Just picked up a 1995 regular cab long bed Ram 1500 SLT that has about 76K miles. The motor/transmission runs very strong (5.9) and the brakes are surprisingly good. I have not driven a dodge truck of this generation before, but the steering and overall suspension is not great. Its very vague on center and there is plenty of free play to the steering.

I know its a 15 year old truck, but where would I start with trying to firm up the steering and getting a firmer feel to the front suspension? I will have a wheel balance and alignment (the car does shimmy a bit at 45-50mph). What is the suspension setup on this beast? Are there steering stabilizers? The tie rods are OK now (replaced before I bought the truck)

Any help on where to start?

Thanks, Mark

 

use the search feature you n00b

 

95MaroonMonster,

Didn't your mother ever teach you something about "If you can't say something nice..."

Honestly, not a very warm welcome to a new forum member. Yes, I tried the search and found a lot of overwhelming info (some helpful, some not). Wouldn't it have been more productive to at least suggest some SEARCH topics to get me on the right track.

Come on guys, everyone was new to this once. Obviously you are passionate about your trucks since you are here. Isn't this forum supposed to be about helping like minded people?

 

Don't worry about maroon. He just hasn't gotten laid in awhile.

The play in the steering can be fixed by adjusting the steering box. You can find the DIY in the DIY link at the top of the page. It's not hard, and the end result is great.
For your other questions, your leafs might be shot, and spending some bones on new shocks would help out tremendously.
BTW, Welcome to the forums.

 

welcome to the site! there are some guys on here that can be complete jerkoffs at times, please disregard them and their comments....


is your truck a 2wd or 4? the steering box as mentioned is a great place to start.......if you have a helper, look under the truck and see if you can spot any play in it, look at the tierods to be sure they were replaced, when getting your alignment, the guy should recommend parts that are worn out.....you can buy a universal stabilizer at a parts store.....if its 4x4 then search for "death wobble".........hope this helped

 

Welcome is all I can say.

 

all i gotta say, welcome to DF
and it sounds like our trucks are actually quite similar, what motor do you have

and just as friendly advice put your trucks info in your sig, it makes it so much easier to help

 

THANK YOU for the informative response. I had not noticed the DIY link. Very helpful. I will definitely look into all those things to try and improve my new addition. Thanks again.

See, that wasn't so hard

 

He said 5.9.

 

Good idea about the signature line. I will definitely put one in. I just picked up the truck last night and am getting it registered and on the road tomorrow. I don't even know all the stats on the truck.

Yes its a 4x4. and it has the 360 in it.