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Off Road
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Dodge Dakota
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12/27/2004
18:41:20

Subject: gernading front axle
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i have been surfing the web and ran across some post on dakusa about people having the front axel crack when offroading. it seems they were not bieng overly aggressive when it happened. What kinda luck have people here had? any problems? how do you use or abuse your 4x4? thanks in advance just want to check before i buy a 4x4 and wont be able to even take advantage of its ability without worrieng about breaking something.
BTW i am looking at an 04 with auto and 3.7 v-6



Eric
Dodge Dakota
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12/27/2004
19:04:34

RE: gernading front axle
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I wheel my truck pretty hard and have not had any problems like that happen yet.I had a set of 33x10.5 thornbird's on before and now a set of 33x12.5 mt's with no problem. Alot of mud, rock's and tree's where i wheel so it get's pretty hairy sometimes.gonna put a lsd in front this summer I'll let you know if that kill's it (hope not!!).Mines a 97 though so there different parts so yours should be equal or better than my diff.



BIGTYMER
Dodge Dakota
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12/28/2004
08:49:16

RE: gernading front axle
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Nothing with the front axle other then some leaks at the tube ends. I wheel the $#!* out of it though. And I'm running 35's with the stock 3.55 gears.



Walt_Felix
Dodge Dakota
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12/28/2004
09:53:44

RE: gernading front axle
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I looked at some of the posts on DakotaUSA about the broken front differentials (3 according to the thread) and someone stated something along the lines excessive wheel spin suddenly grabbing traction. And then they wonder why it broke! “Too much torque suddenly applied to a wheel with lots of traction” is how you break things. I’m sorry, but IMHO, driver error had a lot to do with those failures. Now, by saying it was driver error, I’m sure there are those who will strongly disagree with me, mainly those with broken front differentials. But I’ll add, I have the 7 ¼” front differential in my ’88, not nearly as strong as the D35, D35M in the late model Dakotas, I’ve been wheeling my truck for almost 10 years and my front differential is still in one piece. Not to say I haven’t broken things, I’ve wheeled my truck as hard if not harder than some of them. The thing to remember when 4 wheeling is the throttle is not always your friend. Sometimes matting it to the floor will only dig you in faster. Lots of wheel spin is what you want when your in deep mud, but when your on hard ground, hills, rocks, etc.. you want to keep the wheels from breaking traction. You’ll need to figure out where the point of traction vs. over powering is in relation to the surface your on, tire tread and gearing. Sometimes feathering the pedal in a lower gear will get you up a hill faster than matting the pedal in a higher gear. Plus, you’ll have a lot less tendency to break things. The way I see it, a school bus could make it up a steep hill with enough momentum, I’m more impressed with the truck that can crawl up from a dead stop at the base and not spin the wheels.

__________________




Walt Felix



http://www.MoparsinMotion.Com

http://www.Walt-n-Ingrid.Com




Note: I very frequently get email from people asking about the lift kit in my
’88. Typically, I will NOT respond the emails (about 90%) that ask questions
I’ve already covered on my web pages (ie. Where did you get the kit?, Who
makes it?, How much did it cost?, What modifications did you have to make to get it to fit your truck?. How hard was it to install? What problems did you
encounter? etc, etc...)



sgtfletcher
Dodge Dakota
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1/04/2005
21:04:08

RE: gernading front axle
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Just left my cousin who's did about the smame thing. He was in Four wheel drive and felt as it was in a strain and looked as if you ripped the top off the diff. as though it were a cap about three inches across and wrung off the drivers side axle. First thing the dealer said you hit somthing hard but there's not a scratch on the bottem of it just on the top of the pan,looks like when imade its way to the ground.

I wish I pics. Hard to believe.

Ken



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