My wife's 98 Dakota RT CC with ~ 45k miles on it had a nasty clunking, and rapid tire tear on the outter edges.
Checked the upper/lower ball joints, and the uppwer ball joints were complete toast. The boots on both were torn (so no more grease in there... and they aren't greasable). The tires had about 3/4-1" deflection due to the ball joints being shot. Worked out a deal with our dealership (handling the repair through a service contract we have on her truck) to instead of putting in more 'CRAP' from Dodge, to install our parts instead (greaseable ball joints, energy suspension bushings, etc.) Truck drives night and day better than before.
That was just the uppers, the lowered were still intact, and will be changed soon.
I would say if the boots aren't torn and you don't have the nasty clunk in the front end when breaking, you still have some 'safe' life left in your ball joints--but definately get them checked elsewhere for a second opinion.
The ones in my wife's truck were pretty bad, and amazing didn't come apart. Another 500 miles of driving and most likely they would have.
Nice that there's a recall on 97-99 Durangos, but not the Dakotas which use the same control arms (4x2 and 4x4) for those same years.
Sam
www.socaldakota.com
619-274-1292
>
> From: "Rick Barnes" <rascal@scrtc.com>
> Date: 2006/02/14 Tue AM 10:46:23 PST
> To: <dakota-truck@dakota-truck.net>
> Subject: RE: DML: RE: What do you think...
>
>
> Makes sense to me, I am sure some of them could get so bad as to cause a
> real incident. I was just recalling the conversation with Bernd.
>
> Rascal
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-dakota-truck@bent.twistedbits.net
> [mailto:owner-dakota-truck@bent.twistedbits.net] On Behalf Of Andy Levy
> Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 12:27 PM
> To: dakota-truck@dakota-truck.net
> Subject: Re: DML: RE: What do you think...
>
>
> On 2/14/06, Rick Barnes <rascal@scrtc.com> wrote:
> >
> > Bill, a ball joint failing while you are driving would be so very rare. I
> > remember a conversation on the list from Bernd and he said he had never
> even
> > heard of such a thing.
>
> It has happened on these vehicles (well, Durango, close enough). In
> fact, the wheel separating entirely is what got the trucks onto the
> CBS national news a couple years ago, because it was a CBS producer
> who had it happen to her, while making a turn.
>
> .
> .
> .------------------------------------------------------------------.
> | Make your plans NOW to attend the National DML Meet in Colorado! |
> | Date: July 15-23, 2006 - More info: http://meet.dakota-truck.net |
> `------------------------------------------------------------------'
>
>
>
>
>
> .
> .
> .------------------------------------------------------------------.
> | Make your plans NOW to attend the National DML Meet in Colorado! |
> | Date: July 15-23, 2006 - More info: http://meet.dakota-truck.net |
> `------------------------------------------------------------------'
>
>
.
.
.------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Make your plans NOW to attend the National DML Meet in Colorado! |
| Date: July 15-23, 2006 - More info: http://meet.dakota-truck.net |
`------------------------------------------------------------------'
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Mar 20 2006 - 10:38:59 EST