klx300guy8

I recently purchased an 03 3500 dually with 75,000 miles on it. I like the truck except for the steering wheel having some play in it. It's nothing serious just bad enough where it is annoying. I was flipping through a TDR and ran accross an add for borgeson steering shaft. The add said that replacing the factory shaft with their's would take care of the problem I am having. Does anyone have any experiences using these on 3rd generations, and if so what do you think. I will be more than happy to spend the $275 to get one if it fixes the problem.

rjm022

i posted a thread recently on the horror story i went through with borgeson. their 950 shaft for our trucks were all wrong!!!! i ordered three from three different places and all wrong!! they were making them the wrong length and with the wrong spline count on the u-joint!! what should of set off the bells in my head was- one of their competitors makes a steering shaft that fits the dodge rams from model year 95-02. but borgeson listed their 950 shaft to fit model years 95-06. i call their competitor, they said for the 03 model year dodge changed form a saginaw steering box to a delphi steering box- which borgeson did not pick up!!! the third place i bought the shaft from, the gentleman actually went to his local dodge dealership abd crawled under a few rams to confirm this!!. borgeson denied the problem at first. after three weeks and three returned shafts and countless calls to borgeson from me and the retailer i bought the last shaft from- borgeson gave me the parts seperately ( a shaft, u-joints) so i could make the correct shaft myself!! shaft works great- but i do not know if they "fixed" the problem. if still interested- i could give you the gentleman's info from the last place i bought the incorrect shaft from- he is well aware of the problem and he could tell you if borgeson corrected the problem. he could also give you the correct part list to basically make your own shaft (the u-joints and shaft just come un-assembled and the shaft needs to be cut- three inches needs to be removed)

klx300guy8

Thanks a lot for that info. You mentioned that it could be the ball joints or tie rod ends; can the problem of wandering around on the road be caused by these things.

rjm022

yes, it could. easy way to find out. jack the front of the truck up (off of the ground) grab each wheel- try to rock it up and down (from 12 o"clock and 6 o" clock position) if you have more than 1/4 of an inch movement- bad ball joints. grab the wheel from 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock position and try to move side to side-an y movement-bad tie rods. also check your factory track bar. grab either end near the factory rubber bushings and try to see if there is any movement. if so, bad track bar. basically it is a process of elimination.

klx300guy8

Thank you very much for the information. I did all of the tests you stated above and everything felt and looked good. No movement in the ball joints, tie rod ends,or the trac bar. With all of these out of the way, does is it sound like the steering shaft. It if it does, is their another brand (besides borgeson) that I could possibly look into.

rjm022

you are welcome- could be the steering box itself- which nobody makes a better replacement yet for the 3rd gen trucks. no other company makes a replacement steering shaft either! not as of last sept-when i was looking for mine and went with boregson. borgeson works-you just need to buy the pieces seperately- i could give you the part numbers, if you like- i just need a day or two, to find them.

klx300guy8

That would be great if you could give me those part numbers. Do you know roughly how much it will cost altogether. Also, will their warranties still be honored if you piece it together. My only concern is I will go to all this trouble of getting it and it won't fix my problem. Is this a common problem with the 3rd generations.

klx300guy8

Also, will help with vibrations in the wheel. Just wondering. The way borgeson talks this will really help solve the issues I am having. It might just be a sells pitch.