The joys of owning an old truck

Paul Downes

Member
Messages
959
Location
Westphalia, Michigan
My old dodge truck has been driving me nuts lately. Started out with a small vibration in the front end. Actually it felt like the drive shaft so I did an inspection and couldn't find anything wrong with that so I moved to the front end and found the track bar ball joint shot and another ball joint sloppy. replaced both of those and still had the vibration. yesterday the carrier{center} bearing blew out on the drive shaft so today that got replaced. While I was under the truck I had to jack up the rear end to align the u-joint and some water in the bed found a hole and came pouring down on me. Great, now the truck is peeing on me. Still have the vibration. So tomorrow I will put the truck up on jacks, remove the wheels and run it to see if the drive shaft is out of balance. The vibration had been getting steadily worse until the center bearing blew out. Now it's back to just sort of bad. I may have lost a counter balance weight on the shaft banging around in the woods so it's back to sleuthing and trying not to put a bullet in the contraption.

Something about running old vehicles and not wanting nor affording to get something newer.
 
My old '95 Ram has 180k on it...mostly 2 mile trips to the recycling center. It's had two sets of brakes, new hoses and a new muffler that i can recall. Shows no signs of giving up the ghost and I'm glad 'cause I can't afford a new one :(.
 
I drove my 1977 Dodge for about 500,000 miles. Two engines, two rear ends, three transmissions, several U-joint replacements, etc. I believe when I finally got rid of it the only thing left original was the sheet metal and power steering unit.
Currtn '99 Dodge has 157,000 miles on it. Rear end and transmission have each been replaced once.
 
I've got around 300,000 miles on the truck now. Can't really tell because I have a bad ground I can't find and the speedometer only works when it is damp out. The truck is on it's second transmission. It's a '98 extended cab. Muffler has been missing for a while. Just replaced both front wheel bearings last year. I generally like Dodge trucks because I can really load them up with wood as compared to my son's GMC. (both 1/2 ton) All makes and models have their issues. I happen to like how the dodge rides and handles and think it out pulls some of the other brands in 4x4.

The vibrations occur at low speeds, about 20-25 miles per hour and disappear at higher speeds.
 
If you feel the u joints are good, you might take a close look at your tires, a slipped belt in the tire can cause that type of vibration. Maybe move from front to back to see if the problem moves with one of them.
 
One thing is for certain. What ever it costs to fix the vibration, it will be cheaper than a new truck.

I am finally at that point in my life where I can say a new vehicle cost more than I paid for my first house.:thumb:
 
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