Hey Greetings family and friends . Once again I'm having a major brake issue with My 00 5.9 r/t durango. Problem is what turned out to be a major weakness a defect in the brake systems of these durangos.The problem is the two bolt holes in the steering knuckle that are suppose to hold the brake caliper securely in place tend to in time strip out. I've owned My truck for 9 years now and this has been an ongoing problem pretty much the whole time.. 1st it would be one side ,then the other then maybe a brake after a fix for a few months . then when its time for new pads the whole process starts over again. I've tried heli coils with out much luck. I've went to the junk yard and pulled new steering knuckles twice through the years which in time ended up stripped out as well. So now today thats where Im at back to the passenger side being stripped out. Dodge dealership parts dont make those parts anymore and if they did they would cost an arm and a leg. I am not writing just to complain but to see what others with this problem have come up with to fixing this problem. There must be some other way to correct this . If anyone has any ideas on this issue please I would love to hear them.Ive done alot of work through the years on My truck learning as I go pretty much rebuilt the whole thing Myself and have had My share of some of the frustrations that come with it. But I've
got to say this is by far the most frustrating thing of them all

 

The helicoils should be a permanent fix if done properly. Your other option is 03 knuckles and brakes.

 

Hey Big Guy, how are You & whats up? Thanks for Your input. I was peeping out The pictured post of Your 03 brake upgrade . Nice job. so in 03 some changes were made by dodge due to the facts that from 98 - 2002 they knew that some changes had to be done to a flawed and inadequate braking systems? The brakes were then no match for all the HP the 5.9s were delivering ? If I recall correctly in reply to a similar post You had made a brief comment about changing Your rear drums out as well. Do You have any post concerning this wonderful upgrade? I'm leaning towards the 03 upgrade for the front end of course it will take some time to pull everything together for this project. So when I began and hit those little potholes and preplexits which all work of this nature seems to have,I hopes its ok for Me to ask for Your thoughts and advice . Thanks now & in advance as well.

 

Howdy, how's it goin? Honestly don't know the full reason they upgraded them, but I'm sure better braking performance being needed was part of it.

Anyway, 00 was a changeover year, so you may be able to run the lower ball joints you already have, otherwise you may need to fit the later style lower. Otherwise the 03 knuckle, calipers, rotors, etc bolt on. Your 17" R/T wheels should clear them fine (check your spare for clearance too). You will need an alignment afterwards. Otherwise I didn't run into any gotchas. Upper ball joint was the same, original brake hoses still fit, etc. I poked around on ebay and car-part.com to find a junkyard with some 03 knuckles. Got the calipers from a Durango at the junkyard (Dakota calipers may be slightly different). Original hubs and everything work.


I swapped over my axle to an 03 Durango axle with rear discs. The drum axles had the backing plate flange mounted further out, so I don't think the disc setup would bolt on. Being an R/T you'll need a 3.92 gearset. You will likely have a harder time finding that than a 3.55 gearset, but you can always change gears if need be. You don't want mismatched front and rear gear ratios. I don't think I really documented anything much with that. There is a good page an old Durango owners club member, fireeater, wrote up years ago that I used to help me with the swap. I just grabbed the whole axle, calipers (got new rotors), and parking brake cable from the 03. Everything bolted up. You will need to use your old yoke from the diff on the new diff unless you swap driveshafts.

http://www.local1259iaff.org/axlework.html


Hope that helps.

 

Thanks for all the great advice and info .Have a good one and take good care.Ill let You know how its going down the road.