jeepsuck

definitely wont need to pull the engina. although, after looking at it i would like to remove the X-member itself. it would be much easier to work on a bench. if i can find a replacement that would be even better.

JTCHess

Leaving nothing to chance I inspected the front end of my truck today as I have that popping/banging sound on my truck when I back out of the driveway. On my truck the lower control arm mounting point is part of the crossmember and not a bolted on piece as shown on the 89. Perhpas this was an identified weak point in the suspension and Dodge resigned it in later model years.

John

Ace

That's the prolem with rivets. If they ever start to budge even in the slightest for whatever reason, it's game over. Left unattended, you eventually end up with what you have there. If you are going to weld it, I'd go ahead and stitch in a few seams on the other side just for good measure whether it looks like it needs it or not.

rebal

hard turns and pot holes will put huge stress on that lower pivot point . all that concrete hwy , hard tires and age .Or someone beat the snot out of her.

that said I had a 77 d200 and lived on the worst 5 miles of dirt road that looked like papecats link .and drove the body right off the truck and never saw anything like that.

jeepsuck

what kind of truck do you have?

i'm going to go look at a possible 92 donor X-member.

oilburner 5.9

i just now saw this post and had to reply my mother in laws truck had something similar happen but on the other end just on the engine side of the ball joint snapped the control arm in two cause of a faulty joint and lack of grease after new joint was installed 3weeks prior

JTCHess

My truck is a 93 D350, bone stock, 83,000 miles.

John

jeepsuck

i've located an early 91 donor truck with a cross member like you speak of. i need to find out if it is interchangable.

i have my dodge parts guy digging up exploded views for me.

we'll see!

JTCHess

Good luck, hopefully it will bolt right in!!

John

jeepsuck

so i guess i'm pretty lucky cause i came across an entire front suspension out of an early 91 CTD. when i'm done spare parts will be available on the classifieds. pm me if you want to reserve something.

as you can see, the later cross members have a different type of lower control arm mount.

i cut the springs with the ol' gas ax because i don't have a spring compressor and there isn't nearly enough weight on the front end to use a floor jack.

the X member is held in by two bolts on either side into the lower horizontal section of the frame rail and by three rivets on either side, two of which also serve to retain the upper control arm mounting brackets.

first order of business: i need to devise a way to hold that big CTD up while i remove the junk member. i think i'm going to make sort of an a frame that rests on the frame rails to support the engine via a chain to the factory mounted lift points.

Thunderhog

It appears that when I put the new ball joints in my 85, I will be dragging the mig out and zapping those critters to the crossmember! Yikes! Thank god it did not happen at 75 mph!
Oh, I LOVE the stripes!

jeepsuck

well upon further analysis we find that the cross member cannot be removed or installed without either A: cutting the cross member at the upper mounting point or the frame to allow the X member to come out

or B: slide the X member back in the frame rails to the point where the the frame begins to widen.

since A is absolutely out of the question, we are left with B.

but its not just as simple as going route B and just gittin er dun. to slide back the X member will need to clear the oil pan and the transmission bell housing.

one possibility, would be remove the oil pan and most likely the oil pump pickup. Has anyone ever removed the pan on one of these rigs? it looks to me like the transmission has to come out to do that.

at this point it looks as though the best option is to remove the transmission and lift the engine straight up from its current position in the engine bay.

i am working in limited space and the idea of working under a hanging 1100lb CTD does not thrill me.

any ideas?

Alwaysworking

the old one should be easy, just cut it in half and it'll fall out, the new one i dont really know.

wannadiesel

If you pick the motor "most" of the way up, you can drop the pan enough to unbolt the oil pickup and then you can slide the pan out without removing the trans.

I think it would be easier to do a good job on the crossmember swap if you pulled the engine completely.

jeepsuck

i concur. the truck is basically as long as my garage. my driveway is about 5 ft long and wouldn't work well with a cherry picker.

has anyone ever pulled one of these out the side by removing one of the fenders?

i seem to remember to whole front end has to come apart anyway to get the motor out the front. i dont think i could lift it high enough to get it over the core support, besides the fact that it would be super scary.