Universal Joint failures

From : steve lusardi

Q: has anyone had u joint failures on their long bed quad cab 3rd generation rams i have had 3 failures on my 04 dually. the reason for the failures i have determined to be the position of the drive shaft center bearing mount. after careful measurement i found the mount a little over 1 too high. i have fabricated a steel spacer to compensate. the truck is now noticeably smoother. the difference between full load and no load changes the deflection angle of the drive shaft very little and certainly does not justify the factory position of the center bearing. if you have not checked yours it is worth doing. i cannot believe my truck is the only one with the problem. steve .

Replies:

From : peterd

on fri 21 nov 2008 135024 +0100 steve lusardi stevenospam@lusardi.de wrote has anyone had u joint failures on their long bed quad cab 3rd generation rams i have had 3 failures on my 04 dually. the reason for the failures i have determined to be the position of the drive shaft center bearing mount. after careful measurement i found the mount a little over 1 too high. i have fabricated a steel spacer to compensate. the truck is now noticeably smoother. the difference between full load and no load changes the deflection angle of the drive shaft very little and certainly does not justify the factory position of the center bearing. if you have not checked yours it is worth doing. i cannot believe my truck is the only one with the problem. steve interesting ill have to check. ive a single cab long bed so it may be an issue there. no u-joint in the drive shaft failures but the u-joints in the front axle did fail at 30k miles... replace under warranty but a pita just the same. all to save a $0.10 grease fitting! lets see they saved a dime and what did it cost em oh about an hour or two in labor and parts! .

From : dimbo spams

i have a 2004.5 3/4 ton cummins 6spd short bed quad cab. i have replaced the front and rears twice. the last time at 96k the first under warranty at 25k. they were shotwhat gives has anyone had u joint failures on their long bed quad cab 3rd generation rams i have had 3 failures on my 04 dually. the reason for the failures i have determined to be the position of the drive shaft center bearing mount. after careful measurement i found the mount a little over 1 too high. i have fabricated a steel spacer to compensate. the truck is now noticeably smoother. the difference between full load and no load changes the deflection angle of the drive shaft very little and certainly does not justify the factory position of the center bearing. if you have not checked yours it is worth doing. i cannot believe my truck is the only one with the problem. steve .