[wingding333326]

Check your upper ball joints with the tires on the ground. Grab the top of the tire and attempt to pull out/push in, if bad you will feel it.
Driving without an alignment, the only damage to be done will be potential wear on the front tires nothing else. If it feels fine driving down the road, the alignment probably isn't too far off. I would take it elsewhere for the alignment.

Your tie rods are installed correctly.

Are the retaining nuts lock nuts? I haven't seen tie rods without castle nuts and cotter keys. But, there's a lot I haven't seen.

I will check the ball joints as you described.
Thank you for the info about what the effects may have without an alignment.
And I am DEFINITELY NOT going back to the same place for alignment.
Thank you for telling me that I installed the tie rods correctly!! that was a real hard for me to understand, because I never did tie rods before, and because of that I was really careful as I could be to do it right, I had the other side all together to always look at & compare as I was going along, I know I checked the other side that had not been taken apart yet, just the tire was off. BUT, in my mind, logic is, how could I be right and this professional be wrong? One, thing that made me have doubt in him is when he had said that he was 90% sure I had them upside down. If I were in his place I would have looked into it till I was 100% sure.
It was strange, I never saw the mechanic, everything that was communicated was through the receptionist, I felt they had doubt towards me, when I brought it in she asked if I had counted the turns (on the tie rod) I said yes 20. I am almost 60 years old and all my life I have lived with the doubts from others being that I am a female. That has never bothered me, I think it's funny.
Just wondering how did you know that I installed them correctly?
Yes, the new tie rods came with nuts, I don’t think they are lock nuts, definitely not castle nuts, the ones that I took off were not castle nuts either.
I CANT EXPRESS HOW HELPFUL YOU HAVE BEEN!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

 

[wingding333326]

OP, I agree with 9t9--your outer tierods are installed in the right direction (at least that is how they are installed on my '03 2wd Dakota w/ rack & pinion).

As far as the alignment, if you counted the number of turns when you took the old ones off and went with the same number of turns going back on, you shouldn't be to crazy far off, so it shouldn't hurt to drive around for a bit without an alignment being done.

And by any chance, does this alignment shop also install ball joints? I think it might not hurt to check with another alignment shop.

Thank you, It makes me feel even better with more support that I have the tie rods on correctly.
Yes, I counted the turns, they both came to be 20 (off & on).
Im not going back to that shop to ask about ball joints or about anything else.
I will be looking for another shop for the alignment and for them to look at the car for a second opinion.
Thanx again, for without you all and your help, I wouldn’t be able to keep my car on the road, in good working condition, and avoiding bigger more expensive issues.
It's an old car with lots of miles, I know that it will take constant care, and that’s OK if I am able to avoid a catastrophe.

 

[wingding333326]

WOW!! What a compliment!! Thank you!! I will have to be careful not to let it go to my head cause thats when I start to make mistakes.. LOL!!
Yes, I put a deposit down for a torque wrench and the tie rod tool kit from auto zone, had to go to 2 auto zones to get them both. 50lbs for the inner, 60lbs for the outer, & 100lbs for the lug nuts.

Thanx again…gave me motivation to keep on

 

[wingding333326]

Will do

 

[wingding333326]

SUCCESS! THANX TO ALL YOUR HELP -
Yesterday, I took my car to the shop that had originally told me that I needed inner tie rods. They aligned it. They told me that I did have the tie rods on correctly & that I did a good job, that the alignment was not far off. AND that the ball joints are good, with very little play, not enough to need replacing & that if they were bad, they would not have aligned it.
They even gave me a spread sheet, a full page with a complete digital description with the degrees & all of what it was, before, after, etc. Very thorough! And the car drove like a dream on the way home!!
What a relief! Alignement was successful, and no need for me to do the ball points.

AND I HAVE ALL OF YOU TO THANK FOR!! WITHOUT ALL YOUR HELP, EVERY STEP OF THE WAY, FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE END. I WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO ACHIEVE THIS ISSUE SUCCESSFULLY! THANK YOU AGAIN!

Next on my list is a possible transmission fluid & filter change. & I would like to have do a compression test on all the cylinders. With over 314.000 miles on it & it being 23 years old, I am curious what condition the motor is in. Though it seems to run well, the only thing that I can tell that might be of concern is that sometimes when im idling it seems like maybe there is a small miss. But, no rush!! Just enjoying the fact that my front end issues are resolved & being over that hurdle..

THANX AGAIN!!

 

[wingding333326]

314k, Wow! Congrats it all worked out.
Trans fluid & filter aren't difficult to do. The worst part will be draining the fluid if there hasn't been a drain plug added to the trans fluid pan. Add a drain plug if it hasn't been done.

THANK YOU!! you would never know that it has that much milage on it. It is a California car, no rust/cancer as PA cars have. It's in good condition, that is why i believe that it is worth putting in all the work & money to keep it on the road for years to come.. just gotta be a step ahead of any possible catastrophes to come.. I believe that there is & always will be something that I can do to make the car better, mechanically as well as cosmetically. and the fact that i cant afford another car, nor the outragous costs a mechanic would charge.
thanks again!!

like i said before, i live in an apartment complex, so when i have to put my car up on jacks i gotta do it on the weekend, and have everything in order to be done by monday.. im just thinking about how it may be a little difficult to get the car high enough to reach the tranny, all i have is a scissor jack that came stock with the car, a couple of jack stands and a bunch of wood i collected from the streets over time. lol. anyways i dont see any issues going forwad .. yet...

 

[wingding333326]

oh, there is one question i have, i have heard that changing the transmission fluid on an older car with high milage could cause more harm than good... id like to know what your opinion is about that? the transmission fluid does look great.. clean, no metal shavings, good in color and no burn smell, i dont see anything wrong with the fluid on the dip stick.

thanx

 

[wingding333326]

I've changed my trans fluid and filter a few times on my 99 D. Not to hard. Always get my filter from NAPA. Also bought a under the bed tote from family dollar and drained my fuild in that. Didn't have drain plug.

i was wondering the reason that you get your filters from NAPA? i do go to NAPA if need be, but i noticed they are far more expensive than any where else, so if there is a reason to spend that extra money, i would like to know. THANK YOU

 

[wingding333326]

To be honest I've been a mechanic for 30-some years and I don't think I've ever put a torque wrench in a ball joint or tie rod end and thars even considering I was an alignment guy for almost 20 of those years.
Just did a set of ball joints on a Ford transit van at work today and didn't torque those.... I do double check my lugs with a torque wrench just to make sure I didn't miss one..

this was the first time that i used a torque wrench as well. i was always working on my 72 chevy 4x4 monster truck, built it 3 times rolled it twice, i did ball joints on it even had to buy a special "concentric tool to remove the threaded sleeve on the top ball joint & replace it with a off centered sleeve & washer, I had 40 inch tires & one side had the camber off, it was clear to see. so I had to tighten the special sleeve & washer until the tire aligned straight, than I took it back to the shop to have it aligned and the mechanic said I did it perfect!! Saved me hundreds of dollars, but it was his instructions that I followed. Never use a pickle fork either.

 

[wingding333326]

There seems to be a couple of schools of thought on this subject.

One, that I picked up on this site, was that the danger to an older tranny exists when the transmission fluid has not been changed as per manufacturer's (Mopar) recommended schedule. The rationale for this is that a varnish builds up over time on the internal parts and the fresh ATF, being highly detergent, breaks down that varnish when introduced, and then the varnish that is now circulating in the tranny clogs up the filter, fluid flow is restricted, and the clutches get wiped out.

The solution offered for this was to do an ATF & filter change, drive about 100 miles, & then do another fluid/filter change. The rationale behind this is that the second change is to remove as much of that varnish contaminated fluid as possible. I'd also say that if you were going to go that route, you may as well do a flushes both times.

If you want another school of thought on this:
before I retired I used to work with a guy
(& the scary part of this story is we were both employed as airline mechanics)
who said to NEVER change ATF. Personally, I have never subscribed to that school of thought.

I don't know what engine/tranny you have in your '00 Durango, but if you do decide to get under there & drop the pan, you might want to look on Rockauto.com & see if there is a pan with a drain plug for your application. It will make life in the future easier & cleaner for you if you continue to do scheduled ATF/filter changes.

Also, depending upon the tranny you have, it may have adjustable bands & you may want to consider adjusting them, but there as well, seem to be two schools of thoughts.

it's a durango 4x2. SLT - 5.2L. Magnum, Multiport FI {Y}. 318 CID, V8. multipurpose passenger vehicle sport utility 4 door. Automatic transmission. i dont know if that tells you much about the transmission.

like i said before the fluid looks clean, though it does leak a little, but so does everything else, i have to keep up with the differential gear oil, engine oil, more than one place, but again slight lak, when i jacked up the front end alot of steering fluid poured out.

What would you do? as far as the tranny goes?

thanx

 

[wingding333326]

it's a durango 4x2. SLT - 5.2L. Magnum, Multiport FI {Y}. 318 CID, V8. multipurpose passenger vehicle sport utility 4 door. Automatic transmission. i dont know if that tells you much about the transmission.

like i said before the fluid looks clean, though it does leak a little, but so does everything else, i have to keep up with the differential gear oil, engine oil, more than one place, but again slight lak, when i jacked up the front end alot of steering fluid poured out.

What would you do? as far as the tranny goes?

thanx

that does sound crazy about not changing fluid on air crafts. i would never imagine that there would ever be a time that it would not be advisable to change fluid on an air craft because it has been so long since the last oil change... WOW!! I would think if tht became an issue, I WOULD CHANGE THE UNIT.. But, are we talking about air planes or cars?

 

[wingding333326]

That small miss at idle could be a bad spark wire, those can be tested with an ohm meter.

i had found a real dark place and looked at my engine for arcing, it lit up like a xmas tree, i replaced spark plugs, bosch platnum tip, than plug wires 8, than i saw arcking from these dumb metal sleeves/sheilds that slide over the end of the plug wire on the block sitting on the spark plug. so, each time at dark, i would find one, next day take it off, i did that for all 8, one or 2 at a time. no more metal, i dont understand why they are there to begin with.

 

[wingding333326]

Was your truck included in the ball joint recall?

i dont think so, never heard of it. they look good to me

 

[wingding333326]

Did you check with Dodge to see if the ball joints were included in the recall?
My 2000 and 2001 Dakotas were.

what happened?

 

[wingding333326]

Those are heat shields that are supposed to protect your spark plug boots.
You should have been getting some misfire codes?

well, after i showed a friend my proud accomplishment of replacing the wires, when i wasn't looking & i trusted this guy knew about cars, he without my knowing & i had to figured out the hard way that he shoved that tool that reads codes, too far and forced all those pins outta place, it was after dark by the time I got the car drive able to get home. The next day, in the day light, I ended up having to rap each and every single wire end with electrical tape, than went through every single fuse, replaced the burnt ones, made sure that every one were the correct gauge, even reading all facing the same way. Funny after i did that, a few things worked that never had since I had got the car, like the windshield wipers only has 2 speeds, fast & faster.. lol.. now it has all the speeds. I plan on getting another plug from the junk yard and wiring it all in, I figure it must be the exact same car as mine. The engine light came on once since I had done this, I disconnected the battery for a while, knowing it will just come back on again eventually, but it hasn’t, I do know that this means nothing, I know that it is not working, just basically operating on old school, till I fix that issue, I have a list, I work on that car everyday, a little here & a little there. Trying to do the most vital things first, engine & trans. top of my list

But before that plug was damaged, I had taken it to advanced auto for the codes, they told me 13!! than I drove it straight to auto zone they told me 1 code, misfire on one cylinder. since than, I did plugs & wires. I still look at it after dark, even crawled underneath, no arcing.

It does run really good, what I may feel is so slight, no one else can detect it. Maybe Im paranoid, meticulous. i only know that I have to catch any issue before it becomes a real issue. A disaster, that I cant afford.

I still don’t understand how metal will protect from arcing.. my 72 chevy 350 didn’t have metal shields, it had plastic bracket type things, etc. aligning the wires away from heat, each other and from arcing on metal. With those shields on, the thing lit up like a xmas tree!! it doesnt now.. I did save the shields, but until I have a reason to put them back on, I think they are best off. thank you for your expertise. i have to say how much all your help that you all have giving me, has been the reason for all the success with each issue ive had. i have yet to have gotten any bad advice...

 

[wingding333326]

 

[wingding333326]

That’s what im talking about.. It's the smart ones who express them selves with underestimation.
My response to someone who tells me I know about cars. "Is that I know enough to know that I don’t know"
For me, to always rememeber that keeps me from making bigger mistakes. The only time that I am wrong is when I think im right.. lol.. cant be wrong if I don’t think that Im right.
I did the spark plugs some time way before the wires, I know I got the bosch platinum tip plugs, and when I did the wires, they were blue and 8 for sure (mm?)
The arcing was always coming from them dumb metal shields down where the plugs are and arcing from the shields to the block, like a 1/4 in. Blue in color, blinking, after the xmas tree scene, & I changed the plugs & wires, the arcing was not easy to see, or find but, after getting in the right position, I would find them, just had to be careful not to loose a finger or 2 looking, so, I would use a small flash light to see where to avoid.

"but I am interested as to why your wires/boots were arcing on them."
well, the way I see it, as I removed a shield mostly one at a time, at day time, than check again at another night, problem solved from the one I removed, but another to be removed at day time. Until they were all gone and no more arcing. didn’t cost me a dime & problem fixed. couldn’t ask for anything better because I have so much more to focus on. I do still look sometimes, I spray stuff looking for exhaust leaks, my 72 350 chevy with headers I could see exhaust leaks in the dark, it was more of a flame. I was replacing header gaskets on a regular basis, one side than then the other until I learned about "locktight" put that stuff on the header bolts and no more replacing header gaskets. I didn’t even like the headers, I would rather have had stock exhaust but because I put two frames stack one on top of the other, there was no way that stock exhaust would fit.
after the point of when you said "as you probably already know," I have not even a clue.! LOL! It has been chevys that I have been really into. My 72 chevy 4x4 truck & Camaros, latest 89. I did have a dodge colt 79 lol! It took lots of abuse and still kept on ticking, lived on pismo beach drove around stuck 4x4's, it was front wheel drive, id let near all the air out of the front tires & it would go about every where, you can have all the power in the world but with out traction you are going no where!! LOL..
about dodges I did have to admit from what I experienced or saw even though dodges where the ugliest trucks out there I noticed they seem to last longer than the rest & tolerate more.
Until you got to the point of having to get the exact year, I do undertand that & im not even gonna be satisfied until it is not just the year but everything else has to match.

"Anyway, you sound like you have a great attitude and are doing good jobs." I was impressed about all you said you did with that old Chevy 4x4!"

THANK YOU FOR THE COMPLIMENT!! IT REALLY FEELS GOOD!!

I gotta tell ya the only reason I got this car was I needed a way to get my self & my precious horse from California to here Pennsylvania. I knew it had a lot of miles on it but it only had to serve one purpose, to get here. I did everything I could to check it out to make sure it was gonna make the trip.
It did without a single problem what so ever during that more than 2 week trip. That was in 2013 so it sat, parked in the boonies until 2019, it got moved here & there a few times. So after 6 years of sitting battery stolen, tires rotted, vines growing all around, I put rat poison in a few times, it had mummified mice, a complete snake skin, im still flushing out walnuts from places you wouldnt even imagined exised in a car!! LOL!! mice had built their nest in the lights, it was crazy I brought a battery to it and only had wires + & - I put the wires to the battery held em there, turned my face like i didnt want it to blow up. and I had someone turn the key & it started up like the first crank!!!!!! we were in shock! I said "thats all I need to know, lets go home" It needed the battery & 3 new tires. People are always commenting how good of condition it is in.. well it’s a California car.. and it looks better than what I should believe it to be.

Even though im a Chevy person… I have to admit this car has never left me stranded!!

 

[wingding333326]

That's a sweet looking baby you have there!

it was raining & i couldnt get rid of the glare, i'll take a better picture later

 

[wingding333326]

That is an interesting history of your Durango.
Yes, I am sure that the California lifetyle made a difference--Pa. winters are tough on vehicles.

Anyway, what you described that you put on sounds a bit like SMP's Blue Streak plug wire, which is supposed to be a pretty good wire. I took a look on rockauto and saw plenty of SMP options, but I didn't see the Blue Streak. Here is what Rock is showing for yours:

2000 DODGE DURANGO 5.2L V8 Spark Plug Wire | Shop Now at RockAuto

Ignition Parts and More for Your 2000 DODGE DURANGO at Reliably Low Prices. Fast Online Catalog. DIY-Easy. Your Choice of Quality. Full Manufacturer Warranty.

www.rockauto.com

I just wouldn't think that a good plugwire/boot should be arcing against the plug heatshield is all.

I will say that it has been a good while since I put those Taylor's on mine and removed the heatshields, and prior to that it's quite possible that I never looked under my hood in the dark. So I don't know, maybe it was. I do know that if you latch on to a plug wire with the engine running, you will feel it, so I guess it's possible that if the boot where it connects with the rest of the wire was touching the heatshield it could be arcing. . . .

In '20 I did head gaskets on my '02 GMC and since I was that deep into it I went ahead & treated it to a set of Blue Streaks, and not being perfectly-perfect in sizing, one was rubbing against the steering shaft and after a while I got a misfire code and when I looked (for some reason at night) it was arcing, although I was not detecting a miss.

Rock actually warrantied the plug wire, byw.

Well, I don’t know anything beyond 8mm because when I had my chevy 4x4 I liked to spend a lot of time in water. Like I used boat grease and everything that didn’t have a zerc fitting, I put one in, anyways I noticed that when I would go barreling into the water, some times it would kill the engine, cause the standard distributor/points would get wet, so I changed the distributor to an HEI, in doing so, I had to change the wire gauge from 7mm to 8mm cause it ran hotter, than I had to make all the new wires custom, changing the ends also the spark plug gaps from 035 to 045. then it was water proof!!