Just a rant to say when I bought my 03 I was weary of the lack of front axle lock out provision, basically the way WWII vehicles were made 60 years ago, in fact I put lock outs on my '42 WC 51 and M37 Dodges, and MB jeep years ago as it stopped vibration and saved the precious little hp these things had. Well last year my friend told me he replaced his u joints twice in 100k miles, and he told me that the brown rust on my wheels were an indication mine were shot. I blew this off as I figured it was from the disc brakes. I do no plowing like he does and no off roading mainly small loads of stuff to car shows, firewood, etc. and I use my 4WD maybe 100 miles or less every year in the snow. Well last month I noticed a sqeaking from the left side and decided to take my friend up on his offer to help me replace the u joints with greasable ones.
Here is where I curse Dodge and their engineering. There was no way to pull that bearing other than to back out the bolts, heat and beat them from the rear. No budge. From reading this fourm, I used the power steering with a socket and extension up against the frame while 2 of my friends heated and beat it with a hammer. 5 hours I spent on this operation. Why didn't they use and o-ring or seal or even a glob of antisieze on these bearings to keep it from rusting fast on the knuckle? Regardless I knew right then I was not going to do this ever again, nor spend $750 on bearings and u jointsjust to wear them out again, I want to keep my truck.So I went looking for a lock out hub conversion kit, EMS off road was reasonable but I had to wait a few weeks to get it so I put everything back together(with antisieze) and limped it back home(you could now hear the bearing clicking as the heat must have boiled the grease out of it. I took a trip down to Danville PA. to EMS Off Road. over 200 miles to pick up the kit, and I also bought from them a new Moser 12 bolt rear for my 67 Camaro that they saved me a few bucks on too. I got it back into the shop and it took me a full day to change everything over(the bearings almost fell out now that they had antisieze on them). The hardest part was getting the old u joints off of the inner axle, and I bent the ears of the shafts doing it. Next time I have to do u joints I'm cutting them out with a torch and driving the caps off. I got everything straight and bolted in, no installation problems. I drove the truck home and the first thing I noticed is that the steering effort was greatly reduced as one of the joints was frozen so bad you had to hammer the joint to get it to more and the other had no needle bearings, just a glob of mashed steel. On the road at speed, the vibration, that I had at 70 mph since the day I drove it out of the showroom was gone! All that mass of stub, axles, u joints, differential and drive shaft was no longer turning and complaining. The mileage has gone up 1 mpg. I am happy with this conversion. The hubs stick out a bit but I'm not going rock crawling any time soon. I can't say enough about the EMS Off road guys Eric and Tom. Helped me out answered my questions, always called me back and saved me $ on my Moser to boot. The instructions were clear and and to follow. As for Chrysler Corp they are going to cause a lot of pain and $ for all with this terrible failure of a design to save a few dollars, I would have paid the $ up front for this Lock out as an option, I knew it was a bad idea 4 years ago, but I was determined to own a Cummins. Anyway I hope this info helps some of you when your axle u-joints fail. My 2003 truck had only 52,000 easy miles on it. Thanks for reading.

 

did the vibration feel like a bearing in the front axle maybe? I have a 2001 which is different i know but i get the vibration at higher speeds like 65+ mph. I have thought about checking those ujoints at the spindles but i dont have a garage and it is pretty nasty here in pa this time of year!! The vibration seems to be getting worse so I am getting worried at this point! Please reply with info if you have any, thanks

 

It was a oscillating hum that rolled along like waves of sound loud and soft. Another indication of bad axle u joints is when you turn the wheel at a slow speed it feels a little like you are in four wheel drive abd the steering wheel pulls. Look around or post regarding your problem, there is an answer out there. I share your pain with the weather as I am in NY State. Yesterday I had no Defroster only floor heat in my 03. I looked it up and yep, another PIA job. Thanks Chrysler for reminding me why I always drove Chevrolet. Good luck

 

Did the EMS conversion last winter. The best upgrade you can do on these rigs...