1996 Roadtrek 190 Versatile Steering Issue
I know this was covered and have been reading a lot about it on various forums, but still need some advice. I just purchased a 1996 190 Versatile on a dodge 3500 chassis. I am experiencing the steeri...
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IIRC, the guy who made and sold the 3" (?) steel wheel spacers guaranteed no wheel bearing problems for 75,000 miles. But he went out of business for unknown reasons a few years after I bought my spacers.
The Dodge 1-ton van uses a rear axle from their parts bin, sourced from the similar-vintage pickups to avoid tooling costs of a van-specific wider axle. That's why it's narrower than the front end.
It's an automobile type semi-floating design with one big wheel bearing at each end, not the 'expected' full-floating design normally used on 1-ton vehicles. That has 2 wheel bearings on each end.
As I said, the wheel spacers made almost no difference in my Dodge RT's uber-squirrelly handling. I think I made the comment at the time that the improvement about covered the cost of shipping, not the cost of purchase and effort of installation.
One thing more... I did find that a front inner (frame) sway bar bushing was badly deteriorated. I think it was caused by oil dripping down from the engine oil fill. I replaced it, but it didn't make much difference.
Dunno if any of this dreck dredged up from my memory is useful to you. But please post back if you find an answer, or anything that improves it.
Jim, "Mo' coffee!"
The Dodge 1-ton van uses a rear axle from their parts bin, sourced from the similar-vintage pickups to avoid tooling costs of a van-specific wider axle. That's why it's narrower than the front end.
It's an automobile type semi-floating design with one big wheel bearing at each end, not the 'expected' full-floating design normally used on 1-ton vehicles. That has 2 wheel bearings on each end.
As I said, the wheel spacers made almost no difference in my Dodge RT's uber-squirrelly handling. I think I made the comment at the time that the improvement about covered the cost of shipping, not the cost of purchase and effort of installation.
One thing more... I did find that a front inner (frame) sway bar bushing was badly deteriorated. I think it was caused by oil dripping down from the engine oil fill. I replaced it, but it didn't make much difference.
Dunno if any of this dreck dredged up from my memory is useful to you. But please post back if you find an answer, or anything that improves it.
Jim, "Mo' coffee!"
