Not that anyone cares, but I figured I would (almost) close out the broken axle story.
The truck was at the dealership for 87 days total. Bilstein finally provided a shock and it was installed along with a new diff and cv axle. Then the fun with Ram began....
Ram Cares kicked me to a different person to negotiatiate the "cash settlement" They came at me with $6500 cash AND a 8 yr/100,000 mile zero dollar deductable warranty OR a straight $7500 cash settlement. I do not think the 8yr/100,000 mile warranty with a zero dollar deductable is publicly available. It is only available through Ram Cares as part of their settlement program. I did try to negotiate and threaten to use the buy back program in which case the car would have a blemish on the title. It did not phase them at all and they would not increase the cash settlement offers.
In addition, they would transfer me to the buy back department and go through the lemon law process in California. The CA lemon law is very favorable to the consumer (one of the few good things about the state). It would pay me back for the purchase price (including any ADMs), taxes, other transaction fees, attorney fees, and then deduct mileage based on a life of 120,000 miles (I had less than 1200 when it happened- the formula was purchase price divided by 120,000 multiplied by the mileage when it went to the dealer= ~$880 for me). Once I said I wanted an attorney to review a buy back contract, they wanted to send me directly to their legal department. I did not opt for the buy back so did not have to go that far.
Ram did tell me that if I started the buy back process and then changed my mind, they would reduce the cash settlement in order to pay the 3rd party buy back fees.
For the cash settlement, they asked me to send them a scan of the registration and a driver license for each owner on the registration.
I am waiting for the check to be cut and sent to me. I have received the emails with the warranty information and need to register on their website.
I got the truck back in the middle of October and it has taken these three months to muddle through what I just wrote.
I thought about contacting an attorney, but I did not think I would recoup the $300-$400 an hour they would charge me for assistance. I would have definitely had a lawyer review the contract if I went the buy back route.
Hope that helps in case anyone is in the situation.