High fella's

I have been lurking here for a while, lots of serching when I need some info on my Truck. Thanks for all the Help.

Well I have something to contribute.

I have an 01.5 2500. It has 185k .
I put in new ball joints about 3k ago (Second set). Dont you now my left hub just quite wendsday. I am sure the right is not far behind. So my delema, What to do,New hubs or locking hubs with a cad delete. I did get 185k out of the last set, but that is probablly an exception not the norm.

This is how I justified the cost,
I will keep the axle forever,
I need 750 worth of bearings now
I might need one more set of bearings, who really knows but the chance is there.Another 750
I have had the cad fail 2 times on me. Both times I ended up stuck wet and cold. That has got to be worth 500.
Am I sure it is worth it to me for 1760, I dont now but I went with it

I called ems They had everything in stock for me other than the 4130 inner axle for the cad delete
I drove out there from ct. and picked everthing up The same day. The axle is coming from moser straight to me in a few days. I went with the 35 spline outer it was not much more. The only custum stuff is the hub and the spindle, they tell me the outer stub shaft is also but if they ever go out of buss, I can get a custom one cut if I ever need to.

My left hub was shot so I installed the left side yesterday. Everything went smoothe as silk. They give you a nice little instuction packet but if you are comfortable with this stuff you will breeze through. The only issue I had were my studs. They were to loose in the new hub. I miked the holes and they were dead nuts on the new hub. The nurl on my studs was just wasted. For 30 bucks I bought new studs locally.

I have read a couple things in some past post's while searching that I think need mention.
An older post mentioned you get rotors , Not with this kit you use your own rotors
I have also read that guys have had to do a little grinding for the 35 spline outers to fit. Mine went in with plenty of room
I red many times people asking how far they stick out, I did not measere but they do stick out far. That does not bother me, My truck never will win any buetty awards.

Install took about 4 hours for the side. That was with a lunch stop, a trip to the parts store and a very stubburn axle ujoint. That joint also had 185k on it.. still as tight as can be. I did retire it, but it is on the shelf for a trail spare.
I now have a lopsided truck with only the left side done but it works fine, Tuesday or wendsday I will takle the other side.

For guys that like this sort of thing you get some nice stuff. It looks great just sitting on the table.Tolerence's are dead nuts. Everything is perfect.
This stuff is not rocket science but really takes some time and brains to get right, I think these guys at ems did a great job and came a way with a great heavy duty product.

ED

 

ed, where did you purchase your balljoints the first time that you had to replace them again? When I bought my truck a little over a year ago, I replaced all 4 with Napa's premium, greasable ball joints and they only lasted about 3500miles before I started to get a descent amount of play in them! I replaced them with the same thing again (they gave me new ones free of charge), and the left side is good yet, but the right ones have just a tiny bit of play in them, but seem to be holding up fine now. I went with sealed ones on the bottom since they are such a pain to grease.
When one of my hubs goes out again, I'm definately going with a EMS hub kit.

 

I bought my truck used from a dodge dealer with 50k on it. The front end was pretty tired. The deal that I made for the truck included a new steering box, track bar, ball joints, and rod ends. They supplied all the oem parts I did the labor. As I look back I did get 132k out of the ball joints, But they sure could have used to be replaced 30k ago.

The joints I just put in are moog , all 4 are greasable.

ED

 

Check out Rock Auto, looks like you can get the hub unit/bearings by Timken for $205.00 w/4whl abs and $179 w/rwh abs.

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/raframecatalog.php