Canadian Technician: The authoritative website and magazine for professional auto technicians, mechanics, automotive repair shop owners, service managers in the business of repair, maintenance in the automotive aftermarket.
I am working on a 1999 Dodge 4x4 the track bar stud is loose in the taper at the frame end, but the bracket that the taper is in is welded to the frame.A fresh track bar is coming but I won't mount it in an oval taper. Does anyone have a solution for me??
Dave Rekowski
-------------------------
learned lots , tons more
to learn !!
Some possibilities to consider are: stud is worn and not taper; bracket may be availiable from dealer, get one cut off a frame at recyclers and weld it on to your frame.
-------------------------
We don't need to subsidize their vehicles we just need to repair them.
is it a 1500 or 2500??
we saw exactly the same thing recently,truck was a Ram 2500,someone recently replaced the track bar but got one for a 1500,smaller stud and was loose
put in a 2500 part all was ok
-------------------------
Dan
Advanced Auto
Cambridge Ontario
it's ok for a customer to say "we took too long"
it's ok for a customer to say "we charged too much"
it's NOT OK for a customer to say "we didn't do the job right the first time"
I had a similar problem on a 96 Ram 1500 P/U. The truck had a slight suspension lift and was a plow truck to boot. It kept wearing out the ball socket, so we ordered a track bar for a 2003 Ram 2500 Diesel. It has no ball socket. It bolts in at both ends. We modified the 96 to fit the diesel track bar, it required a lot of torching, fabricating and welding but in the end the deisel track bar was the last bar installed.
BTW if a had a dollar everytime I heard the words "I'm thinking of trading it in" I would be on the TV show Dragen's Den looking to invest my millions.
There is an outfit in Saskatchewan that manufactures a conversion kit for this, no torchning or welding required. I will search through my old paperwork, and see if I can find out who it was.
***EDIT***
The outfit is called Solid Steel Industrial manufacturing.
They also make steering box/sector shaft bolster kits, ect. I have used the track bar conversion kit, it is a good product. They also stock the bushings for the track bars, so they can be replaced as well.
Here is a link to som installed pics, from their website, but the ones I have installed looked exactly the same as this.
**Track bar install instructions**
-------------------------
Garth Doupe
Shop Foreman/Lead Technician,
Canadian Tire
Vegreville, Alberta