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Driveshaft Center Support Bearing Assembly

trugg1910

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Hey everyone,

I have a 2020 Ram 1500 RWD 5.7. I have just completed a 5,400 mile cross country trip from NC to Grand Canyon towing a 22’ single axle travel trailer weighing roughly 4600 LBS dry. On the return trip near Oklahoma I started noticing a vibration when pulling off from a dead stop. I passed it off as possible brakes sticking on the trailer but wasn’t sure because it was a rental. I got home and the vibration continued, again only when I pulled off from a dead stop. I crawled under her to see what I could see. I observed the center support bearing housing had rubber between the shaft and housing, and the rubber was completely separated from the shaft/housing with a 1/16 gap or so visible. I should be under warranty as I only have 31,400 miles on it. But……
1. What would cause that, because I took it real easy on the towing?
2. Should I park it, scheduled appointment not until July 21st. Earliest available.
 

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Sascwatch

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Hard to tell from the pictures, but it looks to me like the bearing is only supported by 4 small sections on the corners of the outer square shape.

How much play is there if you try to move the driveshaft by hand?

On a side note, the factory that makes these really needs to clean up the excess rubber from the moulding process. Thing looks horrible, and probably looked the same brand new.
 

djevox

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I see the bottom left with that split and the other side doesn’t look great either. Every situation varies, but that could cause a vibration. If you had to have a vehicle and since it’s only vibrating at certain times, you could drive it until the vibration gets worse. There’s always a chance that it will grenade itself though.
 

HSKR R/T

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Personally, I would park it until you can get it to dealer. 100% still under warranty. Probably won't hurt to drive, but why risk catastrophic failure.
 

trugg1910

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Hard to tell from the pictures, but it looks to me like the bearing is only supported by 4 small sections on the corners of the outer square shape.

How much play is there if you try to move the driveshaft by hand?

On a side note, the factory that makes these really needs to clean up the excess rubber from the moulding process. Thing looks horrible, and probably looked the same brand new.
The bearing is molded into the rubber as a whole and the rubber itself separated around the whole area surrounding the bearing. I can force it up and down about 1/8 an inch but that’s pushing real hard.
Hard to tell from the pictures, but it looks to me like the bearing is only supported by 4 small sections on the corners of the outer square shape.

How much play is there if you try to move the driveshaft by hand?

On a side note, the factory that makes these really needs to clean up the excess rubber from the moulding process. Thing looks horrible, and probably looked the same brand new.
Not much play. I can force it 1/8 inch. I had to push it apart with one hand and photo with the other to accentuate the year along the entire inner rubber circular piece wherein the bearing are. It looks to me the rubber area around the shaft is inadequate in thickness. If I idle away from a stop and slowly press the gas it won’t vibrate. But if I’m turning and accelerating it does it every time, but only less than a second until the driveshaft starts spinning over 1000 rpm or so. It only vibrates slightly on take off, never while driving. I’m guessing the torque pins the broken rubber to one side and it rests in the broken circle until I stop and go again.
 

trugg1910

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I see the bottom left with that split and the other side doesn’t look great either. Every situation varies, but that could cause a vibration. If you had to have a vehicle and since it’s only vibrating at certain times, you could drive it until the vibration gets worse. There’s always a chance that it will grenade itself though.
I have a work vehicle so I only drive for necessities cause my wife’s 08 expedition is acting up after sitting two weeks. But new fuel filter seems to have fixed it. Nevertheless I don’t “have” to drive it right now, only to get to the dealership unless I can talk them into towing it but I don’t wanta risk a not covered under warrant issue and pay for all that out of pocket. I really baby’d it for the towing also, so I’m very irritated that such a problem exists. But hey, these days we (Customer) are the big companies research and development team it would seem.
 

HSKR R/T

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I have a work vehicle so I only drive for necessities cause my wife’s 08 expedition is acting up after sitting two weeks. But new fuel filter seems to have fixed it. Nevertheless I don’t “have” to drive it right now, only to get to the dealership unless I can talk them into towing it but I don’t wanta risk a not covered under warrant issue and pay for all that out of pocket. I really baby’d it for the towing also, so I’m very irritated that such a problem exists. But hey, these days we (Customer) are the big companies research and development team it would seem.
Probably more of a quality control issue with the center support bearing. This isn't something you hear a lot about failing. Bad parts slip through the cracks every now and then. Just like there are factory lemon vehicles that are plagued with problems while most people don't have issues.
 

trugg1910

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Hey everyone,

Update!!
After they told me nothing was wrong with it, I went to dealership and rode with a technician riding shotgun, and they eventually contacted STAR engineers, they recommended replacing the whole rear differential and filling it proper fluid (but they could not determine if mine had wrong fluid in it or not). So hopefully that solves it. So I’m not sure if this will be an eventual recall or isolated. Remember, I pulled a 22’ travel trailer 5400 mile from NC to Grand Canyon and back. So maybe a lot of towing brings whatever the defect is to light sooner. 2020 Ram1500 Bighorn RWD 6’04 bed.
 
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