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The Dakota Project all started when Jamie donated his
Apple IIE computer to the non profit Foundation for
Battered Husbands. Apparently he was at the top of the
technology wave when he bought his computer in 1983.
However, the IIE just wasn’t able to sustain today’s
high speed internet connections. Jamie finally bought
a new computer.
The new computer opened up all sorts of windows that
he wasn’t even aware of. For example, he was now
able to join the Kid Rock fan club. Not to mention,
he no longer needed to have his subscription of “Swank”
magazine sent to his buddy Tye’s house. He could
access anything he wanted to on his new high speed internet
connection. In fact one day he was doing a search for
“With Foreign Objects” when he typed WFO
into Google. When The WFO website came up, Jamie was
a little disappointed. He decided to check it out anyway,
and liked what he saw.
Back at the shop, Beau answered the phone and started
talking. I could tell by the questions he was answering
that it was someone wanting to do a straight axle swap.
We get a lot of that type of phone call, but most of
the people never follow through. After Beau hung up
the phone, he relayed the info to Phil and me about
a straight axle swap in a Dodge Dakota. It sounded like
a great project! In a few days, we got the go ahead
from Jamie. His only request was to have a truck that
he could drive around and feel as “Whiskey Tango”
as possible while he blasted the song “Cowboy”
by Kid Rock.
The first day is always the most fun. After Phil did
one last burnout, we let him do the honors with the
plasma cutter! Parts started falling off in a shower
of sparks! By
the end of day, the front suspension was laying on the
floor, along with the rear axle, and transfer case.
The fun was over. It was now time to start grinding.
Beau
was taking measurements and starting to draw up the
suspension, while I was conveniently taking a phone
call or something. Phil was stuck to do the grinding.
The main goal on the design of this truck was to make
a truck that looked like a Lion, drove like a kitten,
and climbed like a mountain goat. A typical day for
this truck would be to take your garbage to the dump,
and then hit Rubicon on the way to a wine tasting party
on the Tahoe shore. You might tip the valet an extra
$5 to fill the tires back up with the on-board air compressor.
The three of us had already decided that a parallel
4 link with a track bar would be a good design for the
front suspension on this truck. We wanted it to drive
as smooth as possible, but still have off-road capabilities.
For the front axle, we chose to use a high pinion 44
from the front of a 78 F-250. This is a core axle that
we like to use a lot. It was only available in 78 and
79, so it is hard to find. It comes factory with flat-top
knuckles, dual piston disc brakes, 3” axle tubes,
and a heavy cast housing. We replaced the axle shafts
with Yukon 4340 alloy axles, and OX u-joints. The entire
axle was completely stripped, sand blasted, and re-built.
A set of Sierra 4.56 gears was installed, as well as
an ARB Air Locker.
In the rear, we chose to use the elusive Ford Van 60
rear. We found our rear 60 in a 1999, E350, 2wd van.
It was a full floating, factory disc brake, 32 spline,
Dana 60 rear. This used a mechanical e-brake on the
inside of the rotor hat. Another bonus was that it already
had a tone ring and speed sensor on the ring gear. We
dropped an ARB Air Locker in it, and a set of OEM Spicer
4.56 gears. We made sure to re-use the ring gear tone
ring to help us set up our speed sensor later.
After building the axles, it was time to decide what
transfer case we were going to use. The factory full-time
NP242 transfer case was already in the scrap pile. We
knew we wanted to be really low geared for Rubicon,
but we also knew that Jamie wanted the option to bomb
through mud and snow. We ended up deciding on a Klune-V
and an HD 231 transfer case. We
went with the 4.0:1 “David” Klune-V. This
allowed us to have 3 low gear options for all different
types of terrain. We could have 4:1, 2.7:1, or 10.8:1.
The small size of the 231 allowed us to clock it up
enough to have a completely smooth Belly pan. We didn’t
want anything hanging below the frame rails.
As Beau was designing the suspension, he was trying
to keep the truck as low as possible. This made his
work extremely tough. There was not a lot of room to
fit all of the suspension links, and still allow the
suspension to have good up travel. By bending the upper
links around the frame rails, and making a bent track-bar,
he was able to come up with a fairly low profile design.
After the design was finished, all of the brackets
and mounting tabs were waterjet cut from 1 / 4 inch
plate steel. As
Beau began assembling the pieces of bracketry, Phil
built the links. The lower links were built from 2”x.250
wall DOM tubing. The upper links were built from 1.5”x.219wall
DOM tubing. 1 1/4 inch heim joints with high mis-alignment
spacers were used at the axle ends of all links. At
the frame end, rubber bushings were used. The
upper links were drilled and tapped on the lathe, while
the lower links used WFO weld-in inserts. The track
bar was built from 1.5” DOM, and used 3/4 heim
joints at each end. It was custom bent to clear the
oil pan and differential at full compression.
The next order of business was the steering. We knew
Jamie would be too busy with his music and beverages
to worry about the rocks he was going over. Due to this,
we decided to go full high-steer.
The factory Ford flat-top knuckles were machined. WFO
high-steer arms were used, along with a 1.5” DOM
heavy duty tie-rod and draglink. A stock TJ/YJ pitman
arm was drilled and reamed out to fit the large Chevy
tie-rod ends.
Due to the fact that the truck was originally rack
and pinion steering, we also had to add a power steering
box. Our first thought was to use a standard Saginaw
box and mount it on the inside of the frame. However,
we wanted to get the draglink as long as possible. We
decided to use a 78-79 Ford F-250 box instead. The advantage
of this box was that it sat on top of the frame rail,
instead of on the inside. This gave us a few extra inches
on our draglink. After
we got the box where we wanted it, we drilled the frame
rails for the bolts, and welded sleeves into the frame.
Custom
power steering lines were made to link the existing
pump to the new steering box.
When it came down to shocks, we decided to use 2.5”
King Coil-overs. Once we mocked up the front axle and
found our desired ride height, we built our shock towers.
The towers were built from 1.5”x.120 wall tubing,
and welded to the frame. We were able to fit them in
tight enough to keep the stock plastic inner fender
wells. Due
to the fact that everything was so tight, we determined
that a 10” travel shock would be perfect. After
measuring the un-sprung weight at each corner, we called
King and ordered the shocks.
With coil over shocks and a true 4 link, it was obvious
that we were going to need a sway bar. We called up
Speedway Motors, and ordered a sway bar kit. The sway
bar fit across the front of the frame rails, and was
attached to the axle using 3/4 inch heim joints. The
drivers side arm had to be custom bent in order to clear
the pitman arm at full steer. We also used large cotter
pins in order to allow for a sway bar disconnect when
the truck hit the trail. The sway bar links were easily
pinned up and out of the way, when disconnected.
The next order of business was rear suspension. We
decided to keep it simple and use the factory rear springs.
They were nice and soft already. While Beau designed
a set of shackle flip brackets, Phil hooked up the e-brake
and speed sensor. With a little grind work, the factory
Dakota speed sensor bolted right into the new rear axle.
The e-brake cables were just as easy to hook up. With
the help of a Locar cable kit, and an internal spring
under the dash, the e-brake was working great.
After the shackle flip brackets were welded together
and installed, a
3” block was added to achieve our desired ride
height. With
a tall block on such soft springs, we new were going
to need a torque arm. It was obvious that axle wrap
would be a problem. Beau drew and cut out a bracket
to weld to the axle tube while Phil built some new cross-members
to hold both the torque arm and belly pan. A Rubicon
Express Super Joint was used at the upper end of the
torque arm, along with a shackle. Poly bushings were
used at the axle end of the two 1.5”x.219 wall
DOM tubes. The
lower tube was attached to the upper tube with a heim
joint, in order to allow pinion angle adjustment.
The last thing to address was rocker protection. Phil
and Beau pulled the bender out and built some full length
sliders from 1.5”x.120 wall tubing. All
parts were then prepped and sent out for powder coating.
In the meantime, both drivelines were ordered from Tom
Woods Custom Driveshafts. The front driveshaft was kept
pretty simple. It was built with the new 1310 high clearance
superjoint at the transfer case end, and a standard
1310 u-joint at the axle end. In the rear, a 1350 CV
shaft was built, and coupled to a Tom Woods 32 spline
CV flange.
While we waited for the parts and driveshafts, we decided
to focus on the front speed sensors. We wanted to make
sure the OEM anti-lock brakes would still work. Not
to mention, we didn’t want to give the truck back
to Jamie with warning lights flashing on the dash. Beau
designed a special tone ring that we attached to the
front hub assembly. The
new tone rings were designed to match the rear sensor.
We were able to re-use the OEM speed sensors, and hook
the system back up.
As soon as the parts came back from powder coat, the
truck was assembled for the final time. The
sliders were welded to the frame, while all other parts
were assembled and bolted on. The 3/16 thick, full belly
pan, was bolted on with tapered allen head screws, so
they wouldn’t drag on any rocks. The ARB pump
was wired in, and the switches were installed in the
center console. We were a little behind schedule, so
Jamie was already on his way up to test drive his new
truck. We didn’t have much time to mount the 36x13.50x17
Iroc Radial tires on our 17x9 allied bead locks. We
were just finishing torqueing down the bead locks and
flexing it out when Jamie showed up.
Jamie was really excited about his truck. We hadn’t
even showed him any pictures. It was all a surprise
to him. While he was crawling underneath it, we were
anxious to get it out somewhere. We were pretty confident
in our build, so we threw a curve ball at him. We decided
to go straight up to the Fordyce trail. Phil’s
Toyota and Beau’s jeep were sitting in the parking
lot, ready to go. Without a single test drive, Jamie
and I jumped in his Dakota and headed out to the freeway.
It seemed to drive great!
We stopped at a gas station to fill up, and get some
beer. While Jamie was pumping the gas, I noticed gear
oil coming from under the truck. The Klune-V was leaking!
After a quick trip back to the shop, the drain plug
was re-sealed, and we were back on our way.
We were at the trail in an hour. Jamie locked the hubs
while I aired the tires down to 10 lbs and disconnected
the sway bar. We quickly made our way up “Driveline
Hill” and down to the first river crossing. The
truck made the trail too easy! As Beau and Phil kept
going, we turned around so Jamie could get home. We
drove out from the River without touching the air lockers.
The suspension was so soft, that all 4 tires were always
getting traction.
As everyone knows, a truck is never done. Jamie already
has some new ideas for us. In a few months, he will
be back for a new rear bumper, hydro assist steering,
rock lights, CB, and a Kilby on board air compressor.
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