What did you do to your Gen3 today?

Replaced the front passenger side suspension this weekend. Upper and lower control arms, shock, and sway bar end link. Like the driver side, the forward lower control arm bolt pushed right out and the rear one had to be cut out with the sawzall. Back when I did the driver side, I started with a 6" Diablo Extreme carbide tipped blade but it didn't completely reach, so I used the 9" I bought another to do the passenger side but the first one did just fine. That's a great blade. I better get a check from them for these plugs....

I got into my dash last night looking at some wiring and lo and behold i found this little piece

I figured out it was a tracking device and it was still turned on lol

It was connected to my OBD port (there was a splitter that I hadn’t noticed before) as well so I guess it could pick up vehicle speed and whatever else. Anyways I got it taken out. The more I dig into this truck the more I wonder what it was used for before I bought it lmao


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a few things to catch up on.. coated the pap cap in bedliner material and mounted up a set of led fog lights.

Put some new Powerstop Z36 rotors and brake pads on today. Calipers were in pretty rough shape but they work for now. I'll probably get their calipers as well when I get the cash.

Got rid of some chrome today.

Got rid of the blue license plate lamps and replaced them with some regular colored ones from the salvage. Also some punk hit my truck at college, bent my tailpipe and scuffed up my bedlined bumper. Piece of crap didn't even leave a sorry note


I do have to say the bulletliner held on well. I don’t believe it peeled or tore off at all where the scuffs are, just discolored with the punk’s paint lol

Installed a MOOG hub on the right side. That took care of the movement that was in the wheel bearing. Did find a very small amount of play in the wheel still. Seems like it’s the upper ball joint.

Did a little dash modification and put in a double din Sony XAV-AX100. Even added a little USB port for Android auto.

MikeG71 said:

Installed a MOOG hub on the right side. That took care of the movement that was in the wheel bearing. Did find a very small amount of play in the wheel still. Seems like it’s the upper ball joint.

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Was it seized or did you get lucky? I had to use the trucks steering power to pop one of mine out and an air hammer for the other side.

For $60 bucks at the salvage, got the full wiring harnesses and switches for the doors. Those wire boots that run inbetween the cab and the door were a major PITA

There was two connectorsin this harness, one black and one white, instead of just the white connector like my truck has. I'll figure out what exactly the black connector is for

SYKRAMMAN said:

Was it seized or did you get lucky? I had to use the trucks steering power to pop one of mine out and an air hammer for the other side.

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Not sure....Lol! The "How To" video I watched the guy showed the trick using a socket, extension, and steering to pop it loose. I did it on the top right (looking at the hub) and bottom left. It popped right out with no issues. In his vid he only did it on the upper and it pretty much came right out. For me it was ****-eyed. I tried a few hits with a BFH then went to the lower side with the steering method. All in all it was a pretty easy job.

acolic said:

Hi

Started a 7 day road-trip with my son and a group of friends.

Going to drive through Northern Quebec and turn around when the roads stop. About 2500k from my house.

We’re going to test the truck my son and I put together.

So far 6 hours into it truck doing well but the seats suck.

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Folks,

A quick update on my 6 day trip to Canada’s far north in my 2006 Ram 1500.

The terrain was mostly dirt track and gravel roads with a bit of bush bashing, make your own road, off-road driving.

The truck performed fairly well.

Pros:

A lot of power, it never struggled throughout the trip regardless of the driving conditions.

Relatively good fuel economy. Gas stations were far and few but the truck on a full tank always had a reserve.

Suspension was rock solid. The Bilsteins front/back and Mevotech TTX suspension components really did a great job.

The Kanati Trail Hog tires handled the various driving surfaces well.

Cons:

No surprising but the truck was too wide and clumsy for bush bashing. While I made a lot of trails the sides of the truck ended up quite pinstriped And one of my fender flares was ripped off.

The bench seats suck. I really need to find a set of Gen 4 seats.

On gravel roads the rear swayed all over the place at high speeds. Not sure if it was because of the truck or the loose gravel. I am not sure if adding a rear swaybar would have helped.

Alex

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Yesterday I removed the seats and the carpet to perform some much needed cleaning. I treated the carpet and the rear seat to a heavy dose of degreaser and a scrub brush before hitting them both with my pressure washer. The interior of this truck was in pretty bad shape when I picked it up. I bought the truck as a donor for another one I was building for a customer and ended up keeping it and building it to drive for myself.

The main reason for removal and disassembly of the interior was to take measurements for the new roll cage. I am building an 8-point cage for the truck. I am using 0.134 wall mild steel tubing that is 1 3/4". It will have two main roll bars tied together with a complete halo around the inside of the headliner. I picked up a basic 4-point Rhodes Race Cars Competition Roll Cage for super cheap and I am adding four new points to the front.

So this week I bought a donor truck and replaced the bed and passenger door on my 03rcsb do to a big as dent being there from the previous owner, and while the bed was off I decided to change out the fuel pump. Getting a nice 15mpg in that ram now. Next will be to pull the hemi out, rebuild it and sell the shell.

Last week I put a hood on my qc that I bought at the junk yard. Paint was in great condition and only cost me $150. I added the dynomat hoodliner to protect it from engine heat and now I just need a get lucky and find a fender in good condition cause I'm tired of driving around with a faded black fender on my blue truck. About 2 weeks before this, I replaced all the lights with LEDs minus the underhood light.

Replaced the wheels and tires on my 04 Ram 1500. The tires were worn out and new ones were $700. Found a guy on facebook marketplace with wheels from a '17 Ram and tires with about 10k miles for $400. Anyone need 20" wheels cheap!

Last night I removed the 3 week old power steering pump and reservoir from my 2004 Ram 1500 QC because the new reservoir was leaking where the top cover seals to the base. I cut to top off and used an epoxy to reseal and attach the top cover.

I also repaired the left A-Pillar trim panel/grab handle mounts. The previous owner had removed the nutserts from the A-Pillar and used self-tapping screws to hold it in place. I installed new nutserts in the A-Pillar and used epoxy again to repair the mounts on the inside of the trim panel. I placed an exact fitting washer on both sides of the bolt hole in the trim panel/grab handle and used the epoxy to glue them into position and provide some support. This allowed me to actually tighten the bolts up to spec and be able to use the handle if needed.

I also swapped out the camshaft I put in this motor when I built it a few months ago. I was running the Inertia Motorsports Spartan Plus with 214°/222° @ .050" .566"/.556" on a 112° LSA. I had this cam sitting in the shelf for years just waiting around for another project to put it in.

I picked up a new Hughes Engines camshaft really cheap from a local racer who's 5.7 stroker build never materialized. I installed the SER2630MHLN-10
with 226°/230° @ .050" .573"/.582" on a 110° LSA. This cam has a little bit more duration and a little bit more lift on the intake and exhaust and I felt like putting a cam in to relieve some stress. Haha.

That's all for the last 2 days. More to follow.

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Changed the oil to Redline 5w30 and the filter to a WIX XP filter. Sent off an oil sample to Blackstone Labs for analysis.

New shocks all around. Ride is much better.

acolic said:

Folks,


On gravel roads the rear swayed all over the place at high speeds. Not sure if it was because of the truck or the loose gravel. I am not sure if adding a rear swaybar would have helped.

Alex

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Loose gravel at high speeds is an accident looking for a place to happen. Your rear end is all over because the tires are losing traction. Slow down and avoid an accident.