Hi all. I replaced the rear U-joint near the differential yesterday only to see that the front u-joints on my 4x4 ram 1500 were so loose and worn out I was scared to drive it. The clicking noise in the front end is HORRENDOUS.. Anyway, Replacing the fronts seemed too involved for me to do alone so I brought it to the dealer... or stealer.... LOL... They are charging me 500 to do both... Is this a fair price? Just curious.

 

NOOOO that aint a fair price. They are realy very easy to replace.

1. remove the tire
2. remove the calipers
3. remove the disk
4. remove the I want to say 3 bolts behind the hub assembly (Leaving the hub intact to the cv axle)
5. slide the whole cv axle out
6. setup a good work area to beat the hell out of the caps on the ujoints till they come out
7. put new ujoints in
8. do steps 1-5 backwards

Nothing to it. I think it took me about 2 hours to do the whole thing.

 

too late now.. just picked it up. Truck still making terrible noise when shifting from overdrive to a lower gear. I don't have time the mess with it anyway.. building a house right now.. I wonder what is making this noise in the rear. At least the clicking is gone in the front now.

 

man your getting hosed.
but in anycase.. its not toooooo bad of a job of you dont mind fighting with your truck if you have rust, and the truck wasnt propperly lubed. also.. when you buy new ujoints.. you want to get greasable kind, and use synthetic grease in them. my husband does the work on my truck, and she eats ujoints like candy. but not as often anymore because of the greasable ujoints that we have been using synthetic grease in them.
it usually takes him about an hour to do each side.. maybe a little bit less.. if you dont mind waiting till tomorrow morning i can have him shoot you an email on how to do it as simple as possible. he does all of the work on both of our dodge's i refuse to take them to the stealers. and my brother in law works for dodge as a mech, and ive only had more problems coming out of the dealership than going in.
but that has been my experiance. and i get that a lot especially when my hubby deployes all of the time.
didnt mean to ramble on for too long. your ujoints will hold up longer than you think. but it isnt too hard of a job, and i think there are two on each side.. when one goes bad.. my hubby does them all.
seems like a lot of work for a truck, and sometimes it is.. but i look at mine with emotional attachement.. lol.
take care, and ill have him shoot you an email on how to do this.
shannon

 

thanks but I am in the middle of building a house and I barely had time to put the rear U joint in. I already had the dealer install the fronts. I have a huge issue with a noise in the mid section to the rear of the truck. I am starting a new thread about this. Thanks...

 

Ouch

I never take my car to the dealer. If something breaks I can't fix, which is rare, I take it to a private shop.

 

believe it or not.. I am not sure if the private shops around here are competent because I had all of them tell me that they needed special tools to do the job and I was better off bringing it to the dealer..... I think it was more of them just being lazy and not wanting to leave thier lunch LOL