lighthawk
Member
I have had the front driveshaft replaced by the dealer twice in 7500 miles on our 2021 3500 hemi.
Apparently the fifth gen RAM trucks have a CV joint on the transmission side. After a camping trip to Nevada I discovered my brand new truck had puked grease from the transmission end of the front driveshaft. At that point I had something less than 2000 miles on the truck.
The dealer ended up replacing the front driveshaft twice and the second time blamed my leveling kit for the failure. They said this would be the last time they would do the work. My opinion is they have nothing better to offer than another CV joint that would fail, so I started looking for other solutions for my offroad camping rig.
I had a 2" RC leveling kit (puck) at first and regretted it. I now have King 2.5" pintops all the way around and Thuren springs. Meanwhile the RAM factory CV joint failed again at 7000 miles.
My mechanic suggested getting a custom-built driveshaft which is pretty common with the wheeling crowd. After doing some research I discovered DriveLines Plus where Jeff has patented the fitting to the tranny shaft and builds a double cardan (sp?) joint with a grease-able shaft to the front U joint flange. I took a measurement and they built and shipped the bolt-on solution.
Jeff suggested installing the new driveshaft using the factory snap ring at the transmission, but if we had a vibration we could drill and tap a grade 8 bolt (provided) to beef things up. My shop installed the new drive shaft for $180 labor. If I had a lift, I could have done the work I suppose, but I have a real job.
I took the truck out in the snow on Saturday and romped on it a bit. We have a FWC camper on our truck, as shown on my avatar. We did two miles of barely traveled double track in deep, sloppy snow, using 4 low and 4 high using the gas pedal and the 6.4 to power along with hard 65-70psi tires. It's a first good test before we go farther afield on our winter trips.
It's a shame I had to spend $1500 to fix a RAM failed design.
Apparently the fifth gen RAM trucks have a CV joint on the transmission side. After a camping trip to Nevada I discovered my brand new truck had puked grease from the transmission end of the front driveshaft. At that point I had something less than 2000 miles on the truck.
The dealer ended up replacing the front driveshaft twice and the second time blamed my leveling kit for the failure. They said this would be the last time they would do the work. My opinion is they have nothing better to offer than another CV joint that would fail, so I started looking for other solutions for my offroad camping rig.
I had a 2" RC leveling kit (puck) at first and regretted it. I now have King 2.5" pintops all the way around and Thuren springs. Meanwhile the RAM factory CV joint failed again at 7000 miles.
My mechanic suggested getting a custom-built driveshaft which is pretty common with the wheeling crowd. After doing some research I discovered DriveLines Plus where Jeff has patented the fitting to the tranny shaft and builds a double cardan (sp?) joint with a grease-able shaft to the front U joint flange. I took a measurement and they built and shipped the bolt-on solution.
Jeff suggested installing the new driveshaft using the factory snap ring at the transmission, but if we had a vibration we could drill and tap a grade 8 bolt (provided) to beef things up. My shop installed the new drive shaft for $180 labor. If I had a lift, I could have done the work I suppose, but I have a real job.
I took the truck out in the snow on Saturday and romped on it a bit. We have a FWC camper on our truck, as shown on my avatar. We did two miles of barely traveled double track in deep, sloppy snow, using 4 low and 4 high using the gas pedal and the 6.4 to power along with hard 65-70psi tires. It's a first good test before we go farther afield on our winter trips.
It's a shame I had to spend $1500 to fix a RAM failed design.
