hi i was lookin at a 99 dodge 3/4 ton with a buddy and he said he put in a new CAD front axle with an outer shaft and i aint sure what it is never heard about it and the outer shaft makes me think of lock out hubs thanks in advance

 

on that vintage dodge, the front axle uses a central axle disconnect (CAD). the passenger side axle is split in 2 pieces. there is a vacuum operated shift motor that moves a collar internally to lock the 2 halves of the axle together, giving you 4x4.

the CAD probably came about for fuel economy reasons, the less parts that are spinning and all that. but they built in more parts to break or wear out!

the outer shaft refers to the shaft that is in the hub.
inner shaft is the shaft immediately inbord of the outer shaft. these to are connected by the u-joint.
intermediate shaft is that passenger axle between the side gear and CAD.

 

What's sad is the CAD axle doesn't help that much, if any, in the fuel milage area and has more parts to wear out and fail! Just one more brilliant idea of some engineer!!!

 

like a pair of lockout hubs is fewer parts to wear out and fail?

 

They seem to have less trouble and they are easy to fix when they do have problems!

 

yeah you just buy new ones for 200 bucks a pair.

 

Well the CAD unit cost $100 itself. You don't even want to know when you have to tear into the axle itself!! Let alone the problems that can come from the vacuum lines, misalignment, ect. The lockouts are easy, you either know you are in or not. Not much room for error! Yeah the CAD is handy that you don't have to get out of the truck to lock into 4wd, but I would prefer the lockouts personally. I've seen much less problems with them on farm/ feed rigs around here. Once you replace them with a set of Milemarkers, that is about the last of the complaints!!

 

I'll just stick with my noncad axle and not worry about it. Truly fewer parts to wear out and have to replace.

 

Oh yeah the non-cad axle would be pretty cool too! Less going on there, but the down side is you disconnect it. Not a big deal I guess.... Kinda hard to have a 2wd low range though..

 

nah. all you have to do is drop the front driveshaft. Its only like 8 bolts?

LO hubs would be nice, but the times i use 2wd low is rare. its nice to have a really tight convertor. just have to ride the brakes a lot.