My new ride!

did the u-joints today, aaaaaand we have bigger issues. we still have clunking in the drivetrain. we lifted up the ass end, and put it in gear, and i can feel it and hear it in the rear axle. I took off the diff cover and the oil that came out was gray with metal shavings. took the cover all the way off, and observed several teeth setting in the bottom of the case..... so far, ive found 2 missing off the ring gear, several off the spiders and the pinion is pretty chewed up.

ontop of all this, i spend from 11:00 AM until about 4:30PM dicking with my dads truck. we did the right front unit bearing, u-joint and left rear brake caliper. i tell you what... most unplesant experience ive ever had with a ujoint.

That Sucks about the rearend. But you can pull the driveshaft and have FWD. Just saying.

hahahahahha, yeah, i suppose i could do that

well guys, just a bit of an update, since its been a while.

We got a whole rear axle from a junkyard for 600. it was in rough shape so we took off all the brand new break hardware, brake lines, E-brake cables and the yoke off the input shaft, and swapped it all over onto the "new" axle. It was sitting for a while, so i went around with the wire wheel on my angle grinder and got all the rust and flakes off, then shot it with self etch primer and semi-gloss black. we decided to replace the axle seals as well, to avoid issues. the yoke that was on it had a broken bolt. drilled it, tried an extractor and it broke off. tried drilling it and we burnt out 3 bits, so we said screw it and swapped the yoke. Dodge has an ingenious vent block on top of the axle, has threads that are casted onto the block, and gets threaded into the axle. it also serves as a splitter for the brake lines. there is a soft rubber line in, and 2 solid steel ones out. it just so happens this entire piece is casted out of brass. and it also just so happens that we had to remove this vent splitter thing for some ungodly reason, and waddya know, SNAP! well, more of a gentle twist *clunk* "F!$#!".... so we heated it up and backed it out with vice grips. we repeated the same procedure on the old axle.
So.. all this was just PREP..
Now comes the fun parts...............
We ended up having to cut every bit of hardware on the damn thing, right down to the shock bolts. the U-bolts, shock bolts and a few more misc hardware. we had to heat up almost every fastner as well. we had to go and get ANOTHER set of jack stands, one to hold the truck and one to lower the axle onto.. the old one came out relatively issue free. popped off the brake drums, saw shiny new hardware so we popped the backing plates and saved them for later use (good thing too). we decided to replace the axle seals in the new axle, so we popped off the drums and the backing plates literally fell appart. we ended up swapping over the 'old' plates to the 'new' axle, and everything was fine. the old seals came out and the new ones went in without a hitch. so the time had come to put it under the truck, after double checking everything, we realized we still needed U bolts. off to napa we went. no dice. advanced auto? they didnt even know what a U bolt was... so we ordered them from a place out in Pennsylvania. they were there within 4 days. got the lift blocks set in, and the blocks pressed into the leafs, and started cranking down on the u-bolts. all went suprisingly well. we put the tires on, and slowly set it on the ground, all went well. it was time to add the oil. we used valvoline 80-90 weight gear oil with limited slip modifier. (forgot to mention, new axle is LSD. so happy) took about 2-1/2 quarts. the axle was finally done, after about 3 weekends of screwing around with it, i had my truck back..
i have taken it in mud, and yes the limited slip works great
now to do some work...

pics, or it didn't happen lol jokin man

richie thomas wrote:

pics, or it didn't happen lol jokin man

guess it didnt happen then...

_____________________

Sorry, i lied! i found one pic

Time to blow the dust bunnies off this thread!
last update was that the axle was ordered.

NOW.... new axle is installed, and has been for a while. we got it, changed over the brake hardware and then i wire wheel'd it with my angle grinder, and shot it semi-gloss black. I ordered new U-bolts that had to be custom made to accomodate the 3 inch lift. last weekend we replaced the track bar, so it dosent wander anymore.

over the summer, a few issues have made themselves known.

1- the "wild vent syndrome".. if i get my foot into it, the vents will reset to defrost until i get my foot off the floor. (not even on the floor, anything over halfway sends it to defrost) I still have to chase that down. reading on here it sounds like that check valve, but im not convinced.

2- does not like to come off overdrive. i will be pulling a hill and i either have to let off all the way and then sink my foot right to the floor, or push the OD/O button to shut it off, then when i turn it back on, it will go right back into OD. ever tried to pull a hill at 1200 RPM? lol.

3- its running really rich. not really a bad thing, but it trips the CEL ever week or so. "in-efficent catalyst something or other" meaning the catalytic converter (fun killer) isnt up to par.

now, just an oddball question i have- there is an orange wire taped on the firewall i found while poking at the cab air intake.. its marked PTO. i was wondering if its possible to hook that up to a toggle and have a high idle switch. I read that there is a code or something in the PCM that needs to be activated, and you can control a high idle by the cruise control with the PTO wire is grounded out. is this true?

also- anyone know where i can get the screen that goes under the valace for the cab air intake? im sick of having leaves and pine needles blown at me, and before long, mice will be looking for warm cozy places to bed down.. like my cab air box...