Dodge 2001 Ram 1500 Owner's Manual page 1610

BR/BE
GEAR (Continued)
WORM THRUST BEARING PRELOAD
(1) Mount the gear carefully into a vise.
CAUTION: Do not overtighten the vise on the gear
case. This may affect the adjustment
(2) Remove adjuster plug locknut (Fig. 5) .
(3) Rotate the stub shaft back and forth with a 12
point socket to drain the remaining fluid.
Fig. 5 Adjuster Lock Nut
1 - ADJUSTER NUT
2 - STEERING GEAR
3 - LOCK NUT
4 - PUNCH
(4) Turn the adjuster in with Spanner Wrench
C-4381. Tighten the plug and thrust bearing in the
housing until firmly bottomed in the housing about
28-31 N·m (20-23 ft. lbs.).
(5) Place an index mark on the housing even with
one of the holes in adjuster plug (Fig. 6) .
(6) Measure back (counterclockwise) 18 mm (0.70
in) and mark the housing (Fig. 7) .
(7) Rotate adjustment cap back (counterclockwise)
with spanner wrench until hole is aligned with the
second mark (Fig. 8) .
(8) Install and tighten lock nut to 108 N·m (80 ft.
lbs.). Be sure adjustment cap does not turn while
tightening the lock nut.
PITMAN SHAFT OVER-CENTER PRELOAD
NOTE: Before performing this procedure, the worm
bearing preload adjustment must be performed.
(1) Rotate the stub shaft with a 12 point socket
from stop to stop and count the number of turns.
(2) Starting at either stop, turn the stub shaft
back 1/2 the total number of turns. This is the center
of the gear travel (Fig. 9) .
Fig. 6 Alignment Marking On Housing
1 - INDEX
Fig. 7 Second Marking On Housing
1 - REFERENCE MARK
(3) Place the torque wrench in the vertical position
on the stub shaft. Rotate the wrench 45 degrees each
side of the center and record the highest rotational
torque in this range (Fig. 10) . This is the Over-Cen-
ter Rotating Torque.
NOTE: The stub shaft must rotate smoothly without
sticking or binding.
GEAR 19 - 17