so i finally got to tear into my truck this last weekend. i managed to get most the busted parts off.





the upper arm is bent all to hell and i dont know about the lower but im putting a new one on just in case it is...

i got the fender off, the shock and the upper control arm, the knuckle assembly and brakes, dropped the sway bar to drop the lower arms, released the tbar and got the lower arm about halfway off before i had to quit cause it was too dark to work anymore. i still need to pull of the steering gear box and power steering pump and the lower the rest of the way. i have new sway bar bushings ordered too.

now can anyone tell me how hard it is to tear down and rebuild the gear box? or at least a way to pump clean fluid through it to get any junk out of the ports that may have collected while sitting in the wrecking yard?


also the pump i got from the yard uses the brown fluid. can i use normal fluid in it or will it even matter which i use

 

She looks beat up but, can make a full recovery... as for the gear box, Rock Auto offers a rebuild service for $99 bucks... you have to send them a box to rebuild then they send it back think they say a 3 day turn around... that's what i would do...

 

It looks very nice and salvageable. That reminds me i never got your pics for the t-case skid plate. Sorry I've been busier than, well you know how it goes.

 

No worries I do know how it goes. Its very salvageable. After i get the control arms of I can fix the bushings and put them back on and start putting the parts on

 

Nice! Glad to see you get to fix it up and get it back on the road! My big blue baby is going into the shop tomorrow to get the body work done. Sadly between getting rear-ended and getting it in there someone t-boned me and took out both passenger side doors, the rocker panel, and bent the running board down. Today me and dad went to the junk yard and took off a couple doors from a green 03. Very excited to get the call that its ready to be picked up! I miss driving it!!!!

 

Either you have really bad luck or there are very bad drivers in Denver... 2 accidents within less than 6 months?

 

Its a combination of bad luck and bad drivers. I totaled my first blue Durango in Dec. this one got hit sometime in Feb. then again a couple months ago. I've had the worst luck with these things! But they hold up well as far as keeping whoever is inside safe... The ghost of my last truck may be haunting me... LOL But its nice and safe in the body shop now, left it there this afternoon.

 

I have my left fender off right now, too. My Durango took a little front end hit. The pitman arm on the steering gear popped out inside the boot. It don't look like it's messed up, just popped out and it don't wanna stay in. Is there some way to remedy the problem without having to replace the whole steering gear?

 

In terms of it being the steering, you don't wanna be cheap ... if it where me i would just replace it because its always better to be safe than sorry.

 

Ya, that is kind of a good point. Just seems like a waste to replace the whole steering gear. Something tells me putting a new fender on is gonna less fun than taking the old one off.