On Saturday 22 September 2007 12:42 am, SilverEightynine@aol.com wrote:
> what do they mean - can't repair it? What was wrong with it? If its just
> Ujoints and a cardan ball repair kit - those are easy to locate and change.
Well, see, that's just the problem. You're thinking it's a double cardan joint
like they show in the FSM:
http://www.zaccaria-pinball.com/temp/double-cardan-joint.jpg
right? But it's not. Here's the shaft they used in 2001 (4WD, 5Sp trans, V6
engine):
http://www.zaccaria-pinball.com/temp/driveshaft1.jpg
One end has a standard u joint on it, that goes to the front diff; the other
end has what I believe is actually a CV joint on it, replacing the double
cardan that they used in previous years. The output shaft of the transfer
case has a cup shaped receiver for this end, and some bolts to hold it in
place.
As for what went wrong, it looks to me like the rubber boot that should be
sealing this joint failed:
http://www.zaccaria-pinball.com/temp/driveshaft2.jpg
allowing crud to get in, which corroded the innards. It doesn't seem to fail
catestrophically, which I guess is a good thing, but it does make a nasty
griding noise when in 4WD that gets louder the faster you drive. I assume
that it's going to keep getting worse, and eventually something nasty is
going to happen if it's not taken care of, so I wanted to get this done
before winter gets here.
Some research earlier this year didn't turn up anybody that made parts or a
parts kit to rebuild this joint. Every driveshaft place seemed to have the
same answer: replace driveshaft. So I was a bit surprised when this shop
thought that they'd be able to repair it. I guess they didn't check first.
Different story once they actually saw the shaft. I guess my alternative
would be hunting down an earlier transfer case output shaft and converting to
to a double cardan joint shaft, but then I'd *still* have to replace the
shaft, and I'd have to mess with the transfer case too, so that's not really
much of an improvement unless this is a high failure rate part that I'll have
to replace again someday.
So is this a "CV" joint? I don't know if that's the right term for it or not,
but it's definitly not a standard and easy to rebuild cardan or double cardan
joint.
As for why they switched from double cardan to this, I'm curious about that.
My research didn't turn up anything there. Maybe Bernd can tell us? And do
the new Dakotas come with this setup as well? I'm somewhat tempted to go up
to the local dealer and crawl under one to find out.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Oct 02 2007 - 15:23:18 EDT
