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I’ve been having some trouble with my Dodge Ram truck lately. The truck has pulled to the right for some time now, starting with a subtle drift at first, but it’s progressively gotten to the point that I now have to hold the wheel with a near death grip. It’s also taken it’s toll on my tires. I had to replace a tire due to a broken belt in the tread a few weeks ago and now I’ve got another one to replace for the same reason.

When I took the truck into the local auto repair joint for an alignment I was informed that the truck wouldn’t align due to worn parts. Those parts were the track bar and the tie rod end at the pitman arm. The track bar attaches at one end to the passenger side of the axle and at the frame on the driver’s side, keeping the axle aligned under the truck and preventing side to side motion. It probably caused the pitman tie rod end to wear, once the track bar is loose everything else will start to see additional wear.

I opted not to have them replace the parts and went home and did some research. Turns out the ’94 to ’02 Dodge track bar is a notoriously weak design. The main wear surface is a nylon cup in the joint that is supported by a weak spring. From what I could find out, the original Dodge track bar will last about 30,000 miles, and aftermarket units only last about 14,000. This is simply not acceptable. My commute over the course of a year is about 38,800 miles, which would mean 3 aftermarket bars at about $175 each. Surely someone had come up with a fix for this major design flaw.

Many Dodge owners have replaced their track bar with an entirely new redesigned rod with a different type of joint at the frame (this is the weak joint). This is the ultimate solution and is pretty much the necessary route if you’re going to jack your truck up more than 2 inches. It’s also a rather expensive, in the area of a 200 to 500 dollars. Sounded worth it to me, if it’s the last one I have to put on, since I’m looking at over $2600 in aftermarket replacements over the next 5 years.

Then I stumbled on the Luke’s Link. This solution is essentially a housing for the joint that makes the joint rebuildable, plus the guts to rebuild it. It had what looked to be a very robust design and a lifetime warranty, but I wondered what other Dodge owner’s experiences with this product were. I found references on various forums of people’s experiences installing and using Luke’s Links, including people with as much as 225,000 miles on them and lot’s of praise for the product. I didn’t find any real criticism for the product, except some users had noticed some clicking when turning the steering wheel. At $66 on Ebay, I decided this is the solution for me. I ordered one via Ebay along with a replacement bushing for the other end of the track bar.

When the box came, I promptly unpacked it. The contents were:
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1. housing

2. bushing for axle end

3. housing plug

4. urethane spring

5. grease fitting

6. nylon cup

7. cotter pin

8. rubber o-ring

9. steel shims (3)

10. spring rest

11. rubber seal

This is the offending joint, on the driver’s side just inside the front wheel. This is where the trackbar attaches to the frame.

The passenger side of the trackbar fastens to the axle housing.

The top crimp of the joint has to be ground down, until the cap can come free.

This is the joint, sans guts. Clean it up real good.

First, drop the pin in. This is the original pin that you previously removed from the joint.

Then drop in the new plastic cup,

Then the urethane spring.

Then set the housing plug on top. Measure the gap between the bottom of the plug, and the top of the joint. Compare the results with the Luke’s Link install instructions. You may need to grind down the urethane spring.

Then take everything out, put the housing on, and reinstall the contents again.

Tighten the plug down until it’s fully seated in the housing with a 1/2″ drive torque wrench. This will be at about 30 to 35 ft. lbs. Then install the cotter pin and grease fitting.