What did you do to/with your second gen today?

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dapepper9

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Smoked headlights came in yesterday and turns out the main lens on these is permasealed. So fun time ahead. may just return these for 1 pcs lights and just do the washers to aim them
My clear 2pc with no amber in the corners just arrived. Ordering d2s 4.0s after next check

Well turns out when i perma-locked my front axle by locking the collar/fork over, i missed something important. I didn't notice that the 2 plastic bushings/pads on the end of the fork had fallen off or something. Didn't find out until Tuesday when i got stuck on the most pathetic iced over puddle ever. Was out in the sand, driving over a stretch of ice on the trail that would've been about a 4-6" deep puddle when the front tires broke through in the middle. Like an idiot i stopped instead of keeping the vehicle moving. When to go to 4hi and one wheel peel on the ice out back and nothing in the wet sand up front. Got it home, pulled the actuator, found the ends ground to **** on the fork. Ordered a new fork and pads but while waiting decided it was as good a time as any to install my cad delete shaft. One of the worst jobs I've ever done on this *****. Broke one of the brake pin bolts, He-Man was the last guy to touch the caliper bracket bolts and the 3 bolts for the hub and scattered the needle bearings for the intermediate shaft support bearing. Pulled the front cover and drained it, pulled the old inner seal, couldn't get the bearing so decided to try and leave it, see how it worked out keep things interesting. Messed up the new inner seal trying to get it seated. At this point i couldn't do anything else as it was 10pm and i started at 530. Took toady off work, ran to oreillys and got a new seal and parts to re-design my homemade puller tool. I can get pics if anybody wants em but you can find it here too:
https://youtu.be/2tOVBmEE3jo
Only difference is i welded a nut on the end to make it easier to keep the rod from spinning. Still ****** my new new seal. Ran back and bought the last 2 from O'Reillys and tried again. Almost ****** a THIRD new seal when i noticed the washer and nut i used to hold the hole saw were what my problem was the whole time. 5/8" hole for the washer and 1/2" all-thread with 1/2" thread nut means the nut is getting ****-eyed on the nut and giving uneven pressure. Threw another washer on, this one 1/2" hole, over the first and seal sucked right in. Put the new single inner axle shaft and old outer shaft together with a new spicer u joint and bolted everything back together....with anti-seize. I'll be back I'm sure. Left the old intermediate shaft support bearing in but without the rollers/needles and it's touching the shaft just the ever so slightest. Which means my axle tube is slightly bent and now i can actually see it. **** it either the shaft will wear and they'll quit touching or the rest of the bearing will and I'll do a fluid change and everything then. (chromoly shaft, my moneys on the bearing) and when it does finished everything up with a new caliper bracket because that bolt is broke flush in there and will not come out. Don't really notice the shaft and bearing issue while driving so I'll leave it for now, everything works so far now though.
 
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BlackMagnum2000

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Haha.. I remember when I tried making my own front axle seal installer.. bought every seal in stock from 2 different advances, 2 o Reillys, Napa, auto zone, and Summit before I bought the tool. Ridiculous lol.
So you're doing another retrofit eh?
 

dapepper9

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Haha.. I remember when I tried making my own front axle seal installer.. bought every seal in stock from 2 different advances, 2 o Reillys, Napa, auto zone, and Summit before I bought the tool. Ridiculous lol.
So you're doing another retrofit eh?

I need the truck asap and didn't wanna wait for the "proper" tool to arrive because nobody had it locally. Worked great though once i wisened up and looked at it. Did crease the center of the plate steel though. Only thing im keeping is the modified hole saw.

Yep, not sure if i wanna do a color match and leave the clear reflector in the corners for offset, satin black, or leave em full chrome and go with a chrome shroud as well to offset the dark bumper grille and paint. Would look more clean/factory that way too
 

BlackMagnum2000

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I need the truck asap and didn't wanna wait for the "proper" tool to arrive because nobody had it locally. Worked great though once i wisened up and looked at it. Did crease the center of the plate steel though. Only thing im keeping is the modified hole saw.

Yep, not sure if i wanna do a color match and leave the clear reflector in the corners for offset, satin black, or leave em full chrome and go with a chrome shroud as well to offset the dark bumper grille and paint. Would look more clean/factory that way too
Yeah. That's one reason I'm glad my dad got his other truck, me and him both have another ram as a back up if one of our trucks are down. Usually mine though..

I'm really happy with my color match. If only I had a color that stood out more so it actually made a difference.. lol
 

dapepper9

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Yeah. That's one reason I'm glad my dad got his other truck, me and him both have another ram as a back up if one of our trucks are down. Usually mine though..

I'm really happy with my color match. If only I had a color that stood out more so it actually made a difference.. lol

Yeah see I'm not sure how color match would look with my green and the fact that nothing else it matched. Black bumper, black and chrome wheels and grille. Current lights look pretty decent i think with basic black lights and chrome shroud but i do miss the cleaner look of my first set with the chrome headlights. Only thing that really stood out on those was the transparent graphite shrouds and even they weren't bad. Of course satin black just looks good in general but again im unsure with the green. Currently leaning staying chrome
 

BlackMagnum2000

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Yeah see I'm not sure how color match would look with my green and the fact that nothing else it matched. Black bumper, black and chrome wheels and grille. Current lights look pretty decent i think with basic black lights and chrome shroud but i do miss the cleaner look of my first set with the chrome headlights. Only thing that really stood out on those was the transparent graphite shrouds and even they weren't bad. Of course satin black just looks good in general but again im unsure with the green. Currently leaning staying chrome
See I'm just not a fan of chrome. So I can't really say
 

dapepper9

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Well trans really isn't a fan of this cold weather here in Iowa. Overdrive specifically. Wanna wait until spring to get the new trans installed but it's got me worried. ******* is stumbling and jerking in OD. OD off it duces flawlessly. Zero rise in temp on the gauge and it starts at like 130 lol
 

texasrebel

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I don't get how you guys put up with that ****. Its 40 right now and I'm hugging my heater
27 where I'm at. Southeast Texas finally decided to participate in winter. It's not too bad until the wind comes through, then it sucks.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk
 

dapepper9

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I don't get how you guys put up with that ****. Its 40 right now and I'm hugging my heater

Had a cold about a week ago and it was staying above 20 at night so i opened the window in my bedroom to clear my sinuses while i slept lol
 

dodge dude94

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It would work for you since you've got the brush guard, but having them mounted on the bumper just doesn't leave room.

I did make progress on my rear LED's.
Flush mounted some 3x2 led pods and tapped into the reverse wiring.
TnDvMYH.jpg

HUGE improvement!! Not sure if running a relay and their own wire from a fuse will make them brighter as I didn't check voltage from the reverse lights themselves, but they work

They're awesome aren't they? Got them on mine too. I love them. Mine are wired directly to the reverse lights too
That's what I want to do. Can barely back up at my house at night, let alone in the woods where I was last Saturday.
 

dodge dude94

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I don't get how you guys put up with that ****. Its 40 right now and I'm hugging my heater

27 where I'm at. Southeast Texas finally decided to participate in winter. It's not too bad until the wind comes through, then it sucks.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

It was 16 when I woke up yesterday morning. Said **** that and waited til it crested 18 to roll out of bed and take the girlies car to the shop.
 

mda8569

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I had to finally put a heatercore in my truck. Holy s..., what a job. Lucky for me I have an insulated garage, not heated, but it didnt take too long to heat it up with my 2 propane heaters and tanks to go with them. Anyway, now that I have done it, it wasnt as bad as I thought it was going to be, thankfully. No more leaking out the floor vent, or steamed up windshield, so I can go out in this crap, and have some fun!!
 

dapepper9

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I had to finally put a heatercore in my truck. Holy s..., what a job. Lucky for me I have an insulated garage, not heated, but it didnt take too long to heat it up with my 2 propane heaters and tanks to go with them. Anyway, now that I have done it, it wasnt as bad as I thought it was going to be, thankfully. No more leaking out the floor vent, or steamed up windshield, so I can go out in this crap, and have some fun!!

I need to do this BAD. Probably going to look at doing it tomorrow actually
 

richterat83

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Yeah see I'm not sure how color match would look with my green and the fact that nothing else it matched. Black bumper, black and chrome wheels and grille. Current lights look pretty decent i think with basic black lights and chrome shroud but i do miss the cleaner look of my first set with the chrome headlights. Only thing that really stood out on those was the transparent graphite shrouds and even they weren't bad. Of course satin black just looks good in general but again im unsure with the green. Currently leaning staying chrome

See I'm just not a fan of chrome. So I can't really say

I'm the same way on not liking chrome. Every set i've done is satin black with a satin silver shroud or just all black. BUT, this green on the truck and going with black just doesn't do it for me. Almost makes it look base model style. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but just not feeling it. Grill is color matched as is my bumper (even if it's peeling) so black just looks out of place. I'll be ordering another set of chrome lights but doing a light coat of nite-shades on it so they'll look similiar to the Hella black magics.
 

gmwilkes

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I had to finally put a heatercore in my truck. Holy s..., what a job. Lucky for me I have an insulated garage, not heated, but it didnt take too long to heat it up with my 2 propane heaters and tanks to go with them. Anyway, now that I have done it, it wasnt as bad as I thought it was going to be, thankfully. No more leaking out the floor vent, or steamed up windshield, so I can go out in this crap, and have some fun!!



I looked into this (trying to decide if my truck is going to be worth all the fixes it needs.) Figured if I'm gonna do it, I might as well do the evap and blower motor as well.
 

mda8569

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I looked into this (trying to decide if my truck is going to be worth all the fixes it needs.) Figured if I'm gonna do it, I might as well do the evap and blower motor as well.

My A/C doesnt work either, but I just wanted heat. It wouldnt have been that much harder to do it all, the only thing holding the box in is the a/c lines. But now that I have done it, it wont take hardly anytime at all to disassemble again, 30 mins or so. I wish I would have pulled my 180 stat out and put the 195 back in while I had the system drained. These sub-zero temps make it hard for the truck to reach operating temp. I had my scanner hooked up to it after the install and was driving around watching the coolant temp, seems my 180, opens up at about 175 or so, while its sitting, so its running kinda cold, but I still have heat, it just takes a little bit longer
 

BlackMagnum2000

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Finally my aluminum sheet came in. I start taking measurements tonight. Hopefully I'll have time after class tomorrow to drive up to dads shop to use the plasma cutter and brake dbfab6ab981b7273cd0aff3e7facc82b.jpg77c7158aca2710f2ddbf2e4acb03d086.jpg
 

dapepper9

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Well yesterday i too did one of those jobs that every 2nd gen owner fears....heater core. ******* been leaking for like 2 years now. Always kicked out great heat regardless though this year she started getting colder and colder and colder. Pulling dash back and removing the old core was easy. Hard part was getting the new one in and that was a ****. Had to really force the ******* in there but it's in. Refrained from reinstalling one of the hold down clamps because **** that guy. Old one was funky lol
Screenshot_20170110-185417.jpg

Also today i canceled an order i placed for a new dash through lmc because they've been backordered for weeks. Made a new order through Genos Garage for one. Also while i was in there i added a new sway cushion for the fronts. My driverside is worn out like a 2 dollar ****** on payday
 
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