Broken tierod end outer

[RBridenbaugh]

About 3/4 of the way through my 2,800 mile road trip (CA - OR - WA - ID - MT and back) with my slide-in camper I ended up breaking the right tie rod outer, by pulling the ball out of the socket. It wasn't on a bad USFS road and luckily I was only going about 10 mph when it happened. Also lucky that Condon, MT was only about 10 miles away, with only 4 miles on gravel, plus they had a flatbed that would hold my one ton with camper and a garage with equipment to change out the parts once they arrived the next day



Hard to steer with one wheel pointed out. Really very happy that this didn't happen at speed on any of the hundreds of abrupt construction/repair transitions on I-80 and I-580.



Truck had about 140k miles on it. Opted to replace most of the steering linkage as I'm going to Alaska next year and don't want to sit on the side of the road there. Other outer tierod end was also worn.



Is it typical to change out the steering linkage at about this mileage?



Any suggestions to replace other suspension / drive line parts as preventative maintenance, figuring that the tierods are early indicators. Ball joints are in specification (but the specs are wide) so I was planning on changing out those this fall.

 

[jelag]

There is a recall that I have on my desk for my 05 3500 dually that is for the dealer to inspect the front end... What the service tech told me on the phone... . that if under warranty parts were changed... . those upgraded parts are subject to fail... . the OE parts installed on the truck on the assembly line usually are fine...

He ran my VIN on the phone and said as far as he was concerned, I needed the inspection and should have it before the truck goes out of town... .

You at least should call a dealer with your vin and see if its part of the recall...

 

[mwilson]

My front end shop says that a new danger exists anywhere in the country that use road clearing chemicals in the winter for these Dodges.

The tie rod ends are mounted stud up in the knuckle so as a result the chemicals and water enter around the boot and cause corrosion underneath the ball. The bad thing about that is when you check them for slack there is none felt because the cavity under the ball is full of crud. Has seen a couple of instances up here where the tie rod end falls of due to wear but had no slack due to the crud buildup. Very scary.