Dodge owners (cummins)

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MX Quad Dad · #1 Post by **MX Quad Dad** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 5:37 pm

Yeah my son bought a dodge......LOL. Boy I like to kid him about it.

anyway, while trying to fix an engine oil leak which involved pulling the trans, we found it needed ujoints. either this thing came with greaseable ujoints or they were already relacedand two sets in 100,000 miles seemed a little odd to me. For as tight as they were they didn't look that bad when we dissassembled them. went to the local autoparts store and bought some good ol made in the USA u-joints. when installing them we found it nearly impossible to get the clips in. and if we did get them in it was tighter than the old ones. the Autozone (made in china) joints were closer but still no right

So we found this http://quad4x4.com/Dodge%20Drive%20Shaft.htm About halfway down the page explains my problem and also explains why the chinese one fit better and also warned about the life of them behind the cummins or V-10.

spoolie25 · #2 Post by **spoolie25** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 9:22 pm

QUOTE (MX Quad Dad @ Jan 15 2012, 05:37 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah my son bought a dodge......LOL. Boy I like to kid him about it.

anyway, while trying to fix an engine oil leak which involved pulling the trans, we found it needed ujoints. either this thing came with greaseable ujoints or they were already relacedand two sets in 100,000 miles seemed a little odd to me. For as tight as they were they didn't look that bad when we dissassembled them. went to the local autoparts store and bought some good ol made in the USA u-joints. when installing them we found it nearly impossible to get the clips in. and if we did get them in it was tighter than the old ones. the Autozone (made in china) joints were closer but still no right

So we found this http://quad4x4.com/Dodge%20Drive%20Shaft.htm About halfway down the page explains my problem and also explains why the chinese one fit better and also warned about the life of them behind the cummins or V-10.

i work on cars for a living i am i high b tech. if they are giving you that bad of problems get ones from the dealer. also the ears could be bent in. causing the u joint being tight. has the drive shaft ever blown off, did you have to use a press to get them out. i am going to lean more towards the ears being out. just look at it this way it could be a ford and doing an oil pan on them. they are not fun ..

MX Quad Dad · #3 Post by **MX Quad Dad** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 11:43 pm

the link explains it. I do know how to change a u-joint without damaging the drive shaft. I just thought I would post this info for others who may come across this same problem

I was asumeing that spicer had gone downhill on quality, I even checked the box figuring on seeing Made In China. I was shocked to find out that the factory u-joints were .0010 smaller. and yeah you can get the clips in but the joint is way to tight

spoolie25 · #4 Post by **spoolie25** » Mon Jan 16, 2012 3:27 am

QUOTE (MX Quad Dad @ Jan 15 2012, 11:43 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

the link explains it. I do know how to change a u-joint without damaging the drive shaft. I just thought I would post this info for others who may come across this same problem

I was asumeing that spicer had gone downhill on quality, I even checked the box figuring on seeing Made In China. I was shocked to find out that the factory u-joints were .0010 smaller. and yeah you can get the clips in but the joint is way to tight

i am going to say the ears are bent,but there could also be a number of different size u joints as well. do you have a trans shop or an napa auto parts around. there are some auto parts place the install wheel bearings that need to be pressed in as well as u joints and other things. trans shops will put it in for you as well. its hard to explain how to install it with out showing you there are spots you can hit with a hammer to get it so move a little nicer. but yet again hard to explain. it the new one in the shaft and you just cant get it to move freely???

Dachshund · #5 Post by **Dachshund** » Mon Jan 16, 2012 6:11 am

I always like to say; I bought a Cummins that just happen to come in a Dodge.

What year truck?

MX Quad Dad · #6 Post by **MX Quad Dad** » Tue Jan 17, 2012 12:24 am

Its an 05 crew cab short box. Its a nice truck. the body is ok as far as not haveing any rust but has little dings all over. the under side was spotless when we got to the little lot he bought it from but it developed a leak while we test drove it. it got real bad recently and we figured it was from the rear main so we pulled the trany to find it dry around the rear main. so we pulled the flywheel housing and cummins use an o-ring around the rear of the cam instead of the freeze plug like on most other engines. O-ring was cracked and shrunk.

If you ever have to replace the u-joints on the rear shaft take a look at that link I posted about half way down right where they start talking about the rear u-joint kits. They sell kit but I would most likely buy OEM before buying from them at 90 bucks for two ujoints, well maybe I should price them at the dealer before I make that comment. My son works at a machine shop so he took in the spicers and took about .005 off each cap. he only did one joint and we just put it in and the fit was perfect so the other one will get done tomarrow. we googled ram 3500 u-joints and you wouldn't believe how many people are B****en about the tight fit of the aftermarkit joint. and I think a lot of them just force the clips in and run them

What are you running for an exhaust? any tuner? I don't think it was even cooled off when we got it home and he had it up on the hoist and the exhaust cut off. I just so happened to have a length of 4" exhaust pipe so it is straight pipe from the turbo back and its not all that loud. as far as the tuner he want to get a SMARTY, but I think he want to lift it and over size tires so I think he will need to be able to correct for the big tires

Dachshund · #7 Post by **Dachshund** » Tue Jan 17, 2012 3:53 am

It's not mine but I drive it and take care of it. It's an 05 crew 4x4 also but a dually. It's got a bully dog tuner. I just put a Tru-Flo 409 stainless 4" turbo back straight pipe all the way. It's got the G56 6 speed. It's loud, especially when pulling, which it does most of the time.

Good to know about the U-joints. I'll stick that in my file.

Did you leave the cat on?

MX Quad Dad · #8 Post by **MX Quad Dad** » Tue Jan 17, 2012 4:38 am

No cat, and like I mentioned it is my son's. My truck is a nice quite cruiser. I do like the rumble of a good sounding exhaust but I'm not real crazy about how this thing sounds. It is kinda loud when he is towing but, no where near as loud as his gasser was and that had mufflers.

on your front drive shaft, it is made by spicer so the u-joint fit fine. just the rear is the oddball

NRath · #9 Post by **NRath** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 5:27 pm

Got a buddy that just did the fronts on his '06 2500. Not really relevant, but I remember him saying the oem's weren't greasable and the new ones are. Ended up having to replace the hub bearings (only available at oem), too as it wouldn't come apart. He found that to be common on the internet. So, replacing front u-joints cost him like $600!

I'll pass this along to him about the rears...

It is a nice engine, though!

MX Quad Dad · #10 Post by **MX Quad Dad** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 3:25 pm

I'm taking it you mean the joints at the steering knuckle? from the link I posted the front drive shaft in a spicer and ours took the standard spicer joint. his knuckle u-joints are fine so, we haven't dug into them yet.

It is a nice engine. a little tid-bit most cummins know-it-alls don't know, it is a "B" series engine which was designed and built by a company called Consolidated Diesel. which was owned by Case and Cummins with case being the majority share holder at the start of the project. Case has been sold and Ford bought a big part of Cummins a few years back so who owns what now? I'm not sure but, what I was told was ford had plans to put the 5.9 in their pick-ups and it hasn't happened yet