thanx man...any specific type of gear oil to be used?

 

Double check with your owners manual, but if I remember right, you want to use a 80W-90 lube.

 

turns out,the fluid was just excess left over in the axle sleeve that dribbled out when the mechanic pulled the steering knuckle out of the axle to replace the ujoint.at least this is what the gen manager told me when they couldnt find the leak....does this make sense to y'all?he said the inner seal is towards the middle of the diff housing and what i was seeing was just runout.

 

Yah, I could see that being the case. If it keeps up after a couple days, I'd start looking deeper. And on your original topic, I just put a track bar in my '97 Ram last night. Made a HUGE difference.

 

Oh yeah, if the U-joint was replaced on that side, then there would definately be some fluid that got into the axle tube. Like Snafu said though, keep an eye on it. Clean off the end of the axle tube and keep an eye out for any new fluid that appears.

 

thanx guys,i dont think there can be that much leftover fluid,theres gotta be a leak in there.of course theyll fix it for free cause i already had it in there once for this and they told me what...well,you know.
gonna check track bar tonite and install new belt.did ya know the air filter for the '01 360 is the same for the '01 318?i did not know this.had a left over k&n and all i had to do was cut the little rubber tabs off the side.sweet!
sorry...i like to ramble on like this.
thanx again for the update.

 

I had to replace the track bar in my 96 about 4 months ago...along wth new ball joints, and new rod ends....that was a pain...made a big difference though.

 

How long did it take you and besides the 2 bolts holding it in, was there anything special you had to do when swapping it?
Mine was new back in June and is now bad. It's a Moog which is supposed to have a lifetime warranty so I'll be testing that out soon. If not, then it'll be the solid steel bracket and the 2002 bar next. "F" the stock one...

 

It looked easy and turned into a major pain in the ***. The lower bolt on the axle side was easy, came right out. The frame mount is a tapered seat, like a tie rod end or a ball joint. I spent 30 minutes on it with a ball joint seperator (pickle fork) and an 8 pound sledge. Wouldn't budge. So I heated up the frame mount with the torch (and ran out of oxygen [:@]). Ended up pounding the pickle fork in as far as possible, then pounding on the stud from above with a 3 pound sledge. Had to use a pipe on the end of the stud cause it's behind the spring and I couldn't get directly on it with a hammer. It finally popped then.

When it was done my wheel was off about 20*, which isn't uncommon. I took it in for an alignment and they found one of the tie rod ends was also shot. Was hoping they'd last til spring, but I'll replace the one they said was bad now and do the rest next year.

 

how was the install? easy? Since the bar is new, i'd think it'd come out pretty easy since it hasn't been in there more than 6 months. Have you thought of the solid steel bracket?

http://www.solidsteel.ca/news.htm

this would be my next step if the Moog tracbar exchange is not a freebie...