have a 2001 dakota,4x4,manual trans,6 cyl.has a clunk in steering wheel when stopping and pulling out,sometimes when turning.seems to get worse as truck gets warm.upper and lower ball joints seem fine,no play.no play in rod ends.found a worn rack bushing,replaced both sides.truck does not wander,tire wear is normal.cannot find anything loose.i am thinking it is either a worn rack or the steering shaft,but dont know which one it is.also,checked calipers and pads,nothing hanging up.anyone have similar problems or any ideas.thank you

 

Mine's always done that. Never really thought much into it.

 

very common Dakota flaw its the Steering column intermediate shaft the small looking U joints get loose and they get all rusted up and dry if not oiled up. A fix of a kind is if the small U joints are still ok is to spray them with WD-40 a few times over a few days to soak them then drip motor oil on them I used Mobile-1 this dosent fix the problem but quiets it up some so its not so noticable. Oil under the flex boot also if its bad you will need to replace the Steering column intermediate shaft.

This is for the 2-Wd Dakotas http://www.ebay.com/itm/STEERING-COLUMN-INTERMEDIATE-SHAFT-DAKOTA-97-98-99-2WD-/260825439103?fits=Modelakota|Year:1998&hash=item 3cba685b7f&item=260825439103&pt=Motors_Car_Truck_P arts_Accessories&vxp=mtr

 

I just noticed this on my 2003 a couple months ago. Just out of curiosity, how many miles do you guys have? I'm at about 115k. I guess I would have expected more miles before having to do this since I've kept many cars until around 200k miles and not had to replace a steering shaft. This is my first truck, but I know previous owner and it's not been thrashed off road or anything, just dd service.

 

Started 1 year ago and I’m only at 115K now it’s just well not bad but a poor design my little U-joints were dry but not rusted I think the U-joints are too small weak that’s the problem so they wear out fast unless you catch it early and keep them oiled/lubed up. A Thicker oil may be better like 40 weight Moibil 1 is 10w 30 I should redo it this year WD-40 to clean it up again then re oil.

After I oiled my little U-joints up I still get a small thud but its muffled and I dont notice it that much anymore but its still there.

The early Ram trucks same years as our trucks have this problem also because they have the same shaft if I remember correctly.

I think the problem is they were designed to break in the event of an accident part of a safe crash design so they are weak by design

 

more info

http://www.dakota-durango.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82856

http://www.dodgedakotas.com/boards/gen/18529.html

http://www.autorepairinstructions.com/?tag=dodge look on bottom of page

 

Yeap steering shaft. Not a very good design for a truck.

 

truck has 98,000 miles on it.will try oiling to see if it makes a change.will look into changing steering shaft.saw some on ebay.thanks

 

Great links, thanks for the info. Glad it's nothing to terrible, this thread saved me a lot of trouble shooting time.

 

I read Dodge TSB and it said to loosen the bolts on the colum and allow it to relax (it will move a little left/right.. allow it to go into its natural position and re-tighten.

-Just throwing it out there.. LOL