball joints a couple of times and they popped. Hope you do as well. It is all very straight forward work. On a lift, with help I did both front and rear in 4 hours.


I modified these after market bumps to replace the OEM.



If I remember correctly I cut theses to 1-3/4 inch to keep the tires from rubbing the inner fender wells on full compression.



I couldn't bring up a picture of the spindle installed, but it looks the same as the OEM when installed. All simple stuff. Select the right tire wheel combo and there is no rubbing. There is a lot of info in both the lower club thread on this section. There are plenty of dropped brothers and sisters here that will help. Good luck.

Edit: I'll have my Aeon spring installed within the next few weeks. I think this really will solve the bump stop issues for our 4-1/2" drops.

Hell yeah, thanks everybody for all the pics and how to's, I have the general idea now, got the Mcgaughys 2/4.5 spindle kit
I'll be doing it saturday night, I'll post pics as soon as we're done with it, like I said before ill have before pics on here thursday or friday

While your at it, remove the over-load leaf spring. It's just dumb, looks ********, and will give you another 1/4-1/2 inch of drop to make it perfect.

Trupiano said:

While your at it, remove the over-load leaf spring. It's just dumb, looks ********, and will give you another 1/4-1/2 inch of drop to make it perfect.

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I shoulda done that lol .... oh well....

Lol You can still remove it. I didn't remove mine till later, when I put the caltracs on.

im taking mine off, im sick of seeing them. i dont think it will give you any more drop once the flip is done but it will look a lot better. i was just looking at mine today shaking my head, it must go

remove the metal cups from the front oem bumpstops and replace them like greg has shown. there are 2 welds on the metal cup. i took a grinder to the side i could see and used an air chisel to get them the rest of the way off. i have heard of others using a pry bar to get them off once the front was grinded. i picked up a set of front bump stops from autozone, energy suspension, for like 12.00 and be sure to get an alignment asap as the camber will be off and you dont want him to wear the inside of his tires

Question about the drop

Which would be a better way to go when lowering my 08 1500 2wd. Should I go with the spindle kit or the could spring kit? New to lowering vehicles and don't really know which one will be a better kit. Not really worried too much about losing ride quality just want something that will be a good kit.

Both ways work fine. Spring kits are cheaper, but are more of a pain on alignment. Spindles simply move the up location up 2".

usaf2006 said:

Both ways work fine. Spring kits are cheaper, but are more of a pain on alignment. Spindles simply move the up location up 2".

Click to expand...

So the ride quality will be about the same either way too?

Not sure, never rode in a lowered ram

Not even close......

Spindles change nothing but the height. It will ride and drive the exact same.

Springs change the entire geometry of the suspension. The control arms will all point up, which isn't good geometry, the steering angles will be affected, which causes bumpsteer, you are removing 2" of suspension travel, which means that you'll have to replace the shocks with shorter ones or deal with shocks that are out of their effective operating range. That gives a really crappy ride. You'll be closer to your bumpstops, which means when you hit a big bump, instead of having the suspension move smoothly throughout it's range, it'll come to a sudden stop on the bumpstops.

Of course, all these problems can be addressed with enough time and money, but by the time you fix everything, you'll be over the cost of the spindles. Everything is possible if you throw enough money at it........lol You can even lower one 5.5/9 and have a decent ride.