2008 Ram Quad McGauphy's 2/4.5 kit install

[mikehutch]

2008 Ram Quad McGaughy's 2/4.5 kit install

Well today I began the installation of the drop kit. Some of my photos didn't come out so I'll probably do some ninja edits to get them inserted. Pay no attendtion to the dates on some photos, the camera was off. Quite a feat to take a pic of a 2008 in 2004.

So I did a pre-measurement:
------------Ground to top of wheel opening Center of wheel to top of wheel opening.
Front Left ----------37----------------21.5
Front Right ---------36.5--------------21.25
Rear Left------------39.5--------------24
Rear Right-----------39----------------23.5

Truck had a bit of a lean.

First to get the Ram in the garage.


I started with the front. After getting truck on stands and wheels removed.

Removed the shock, and stabilizer link...note the use of PB blaster to help smooth the way.





I started off trying to pop out the lower ball joint from the spindle but was not very successfuly. So I moved on to the upper one. I had a puller I was able to use like a ball joint press to pop this one out.




You can now drop everything down. The spring doesn't just come and will need a little encouragement and is still slightly compressed. But a good crowbar will pop it out.



Here's the difference. (Springs upside down in photo so that would stand up)



Now put the isolator on the top of the new spring and start to reverse the process. This will slip in with little effort due to the shorter height.



While in here I also installed the Moog Alignment kit. After looking it over not sure it does too much but I already bought it so I installed it. This installs on the front upper control arm mount. Hopefully there will be plenty of adjustments to allow the shop to get the alignment right on.





Well I'm still working on the rear and plan to paint the calipers before a final button up....so stay tuned.

 

[mikehutch]

Ok here's what I have on the rear. Same as front put truck on stands and remove the wheels. Get jacks, stands, etc. for rear axle also.



Remove the u-bolts from the axle.



Remove the front and rear leaf spring bolts.





Now you need to remove the factory u-bolt plate. It has a nut, followed by two additional tinnerman nuts to be removed. I also found that the bolt was just slightly above the new flip kit. Plus the dowel pin going through the springs stuck up above the spring surface.....so out came the grinder.



Need to swap out the factory bump stops for the ones supplied with the kit.





The instructions said to only do one spring at a time. I tried it this way but found that it was pretty difficult to get the load off the leafs to get the bolts out with one side still attached. So I ignored the instructions and dropped the axle off both leaf springs. The challege with this method was keeping the axle supported. Now if I had a second set of hand this would certainly go eaiser. Note: Need to get one my girls involved in working on autos.

Still working on it just taking a break to get in some football. I gotta take the good camera out to the garage sitting here doing this these photos stink.


Edited and added:

Picture from top, note new shorter brake hose bolt.



Rear shackle in place (not torqued up yet)



Couple more shots of the rear installed:

 

[zack]

Sweet deal man going to look sweet

 

[jhemi]

nice rite up, when i did my rear i had a motorcycle jack i put right under the rear axle worked great, i also did both sides at once seemed easier

 

[LB3711]

nice

 

[mikehutch]

Well still working on it today. Set it down on tires to start torquing things up. Without a settle in the front is about 1/2 higher than the front. Front is 35 ish and rear is 34.5 ish. So pretty much a 2/4.5 drop. A 3" on the front would have been really good. But we'll see how it settles in, stay tuned.

Need to really look into the front bump stop. It appears to be already touching the front control arm. I found another thread where they put some different bump stops on which I also bought but have yet to install. Looks like these will go on while I let the caliper paint dry. Hope to get some paint on the calipers today.

 

[The Assassin]

Very nice!

 

[HemiBabe]

Sounds great! Can't wait to see how your truck looks. On the front bump stops, you will need smaller ones, and I took off my rear bump stops because if you dont you'll bottom out everywhere and it'll be one bumpy ride lol or you could take them off and cut the rubber down so you wont have to ever worry about hittin frame. I have only hit frame twice and it was on HUGE bumps that I will never go down those roads again LOL but it does scare the crap out of you haha

 

[mikehutch]

Ok so I took the better camera to the garage today and updated some photos above by editing the post.

To finish off the rear I needed to install the shock mount.



The instruction that came with the kit were pretty worthless in regards to mounting this. And this setup is a bit lacking in real engineering. I would think a single bolt and sleeve would have been better. Looks kind of hokey.



So back to the front and the bump stop. Photo is with truck on the ground so probably not much suspension travel going to be happening.



So out comes the cutoff wheel and the BFH.



A little wire wheel and some rattle can paint.



To be continued when I get the new bump stops mounted. Stay tuned.

EDIT
Ok so here is the new bump stop:



It's an Energy Suspension 9.9102R. I think it was less than $10 for the pair directly from energy suspension.

And with the truck on the ground.

 

[bigbadram1500]

ice write up. Looking forward to the finished pics.

 

[0212353]

ice write up. Looking forward to the finished pics.

yeah, its pretty cool.

can't wait to see it!!

 

[mikehutch]

Ok so for now it's done. I did a quick trip down the rumble stip...aka the roads in my area and here's where she sits:

So for the post-measurement:
------------Ground to top of wheel opening Center of wheel to top of wheel opening.
Front Left ----------35----------------19.5
Front Right ---------34.875--------------19.375
Rear Left------------34.625--------------19.125
Rear Right-----------34.75----------------19.25

So still a tad higher in the front for now but I'll hit the rumble strip a few more times and recheck. A 3" in the front would have been perfect. So here's a few shots. I'll get to a better location once I give her a bath and have a few spare minutes. My driveway isn't the best as there are no level portions.

 

[wermbang]

Looks pretty good

 

[GoMangoMan]

Great job with the install and photos! You are a credit to forums like this. Congratulations!

 

[0212353]

looks GREAT!

 

[Oefootball_70]

Looks damn good.

 

[bigbadram1500]

Very nice. She looks good.

 

[WhiteExpress]

Looks great! couple pieces of advice from the past:

1: Weld those GD Axle Flip brackets to the axle ASAP! I had one bend up the factory leaf mount (because it is in NO way designed to handle the load put on it) and bent my driveshaft, snapped the u joint etc. No fun. Just do it. Do it now.

2: Measure your tire clearance vs upward travel with new bumpstops. Also learned this one the hard way after putting on the same bumpstops. Shredded a tire, luckly no body damage.

That being said. Looks awesome! I bet after a few days the front will settle in, if it doesn't, take off a 1/4 coil.

 

[HemiBabe]

1: Weld those GD Axle Flip brackets to the axle ASAP! I had one bend up the factory leaf mount (because it is in NO way designed to handle the load put on it) and bent my driveshaft, snapped the u joint etc. No fun. Just do it. Do it now.

Definitely, I had mine welded too



Loosk AWESOME!

 

[KGBIGCOUNTRY]

Yep the perches need to be welded to withstand the axel wrap.