front end ride height on my '03 Dodge Durango 4x4. This is something that you want to do

prior to getting an alignment to make sure that your alignment is correct and that the

camber and caster is properly set by the alignment shop. Some alignment shops won't check the

ride height like they are supposed to. So it's a good idea to do it yourself and make

sure that the suspension hasn't sagged at all or anything like that. In my case the

suspension has actually sagged. So much so that the lower control arms are pretty much

resting on the lower bump stops which they shouldn't do. That puts excessive stress on

the ball joints and can cause them to prematurely fail. So I'm going to adjust them today. It's

actually really simple to do. Just a couple measurements. All you need is a tape measure

and a wrench. Thats it. And maybe a calculator if you're bad at math. So this video does

not apply to two wheel drive Durangos and Dakotas. This is specific to four wheel drive

because the front end suspension components are completely different. The first thing

you want to do is put your truck on a level surface. You don't need to raise the hood

. I just happen to have mine open from working on some other stuff. You want it firmly on

the ground with the suspension holding up the weight of the vehicle. You don't want

it on jack stands. You don't want it jacked up at all. You want it at its normal ride

height. As I mentioned earlier, my truck is on level ground right now in my garage and

yet the lower bump stop is pretty much straight up against the lower control arm. That shouldn't

happen. There should be a nice air gap between those two. Once you've got it on a level surface

you want to bounce the suspension a little bit to let it settle. So now you want to take

a measurement. While it's advisable to have the tire fully inflated it really doesn't

matter. This measurement works regardless of what size tire you have installed or rim

or anything like that mainly because it works off of center points and a delta, or difference,

between those two points. So you want to take your tape measure and measure from the floor

to the center of your center cap. In my case it's about fourteen and a quarter. So you

take that measurement and you right it down. Go underneath the truck and measure the distance

from the ground to the center of the rear lower control arm bolt head. It should be

the one on the inside. This is a little tough to do on camera but you can just measure it

like that. In my case it's about ten and five eighth inches. So now we do a little bit of

math. The measurement between the ground and the center of the passenger side front wheel

was fourteen and a quarter inches. Then the measurement between the ground and the center

of the rear pivot bolt at the rear of the lower control arm was ten and five eighths

inches or 10.625. So to complete the measurement you subtract the two and you get 3.625 inches

or three and five eighths. Now the spec says that the delta between, or the difference

between those two measurements should be 2.9 inches, plus or minus 0.12 inches. So if we

subtract 2.9 we get 0.725 inches. That means that my suspension is out on the passenger

side 0.725 inches and I need to raise it up that much. Now I need to measure the drivers

side. The procedure is exactly the same so I'm not going to film it. I'll just come back

with the results. Ok, so here are the measurements from the drivers side. I got between the ground

and the center of the drivers front wheel 14.375 inches or fourteen and three eighths.

For the measurement between the ground and the center of the rear lower control arm bolt

I got ten and nine sixteenths which is roughly 10.563 inches. You subtract the two and you

get 3.812 inches. Then to find out how far out of spec it is subtract 2.9 and you get

0.912 inches. This is why you want to measure both sides because you might get different

values on either side of the truck. So now we know ho far out of spec my suspension is

now we need to adjust it. And for that we move underneath the truck. We are over at

the passenger side torsion bar and torsion bar key and it's adjuster bolt. So you want

to turn this clockwise to raise the vehicle up. And counter clockwise to lower it back

down. I've already put some penetrating oil on the bolt up here and down in here and inside

to help loosen it up so it will be easier to turn. This will take some force because

you are literally lifting the entire truck by this bolt. So you want to get a long breaker

bar and a 5/16" or a 24mm socket. Preferably a six point rather then a twelve point so

you can get as much bite on the sides of this bolt head as possible. You don't want to strip

this thing out. So make sure you have the proper sized socket and along breaker bar.

So another thing you want to do is take a sharpie or some other kind of paint pen and

mark the bolt. So as you can see I've already marked mine right here and this pointing straight

sideways so I can keep track of how many times I've turned this thing around. When you set

up your socket on your breaker bar you want to try to make it so that it matches that

line.So it's going about the same direction. This will help you keep track of how many

times you have turned the screw and adjusted the ride height. So when you are raising and

lowering the vehicle you never want to lower the vehicle to it's final position. You always

want to lower it past where it needs to go and then raise it up to it's final destination.

In our case we are going to be raising it up to where we need it to be. If by chance

we pass the mark that we want to get to we lower it past that point again and then raise

it back up to where we need it to be. This ensures that there is proper tension on this

bolt and on this key right here to ensure it works properly. Each full turn of this

bolt roughly equates to about an eighth of an inch of travel up or down depending on

the direction you turn it. So you can use that as a general rule of thumb to get you

in the ball park. Once you're close to where you need to be, then you move to the other

side and adjust it so that it's close to where it needs to be. Then you measure again. You

want to do both sides at the same time because if you raise one side up its going to put

more pressure on the other side and that's going to effect your measurement. You want

it level whenever you are making your measurements. So you want to have them at about the same

height at almost all times. I'm going to adjust both sides and be right back. So while doing

these measurements the distance between the floor and the center of the wheel is not going

to change. It's going to be the same no matter what you do. What's going to change is the

distance between the ground and the rear bolt on the lower control arm. So to find out what

measurement you want to shoot for you just add this to this. So 10.563 or 10.625 and

you get 11.475 and 11.35. So these are the two numbers I'm going to shoot for to try

to get the ride height to where I want it to be. So before you take your new measurements

you want to bounce the suspension up and down again like that. Ok I've reached my mark.

I have it at eleven and three eighths which is about 11.375. I was shooting for 11.35.

So that's close enough. As I stated earlier you never want to loosen to your final position.

You always want to tighten it to it's final position. You don't need to loosen it very

far. So in my case all I need to do is loosen it about that much. About an eighth of a turn.

If you notice preciously it was pointing this way. Now it's pointing here. And then put

it back to where I want it to be. Which in my case is straight across. Now I'm at my

preferred ride height. You want to double check your measurement by bouncing the front

of the truck up and down a few times and then remeasuring the distance between the ground

and the rear bolt on the lower control arm. In my case I'm at 11.375 and I was shooting

for 11.35. So I'm within that .12 inch threshold. So I'm right where I want to be. You can see

that there is now about a half inch to three quarters of an inch of clearance between the

bump stop and the lower control arm. This will likely make my ride a lot smoother because

it's not going to be bouncing against the bump stop as often. The shock absorbers will

be allowed to do what they are supposed to do and the ball joints won't be taking the

brunt of the hit. So one thing you want to make sure you do after making this adjustment

is getting an alignment and making sure that your camber and caster are properly adjusted.

Changing the ride height does effect your alignment so you need to make sure that it's

back into spec. So that's pretty much it. I hope you liked this video. If you have any

questions, comments or concerns please leave them in the comments section below. If liked

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