Maintance on new 6.7 Ram

Cummins12V98 wrote:

Me Again wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:


I found my 15's with no issue.

You sure did! AFTER you had the drive line out of the truck and in your hand!!! ;) ;) ;)

HAAA. Finding it was easy, getting the grease into it was not! Yes I did remove it!

My 11 without a ZERK was fine at 65k at trade. I will grease every 25-30k. It's very rare I ever use 4wd.

Unless you have the free spin hub kit...that front driveshaft spins all the time regardless of 4wd use or not.

Me Again wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:


I found my 15's with no issue.

You sure did! AFTER you had the drive line out of the truck and in your hand!!! ;) ;) ;)

HAAA. Finding it was easy, getting the grease into it was not! Yes I did remove it!

My 11 without a ZERK was fine at 65k at trade. I will grease every 25-30k. It's very rare I ever use 4wd.

Wild Card wrote:
Bigger pain in the rear is greasing the front driveshaft.

Yep. I had a spare mini grease gun in the garage so I bought a grease needle fitting and now that that gun dedicated just to this purpose. Also, once I found the indentation I put a dab of red paint on the coupler to make it easier to find the next time.

The real trick is you have to slide the needle to the bottom of the indentation and then feel an extra nudge when the spring loaded ball compresses. If you don't feel that nudge you'll just squirt grease everywhere. When the ball opens and you squeeze the gun you'll hear the grease moving over the splines.

Cummins12V98 wrote:


I found my 15's with no issue.

You sure did! AFTER you had the drive line out of the truck and in your hand!!! ;) ;) ;)

Cummins12V98 wrote:
I had my 11 4x4 Dually at the Dealer in Pahrump while at MayMadness. The head mechanic said I did NOT have the ZERK. The Head West Coast Warranty rep Stan Gozzi from Chrysler just happened to be there and he spent a few minutes with his glasses off and on with a light with the truck up on a lift. He declared it does NOT have the ZERK. The head mechanic said he sees lots of them with NO ZERKS, normally he has NO issue finding them.

I found my 15's with no issue.

My 2012 front axle doesn't have zerks, just that odd spring loaded ball bearing which requires the needle adapter. Not sure if RAM is still using those or not.

I had my 11 4x4 Dually at the Dealer in Pahrump while at MayMadness. The head mechanic said I did NOT have the ZERK. The Head West Coast Warranty rep Stan Gozzi from Chrysler just happened to be there and he spent a few minutes with his glasses off and on with a light with the truck up on a lift. He declared it does NOT have the ZERK. The head mechanic said he sees lots of them with NO ZERKS, normally he has NO issue finding them.

I found my 15's with no issue.

djgodden wrote:

Wild Card wrote:
Bigger pain in the rear is greasing the front driveshaft.

A story about that...

2 weeks ago I took mine in for an oil change. I asked the nice service dude if they'd lube the front drive shaft while they were under there. Described my frustrations trying to find it and showed him the tag in the engine compartment showing where it's supposed to be (I've never been able to find it even after watching several youtube videos). Then I described what it's supposed to look like (indentation with a spring loaded ball bearing needing a needle attachment to lube). Service dude said, "no problem". 45 mins later nice service dude gets me and I ask if they lubed the shaft (stop with the puns), "yup, would you like to see it?" Service dude takes me into the service bay and when I ask the mechanic if it got lubed he said, "I lubed up the u-joint because there's no grease zirk there". Told mechanic that there isn't a zirk, showed him the label, and described the grease point again. Nice service guy decides to call the service manager who immediately said, "ya, those are hard to find". 45 minutes later the nice service guy comes to get me and he has an axle in his hands. The guy took the time to find another axle so he could show me exactly where it was. No wonder I couldn't find it... I think they install a cloaking device with it.

Service guy: 10 of 10 for help, super
Mechanic: 1 of 10 (lied to the service guy, didn't bother asking his manager for assistance) Tool...

About the same story I got a few years back from dealer and 2 other local ships regarding my 2006 Ram CTD 2500. Could not find it despite me showing them pictures.

Wild Card wrote:
Bigger pain in the rear is greasing the front driveshaft.

A story about that...

2 weeks ago I took mine in for an oil change. I asked the nice service dude if they'd lube the front drive shaft while they were under there. Described my frustrations trying to find it and showed him the tag in the engine compartment showing where it's supposed to be (I've never been able to find it even after watching several youtube videos). Then I described what it's supposed to look like (indentation with a spring loaded ball bearing needing a needle attachment to lube). Service dude said, "no problem". 45 mins later nice service dude gets me and I ask if they lubed the shaft (stop with the puns), "yup, would you like to see it?" Service dude takes me into the service bay and when I ask the mechanic if it got lubed he said, "I lubed up the u-joint because there's no grease zirk there". Told mechanic that there isn't a zirk, showed him the label, and described the grease point again. Nice service guy decides to call the service manager who immediately said, "ya, those are hard to find". 45 minutes later the nice service guy comes to get me and he has an axle in his hands. The guy took the time to find another axle so he could show me exactly where it was. No wonder I couldn't find it... I think they install a cloaking device with it.

Service guy: 10 of 10 for help, super
Mechanic: 1 of 10 (lied to the service guy, didn't bother asking his manager for assistance) Tool...

Cummins12V98 wrote:
Go to turbodieselregister.com and look for a thread in the 4th gen section called "EASY 2013 up oil change". I show how to do the change thru the top method with a few pointers to make the change EASY and CLEAN.

There is many youtube videos on this subject. I have watched several. Easy, and clean can be achieved either way. Going thru the fender you don't have to remove engine parts to do it.

IMO either way works , there is certainly no wrong way. But going thru the top cured me on the first time. To each his own :)

boshog wrote:

eHoefler wrote:
I let the dealer do it, I can't afford not to, since they charge $68 for an oil and fiter change.

for a Cummins? Dealers here (SE Michigan) get $150.

It costs me around $73 for a DIY, $66 for 3 gallons of Rotella T6 and $7 for a Mopar oil filter.

6.7 Cummins.