BILTIT wrote:Death wobble applies to any dana 60 front end. Seems to be an issue with some king pin styles (chevy and dodge) not sure about ball joint styles.
Yes, the ball joint styles have it as well. Probably a better chance of it without having leaf springs. Those axles have coil springs, control arms and because of such, track bars to keep them aligned. When the ball joint on the frame end of the track bar goes south (and no steering stabilizers), it can happen more often. I'm running a 3rd gen track bar (all poly bushings and no more ball joint on the newer bars) and a steering brace to tighten things up. The steering boxes are very similar, if not the same. Want to make a steering brace for my steering box as well, as the bushing in it is getting sloppy too.
The 2nd gens also have a tendency to kill and/or warp the left front brake rotors. But I think a lot of that has to do with dirty brake fluid. Brake pull isn't much of a problem after I flush the old stuff out.
2nd gens have heavier axles. And the rears use an hybrid Dana 80 on the 3/4 tons and the full 80 on the duallys.
The '97 and up trucks have hydraulic brake boosters vs the vacuum boosters. Better braking power, but still drums in the rear til late '01 when they switched to 4 wheel discs.
The VE and P pumped engines (89-98.4) are pretty much both bulletproof. It is the VP44 pumped trucks that are more prone to fuel injection system issues (largely because they aren't cooled or lubed by oil. Fuel only. And, the factory lift pump is a POS. The Cummins parts are still great though (minus the 53 block and the '98 or 99 and older timing cases with the KDP issue.) Later ones have an updated case without that problem.
The p pumped engines can make more power, more simply than even the VE can, before needing to go to a pump shop to be flowed.
Over all, the 1st gens are much easier to work on, than the later trucks. A lot more room to work on most things. They did make some changes under the hood on the 24v 2nd gen trucks that makes quite a few things easier to get at than even my '97 was.
NEW- '82 CREW cab dually. Cummins, NV5600, 205, D60/D80.
Work in progress......
'93 W350, CTD, ext cab, 5spd., HTT modded H1C, 4" exhaust, Kelderman single bag. 537k and counting!
SOLD- '92 W250, CTD, ext cab, 5spd
SOLD- '99 3500, SO CTD, 5spd
Traded off- '97 3500 CTD, 416hp/892tq.
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