Driving a mountain pass today in Southern B.C. and all of a sudden bang and tons of vibrations and shuddering let you wouldn't imagine. Got out of the truck and and noticed that the rear "u" Joint was toast. While in the process to remedy the U Joint to try and get back to the nearest town I notice my transfer case was ready to fall off. The U joints have not been happy the last little while.

For all of YOU, there was a recall a while back indicating that the nuts holding the transfer case to the transmission adapter may not have been installed correcty resulting in a crack transmission adapter flange. It appears like mine sure weren't when they gave me a new tranny 1.5 years ago becausae the stock one didn't work correctly from day one.

Carnage is all I can Say, it's ugly and my truck is a 100 km away, nothing like taking the Greyhound Home when you own a Chrysler. Each buyer should get bus tickets without an expiration when you buy a product from them.

One nut is holding the unit together and it's lose, gotta love a nice Chrysler product.

Seeping on a rum and coke trying ease my tension towards the useless product.

 

wow, that sucks. were ya towing at all?

 

Sorry for your troubles... what year is it?

 

Ollie - A rant without details is almost as worthless as not having photos of the carnage.

You mentioned the U-joints were not too happy recently, so why did you keep driving it, just so you could have this little rant when it failed you could blame Dodge when you knew something was not right??

 

I'll 2nd that... what year truck? TSB number?

 

Sorry, but I have to 3rd that, too. If I knew my U-joints "weren't happy", I'd be replacing them in a hurry before trekking through the mountains. Can't blame Chrysler for that. Kinda like blaming an oil filter company for damage caused by not changing your oil for 100k miles. :|

 

Chrysler has changed 3 U joints in 2 years into the rear diff fitting. Think there's a manufacturing problem, I would say so. That's the problem I have been having the last little while. I take it to Chrysler to have someone check it over and change the parts and they obviously missed something or maybe the shaft wasn't aligned properly. Maybe it's the fact there stock joints don't allow you to put grease in them, in fact none of the original equipment allows for any grease purge. Thats quailty if you ask me. Ya I agree with the oil filter scenario, where talking work that was done buy the dealer. Not neglect on my part!
Why three in two years, I'll have to ask the so called experts on that one.

Sorry I'm not the most computer savy person so I don't know to fill out a sig. My truck is stock, 2003 3500. Drivetrain sucks, transmission been changed once already by chrysler at no charge because they owed up to the fact they had issues. Failed to notice if a U joint was changed then, maybe 4 times.

Yep I leave parts on my truck that are questionable just so I can blame dodge and spend more money on my big Hunk of you know what. That's a brillant statement CamperAndy.

Recall ID#03V503000, Have a look on Motortrend. Case housing I need to week and a half back ordered, that tells me something right there.

 

There is nothing wrong with sealed units as a design feature. Injecting the wrong type of grease leads to more premature failures then sealed units that only have the correct grease from the factory in them. It was not the cost of a frikking Zerk fitting that made them change but shade tree mechanics that trashed them and in the end that makes Dodge look worse. That said you can buy joints with zerk fittings if you really want them and grease away.

You need to work on you narration if you want support or even sympathy. So add information and it would possibly be helpful if you said how many miles between failures or what kind of use you put on the truck.

Just to say the whole thing sucks is painting with a really broad brush that you know is not accurate.

55K on my truck and no added grease to the single u-joint (only inject the double cradan joint each oil change) and I have no play and no issues.

 

Not trying to start a war or bashing thread, But if you were broken down somewhere, and taking a bus home, I think the last thing I would want to hear is I need narration training. Sounds like the dude is a little frustrated and I can't say I blame him.

On another note.... if you are trying to say that if I built 100,000 trucks without at least 5 zerk fittings per truck at say, 50 cents a truck ( probably less than that but just guessing for hypothetical reasons).

That's a savings of at least 50grand, and I know they built more trucks than that. I think they left the zerks off is for economics pure and simple

. Ask any off roader or competition off-roader if they have zerks on their u-joints in their trucks, you already know the answer, if serviced correctly they last way longer than without the fittings.

just my 0.2 cents

 

Ford and GM are the same way. I see all kinds of things fall apart on the new Furds the you never used to see, wheel bearings, axles bent or broken, seats breaking through the bottom of the cabs just to name a few.

 

That's a savings of at least 50grand, and I know they built more trucks than that. I think they left the zerks off is for economics pure and simple

. Ask any off roader or competition off-roader if they have zerks on their u-joints in their trucks, you already know the answer, if serviced correctly they last way longer than without the fittings.[/QUOTE]

I agree 100% that greasable fitting will last longer, but, only for the people that will get under there and grease them. ( like us). The majority of the people/truck buyers wont though.

 

The Zerk is not the only savings, it is more expensive to machine a greasable joint. Remember they are cross-drilled.

 

Sooo what happened to the transmission? After all, that's what the title of this thread is!!!

 

Greasable joints are inherently weaker than non-graesable joints. For the simple fact that the grease gallery hollows the crosses and makes them weak. Drag racers don't use greasable joints. (at least we don't). And CamperAndy is correct. The wrong grease is sometimes as bad as no grease. Also, I have even seen a greasable joint fail because all of the caps took grease but one and that cap and needles failed. Airgrabber is right, if the joints had zerks, would this guy grease them???... I doubt it. Let the guy sit and get drunk feeling sorry for himself. Somewhere out there is underpowered Chevy or Ford that doesn't beat up drive train parts that will fit him fine. I'll keep putting parts in mine as long as I get that little kid smile on my face when I push on the skinny pedal. OK, OK, I'm done... (dundun98 out.)

 

Dude you are truely wrong! You have no idea what this guy would and wouldnt do. Also he didnt say he was chugging beers and crown and coke. He said sipping! The guy is ****** as would any of us be if our trucks broke down and we were riding a bus. Im not siding for him saying he is right or wrong but i am saying you are wrong for bashing him! So if you dont like what he is complaining about dont bother to post!