Dodge Universal Joints

[Okie Guy]

I have a 2006 dodge 3500 Dually with 80,000 miles. I crawled underneath today while I had it in my shop. The back two univesal joint seals are gone and the factory joints do not have seals. I noticed some metal shards around the joints. The stock joints have no grease zerks. Without hesitation I bought the replacement parts this afternoon and will change them tomorrow. I bought ones with zerks on them.
How often do you other Dodge owners change them out? How often do you grease them?

Phil

[bigmurf]

What brand did you find with zerks?
BTW: Do you have part numbers?

[Okie Guy]

They are all changed. I used Precision Joint part number 351 From O'Reilly Auto Parts. If you are changing them out for the first time since it came from the factory you have to heat up the sockets with a torch. There is a silicone they put in them at the factory to keep the sockets from coming out and it has to be melted out of the exxpansion holes to remoce the sockets. It was a lengthy job at about 5 hours the first time. After they have been replaced one time it will only take an hour or two the next time.

Phil

[kilch123]

Okie Guy

My Dodge eats the center joint about every 60K miles...

I had all replaced with I think Spicer units last year (they are much beefier, but do not have grease fittings) - they seem to be holding up well to the abuse I put them thru (35,000 miles last year, 2500 with the Mountaineer behind me, plus about a dozen drag races with the truck - 75 or 80 passes)

As far as your greasable ones - you should lube when you change oil (around 7500 miles) and make sure that you see grease come out at each cap seal of each u-joint

[clutch]

Our 98.5 was 11 years old with just over 100K and they were all still working when we bought our current truck. No grease zerks on any of them.

[Wild Horse]

My last dodge, I replace the rear joint six times in 286,000 HARD miles....other joints, never.

Going on our "maiden voyage" wednesday, so I checked current tv, and they are fine with 108,000. I'm still gonna replace all of them in August before we go on the "long ride".

[JimF]

My 2001 has 136,500 and the joints are original, have inspected them many times, no faults thus far, knock on wood. Sure hope that continues.

[wersqu]

We had over 160,000 on our 99 Dodge with no replacements necessary. We did have to replace both front axle hubs, the whole thing. It went along with new front rotors and a check on the ball joints etc. No issues with the supposed weak tranny either. I now own a 2006 Chevy and already have replaced 3 glow plugs and one rear universal joint with less than 55,000 miles. Yes it will out pull the 210 hp Dodge but it looks like it needs a few more stops at the garage so far.

[Okie Guy]

Glad to hear about how many miles everyone has on their Dodge trucks. I plan on driving mine at least 250,000 miles before I trade. I don't take any chances with the drive shaft. When I was younger the drive shaft flew aparton my dads chevy pickup. The shaft shreded the propane line. I was a very lucky man that day. Every since then I am over zealous about making sure the universal joints are in perfect condition.

[sreigle]

We turned 60,000 on ours today while towing. I've never even checked the u-joints but I suppose as soon as the rain stops I ought to crawl under and have a looksee.

When I was a kid a u-joint would cause a vibration as it went bad, usually giving me time to do something about it before it came apart. Isn't that still true today?

[noneck]

Right...I'm under the same old school as Steve mentions...as well as a clunk when switching into reverse or drive as the drive line reloads.

[farmboy]

After just 6years and 4 months I rolled over 100k today on my 2004.5 2500 Dodge ctd. No driveline issues yet.

[brenkco]

Good to check them...in a former life, I worked at a gas station in the mountains of Colorado. We serviced pickups that plowed snow and were replacing ujoints and drive shafts all the time.
Ken