Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
My 04 3500 Dually pulls a large trailer all the time. . it now has 140 K miles and it was on the way home from Dillon MT across the mountains when I heard the rumble of a bad u-joint again... .
We've put the spacer above the carrier bearing and have checked the angles... . this was done under warranty at 40 K or so..... this time when we went to take it apart we found the seal on the back of the transfer case bad... and leaking...
A closer look found that the center carrier bearing was bad as well... . as we looked we found that all the grease in the two piece drive shaft was gone and it looked like the end of the drive shaft has been hitting the end of the transfer case... .
Now this truck has a load most of the time and we got to looking and we think that the drive shaft is too long with the spacer installed and weight in the back of the truck... .
We surmise this problem from the damage to the seal and the lack of grease in the end of the splines on the 2 piece drive shaft.....
We sat down an measured the shaft and have decided to reduce its overall length by 1"... . this should put us back into the slide area where the splines come together and should keep the end from banging into the transfer case... . we chose to shorten the long piece of drive shaft... . and rebalance... .
We don't know if this is going to fix the problem... we also think that the drive shaft, or u-joints are the weak link in the system... . and they fail before other items... .
I'm wondering if any of you have come to the same thoughts on this... . or have considered it... . it makes some sense, as you lower the shaft with the spacer, you've taken the bend out of it and made it longer.....
We've put the spacer above the carrier bearing and have checked the angles... . this was done under warranty at 40 K or so..... this time when we went to take it apart we found the seal on the back of the transfer case bad... and leaking...
A closer look found that the center carrier bearing was bad as well... . as we looked we found that all the grease in the two piece drive shaft was gone and it looked like the end of the drive shaft has been hitting the end of the transfer case... .
Now this truck has a load most of the time and we got to looking and we think that the drive shaft is too long with the spacer installed and weight in the back of the truck... .
We surmise this problem from the damage to the seal and the lack of grease in the end of the splines on the 2 piece drive shaft.....
We sat down an measured the shaft and have decided to reduce its overall length by 1"... . this should put us back into the slide area where the splines come together and should keep the end from banging into the transfer case... . we chose to shorten the long piece of drive shaft... . and rebalance... .
We don't know if this is going to fix the problem... we also think that the drive shaft, or u-joints are the weak link in the system... . and they fail before other items... .
I'm wondering if any of you have come to the same thoughts on this... . or have considered it... . it makes some sense, as you lower the shaft with the spacer, you've taken the bend out of it and made it longer.....
