4x4Review Off Road Magazine
I was riding with buddy of mine the other day in his truck. As we were driving along, there were a few rough spots in the road and I heard this horrendous banging sound coming through the cab of his truck. I asked him how long it’s been like this, and he said for three or four years. I asked him how he could stand it and he made the comment that “you just get used to it”. Well, being the type of person I am, I decided to investigate. So, myself and another member of the 4x4review staff dove under the truck only to find that the cabs’ body-mount rubber bushings were about ready to fall off. But, what can be expected of a twenty three-year-old truck. We told the owner that there was good news in this scenario- we can call our friends at Daystar Inc. and get a set of polyurethane cab mounts to cure the problem. Follow along with our install of this easy upgrade that will make your older truck feel new again.
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For the most part, we at 4X4REVIEW, love the fact that we are located in Tucson, AZ. We are privy to great sunsets, easy living and great 4-wheeling. Unfortunately though, we are usually pretty far from the majority of the major 4-wheel parts manufacturers. When we placed our call into Daystar Products, we soon realized that they were located merely 2 hours away in sunny Phoenix, AZ. After talking with Craig at Daystar, he extended an invitation for a tour of the facility. Bearing in mind that this doesn’t happen to often due to our location, we jumped on the opportunity. After the directions were given, I asked what their building looked like and if there were any landmarks in the area to help me find it. I was simply told “You can’t miss it… it’s the only building with a pink stripe on it… in fact it’s the only building.” Well, they were right. This new facility is an oasis in the desert. 
Once there, the tour began with the administration sections. Now, being the web master for this site and the computer geek that I am (No, I don’t wear a pocket protector) the first thing that I noticed here was the progressive nature of Daystar. New facility, new computers at every desk… I’m starting to like this. Now for any of you would be thieves out there, Daystar takes their security very serious at their location. You’ll find out later why. After my body cavity search (just kidding), I was allowed into the next portion of the tour which consisted of the polyurethane injection and molding area. What makes Daystar so unique is the super hi-tech and top-secret injection process. This allows them to put out more products faster, and with greater quality and efficiency. After each part is molded, it is then sent to the Quality Assurance area where a real person actually inspects and cleans each part. Again, I was very impressed
Nearing the end of the tour, we entered the metal fabrication and shipping & receiving area. The metal fabrication area is where they fabricate their dies and make other parts like their new greaseable shackle kits. I picked up one of the shackles and was impressed with the quality of the tig welding used to make the shackles.
First step for this install was to block the tires and set the emergency brake being that we will be jacking the body up and lying underneath it. We first went around and loosened the six bolts that bolt the cab to the truck frame. You may find this easier by pre-soaking the bolts with Liquid Wrench or something equivalent the prior evening to help with rust. The key to keeping this job easy is to not remove the bolts completely. Only remove the bolts on the side of the truck you are working on. This is so that the cab won’t move too far out of place and make it difficult when you reinstall the bolts with the new mounts. 
After the bolts are loose, get a floor jack with a block of wood and place it under one of the cab reinforcements and carefully lift the body up off the frame. We recommend that you have second person with you so that there is a second set of eyes to help with lining up the bolts and 
mounts. Once the cab is lifted up high enough, remove the old rubber mounts. There was a small metal spacer between the mount and the cab- this needs to be reused, so do not misplace it or throw it away. With the old bushing in our hand, we were amazed to see just how bad they were. The metal stem that goes in the center of the new bushing was rusted badly, so we took the time to use our bench grinder and wire wheel to clean them up. (See photo) After the stems were clean, we applied some grease on them to help prevent future rust and to also help the new Daystar mounts to go on easier. The rear cab mount stems had to be cut down to accommodate the new bushings. The dimensions for this were in the installation instructions. (See photo) After we had the driver’s side done, it was off to the passenger side and repeated all of the same steps. 
Once the passenger side was installed, we carefully lowered the body back down and tightened all of the cab mount bolts back to factory specification. As an added upgrade to this project, we noticed that the bumpstops for the front and rear differentials were in very bad shape also-another twenty six-year-old rubber item. The Daystar folks took care of us also by sending their large polyurethane bumpstops along to improve both appearance and function of our friend’s truck.
