Customer of mine just the rack&pinion steering on his '02 1500 4x4. The truck rides on 35x12.5-20's and has never been in the dirt.
Is this a common failure known to the 1500 ? I searched the web and could only find issues about the 2500 steering. Any good sources you guys would recommend to get a replacement ?

Customer of mine just the rack&pinion steering on his '02 1500 4x4. The truck rides on 35x12.5-20's and has never been in the dirt.
Is this a common failure known to the 1500 ? I searched the web and could only find issues about the 2500 steering. Any good sources you guys would recommend to get a replacement ?
So... what happened to the steering? Total catastrophic failure?? Can you provide pictures for reference please? Hopefully then we can help you out better!
Matt

The truck is not yet in my shop. On the phone he told me that he lost oil and checked immediatly under the truck, just to discover that the housing seems to have a crack..

I have seen alot of them blow out the end seals, especially in the cold.

My buddy had the the housing crack on his and that was with stock tires and only about 50,000km. He got it replaced under warranty but it did take the dealer about 2 weeks to get it fixed since they said they couldn't get a replacement. Maybe the lack of replacement is due to a lot of problems. He has put about 30,000km on it since with a set of 33x12.5 Mud Grapplers with moderate wheeling (for a DD) and not had a problem.

Seems to be a weak link in the steering system then.
I have to wait until he gets the truck towed to my shop to give it a better look. I saw some places selling remanufactured rack & pinions for under 200$, so he should come out quite cheap.
What we will have to check is if the truck had an accident before he bought it. As soon as I have it here I will run a carfax on it. We see a lot of Katrina and other flooding victims popping up in Europe lately.

Too bad your so far away I have a couple you could have out of trucks that were straight axled.

Yeah, my original (post swap) is still sitting in my shop collecting dust as well.
There are a few threads about this failure in Dodgetalk.com.

I might get back at you guys about the parts if customer agrees to buy a used one:smokin: