Hey all,
Just got the October Issue of Car & Driver Magazine. Nice
Picture on the cover of a Shelby Durango with a nice looking hood.
Anyway on page 138 they are doing a long term test of 1997 Dakota
with a two piece drive shaft seems they had been having problems
with the boot continually coming off the 2 piece unit so the dealer
installed a one piece "Telephone Pole" drive shaft. The picture of
the new one is the same one on my R/T. They got this done under
warranty. here's what they wrote on page 138 "We faxed over the
records documenting our chronic boot problem. This time, we were
in luck. A redesigned drive shaft solved the problem. Installation
took two days. As it turns out, there was a design flaw in the
original two-peice driveshaft" They go on to say "Chrysler says it
will replace the two-piece shaft on any Dakota that experiences our
type of problem (i.e., those that have been driven more than 90 mph)."
The reference to being driven over 90 mph was due to the fact every
time they drove the truck over 90 mph the boot came off or completely
shredded. Just food for thought since I know a while back there was
a discussion on upgrading from a 2 piece to a one piece drive shaft.
Mike Catlin
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