Griffsyj

I'm sure it's been beat to death, but I'm going to go ahead and post about my steering since my ol' lady is tired of hearing me talk about my cursed truck.

I'll start off with some background of my woes, if you want to skip down to my questions...I'll throw something in bold so you know where to start reading.

I bought this truck from my pop when we ordered him a 2016 2500 single cab with 6.4 hemI. He doesn't do anything that requires a diesel anymore and didn't want to pay for it, or 4x4 option. My 03 1500 with the 4.7 always did the job I needed it to, but with almost 200k on the clock i was starting to hear a lot of valve train noise, and intermittent trans slipping...it was time to go. At the time all I had was a 6x12 enclosed trailer but I knew bigger things would come down the road. A deal was struck for the 06, and then it was mine. It got the intake and exhaust, and I had a little bit of soft steering, so it got a steering pump brace and everything was great. I towed a u haul trailer, and that's when I started having TIPM issues, so I bypassed it with a 4 prong etrailer kit and said that id upgrade to a 7 pin bypass kit when I actually needed it. Did some pads and rotors on the truck, no big deal.

This past summer I found a good deal on the old style edge juice with attitude on ebay for my truck, so I bought it and installed it. I was originally just going to put analog gauges in the truck since I don't really care about power, but the edge was cheaper so thats how I got that. After reading up extensively, I set it to setting 2, the 40hp TOW tune since my trailer stayed hooked up to the truck, and I'd pull it with a variety of loads a few times per month. The first time I had to get on the interstate and accelerate hard to merge, the clutch slipped. Since this is the vehicle we take on trips ( because we tow the trailer for camping, atv ride trips, kayak trips) I opted to go ahead and bite the bullet and bought a valair single disk clutch kit. Pulling the trans out and installing it was a nightmare, bolts were seized, everything in general went wrong. Decided to replace driveshaft u joints while I was there, had to had a machineshop press out the rear shaft joints with a 50ton press and heat. My 20 ton press wouldn't budge them. He said in 30yrs he had never had that much trouble swapping u joints before. I couldn't get the front driveshaft disconnected from the front axle at all. The torx head bolts are completely seized in place. So I decided to leave the front shaft alone for the time being. Got it all back together, and went on to change diff fluids. Pulled the back cover off, and there were 2 teeth of the ring laying in the bottom of the pumpkin. So I had the rear end rebuilt and the front end checked out. Then coming back from a trip 1 month later, the alternator seized up and took out the serpentine belt, along with every other pulley on the front end of the truck leaving us stranded. So I replaced all that crap.

Now I have finally upgraded to a 24ft enclosed car hauler, and have ignored a slight bumpsteer issue for about 6 months now which after the recent snow, has gotten much worse and with trips coming up this spring, I need to address them now. The truck only gets used to pull a trailer on our trips and to go to the hardware store, along with going to work on days that 4x4 is needed to get around.

I have new wheelbearings to install because I feel some play with those, Luke's link Trac bar bushings to replace the factory rubber ones, new front brake lines because they are rusted bad and look like they may brake off, and here are my questions for the rest of everything.
The search bar isn't working for me so I cannot locate the correct part numbers for the front driveshaft joints(it's time to fight that apart one way or another) or for front axle joints. If anyone has the part numbers for the ball joints, tie rod ends, etc that would be a big help to me. The front end now has about 2inches of play in the steering wheel

I don't feel that the truck is safe to drive anymore until the front end issues are addressed, so shes parked for now and im borrowing the 2016 hemi truck when needed to pull the trailer. Btw, I used the 2016 to go pick up the trailer 9hrs away, and was impressed by how well it towed it home. Although it WAS empty..and sucked a lot of gas.


Any help with the part numbers would be appreciated, or advice on other things to look at to fix my front end issues. Thanks for listening, my ol lady surely appreciates it hahaha. Especially since this was supposed to be a "trouble free upgrade for my truck issues" and has been a big headache for the past year and change. I paid 20k for the truck, and have thrown an additional 5k at it since then. It's always something I guess. Good thing I love the truck, and can't afford to buy a brand new one.

Griffsyj

Found here u joints on a different thread. This list was posted by harley topper.

2x Front Axel: 1.375” length, 2.920” cup diameter, Inside Snap Ring
.......Lifes - 5006813
.......(no greaseables available)

2x Rear Shaft (short bed, one piece shaft): 1410 Series - 4.188” length, 1.188” cup diameter, Outside Snap Ring
.......Lifes – 5-1410x (replaces obsolete 5-801x). This kit comes with multiple snap ring sizes for easier installation.
.......Greaseables – 5-160x

1x Front Shaft, front joint at pinion: 1330 Series - 2.556” length, 1.125” cup diameter, Inside Snap Ring
......Lifes – 5-795x
......Greaseables – 5-3147x

2x Front Shaft, center/rear joint at CV: 1350 Series – 3.625” length, 1.188” cup diameter, Outside Snap Ring
.......Lifes – 5-1350x (replaces obsolete 5-799x). This kit comes with multiple snap ring sizes for easier installation.
......Greaseables – 5-178x


Still searching for all the ball joints, tie rod ends, etc part numbers.

richard

Front axle joints..... NAPA 464 and they are greaseable
Upper ball joint....MOOG K7460 greaseable
Lower Ball joint....MOOG K7467 greaseable

Griffsyj

Thanks for the numbers! Are these Ball joints press in and press out? My '93 d350 had screw in uppers and press in lowers. I didn't realize the uppers were screw in at first and tried pressing one out. After fighting it for 3 hours, I found the answer online and it screwed right out haha. If they're press in I'll have to go rent a ball joint press from advance auto or somewhere.

Green_Machine

They are press in and out. They are a *****. Usually use the ball joint press, two torches and a bfh. Not a fun job.

FYI on the universals, a trick I have used is to cut out the center of the ujoint with either an oxy-acet rig, or use a 7" grinder disk to cut them out. Then you are only pressing on one cup at a time. Add heat with a torch and they come out pretty easy (Usually!).


For the steering, consider upgrading the whole linkage to the 2008+ type. I have found it to be way better.

Chay