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

[BeauDuke01]

 

[Shadow_Death]

That looks friggin sweet!

 

[2kDodgeRam]

Not just today but in the past two months. My son is actually driving it now.

2 1/2" leveling kit
Bigger tires
Reworked rear differential (clutch pack failed and had parts sitting in the bottom of the diff pan. Truck was still driving. The only reason I found it was because I was changing the fluid last year)
Transmission fluid / filter change and band adjustment

Oh the fun of a 2000 Dodge Ram. Sure beats having a car payment though.

 

[DodgeTx]

Well Guys, I had a pretty idiotic problem with my flatbed. I put di electric grease on the battery terminals to cut down on the oxidation or whatever happens. Well it ended up making it have a bad connection and having the truck not start. I was chasing a few gremlins only to find out both of my batteries had 12.5V which through me for a loop. Cleaned all that junk off retightened terminals and she fired up.

In another note, my 83 chevy tow truck developed a rod knock. May be getting the minuteman going on the flatbed. Will keep everyone updated.

 

[dapepper9]

Replaced the two washer/seals on the top of the AC compressor then this broke off and the threads inside stripped out. I had barely even snugged it up when it happened.



I think I'm giving up on the AC at this point.

I did the same thing on the 3rd! Pissed me right off. Went and got a new compressor, vacuumed out the system again, filled it, works great.

So I haven't been around in a while. Been busy as hell with work and truck. Work I've been to Cincinnatti for a week, come home for 2weeks and now I'm in Knoxville, Tennessee typing this lol. Going to the desert for a couple months a few weeks after this trip too. As for the truck, after 2 years of telling passengers to "deal with it" I finally reinstalled AC. New compressor, new accumulator, new condenser, new lines. Evaporator is the only thing I didn't change. And because I don't like shops I even picked up a set of manifold gauges and a vacuum pump (thank you HarborFreight). Pretty damn easy if you actually use common sense and don't overfill the damn thing. Do that, it leaks at the compressor, you go to tighten it and snap off the threaded section (like the above) and proceed to run away from the ensuing geyser cursing like a sailor. Oops.

Also changed the driverside u-joint, original one even. Funny thing. That was like 2 weeks ago...broke the ******* on Sunday. I'll get to that though.

Fast forward. Drove the truck to Knoxville, Tennessee all the way from Sioux City, Iowa; about 1000 miles. Drove great, getting 15.5mpg at 65 without ANY flat ground anywhere. Was getting around 17-ish before the hilly terrain. Love it. Then I get to St. Louis, Missouri. 4:30 in the morning some stereotypical gangster thugs throw a pile/box or something filled with wood and metal in front of my truck as I'm cruising down the interstate. Hit it hard, it exploded. Cut the front of my trans crossmember where the CAD lines go, nothing structural, and also messed up my steering and exhaust a bit. Turn all the way right and it binds coming back and the exhaust is just banged up. Too bad I wasn't carrying like usual, I kept going but I probably would've stopped lol. Drove it the rest of the way without issue. While in Knoxville I had the absolutely amazing opportunity to climb a bunch of easy Jeep trails at Windrock Park in Oliver Springs. B. E. A. Utiful. Absolutely breathtaking for a flat-lander like myself. That was last saturday. Went back on Sunday and leaving the trail I stopped...pulled it out of 4low...and accidentally skipped 2hi and went into 4hi without realizing it. Also that road leaving the trail is the twistiest road I've ever encountered in my life (Devil's Triangle, google it, thats the road lol). 180 degree turn with a 10mph speed limit and POP the brand new driverside ujoint blew a cap out. Drove it about 35 miles back to where I'm staying in Alcoa lol.

FINALLY! THE BIG NEWS! Least for me and I'm excited as all hell. Monday I drove it about 5 miles to a local offroad shop, Rob's Offroad. Hopefully going to be able to pick it up Friday with a brand new Eaton TrueTrack, 4.56 gears, good ujoint and MAYBE a new tie rod or something. Not overly concerned with steering as it drives fine, I think something just go tweaked. But yeah I can't friggin wait.


I'll have pictures and HOPEFULLY a time lapse video from Sunday soon

 

[Shadow_Death]

I did the same thing on the 3rd! Pissed me right off. Went and got a new compressor, vacuumed out the system again, filled it, works great.

Yup, given my luck I'll probably have it fixed in time for the fall. I do need to figure out why my dash vents dont work. That one has bugged me. The defrosters work, the floor boards work, even the recycle air works... Just not the dash. It's been bugging the crap out of me. Guess I'll pull that controller and see if the little rubber gasket has rolled again. When we originally got it the runner mat in there rolled off the plastic piece. So here's hoping.

 

[Yeret]

Sweet. With your mods, the 4.56 gears are gonna let her pull like an SOB.

Man, concerning that ******** throwing stuff at you like that. Just, what the ****? Man, if I was in that boat, I don't know what I'd do. I'd be downright pissed, that's for sure, LOL. Did you kick their asses in a race or something? Maybe they gave you the ricer flyby and then did it. Whatever the case, what a ********.

In regards to u-joints, I'm still flapping around the half-busted bugger in my driver side. Man, it's getting embarrassingly loud but it's not so bad when I've got Metallica blasting from the speakers, LOL. I'm gearing up to just replace the whole axle unit. I tore the hell out of inner and outer axles when a replaced u-joint just without warning blew to bits a couple years ago. The stuff was "fixed" but now, less than a year of drive-time later, the replacement u-joint is toasted. Then I need to get to a chassis shop and get my steering straightened up once and for all since I also suspect this is playing a role in the problem. Plus, although I'm well used to holding the wheel a bit to the right to track straight, it really is pretty annoying. My damned mods budget is gonna take a hit for sure which sucks because Gibson has a sweet rebate going on with all their stuff and I could sure do with a nice, stainless cat-back setup. Ah well, I'll figure stuff out one way or the other.

 

[dapepper9]

Sweet. With your mods, the 4.56 gears are gonna let her pull like an SOB.

Man, concerning that ******** throwing stuff at you like that. Just, what the ****? Man, if I was in that boat, I don't know what I'd do. I'd be downright pissed, that's for sure, LOL. Did you kick their asses in a race or something? Maybe they gave you the ricer flyby and then did it. Whatever the case, what a ********.

Hell yeah it will!

Those guys were definitely gang affiliated. There's a news article about gangs throwing stuff in front of your car, baby carriers are popular, hoping you'll stop. Then they beat/kill/**** you and rob you. I said F that smashed the thing and hammered down. Saw wood and junk go flying everywhere behind me

 

[Yeret]

Man, that's just effed up. Reminds me of a Snopes article I read a few years back of gangsters driving around at night with their brights on. As an initiation process, if a passing car flashed their headlights, the gangsters would spin around, run the car off the road and the hopeful gangster would have to kill the driver. I think it turned out to be a hoax but sure sounds awful similar to what you experienced.

Some ****ing people, man...

 

[dapepper9]

As promised:





And last but certainly not least here's that video
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[Shadow_Death]

Man, that's just effed up. Reminds me of a Snopes article I read a few years back of gangsters driving around at night with their brights on. As an initiation process, if a passing car flashed their headlights, the gangsters would spin around, run the car off the road and the hopeful gangster would have to kill the driver. I think it turned out to be a hoax but sure sounds awful similar to what you experienced.

Some ****ing people, man...

That wouldn't turn out too well in most cases if it were true. Most people in my area are military/ex-military they don't have patience for that kind of stuff. Instead of getting initiated they would get dead. Same for throwing stuff in front of a car/truck on the road.

Edit: I didn't even think about it at the time but when that piece broke off my compressor I had used a racket and barely even tightened it down. I mean I snugged it up just a tad and pop. Made me so mad.

 

[dapepper9]

That wouldn't turn out too well in most cases if it were true. Most people in my area are military/ex-military they don't have patience for that kind of stuff. Instead of getting initiated they would get dead. Same for throwing stuff in front of a car/truck on the road.

Lol i am as well. I'm in Tennessee for some training actually and I'm not carrying. Complicates getting on base and big consequences if somebody finds out you are. Otherwise yeah they'd be dead and I'd be awaiting trial

 

[Shadow_Death]

Just got finished cussing about my local city mechanic. That person needs to consider a new profession from what I saw.

So a short rundown on that whole situation. I just replaced the wheel bearings because the rotor/hub wasn't tightened down properly. This person had it so loose that there was a good 1/4 to 3/8 play if I pushed and pulled on the rotor with moderate force. I took this opportunity to replace the bearings and after seeing this I will be doing the other side this weekend. The hub was soo loose that recently it began to grind when I would take a left. At first I thought it was a tire rubbing but NOPE. Also, the Grease seal was flush with the back of the rotor so the rear bearings just flopped around in the race way when I ran my finger in there.

 

[DodgeTx]

went towing! Also got some smaller tires and new rims!

 

[Yeret]

Just got finished cussing about my local city mechanic. That person needs to consider a new profession from what I saw.

So a short rundown on that whole situation. I just replaced the wheel bearings because the rotor/hub wasn't tightened down properly. This person had it so loose that there was a good 1/4 to 3/8 play if I pushed and pulled on the rotor with moderate force. I took this opportunity to replace the bearings and after seeing this I will be doing the other side this weekend. The hub was soo loose that recently it began to grind when I would take a left. At first I thought it was a tire rubbing but NOPE. Also, the Grease seal was flush with the back of the rotor so the rear bearings just flopped around in the race way when I ran my finger in there.

Aw, dude, that just sucks. Reminds me of the "undisclosed" work that I had done to my engine a couple years back. Now that I've been running the engine, I can certainly say that he got the rings/bearings properly installed which is great, but he totally ****ing botched it on the head gaskets which especially sucks since I had bought new heads. If he would have just installed the ****ers without dicking with the deck, everything would have been great. Perhaps it's my fault for even bringing up the decking issues with the Magnum blocks, to which I told him afterwards to forget about, but, man, he decided to take a ****ing hand file to it which I nearly **** a brick when I heard about it and all I know is that when pops and I fired the engine after he got kicked out of the shop by his woman (don't ask, I'm not even going to recount that night/the week after...), the engine smoked like nothing I had ever seen. All I'm gonna say is it took about 10 seconds for the entire bay to become filled with coolant smoke. It was so bad that I still can't believe that the engine continued running.

Luckily, there was another mechanic in the neighborhood who "fixed" the issue. He totally nuked a pair of new head gaskets with this Permatex copper gasket spray stuff. Expensive as hell and what can I say? Two years later, the engine runs great. I'll never know until/if the heads come off again how bad the deck got...****ed. I reckon I have to give two thumbs up to that copper spray stuff that the guy used.

Anyway, ranting BS over. Today, I decided to entertain my OCD side a bit more and fiddle with the idle screw a little more, this time leaving the IAC plugged in. I found that even if the idle holds steady after opening the blades, but when you snap the throttle, the idle returns at about 1,200 RPM and holds rather than returning to ~650 RPM. I backed the screw off, snapped the throttle. Repeated the process until the engine settled back to ~650 RPM. I found that on occasion, the engine would hold around 1,500-2,000 RPM for a few seconds so I backed the screw another 1/8 turn. No problem, so I'm gonna let it run like this for now.

Overall, I think that I basically have the blades at about the same opening as when I started, maybe a hair more. The same improvements are still there: snapping the throttle to just a few degrees no longer results in the engine stuttering while returning to idle, improved throttle response both when in park and when in drive and an ever so slightly enhanced idle quality.

Now, before anyone gets any thoughts, this is a modified TB that has had the idle plug removed and I suspect that the screw itself had been removed as part of the cleaning process. Your OEM TB is probably set just fine but I think that my modified OEM deal was kind of "bench" tuned. Ultimately, I'd like to get one of those nifty F&B throttle bodies but I really can't justify $400 for such a unit at this time. I have no doubt that they're sweet but that sure is a lot of cash. For me anyway, LOL.

Also, my new driver side axle assembly came in a couple days ago. Genuine OEM Spicer unit. $200. I'm holding out to install this until I take the truck in to a good shop for steering work because my steering is getting pretty bad, even for a second gen. I suspect that my steering slop played a part in the issues that I've had with this axle but that's a whole different story that I'll save for another day.

DodgeTx: You make a lot of money towing vehicles? I'm also assuming that the tranny didn't get it too bad when you deep-sixed the flatbed a few months back?

 

[DodgeTx]

I make a decent amount, the insurance is the killer though about $560 a month. This past weekend I just started using the flatbed for it, and made $500, for Fri Sat and Sun. Most is word of mouth and CL postings. I charge $50 first 10 miles and $2 for each addl. If damage or flat tires more outside city etc. Can make a couple hundred a day if everything is lined up. I also still have my full time job with the AArrow Sign Spinners.

The tranny took a lot of flushes and drain / fills with new filters $7-800 worth of atf. have a lot of metal flakes in tranny still. It worked well enough to run 35s for a few months.

Gets a bit hot in town, but on highway does alright, just changed fluid last night after last tow. Hopefully cooler temps now, especially with the 285/70/17s.

 

[dodge dude94]

Figures. Truck's been running far too well for far too long.
Wheel hub **** the bed on me a while back, finally replaced it like two weeks ago along wtih the brake pads.

Then last couple days it's been acting up, bucking, idling bad. ****** decided she wanted to really be a ***** to my wife earlier today. Wouldn't hardly get above 20, but would clear up and run 50.

Puked a cylinder 7 misfire. Driving it the CEL started to blink so I'll scan it again tomorrow. Found a broken vacuum cap, I replaced it and it still doesn't want to run right. Won't get above 3 grand.

Plan tomorrow is to scan it again, and unplug/remove the pre-cat O2 sensor. I'm wondering if that has something to do with it.
If that doesn't work she'll be getting new plug wires when I get paid this Friday.

 

[Yeret]

Won't go above 3,000? Even in neutral? Telltale sign of a toasted cat (assuming that you have one) right along with no power.

My original cat went kapoot when I was leaving Wal-Mart. Took something like a minute just to get to 55 and I had to drive 12 miles thinking for sure the engine was gonna vapor lock and leave me stranded. I made it back home but then I had to get up the steep ass hills on my lane. Boy, did that suck. Had the accelerator to the floor and just barely made it. Then pops grabbed his Sawzall and basically cut the old y-pipe away from the cat so I could drive to the exhaust shop. Truck literally sounded like a tractor, LOL.

And the dreaded blinking CEL. Yeesh. Couple weeks prior to ripping the intake manifold off, mine would blink if I even dared to give the engine heavy throttle. Along with misfire codes all over the place an absolute zero acceleration. In that case, my catalytic converter was only a few months old and the engine would rev above 3,000 in neutral. Hell, as long as the engine wasn't under load, you wouldn't have guessed anything was wrong.

Definitely check your codes for anything obvious but you might want to consider checking out your intake plenum and monitor your oil level. I know you've got a different plate installed but hey, even with that, can't expect the gasket to last forever (you did use a Fel-Pro gasket, right?).

 

[dodge dude94]

Truck is fixed.

DESTROYED cap and rotor, cylinder 2 and 7 plug wires along with the coil wire.

Had a C/R sitting around, along with some 3923s I ran, so I got some cheap wires from O'Really's and slapped it all in. Runs amazing now.

Going to clear the codes tomorrow and see about what the fuel sync is running.
Found out that it adds a total of 40 degrees of timing advance at 3k rpm.

 

[dapepper9]

Received my petron plus yesterday. Went ahead and drained my 2000 mile oil, added fresh with my petron and it's so much quieter. I don't really believe in additives though i am intrigued by them amd love researching and trying them. So far I've been impressed with these guys but we'll see. Went from petron to Schaeffers MolyEP and it was a noticeable difference in sound. Almost seemed like it ran a tad warmer too. Went back to the petron quick and it's noticeable.

Also new gears lay rubber nicely. I'm going to need tires soon if I'm not careful