I bought a 2006 V8 Dakota quad cab 4x4 last January with 66000 miles on it. I have a 1999 v8 Dakota That i have had for a long time. I bought the newer one because my older one was so nice and dependable. Anyways, 8 months later I was getting bad squeaking and grinding noises from the front end. The front of the truck bounced really bad (bad enough to crack my windshield from turbulence). I couldn't tell what part of the suspension was going bad (other than i knew the struts were garbage!). So, the tear down began. It took me the better part of two days. I had pre-ordered Moog upper control arms, ranch struts and Moog coil spring and new strut mounts, and new coil seats (ramps). To my surprise, there turned out to be even more wrong !! the lower ball joins had a half inch of play in them. The sway bar bushing ends were slopping and warn out, the lower control arm bushing were the strut mounts was seized on both ends .. I had to buy and replace everything !! I wound up having to replace both lower control arms and the mounting bolts (dealer only). I hat to cut the old lower control arm mounting bolts off with a torch just to get the old lower control arms off. I had to purchase new bolts to mount the new strut assemblies to the control arms.
Both tie rod ends had about 1/4 inch of play or more in them. when I removed the old strut assemblies one of them sprung!! The top nut off as soon as i lay it on the ground !! the strut fell apart !!
all this on a truck with only 66000 miles on it !!
Over all of the way dodge had designed and assembled these trucks is very, very poor. Fu****g very poor. it would seem that the older generation was much better built and a lot easier to work on. I was not at all impressed.

Over all expenses and where I got my parts ( i found that Oreilly auto parts could get just about anything MOOG for my 06 Dakota within a day). Auto-zone had nothing but stock crap to put back on.. These are the quality of parts DODGE should have used if they were gonna poorly design something instead of poorly design it and use crappy parts :

Moog coil springs (a lot tuffer, a little hard to compress but worth it I gained an inch more in height than usual with these) Oreilly 122.95 for both with tax

Rancho struts (has a fatter shaft than stock struts) shockwearhouse 250.00

Moog upper control arms 200 for both Oreilly auto parts.

Lower control arms (not Moog Factory replacement ) 220.00 each Oreilly auto parts.

Moog Lower ball joints -- 140.00

New lower control arm mounting bolts (both sides dealer only, special bolts for front end aligning) 80.00

new hardened lower strut bolts Fasten-all 15.00

New Moog sway bar end links Oreilly 40.00 for both

New center sway bar bushings (energy suspension) 40.00 Auto zone.

New Moog tie rod ends 80.00 for both Oreilly auto

New strut mounts (had to use old rubber from old struts to fit ramps for coil springs) Oreilly 31.99 each

coil spring ramps Oreilly 15.00 each

90 degree grease fittings for lower ball joints.. (if you use the st8 ones, you will never be able to greese your lower ball joints) 5.00 got them from work for free.

front end alignment 150.00 At a very reputable place (trust worthy place, well worth the money to make sure its done right the first time)

tools used:
coil spring compressor (may need a hammer to get the compressor blocks in and out of the Moog springs use a lot of care)

Ball joint press kit ( this vise can be used to push out bolts from control arm bushings, was very effective with the use of liquid wrench)
Nice long and short Metric Wrench set
Oxygen acetylene torches for saving time and just cutting **** off (use with care)
nice hydrolic jack
4 jack stands (2 in front 1 on both sides under frame under front doors use care)
need a big socket to loosen the front hub nuts
a ball joint fork separator
a good 5 lb hammer
metric socket set
assortment of ratchets sockets ect.
pry bar
good grease gun (to grease all the joints after assembly)
something comfortable to sit on and/or lay on too.

And the will to move on and get it done through the whole procedure !!

took me a total of 18 hours all by myself. one 12 hour day and a 6 hour day. then a hole day to get the front end aligned. what a damn mess !!

I put anti-seize on every control arm bolt and inside every bushing to ensure the next time I may have to tear it a part i know I wont have any problems getting the **** apart and costing more money..

anyone need points tips or help with doing any of this is more than welcome to comment.

I have the old coil springs that are still good.. free to anyone that needs them.

After its all been said and done "x" amount of dollars later, the truck drives and rides down the road perfect.. handles better than I ever thought it would. The front sets a litter higher than the rear. But the rear shocks are next.

 

That^^, my friends, is the right way to fix the front end issues on these trucks the first time! You are correct, though, a truck should never have these issues with so little miles.

 

Thank you :-)

 

Rear shocks will be bad-assed easy after that! I dropped my spare tire for more room, but I have heard that you can do these without even jacking the truck up!?!

I sprayed "Moov-it" on all of the threaded parts every couple of days for a week before I started this, and everything came off easily. The toughest part was getting the shock compressed just the right amount to get the bolt through the holes as it went back together! I did the sway bar links at the same time, since mine were shot and I was already dirty! Under two hours start to finish, and that was with my neighbour dropping by with a new beer he had found for me to sample!

 

Yeah, if you're gonna do it, do it right. Nice work.

 

I have suspected my lower ball joints have been worn for a while, but each time I get it up on a lift my mechanic tells me the lowers are tight and good to go.

in 2010, he tolds me my upper ball joint was shot on the drivers side, so I ordered the arms and installed them in my driveway, and he was right, so I trust him.


Why are people replacing lower ball joints so early? I have 61,000 miles and there fine. I remember tons of people replacing them at 36,000 on these forums...

It would only make sense that mine are on there way out...but I guess not?

 

I am guessing peer pressure... lol I am sitting at 45k and have yet to replace anything. I am crossing my fingers that nothing changes for a good bit too. I have none of the problems the others have claimed. Closest thing was a wheel bearing at 6k, but the dealer claimed that it was a freak thing, and I agree.

 

Nothing like the taste of a new good beer. The darker the better..

My ball joints did not look bad all from a visual appearance, the boots were still intact. I really did not suspect them at all as causing some of the front end noises until i removed the spindle and found all the play they had in them. one had bad side to side play and was dried out; the other up and down play. I'm guessing since the lower joints are so close to the ground, they would get the first of any kind of weather or rain, road conditions, whatever and that they were non-grease-able; that could be the reason for the early demise of them. I was glad the MOOG lowers and uppers are grease-able. Now every so often I can just hook up grease gun and make sure they are well greased :-)
A really good friend of mine bought the 2009 v6 bighorn 4x4 quad cab in 2009 and special ordered it with everything he could get it with. Big brush guard everything. very nice truck. His now has almost 90,000 and has not had a single problem with it.. but after he saw the damage to the parts that came off mine, he decided to take a closer look at his and replace the uppers with Moog control arms.. He had it on jack stands, he was doing his brakes too. so i took his jack and rolled it under his lower control arm and applied pressure to the lower arm. i took a pry bar between the spindle and the lower arm and wow.. it had really bad up and down play it.. soo looks are deceiving.. me and him will be tackling his lower ball joints in the next couple of of days too.

 

That's what I like to hear - I'm a "Pale Ale" and "Best Bitter" guy, this one was out of a microbrewery in Toronto, "Riffleman's Ration", modelled after the beers supplied to British Troops stationed in Upper Canada during the war of 1812.

I had already had it, but I indulged him by sharing a pint! The sacrifices we make.

 

jesus...$1400 in just parts. imagine if you had paid someone else to do it all for you. i wish i had the know how, tools and most of all patience to tackle something like that. oh and money too haha