I would have to agree with this sentiment. Hughes probably promotes this as a premium solution when it's unnecessary. I suppose for some it's might be ok, but if I can make the stock components work with a little bolt grinding that's the route I have to go, this is a low budget truck.

Steve

 

I know all about low budget. I'm doing a full restoration on my 93 and I'm doing it on a budget. I spend maybe 300 bucks a month if that. Little things like mls gaskets, progear timing set, arp headbolts, etc I'll spend a little extra on for reliability and peace of mind. But I've spent maybe 2200 dollars since April, by this April the truck will be done and I'll have maybe a total of 5k into it

 

Yeah my budget is a lot less than that. I'm trying to pull this thing together for less than a grand and I still have a long ways to go. And I'm not counting my labor $$ either, otherwise I'd already be over the limit. If the AT does end up being junk I'll have to spend a little more to get the MT done but this, for me, is not an exercise in doing anything other than replacing things that are worn out or at the end of their serviceable life. Since I was planning on pulling the TB to clean that up I will probably go ahead and pull the intake and set about redoing the lower cover and gaskets, hopefully that'll be the last of the engine work.

For me this is a beater, but even my 'beater' vehicles have to be able to travel out of town reliably. I don't like surprises of any kind and I especially don't like them in the dark in the winter out on a secluded highway.

Steve A

 

So update on the driveline rumble. Replaced u-joints at the pinion and the center as well as the driveshaft center support bearing assembly and I still have a weird vibration. I'm taking the shaft out and taking it to a shop to have it checked out. I can't visually tell when I'm under there whether there's a problem but there could be.

Couldn't replace the trans yoke u-joint because it was different from the others. I was under the impression from the parts catalog, p 16-110C that they were all the same, 4504.575, but apparently they aren't. At any rate the yoke side is slightly narrower than the shaft side. I did remove the existing joint and inspected it / greased it up and then pressed it back into place. There was nothing wrong with this u-joint, in fact there was nothing wrong with any of them really. The pinion u-joint had a little bit of brinelling but it wasn't enough to cause an issue.

I replaced the old GMB u-joints with new GMB I think of the same quality level, marked made in Japan. They weren't the cheapy ones but there were others more expensive too. As a 2wd that will do light duty I don't think this will be a problem. I'm keeping the old ones around, nothing wrong with them actually. I'd like to round up the part number for the correct front yoke u-joint just so I have it.

Hoping the driveshaft shop will be able to shed some light on the problem. This truck project has ballooned into a lot more than I intended from the beginning. I still have a starting problem that I bet will end up being a fuel pump and since there isn't any external filter to 'service' I'm almost sure the bleed down problem is pump related. And then I've still yet to fix the idle stabilization problem although the gaskets for the intake arrived.

Rear axle got serviced last week before T-giving, it was low on lube and pretty dark, needless to say the truck didn't make the trip as had been planned. I did have to round up a new rear diff cover, the original was just nothing but crust.

The weather's turned to crap so of course I need to make a trip to the junk yard to get a fan clutch..haha.

Steve

 

There are 2 different U joints among the 3 on the shaft. I thought that the front on on the rear shaft was the smaller one of the bunch. (Middle joint in the shafts). Are you sure you have the splines together in the correct orientation!? If you're a tooth off it will vibrate.
as far as your choice of parts GMB is GARBAGE I never got much service out of those and I have tried them on several vehicles.
Stay with Moog or skf or neapco or Spicer. You will be happier for longer. And USE those grease zerks! At least every other oil change. Go with the better grade of whichever brand you use. There ain't enough difference in price between the cheaper ones and the better grade. As for keeping used u joints Don't bother see comment on price above.
​​​​​​

 

With all due respect the OE installed joints were GMB and I believe they are identical to the ones I used as replacements. If they were junk then the ones I removed, at 167k miles, would have been trashed, but they weren't. As I said there was a tiny amount of brinelling at the pinion joint but otherwise perfectly serviceable.

As for spline orientation you do realize that the yokes only install one way...right? There's no way to install them improperly because there's a 'keyed' spline that is double width. You have to find the match otherwise you won't be able to install it...period. The thinner yoke is at the trans and that's not reflected that way in the parts catalog, Mopar suggests that the trans yoke uses the same u-joint as the rest.

As for keeping the old joints, sure, I could toss them but I see no reason not to hang on to them when there's no physical problem with the product other than it was installed previously. It's wasteful to just throw good stuff away.

Steve

 

Wrong. OEM U joints of the time, were made by SPICER. and those removed may seem identical because they needed to fit the same hole.... but they weren't.
I've replaced lots and lots of Ujoints and dealt with driveline issues over the years, in my line of work, a he11 of a lot more than I ever have on my own vehicles. . I know about the master spline and such but there are some that will fit any which way you can get them together. It's been a while since I have done a set of them on a Dakota specifically, the last one being my 4WD version, which don't have a 2 pc shaft but on that part I was going by memory. but even back in the 70s Mopar did some goofy things with Ujoints and drive shafts. That said it is entirely possible that the last couple of Dakotas I have owned and worked on (I am on my 5th or 6th of these trucks) have had the center joint different and yours had the front one that way. I have yet to do the ones on my 92, but given history with Dodges (I have never owned any other brand of vehicle in 35 years of driving unless you count Jeep as different) I won't be able to finish off this truck without having to mess with them eventually. and in my experience I stand by my original statement that GMB Ujoints are junk. I guess it is possible that they may have finally improved on them somewhat, as I have avoided them for several years now due to past experience.

 

I'll add that if you can see brinnelling, they're shot.

They'll give off vibrations BEFORE you can see the failures.

RwP

 

Yes, I assumed that, the damaged joint is obviously not being kept. The brinelling however, was not, I think, due to quality issues, it was due to tension on the joint not being released properly, which is unfortunate.

I admit that my experience is not with Dodge / mopar products. Only have had two of these trucks and a B250 before but that was fairly superficial since I farmed out all the service work. I will say though that these GMB u-joints had been installed for quite some time if they aren't OE installs, and I'm not admitting that Spicer was the sole supplier for these to Dodge, perhaps they were, perhaps they weren't, I don't think we can say with 100% assurance. I also don't necessarily buy the blanket argument that a certain manufacturer's product is junk, and I hear it a lot on the TDIclub forum regarding some products.

We will see how long they last, I'm not replacing them, they weren't the cause of the vibration to begin with, the replacement, other than the pinion joint and center support, was a waste of time / money.

And Don, I can appreciate your insistence and devotion to the marque, but if you want people to read everything you contribute try not typing it up as a single block of text, it's very difficult to read when it's all bunched together.

At any rate, the driveshaft is not the culprit in this case, I'm not following this dead end any longer. My first inclination was torque converter failure but I abandoned that at another's insistence. Unfortunately now it appears that I was probably right from the beginning.

Steve A

 

Doesn't matter.

If you can see it, the U-joint is damaged; it's done for.

Keeping it is penny wise and pound foolish.

(Didn't say it was with quality issues! It's just worn out by the time you can see it.)

RwP