soooo was doing a little light offroading n hit a dip a bit too hard. ended up snapping the spindle that the driver side cv axle attaches to on the front differential... snapped clean at the case to the diff, luckly didnt bust the seal, she kept all her oil inside. anyone ever work on these before or have any idea how much of a pain in the *** its gonna be to fix... im seriously thinking about a solid axle swap if i keep busting front end parts even doing light offroading.

picture to come after i come home from work

 

Replacing a spindle is a cake walk compared to going SAS on these trucks. Remove the axle nut, pop the ball joints, tie rods and sway bar links off, unbolt it, bolt in a new one. Hardest part is probably breaking all the bolts loose.

 

Definitely post a picture. I'm interested to see what you're talking about, since it doesn't seem to be what I call the spindle.

 

torque is what breaks axles. do you think maybe the wheels came off the ground? this creates a sudden shock when the spinning wheels make contact with the ground again.

disconcerting that "light" wheeling broke your axle. I know the rest of the front end is weak, but i consider the drivetrain of the dakota relatively stout. are you V8? leveled/lifted? 8.25 front end? big tires? also weird that the stub broke and not the joint.

 

Case to diff? Doesnt sound like you broke a spindle. Sounds like you snapped the inboard snub on your cv joint?

Either way, pics or it didnt happen! :-P