2005 Ram 2500 Free Spin Install & Other Goodies

Cleaned the tapers out and installed knuckles on ball joints per EMF's directions.

Couple of dings on the spindles. I'll be honest not thrilled about that at the price point these are at, maybe that is just me being a machinist, I can be pretty critical of stuff like that. But filed the mating surfaces to ensure they will be flat.

Axle shafts slid in, dust shield and spindle installed with anti seize.


New NTK wheel speed sensors, the old ones worked, but the wires had some melted spots in them so decided to go new. Spindles torqued and should be ready to receive the hubs once those are prepped.

Studs pressed in

In the machining trade, this is called the Tennessee floor finish. You know, they could cut their cycle time a lot by using a 3" face mill. Anything is better than a 1/2" endmill...

But all on now. Now just put rotors/calipers back on and reconnect steering, install front cover ane fill with fluid.

Everything looks great. I didn’t realize the rotors were still loose in these kits, I just assumed (I know…) they were retained by the studs like older axles.

nvrenuf said:

Everything looks great. I didn’t realize the rotors were still loose in these kits, I just assumed (I know…) they were retained by the studs like older axles.

Click to expand...

Yes, afaik, all of the kits for the 2000+ trucks retain the outboard/slip on rotor feature.

I know the 94-99 Dana 60 kits keep the rotors inboarded. Fun fact is the 94-99 Rams use the same calipers as a lot of GMT400 trucks and other GMs of the era.

Attempted to powder coat the front cover. Came out decent except for a couple spots, not sure if it was contamination or something in the process that caused it. Oh well. Good enuf'

Got the rear torn apart. Axles pulled, carrier removed. Removed the ring gear, the tone ring is pressed onto the carrier, to remove it I used the same method to remove ring gears from flywheels. Spin the carrier and heat with torch, about a minute later it fell right off.

Will be receiving new hub seals. These are a nicer design than my Dana 70 is as the are a 2 piece design, so the axle is not a wear surface.