Friend of mine has a 2000 Dakota. 5 speed no less, so it makes it
really oddball. He special ordered it and the dealership tried to talk
him out of the 5 speed since they'd never seen one before.
It's nice to have the manual 4wd shifter though, and in the 3rd gen you
can actually reach it while driving without dislocating your shoulder
like on my 2nd gen.
The rack and pinion is nice for steering feel but for the first year at
least they seemed to have a lot of issues with power steering pumps and
racks leaking. My friends started leaking at only 72k and a neighbor's
2000 Durango had the same problem. My friend decided to spend the money
and tossed in a new rack, tierods and pump with the larger diameter
shaft, which also required a new (plastic) pulley. There's two
different pumps, and the only difference you can see is one has a 1mm
larger input shaft than the other. Makes ordering one a pain. If you
do this make sure you get the special tool to install it. An arbor
press was tried and broke the pulley and he had to order another one.
Also a pain -- his Dakota is so early in the 4.7L production run that it
has the wrong underhood sticker for the serpentine belt routing - it's
the one for the 318. We were puzzled until we looked at my truck and
realized the error. Had to look it up in the FSM to get it right.
Also had to rebuild the 9.25" rear end at 75k. Pinion bearings went to
hell until you nearly went deaf from the diff whining so loud it set
your teeth on edge. That was an adventure and a big cost in special
tools. Sure was fun finding a torque wrench that went over 250ft/lb to
set the crush sleeve. That may have been due to a bad choice in diff
fluid, though.
M.B.
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: DML: While we're talking about automatic transmissions...
> From: TerribleTom <silvereightynine@aol.com>
> Date: Fri, February 25, 2011 7:57 pm
> To: dakota-truck-moderator@bent.twistedbits.net
>
>
> On 2/25/2011 9:31 PM, Brian wrote:
> >
> > Yes, but technically he has the 45RFE and don't believe there is a
> > compatible TCM to make the 2000 model year into a 545RFE.
> >
> >
> >
> > brian cropp
> >
>
> Technically I do not have a 45RFE since I do not own a 2000 Dodge Dakota :)
>
> Not looking to make a 545RFE out it... personally I would rather not
> have that odd ball mid-shift gear. I was just curious as I wasn't sure
> just what transmissions were run in 2000. That model year was kind of an
> odd ball.. several transitions... 2000 was the first year of the 4.7L,
> but the last year with the old interior and lever shift T-cases. 2000
> was also the year that the front-end steering was redesigned, to use a
> rack and pinion vs a steering gear box.
>
> I'd rather have a 318 to be honest... I have had unpleasant experiences
> working on 4.7L's in the last year...
>
> --
> terribletom
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Mar 01 2011 - 19:18:32 EST