Firestone Ride-Rite Air Helper Springs Installation - 1998 Dodge Ram 2500

Installation of the Firestone Ride-Rite Air Helper Springs on a 1998 Dodge Ram 2500

Today on this 1998 Dodge Ram 2500 2WD we are going to install part number F2071 from Firestone, the Ride-Rite Suspension System. Before we start our install on the truck we need to do some pre-assembly on our table of some components. To begin our assembly we are going to use these main components. This bracket is going to get bolted to the frame itself, obviously the air bag itself. Take our little covers off. What is going to happen is the bracket is going to sit on top of the air bag just like that. Then we will take two flange lock nuts and run them down tight right now. :40

We will run them until they stop, about a quarter turn is all you will need. At this point you want to double check your torque ratings and check your bolts too. Next we are going to install our angle brass part here, it is like an angle pipe. We are going to run it down to where the sealant goes into the threads of the airbag itself. Then we are going to use a 1/2 inch wrench just to tighten it up. Looks like we are good to go there, lets flip this assembly over and tighten this bolt finger tight until it stops. We are going to have to adjust this on our spring. Certain vehicles may need it to move it one way or another, and even flip it around to get the alignment you need. 1:18

Lets go over to the truck, we have already removed the tires so we can see whats going on. We want to take the center of the air bag and center it up with the center tie bolt of the spring stack itself. Just eyeball it, it does not have to be perfect. You can see how everything relates to the frame and the springs themselves. You will notice that the springs are at an odd angle, plus we are not reaching the frame with our bracket either, that could be fixed. The kit comes with spacers to help level out the spring assembly as needed. In this situation we are going to use the one inch step right here, it looks pretty close to level here, however it droops down in the back a bit, but that is fine because once the weight in the truck is on the springs it will actually come up a little bit. We are okay with the set up on the bottom of our air bag. The next thing we are going to do is get our frame bracket marked so we can attach it to the frame. We are going to drill four holes out, then add some air to the bag to stretch it out a little bit, just enough to get the job done and then we will have to do work for so it will be easier to mark and drill our holes. To inflate the bag, we are going to have to run a small piece of air line and use our valve to hold everything together and keep the air inside. This is a good spot to show you how the air and line hooks up into the valves. You want to make sure here that the cut is as square as possible, sharp and clean. All you do really is push it into place until it stops, then pull back on it a little bit and it locks into place. That is it. To take it apart, push down on this collar right here and push back a little bit, and you can work it back out that way. Lets put that back together. Then take that end and apply it to the elbow on top, and we will put some air through it. Again, you do not want to put too much in here, just enough for it to expand. 3:04

That pushed it up pretty good, what we are going to do is hold this up a little bit more and make sure we stay from the curve of the steel right here so we have plenty of room for a washer. This washer here will actually go in the inside where our flange nut goes. It will be a good idea to take this washer and put it behind the bracket for right now, use it as a gauge to tell how far up you need to go. So, the washer will sit flat against the steel and not hit against the curve of the steel. Get a marker and mark it. Through our top hole too. Make sure to keep everything level and do the other side too. We have our holes marked, so lets take our assembly out of the way and drill some pilot holes out. We need to drill those out 3/8ths of an inch for our hardware. We will start our first bolt here, it will go directly through the frame and again, our 3/8th washer will go behind it and a locking flange nut behind that. On our top bolt here, you will notice our frame has a dent into it, we will use this washer to go behind that part of the bracket and then we will use another washer on the other side. Lets go do the other side now. We will hand tighten the bolts, then torque them down as specified in the instructions. Lets work on our bottom bracket going to the springs, the clamp on the bottom side will sit just like this, then we will our bolts through. We can clamp to this top overload spring here, you can go to the bottom, however over time I think these springs will compress them down enough where it could shift around and possibly damage something. The air bag itself may come out of alignment, so we are going to clamp it to this part right here on the helper spring itself. It is okay to do that as the instructions state, however the pole is really long if we are going to do it that way, so we are going to make a mark on the bolt and cut it short. We are going to do that to every bolt all the way around. The ones going towards the front of the vehicle are going to be longer than the ones in the back. Shortening our bolts is going to be pretty simple. We are going to get to put it in our bench vice and clamp it down. Here are our marks right here, take a drimmel or any type of reciprocating saw and just stay in between the threads. One down, three to go. These are lock nuts, they will only go in a couple threads. Now lets tighten these down, you want to get them snug first, make sure you get everything centered the way you want it on the spring assembly itself. 5:58

We will fasten to the spring assembly now, now remember we have our bolt loose right here, make sure we have it as straight as possible, then we will tighten the bolt underneath. Here is the little valve we put it, we can remove it now, push in the little ring right here on our angle piece, or elbow, just push that in and the rest of it will come out. Now we are going to mark out the holes for our air valves for our air bags. We are going to put a hole here on the corner of the license plate for the valve to get installed. We will use one of the washers that come with it as a guide, and mark our holes. Of course, we will look on the back side of it and make sure nothing is in the way back there. Put it through the other side, and we will put our nut into place. Alright, we have those installed, the body themselves work as a nut, so we can go ahead and tighten those down from the other side and they will be snug. Right now we can go ahead and run our lines. Then we will take our line and connect it to the elbow right here, again we are going to make sure this is an even cut, push it in and give it a tug back, and we are good to go. Now we will take the other end of our line a route it from here to the bumper. You can do this a variety of different ways, it is up to your own choosing, as long as you stay away from anything hot or moving. That is the main thing you want to look out for. We ran the line between the bed supports and the bed itself, and came out the frame. We are going to cut our line about right here and install it to the air line fitting. There are simple little cutters designed for rubber tubing. The driver side is done, now lets do the passenger side. Lets apply some air to our suspension here. Now that there is air in our suspension, everything looks good, it raises the back end of the truck a little bit and it is ready for a load now. There you have it for part number F2071 from Firestone, the Ride-Rite Suspension System Kit.