Hi there:

Technically, this is my 3rd post, but since my wife and kids are away (and I'm reverting back to my "Mr Noodles" and "Kraft Dinner" bachaelor days) I've got alot of time to bother people It's a little long, but if it helps ONE person, it'll be worth it.

First, y'all have already helped me with an AC compressor problem we've been having ( don't ask). I visit dieselram.com frequently, and one of our members gave me a link to your forums (it's excellent BTW).

Sooo...instead of starting off by posting the endlessly beat to death question "What's the best oil?" (LOL the politically correct answer is "the one that works for you and your truck") I thought I'd reciprocate by offering a piece of advice (like there isn't enough of that here!)

One of our trucks is a 98 12 valve cab and chassis that was acquired when we bought out another company last November. The CTD is my truck (wife has our old gas guzzling 6.5mpg Ferd ) and believe me, they both work HARD every day.

When we got the truck it had 360,000km on it. Knowing the legendary toughness of the 12 valves and P7100 pump, we did some safety upgrades (brakes, rubber, u joints etc) BUT I had a brake shop do the rear brakes. They did the brakes fine, but we didn't even think about the fact that the rear bearings were ORIGINAL equipment.

There was a shimmy present from day one when climbing hills under a heavy throttle. 3 different shops diagnosed it as an out of balance driveshaft. After balancing the shaft, the vibration seemed to lessen quite a bit. And to be honest, I kept thinking it was mud build up in the duallies. Nope!

30 days later, the right rear wheel bearing committed Hari-Kari and decided to take the rest of the rear differential with it. We had virtually NO traditional warning symptoms, no growling, no grinding, nuthin'. Well, that's not true...the truck was telling us, but we weren't listening right.

The damage was so bad, that it took an 8' length of 1" pipe and a sledgehammer to beat out the right axleshaft from the LEFT side of the pumpkin. About the only thing we could salvage was the diff carrier, and one axleshaft...everything else was toast. The right wheel bearing looked like steel wool! Unreal!

The cause of the vibration was the brake drum HOPPING up and down on the bearing which going bad. Eventually, it started destroying the banjo stub, and tearing out the guts of the pinion gears, spiders, blah blah blah.

2 weeks of downtime, $5800.00, and a completely rebuilt Dana later, we got back up and running. A very expensive lesson (my bum still hurts from that bill )

The 12 valve has perfomed flawlessly since day 1...it's just a great motor! But don't forget the rest of your truck! When you start getting into the higher miles, it pays to check stuff (cough like wheel bearings cough) or replace them outright as part of "preventative maintenance".

$5800.00 could have done alot of BOMBING upgrades!

Great site, and look forward to learning even more!

I'm off my soapbox now...

 

Oh, as a foot note.

Not trying to come across as a know it all (cuz I'm the first to admit when I don't know something on these trucks!)

Just wanted to try and contribute something "useful".

(Okay, I'm killing time because there's no kids home tonight, it's super quiet, and it's too hot to go work on the truck )

 

Welcome Aboard!!!.

I also frequent the DR Site but have been here mainly.


All notes are great for the archives not to mention just to add to the maintenance schedule. Most brake shops don't look that close and if it doesn't leak, they won't check it.

Check out the Events area for some Alberta Meets..

Now if I could get Brahma over here...Hmm

J-eh

 

Von,

if you haven't already, be sure t get that KDP done. 98's seem to be the worse at having dowel pins move out.

 

Is it hard to replace the bearing? Sounds like a nightmare! Sure it would be a good excuse to get a Dana 80, but...

 

Heck, if I can replace a wheel bearing (which I did on our other truck), a one armed blindfolded chimp equipped with a pipe wrench and a roll of Duct Tape could do it!

The rears are pretty easy. The front hub assembly (on 4x4's) is fairly simple and do-able, but a definite pain in the ****.

By the way...nice sig picture LOL! Good choice!