Durango, Dodge Dakota, is the GC next?

Larry Greenwood did pass the time by typing:

Not if you keep your balls properly lubed.

Assuming NHTSA were to persue this problem, and force Daimler to replace all faulty joints, this might drive Daimler to sell off their divisions in order to gain capital, and hope that JEEP falls onto good hands... *just a thought*

A nice dream come true that would be.

Adonis

L.W. (ßill) Hughes III did pass the time by typing:

Damn. Guess DC wan't to be the target of a class action lawsuit. Sure it doesn't just have a plug waiting on a zerk? Guess not from the article. Love the way DC tries to sweep it under the rug.

Glad my ZJ has zerks.. Come to think of it it's time to squeeze some lube in there.

On 18 Dec 2003 04:47 PM, L.W.(?ill) Hughes III posted the following:

The same can be said of the ball joints in most current production vehicles, and it isn't just from the lack of a zerk. In addition to the bean counters who eliminate zerks, blame also lies with whatever moron decided that plastic is a suitable ball joint material. The ball joints on my S-10 actually started to go bad with less than 30,000 miles on the truck, despite frequent lubrication, and were replaced under warranty. When I bought that truck I was shocked to find that there were actually

11 zerk fittings on the front suspension. It also had a slick remote oil filter with an access door, which was way better than my Jeep's setup which dumps oil all over the side of the engine and the skidplate when the filter is removed.

In conjuction with our tire shop, my dad used to rebuild front ends and the cure for crappy late model ball joint problems was always to install MOOG all-metal joints. The OEM joints may have been okay on the interstates they were designed for, but they sure didn't hold up on rural Alaska roads.

Question: Does the Durango/Dakota use a solid axle front end like the GC or is it IFS?

---------------------------------------------------- Del Rawlins- del@_kills_spammers_rawlinsbrothers.org Remove _kills_spammers_ to reply via email. Unofficial Bearhawk FAQ website:

...and your joints properly packed.

On 18 Dec 2003 05:03 PM, DougW posted the following:

I noticed that there is no mention in the article of the mileage on the vehicles in question.

---------------------------------------------------- Del Rawlins- del@_kills_spammers_rawlinsbrothers.org Remove _kills_spammers_ to reply via email. Unofficial Bearhawk FAQ website:

Has there been any issues with the upper ball joints on the post 98 GC?

Any 99GCs would have had problems by now. Or would they?

Larry

Larry Greenwood did pass the time by typing:

Depends on how you drive. Personally, I'd go take a look and see if there are zerks up there and give the wheels a shake to make sure everything is tight.

I have a '97 2x4 Dakota SLT. The driver's side balljoint went bad at about 60,000 miles and the passenger side at about 70,000 miles. Now the upper control arm bushings are bad at 96,000 miles and the dealer wants 700 bucks to replace them.

Oh well, fixing to get a Jeep in a few months.

Jason Kavanaugh

What does it cost to have my balls properly lubed?