Let the air out of the tires, or get a REALLY fat girlfriend. Sorry, couldn't resist. I dont know if anyone can help you here, I havent seen that subject. Might want to check out a lo-rider forum, most of the info will cross between brands.

 

drop spindles would be the best if somebody makes them. Another way you could do it would be to cut the frame just forward of the cab, then off set the frametrails 3" [with the front section up] then "box" the frame where the cut is and fill in the area of the offset. Course then you'd have to mod the front section of the frame to mount the bumper and front rad support also. In the back you could mount the rear axlle on top of the leaf springs and put in a "C" notch in the frame above the axle tube and box the c notch area with 5/16 plate. [ they did something like this to a 67 ford pickup in Classic Trucks magazine] the truck was called the "bump-side build off truck". Maybe its on the web??? They got it so low that the actual bed floor was raised about 3"(?) from where it sat from original. [but the bed sides stayed the same height] The guy that completed it did an excellent job and I wish they would print a seperate issue with the whole story of the build.

 

Have you tried looking at any truck magazines? Besides a fan of mopar ive always been into lowered trucks, my daily driver is 3/5 dropped s-10. Try flipping thru Mini-Truckin, Street Trucks, Truckin, or Sport Trucks magazines they're full of stuff that might help you. I dont think anyone makes drop spindles, i could be wrong. Ive seen 2 or 3 d100 that were air bagged but not sure what their front setup was i'll look and see what i can find. post pics if you can.

 

if you measure the coils up front, you may be able to replace them with lowering coild out of the ram 1500. Like theomahamoparguy said, drop spindles are a good way to go aloong with lowering control arms.

As for the rear, air bag or blocks or longer shackles since they go int eh upward position. you may need to norch the frame though.

 

My daily driver is a '95 Chevy Pickup with a 5/7 Belltech drop that consists of:

Front - 2" dropped spindles, 3" drop springs, KYB shocks.

Rear - Flip kit for axle (axle is now on top of the leaf springs), drop shackles, "C" notch kit and shock extensions with KYB Gas a just shocks.

The truck drives great, firm but not stiff and I'm sure that your Dodge would benefit from a similar treatment.

By the way: This truck was set up in about '98 when 17" wheels were considered to be big!

My apologies for posting pictures of a Chevy:-(

 

this question comes up all the time. the front could use a drop spindle made for dakotas or using a van lower control arm with a deep spring pocket. The cheap way is to cut the spring. don't use heat and cut a little at a time so as to not over do it. The rears are even easier. You can just flip the axle on top of the spring. No low rider tech for these.

 

When doing this, you need to fully compress the suspension and make sure that you do not hit the frame though. If you do, then you need to notch it (they make kits out there for this).

An easy way to lower the rear is to get longer shackles as they are mounted in the upward direction.

 

I have read that there is a Chevy shackle that works well. Many have done the axle flip and have had no fitment issues ( a lot of room under there) but still a good idea to check. Look for truck specific forums and you will see much more on this subject.

 

bad idea as you would be moving the motor and trans up into the floor, drive shaft would be off as well. The radiator and fender mounts would all need to be modified. Possible I guess but not worth all the work.

 

Here's what I did, I used the front control arms from a d300. They have a 3" lower spring pocket, the only draw back is the fact that they have larger lower ball joints, therefore you must use the 1 ton steering arms and drill out the spindle from the 1/2 ton & drill the frame to accept the larger bolt from the 1 ton control arm once done everything will bolt back together w/ the 1/2 ton springs in place.

That's a lot of work, but worth it once you look at the cost of over $1500.00 of trick control arms, as for the rears I went 4 link to really slam the back.

 

I drop my 1970 D100, I place 1963 Impala Springs on the front and for the back I custom Made new Leaf Spings and place them above the rear axel .... there is a company named " National Springs " in El Cajon Ca., They make suspensions from Armor trucks, and Military Vehicles the are the best in the Business., they did my truck check them out!!!!

 

After many hours of research over several years, I finally decided to lower my 1973 D100 pickup using 87-90 Dakota drop spindles from Bell Tech. I wanted to get Chisholm dropped control arms a few years back, but before I could get them they apparently closed up shop. I thought I knew what I was in for because it seemed like all of the trial and error had been done already by other D100 enthusiasts, particularly ramblebee. I finally came up with a parts list based on ramblebees post:
1. 87-90 Dakota Spindles. These are bolt on as far as the ball joints are concerned.
2. 1984 Ram rotors. These rotors are the only Ram rotors that use the same wheel bearings as the 87-90 Dakota and have the 5 on 4-1/2 bolt pattern that my D100 has.
3. 1976 Chrysler New Yorker tie-rod adjusting sleeves. The tie-rods will not reach the spindle without increasing the overall length somehow. Actually, you can make them reach but the rod-ends won't be threaded in to the sleeve very far. I wouldn't risk it. These sleeves were supposed to be the solution.
4. Original tie rods that are already on my truck.



I appreciate all of the research and work others have done and posted on this topic. The information I found was helpful. Unfortunately, for my truck and my Bell-Tech spindles, I ended up having to do a little of my own R&D after all. I don’t know if I would have had different results using the 91-96 drop spindles or a different brand of spindles, but I was about to start when I read in more than one forum that the 84 Ram Rotors will rub on the Bell-Tech spindles at the steering arm (where the tie rod attaches). One site said that the Bell-Tech rotors had been slightly redesigned and that this was not an issue previously. So the solution for that is to shave the spindle a little.


I also discovered when I tried to mount my original caliper brackets to my new Dakota spindles that they won’t bolt up without some shaving. It would probably be fine, but I am not a big fan of shaving metal off my parts…plus I am kind of lazy when it comes to that sort of stuff. I would rather buy it than modify it.

So, when I found these things out I decided to go Dakota all the way. More money, less mods. Still not that expensive though. The spindles is where most of the expense is. It was too late to return the spindles so I was in it until the end now. I ended up using Dakota spindles, rotors, calipers, pads, caliper brackets, brake hoses and dust shields. Makes sense that with the Dakota spindles everything else from a Dakota would work with them. So if you are going to go this route you will need to find some Dakota caliper brackets (and bolts) and dust shields in a wrecking yard (or someplace). I got lucky and found an 88 Dakota in Pick-N-Pull that had what I needed. Grab the banjo bolts for the brake hoses too while you are at it, and the hoses if you are for some strange reason not getting new ones. My new Dakota brake hoses did not come with banjo bolts and the new calipers did not come with banjo bolts. You may also want to grab the calipers so that you can use them as cores. That depends on what you store’s core charge is and how much the wrecking yard wants for them. The core charge might be cheaper. I actually got my calipers from Amazon for about $50 for the pair with no core charge. Grab the spindle nut, washer, and dust cap too.

Once you have all the Dakota parts you need, it is all pretty straight forward. However, I used the left brake hose on the right side and vice versa. I had to bend the metal line portion a little to get them to clear the upper ball joints. The way these lines are designed, they only attach to the caliper one way and for a D100 it is backwards. You’ll see when you get to that part.

Using all Dakota stuff solves most of the issues except for the tie rod sleeves. I found the 76 New Yorker sleeves to be too long. In one of my photos you can see that it is too long to go into the spindle. This is with the inner and outer tie rods screwed all the way in to the sleeve. Actually this photo is with the speedway tie rod pipe before I cut it, but it is about he same length as the New Yorker sleeve as you can see in another photo. If anything, it is actually shorter than the New Yorker sleeve. I have it screwed all the way in as far as it would go but it still was too long to go in to the spindle (wheels both straight). I searched for hours trying to find sleeves that were about a half inch shorter than the New Yorker sleeves. They don’t exist. I also tried to find different combinations of ties rods and sleeves that would give me the total overall length I desired. This combination does not exist. Keep in mind that the sleeves are RH thread on one end and LH thread on the other. FYI - hey are 11/16x18 thread.

I thought about having my original tie rod sleeves lengthened or something. What I finally found is that Speedway Motors sells threaded tie rod tubing in various lengths and they sell one that is RH thread 11/16x18 on one end and 11/16x18 LH thread on the other. If you order their 10.75” tube it will actually be about 8”, which is about a half in too long. It is basically the same length as the New Yorker sleeve. So I also ordered a tap and I cut the sleeve to my desired length and then tapped the side I cut to restore the amount of the threads that are inside the pipe. It is not threaded all the way through, so when cutting off a half inch on one side you lose a lot of threads. Just make sure you cut the side that has the LH threads if you are using a LH tap and vice versa. For the tap, two sleeves and the jam nuts I spent about $100 at Speedway.

As of right now, one side is finally done. I started on it like 6 months ago. In all honesty it actually took me about 3 hours of work and 20 hours of trying to figure out how to make it work. Now that I have everything I need the other side should be quick and easy.

The tie-rod ends attach to these spindles from underneath so the tie-rod angle is different than before. It is not extreme, but there may be some bump steer. If that is the case then I will possibly do some type of tie-rod flip modification to get the tie-rod ends to attach from the top. Once I start driving it I will give an update about and bump steer or any other issues.

As you can see, while I was at it I replaced the ball joints, but this was just for maintenance purposes. They don't have to be changed for the mod.


Total cost for calipers, spindles, and misc. stuff was about $700.00.

 

Here's my 85' with Dodge van lower control arms & an axle flip

 

QUOTE=jamram2003;129045]After many hours of research over several years, I finally decided to lower my 1973 D100 pickup using 87-90 Dakota drop spindles from Bell Tech. I wanted to get Chisholm dropped control arms a few years back, but before I could get them they apparently closed up shop. I thought I knew what I was in for because it seemed like all of the trial and error had been done already by other D100 enthusiasts, particularly ramblebee. I finally came up with a parts list based on ramblebees post:
1. 87-90 Dakota Spindles. These are bolt on as far as the ball joints are concerned.
2. 1984 Ram rotors. These rotors are the only Ram rotors that use the same wheel bearings as the 87-90 Dakota and have the 5 on 4-1/2 bolt pattern that my D100 has.
3. 1976 Chrysler New Yorker tie-rod adjusting sleeves. The tie-rods will not reach the spindle without increasing the overall length somehow. Actually, you can make them reach but the rod-ends won't be threaded in to the sleeve very far. I wouldn't risk it. These sleeves were supposed to be the solution.
4. Original tie rods that are already on my truck.



I appreciate all of the research and work others have done and posted on this topic. The information I found was helpful. Unfortunately, for my truck and my Bell-Tech spindles, I ended up having to do a little of my own R&D after all. I don’t know if I would have had different results using the 91-96 drop spindles or a different brand of spindles, but I was about to start when I read in more than one forum that the 84 Ram Rotors will rub on the Bell-Tech spindles at the steering arm (where the tie rod attaches). One site said that the Bell-Tech rotors had been slightly redesigned and that this was not an issue previously. So the solution for that is to shave the spindle a little.


I also discovered when I tried to mount my original caliper brackets to my new Dakota spindles that they won’t bolt up without some shaving. It would probably be fine, but I am not a big fan of shaving metal off my parts…plus I am kind of lazy when it comes to that sort of stuff. I would rather buy it than modify it.

So, when I found these things out I decided to go Dakota all the way. More money, less mods. Still not that expensive though. The spindles is where most of the expense is. It was too late to return the spindles so I was in it until the end now. I ended up using Dakota spindles, rotors, calipers, pads, caliper brackets, brake hoses and dust shields. Makes sense that with the Dakota spindles everything else from a Dakota would work with them. So if you are going to go this route you will need to find some Dakota caliper brackets (and bolts) and dust shields in a wrecking yard (or someplace). I got lucky and found an 88 Dakota in Pick-N-Pull that had what I needed. Grab the banjo bolts for the brake hoses too while you are at it, and the hoses if you are for some strange reason not getting new ones. My new Dakota brake hoses did not come with banjo bolts and the new calipers did not come with banjo bolts. You may also want to grab the calipers so that you can use them as cores. That depends on what you store’s core charge is and how much the wrecking yard wants for them. The core charge might be cheaper. I actually got my calipers from Amazon for about $50 for the pair with no core charge. Grab the spindle nut, washer, and dust cap too.

Once you have all the Dakota parts you need, it is all pretty straight forward. However, I used the left brake hose on the right side and vice versa. I had to bend the metal line portion a little to get them to clear the upper ball joints. The way these lines are designed, they only attach to the caliper one way and for a D100 it is backwards. You’ll see when you get to that part.

Using all Dakota stuff solves most of the issues except for the tie rod sleeves. I found the 76 New Yorker sleeves to be too long. In one of my photos you can see that it is too long to go into the spindle. This is with the inner and outer tie rods screwed all the way in to the sleeve. Actually this photo is with the speedway tie rod pipe before I cut it, but it is about he same length as the New Yorker sleeve as you can see in another photo. If anything, it is actually shorter than the New Yorker sleeve. I have it screwed all the way in as far as it would go but it still was too long to go in to the spindle (wheels both straight). I searched for hours trying to find sleeves that were about a half inch shorter than the New Yorker sleeves. They don’t exist. I also tried to find different combinations of ties rods and sleeves that would give me the total overall length I desired. This combination does not exist. Keep in mind that the sleeves are RH thread on one end and LH thread on the other. FYI - hey are 11/16x18 thread.

I thought about having my original tie rod sleeves lengthened or something. What I finally found is that Speedway Motors sells threaded tie rod tubing in various lengths and they sell one that is RH thread 11/16x18 on one end and 11/16x18 LH thread on the other. If you order their 10.75” tube it will actually be about 8”, which is about a half in too long. It is basically the same length as the New Yorker sleeve. So I also ordered a tap and I cut the sleeve to my desired length and then tapped the side I cut to restore the amount of the threads that are inside the pipe. It is not threaded all the way through, so when cutting off a half inch on one side you lose a lot of threads. Just make sure you cut the side that has the LH threads if you are using a LH tap and vice versa. For the tap, two sleeves and the jam nuts I spent about $100 at Speedway.

As of right now, one side is finally done. I started on it like 6 months ago. In all honesty it actually took me about 3 hours of work and 20 hours of trying to figure out how to make it work. Now that I have everything I need the other side should be quick and easy.

The tie-rod ends attach to these spindles from underneath so the tie-rod angle is different than before. It is not extreme, but there may be some bump steer. If that is the case then I will possibly do some type of tie-rod flip modification to get the tie-rod ends to attach from the top. Once I start driving it I will give an update about and bump steer or any other issues.

As you can see, while I was at it I replaced the ball joints, but this was just for maintenance purposes. They don't have to be changed for the mod.


Total cost for calipers, spindles, and misc. stuff was about $700.00. [/QUOTE]

 

Do you by chance have a link to the lower control arms? And also any idea on to lose the play in the steering.