My durango has recently started whining all the time (sounds JUST like a power steering pump so i assume its going out. The gear box is shot theres all kinds of play in the wheel when im driving down the highway. Its so bad, alignment shops cant align it perfectly because theres so much slack in the gear box. So i know and im prepared to replace both of them. Now, im wanting to put 33X12.50/17's in the truck. Aggressive knobbies and im wondering... Are there any issues with steering on the factory pump/gear box? I don't know what people do, but what i was considering was taking the pump and possibly the gear box out of a 98 3/4 ton 4WD dodge pickup. From pictures, both of them look like they would swap right in, but i cant find any information on it to see if someones actually done i or not. I really want it to be very easy to turn even with the 33's on it

 

Never tried,

I know there is a TSB on the 1999 Ram 2500 and 3500 gear boxes so stay clear of those. Also there are two different type steering gear, one for regular and heavy GVWR. Now I never tried but at least here is some info to consider. The heavy's were the V-10 and the Cummins equipped.

 

Dodge (at the time) only recomended a max tire size of 33”. If a vehicle came in for warranty work related to the suspension and it had tires larger than 33” they could and would not honor warranty.

Other than that.. no idea. I run 32” tires on my Durango and I have no issues. Then again, I only put about 1k miles a year on it.

 

Okay. That makes sense because i looked it up and theres a 7500 and an 8800 weight rating on the parts site. Now if i did do a swap, it would all be new parts so i hope i wouldn't have to worry about any TSB issues... I just don't want to spend the money on a new pump and gear box and have it be hard to turn. And PublicHair are you running wide knobbies or just some A/T's or what? My concern is having the 12.5 inch wide knobbies affecting it negatively. But i don't know. I put 25,000 a year at least on my durango so i wanna make sure i do it right...

 

I don't know if the 3/4 ton Ram output shaft will fit a Durango pitman arm or line up for that matter, however Auto Zone is offering a steering gear box for "Snow Plow" package (which was never produced???) for cheaper which might be your medicine. I've never played with it but you might wanna take a peak.

 

Okay thanks. And ive read that, and all the parts houses ive seen offer the "snow plow package" and ive researched it a bit and people say its not worth it and it adds to the amount of turns from lock to lock. And yeh i was concerned about how it would fit up to the pitman arm... The pictures that i looked at made them look the same, but pictures arent always accurate. I don't know if anyones ever attempted it... I may just have to go to the salvage yard and compare 2 of them

 

I run an AT tire.

 

Well that's new information to me, I haven't heard any difference yet on the two in comparison. But you were saying that you want to run 12.5" tires well your already going to have to run offset rims, then add that to turning sharper = disaster.

I'm with you in going to the bone yard and doing some investigation.

 

Have you tried fitting the 33x12.50x17 tire under yet to see if it will fit and/or turn.

I currently have 285/75/R16 on mine with the T/S kit, and there is a not much room to spare for turning.

I guess it depends on your backspacing of your rims. Are you getting aftermarket or using the R/T rims?

Here is comparison to my tires (mounted on 16x8 rims)

Diameter inches (mm) 32.83 (833.9) 33.03 (838.84) 0.19 (4.94) 0.6%

Width inches (mm) 11.22 (285) 12.52 (318) 1.3 (33) 11.6%

Circum. inches (mm) 103.14 (2619.77) 103.75 (2635.29) 0.61 (15.52) 0.6%

Sidewall Height inches (mm) 8.42 (213.75) 8.01 (203.52) -0.4 (-10.23) -4.8%

Revolutions per mile (km) 614.31 (381.71) 610.69 (379.46) -3.62 (-2.25) -0.6%

 

Well i don't want to turn sharper, but i also don't want to lose any of my turning radius. And this is all in process so nothings set in stone yet, i have the. T/S lift now, but its not done its going up higher whether i A) solid axle swap the front end or B) have a custom IFS made for the thing. Im putting the 17" RT wheels in the truck i love them a lot so im using them. I can acquire some extra spacing by either my solid axle or custom IFS that i do but i wanna have a strong enough steering system to hold up to all of it. I know that a SAS is a HUGE project, but if i do it right, its worth it to me