They weren't, but they should have been!
While waiting for servicing to be finished on my
truck, I took a Dakota Quad Cab with V6 and stick for
a test drive. I was curious to see if the shift into
reverse
clunk and the rear end 40 to 55 mph whine were special
traits of my Club Cab ('99, V^ and auto).
The Quad Cab (with 5 speed) would clunk loudly, to the
point that one would replacing u joints on a "normal"
vehicle), in 1st when accelerating or letting off the
gas. Not quite so loud in second, etc. The slop in the
rear was obvious.
The salesman said that was normal, not only for the
quad cab, but any stick shift vehicle. Funny, no other
stick shift I have ever driven does it..except when
there is a rear end problem or just before the ujoints
break and the drive shaft clucks around freely. Was
the salesman embarrassed? No? Defensive of my attack
on his product? No.
I stopped at another Dodge dealer, test drove a Ram
quad with a stick. Nothing. Quiet and clunk free
acceleration. The trans shifted much nicer than the
rough one in the Dakota.
Okay, since Dodge says the clunk and whine are
problems
that every truck has and basically I have to live with
it, I have a question. would taken it to a repair
shop, with real mechanics, to get a new set of gears
installed alleviate this problem? Currently it is a
3.55 one legged beast.
I love the truck, it's just irritating for my wife to
be drowned out by the rear end...not that I really
mind it in that instance :) And it's embarrassing to
shift into reverse and have everyone look at the
truck.
TIA
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 11:54:37 EDT