My rear differential completely locked up while driving at about 50MPH. My Raider pickup truck spun out of control spinning into the opposite lane before the drive shaft violently broke off at the U-joint. The shaft ripped apart the exhaust system from CAT-back and damaged the fuel tank skid plate. The truck also came up on only two wheels during the spinning action and I managed to narrowly avoid going into a rollover by not trying to overcorrect. Luckily this occurred at night with no immediate oncoming traffic otherwise I would likely not have survived the incident or walked away without injury at very best. The Raider was made for Mitsubishi by Dodge and is basically a Dakota. The Rams and V8 Dakotas share a Rear Axle Assembly on the V* versions, hexagon cover (12 bolt, 9.25 ring gear), 3.92 ratio rear end. The problem is the rack and pinion gear lacks a castle nut or locking pin in its design to keep the pinion nut from becoming loose. This problem is widely known on certain model year Dodge products with this particular rear end. Some sites state it should be a recall. It is a clear design flaw and a major safety issue. My pinion nut worked loose allowing the yoke to slide back and forth against the pinion. As this sliding action occurred it basically forced the pinion into the ring gear locking up the rear end in a catastrophic way. This should be a recall at minimum or class action lawsuit for Raider/Dakota and Dodge Ram owners.
My rear differential completely locked up while driving at about 50MPH. My Raider pickup truck spun out of control spinning into the opposite lane before the drive shaft violently broke off at the U-joint. The shaft ripped apart the exhaust system from CAT-back and damaged the fuel tank skid plate. The truck also came up on only two wheels during the spinning action and I managed to narrowly avoid going into a rollover by not trying to overcorrect. Luckily this occurred at night with no immediate oncoming traffic otherwise I would likely not have survived the incident or walked away without injury at very best. The Raider was made for Mitsubishi by Dodge and is basically a Dakota. The Rams and V8 Dakotas share a Rear Axle Assembly on the V* versions, hexagon cover (12 bolt, 9.25 ring gear), 3.92 ratio rear end. The problem is the rack and pinion gear lacks a castle nut or locking pin in its design to keep the pinion nut from becoming loose. This problem is widely known on certain model year Dodge products with this particular rear end. Some sites state it should be a recall. It is a clear design flaw and a major safety issue. My pinion nut worked loose allowing the yoke to slide back and forth against the pinion. As this sliding action occurred it basically forced the pinion into the ring gear locking up the rear end in a catastrophic way. This should be a recall at minimum or class action lawsuit for Raider/Dakota and Dodge Ram owners.
- cobra13, Frankford, DE, US