u joint catastrophe
 

Hey all. I'm new to the site, but not new to the diesel world.

I have just acquired an 00 ram 3500 5.9 srw with 200k on the clock. Overall, it's a great truck. It's lifted 4" on 35" new tires. Before I got it the PO put in all new chassis parts in the front end, New clutch, ladder bars etc. I seen that the back half of the tcase was cracked, no biggie. Went to the dealer, got a new rear half of the case and put it on. Drove it for 2 weeks back and fourth from work with no leaks.

Here's where it gets good ( and expensive), going for a drive down to Indiana(I live near Cleveland, Ohio) I get 3 hrs into the drive and I spit a cap (or so I thought) on the slip yoke going into the tcase. No big deal I thought. Wellthe extension housing cracked. I thought that was odd so I got it towed back home. Further investigation I find that not ONLY did it break the extension housing, it cracked my new, 170 case I just put on, my trans housing AND housing are all cracked and leaking fluids.What could cause this mayham to happen?! I've never seen anything like this before...

bad u-joints, out of balance or too long drive shaft, extreme angles on the drive shafts from suspension lifts without addressing the drivetrain...

worn out bearings in the trans or transfer case causing shaft slop. bad motor or trans mounts..

could be a number of things...

the lift isn't helping any... you don't need 4" of lift to run 35's... I run 35's on a 2" leveling kit only..