rancherman

OH, what the hell... might as well do the wheel bearings too! Everything else is fresh, no reason to stop throwing money at it now! I know one side was replaced when FIL was owner, and the other has 230k miles. $175 Timkens, w/ abs sensor. Pretty good I thought, since the sensor alone pushes 40 bucks. Last Timkens I bought were for my ram 1500, and the bearing itself said "Made in USA". The housings looked top notch too for machine work. I just wish the mud/dust slinger on the stub shaft was available separately. It is for the Dana 44 applications. One of mine is mangled.

Look at most people today.. they have MAYBE 2-3 days worth of food in the pantry.. If you can even call it a pantry! They see/hear a couple folks 'stocking up' for an emergency.. which snowballs into total stampede. Most are stocking it for their own use, and some opportunists see it as a way to make a quick buck. ammo sales, generators, food... Cousin a few years back took off to Washington state with an emply 50' cargo box (semi) and bought every portable generator some importer dock had. He busted butt to the east coast, and sold the whole shebang in 3 hours, right off the back of the truck. He doubled his money, even after fuel. Nobody on my side of the family can stand the SOB^^^^ I can't remember if the juice was out due to Sandy, or a nor'easter..

Yah, I hear it's gonna be brutal for you guys. Meanwhile, All our December snow is pretty much gone. It's been 40's and 50's here for 2 weeks now. Sounds like you are prepared!

Funny thing about these, they list different part numbers for regular cabs, and extended cabs. Suppose they are valved differently?

Ryan said all his gears are $169 I put mine in a usps flat rate box and shipping added another 36 for the round trip. about $ 205 total After the 'bad news' phone call, my total cost is now $265. (60 bucks was for the core) Basically double of what I paid for the A-1 Cardone unit... (never again- cardone) 1 year guarantee. And Ryan said this could be extended. www.bluetopsteeringgears.com The neat thing was, I took my old gear into town on Wed, to be boxed up, and I missed that day's mail pick-up. So it didn't get shipped until 2 pm Thursday. Bluetop got it Friday morning, Ryan had it DONE by Friday NOON, and it failed his test. I got the bad news @ 1 pm Friday, and he shipped his last 3 turn box later that day. I expect it in the mailbox today. (I don't get Saturday delivery here)

libertytruckandauto.com bushing was about 18 bucks.. and they were about 2 dollars less to ship. $ 34 total.

update.. Both sides are now sporting new ball joints. knuckles are still on the ground... awaiting delivery of the plastic bushing. Then It should be a pretty easy re-assemble.

I'm saying just about any 'replacement' regardless if it's a shock absorber, coil spring.. ball joints, u joints.. all are a tic lower than the originals. This day and age, the amount of 'parts' being built by low bid and packaged in name brand boxes is horrendous. When a spec for a part comes from the auto manufacturer, you better believe the Spicers, Danas, Saganaws, etc, are going to make dang sure it meets or exceeds the spec... They don't want to lose Chryslers business. Now for 'replacement' type parts, for 'out of warranty' service... (what we are doing now) It may look like a duck, walk like a duck.. Example.. John Deere stocks a LOT of parts for tractors they built 40-50 years ago... Do they tool up and knock off a bunch of hard parts? NO. They put out a parts request and receive bids on this or that. They spec out what the gizmo needs to be made out of, machining tolerances, etc... even spec out the formula of the color of green paint and thickness it needs to be painted. They no longer need to take up valuable space for the tooling, warehousing, personnel, and the best part for them is; They can reject any part or whole batches that don't meet approval. Lets face it. replacement ball joints for our 2000-2002 rams is a TINY amount in a HUGE corporation. Back when our trucks were rolling off the assembly line in blocks of hundreds a day, Spicer probably knew how many they needed to supply for that production run.. and built them all in a couple days. They probably built 'x' amount over the required amount, (I bet the peanut counters can zero in on SPR (service parts required) on any amount built for assembly line installation.

Nice work dieselfuture. I see you dump your return clear to the bottom.. right beside the uptake tube.

ya know, even with driveshaft joints... how many of us can claim pretty close to 200k on the original joints, (or more) and replacement parts are good for less than half! Even if they are greasable! I'd be really impressed/surprised if the replacement spicer ball joints are the same quality as the originals. I'm sure compared to other replacement brands the spicers are top notch... But I'd bet they are still poorer than the originals they replaced.

grease zerk on cap: handy to grease no doubt. They are 'out in the wind'.. and they'll be sandblasted in short order, they'll be eroded, the little ball will be gone.. the grease gun won't seal against it.. and every piece of wire, or baling twine will be magically attracted to that little bugger... Maybe not in short order, but they can be problematic over time. My 'yota is all set up with those, and I love-hate em! Toyota puts a little sheetmetal shield over all their joints, so those zerks are protected. Just have to take the shield off.. more time, but probably worth it.

If the logic is similar to non greasable cardan joints, It's the seal. Non greaseable units tend to have a much tougher seal, because they don't have to allow grease to pass during re lubing. Otherwise we'd blow the seal. So it's probably a catch 22, you want the best seal, or the ability to flush out contaminants when the seal doesn't do the job? (as it gets older).

might as well do it all at once. Oh btw, I found a guy building these front DS's with all genuine spicer parts.. and upgrades the crosses in the CV joint ( larger) 1350 series. For about 350. It's a custom built, custom length for various lifted trucks too. (or stock length if that's what you need) http://www.ebay.com/itm/250884928842?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT Just in case you find more wear an tear in there! Those CV's get real pricey very fast. Hopefully you caught yours before it takes more than the ball kit!

yep. been there! when the needles got chewed up, the resulting abrasives inside the cross ate up the inside of the caps, and some off the ends of the cross. Which gave the cross more clearance to move. I'll bet the end caps are paper thin now. Plus you'll find the ends of the cross tapered, and or rounded off. Good find! lucky you found it before it ate it's way into the yoke!

Honestly Mike, we (locals with problems...fuel wise) are certain because we are podunks in the Midwest, we don't deserve the good stuff. and when all our fuel comes from the same terminal, I'd bet some pipeline manager is cackling maniacally as he sends up his reject crap from the refinery! who knows!

SEE??!!?? ^^^^ I've said many times! 'here' is a crap shoot on what is getting pumped into our tanks. Perhaps it's my location, I right on the edge of the arctic circle and where the southern plains meets! lol

I'd like to add to the list of things making today's engines living longer... the fuel itself. I've 2 1960's and 1970's era PROPANE engines, still lugging along... on the original rings and bearings.. Shoot, I know of one of my tractors is just on it's second set of sparkplugs! Most diesels, even built back in the dark ages, would routinely rack up a minimum of 10k hours, and with really good maintenance, 20k was quite possible before a major. I don't think oils were THAT bad back then.. or quality of materials in the engine. Gas engines, on the other hand, were face it.. really throw away type engines. sure, we could rebuild em, and did a lot of them! Cars had what? 20k warrantees, and as the warrantee race heated up to 100k, something needed changed! quality improved! 'enter stage right... egr type diesel engines'... circa 2006 ; at least the light duty versions were mandated. who knows where this path leads us in overall lifespan...

Man, over on lostjeeps, and all the newbie to diesels are fretting about how HOT their machines can run... and the blizzard of threads at keeping it cool are countless. ... electric fans, lower temp thermostats (which there are none) unless you gut the stat housing and put in a aftermarket inline.. People over there don't realize that those jeeps are fitted with 170 stats, and generally hold that temp on the gauge. kick it in the rear, go up a long incline, and then they are finding the radiator is FINALLY being utilized! But those guys are fretting over a 'spike' of maybe 25 degrees. (195-200). whooptee doo. to me, that's a non issue. When I tried to explain that diesels are more concerned with their MINIMAL temp they run, as opposed to the MAX that gasoline engines require.. it fell on deaf ears. My very expensive summer a couple years ago were all from too cool running. (160) I had to lug the snot out of a cummins 903 to get it 'up' to 180. big mistake. I didn't lug it to keep it hot, but the few times I did, it would. After the rebuild, I replaced the stats with the 180's , and now it holds that no matter the conditions. idling, over lugging.. you name it. Our Rams are way over engineered on the cooling capacity.. which is good! That big ol radiator, (when in good shape ) does a great job at keeping the MAX in hand. Start to open temps are more important than fully open temps and unless I'm wrong, isn't that how diesel stats are rated? So, I look at engine temp management as the stat is for keeping a minimum temp, and the radiator is for keeping things under control. I have digressed again... how are you using your truck most of the time? If it's like mine, and is down n dirty 90% of the time, I'm staying with the oem 190. If it was a DD, empty most of the time, then I'd go 190.

take a floor jack, and remove the saddle. then cut a chunk of 2X6 just shy of the distance between the tank mounting straps. bore a hole in the center of the 2x6 and bolt it to the floor jack... through the saddle hole. Then jack the board up against the tank... and lash the tank down with a couple of ratchet straps. undo your plumbing, electrical, and the straps and lower away! I've 'freehanded' it too many times.. and just a couple gallons running to the low side is enough to pitch the whole thing off my 'knee scissors lift' LOL If ya got a buddy, then this ^^^^ is probably overkill, but it works fine by myself

I'm going stronger with 1.5-2.0 oz when I KNOW I'm running a 50/50 blend + an additive (I actually mixed it myself) I have fuel tanks of straight #1, and straight #2. When I fill, I'll kinda look ahead at the next weeks forecast, and mix accordingly. The Jeep seems to really like it, my winter time mpgs is only off 1 or 2 mpg from this Fall. I account most of this from the warm-up period, stiff drivetrain, tires etc. The only thing I worry about running any amount of 2 stroke in the Jeep is it has a cat converter. (for now)

yep. They have a nice breakdown of common parts needed for our axles, according to year and model. Unfortunately, they no longer sold the intermediate shaft I needed last week! which got me hunting elsewhere. Right now, they have the bushing I need, but dang! he wants 19 bucks to send it! it weighs .06 lbs! C'mon!

OMG. talk about trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack! This almost could be a 'sticky'! using 'normal' search in a mopar parts book is worthless as a fart in a whirlwind. BACK TO DANA/SPICER AGAIN Go to this site: http://www2.dana.com/expertforms/depart.aspx?part=CHRY_60/248_FRO(VAR) Then this will give you a list of every Dana 60 ever built. snag the BOM tag off the differential cover (usually a 61XXXX include dashes and suffixes too) and click on your number from this list. This will bring up the parts list to your particular axle, and using this link; http://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/attachments/98-5-02- powertrain/328498d1421691799-dana-60-rebuild-question-99-01-spicer-axles-60-front-exploded-view.pdf will get you a generic exploded view. See the part you need? take the item #, and look it up in the list. viola! If needing parts for a different model, say 33, 44,70 or 80... just go to http://www2.dana.com/expertforms/demenu.aspx?prod=AXL Type in your BOM, and it will take you to where we started above^^^ This is certainly a long way around the horn... but compared to finding parts for these axles in any Mopar parts searches.. I'll say this is the most accurate. example, searching for the axle bushing today, I went to numerous mopar parts online. went through the hoops, and came up with a bushing that will FIT any dana (1500, 2500,3500) umm, no. the 44 is most definitely smaller shaft, and the bushing will also be smaller.. I went through this issue last week with the output intermediate shaft as well!. They said the output would fit any 1500,2500,3500 (made in 2000-2002 that is) wrong. So, I came up with a Dana spicer number of 49488 for the bushing reqd. 16 bucks.

Very possible! After reading through a lot of sites on this CAD.. It seems the little plastic bushing that inter connects the 2 shafts is a very often overlooked and high wear part. It's about 5 bucks, and when it's pounded out, the shafts are no longer aligned radially... and begin to eat each other up too... It'd be good to replace each time the shaft is removed for any reason at all. FIL had this truck before me, and if my memory serves, had a wheel bearing replaced years ago.. It's very very possible those guys didn't verify if that little bushing was even in there. No matter, it's all good now! I'm awaiting the final piece to arrive, I might as well replace the inner plastic bearing (inboard of the CAD opening) .

bullseye.

Actually.. you gain a lot. You get the benefit of the additive for keeping the fuel unclouded, and the 'RETURN TO ABOUT NORMAL' hfrr. I've never seen my fuel cloud up any faster with the 2 stroke. In fact, I'll put a little more in the winter time (closer to 1.5- 2.0 oz per gallon) for negating the ill effects of PS!