I am buying a 2004.5 Dodge 3500 AUTO 4x4 Diesel SRW.

I would like to check out the front end before I buy it, short of going to a dealer or an alignment shop what can I check myself without having the truck up on a hoist.

Is there a checklist with some simple procedures someone can give me or point me to.

Can I check the ball joints with the wheels on the ground ?

Can someone turn the wheel and I watch from underneath the truck etc?

What are a few common things I could watch for.

The vehicle has had very light useage and never was off roaded, and is stock.

It has about 45,000 miles on it and all regular maintainance was done including transmission fluid and filter.

Anything else besides the front end I might have some common problems with??

Thanks

 

I think that these front ends are pretty good. The truck you are looking at has 45K on it. I bought mine with 60K, and I too had the front end on my radar screen. My truck had been run on country roads alot, but I know how to do ball joints if necessary, learned from my last powerstroke. To check the balljoints, you will probably need to jack a tire off of the ground and see if it has alot of up and down slack in it while you pry up and down with a prybar or something. On the drag links and tierod ends, have somebody turn the steering wheel back and forth to see if there is any play in the endlinks. Like I said earlier, these front ends seem to be pretty good, just make sure and lube evereything that has a grease zerk, also, I use a needle to shoot some grease in my balljoints since there are no factory zerks on them. You should be fine. Let us know how it turns out.
Thanks
Scott

 

go out in front of the truck with the tires straight. Look to make sure the tires are straight up and down. If they are not you could have a bent axle. Yes rare i know...But....

I bought a truck and it had a bent axle housing. New ones $2500.00 bucks.

 

better to get the front end off of the ground-grab the wheel, try to move it side to side- any slop-tie rods are bad. try to move the tire up and down. if there is too much play- bad ball joints!

 

I always recommend to people that are buying a used car or truck, make sure to take it out on the highway on the test drive. Get that sucker up to highway speeds and see how it tracks. Drive in the right lane for a bit...then in the left lane, see how it tracks on both sides. That can tell you a LOT about the front end's condition.