gear_grindin_sob
Junior Member
- Joined
- May 28, 2013
- Posts
- 3
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- San Bernardino, CA
- Ram Year
- 2001
- Engine
- Magnum 5.2
So one night a couple of years ago my ole' lady is looking thru Craigslist at trucks. She says "Oh honey, look at this one". Big, ugly 01 1500 5.2 for $1900. Ok, sure, lets go have a look. Dude said it's his dads truck so he would feel better if he took me for a ride, okie dokie, lets roll. Seems to handle fine, no real warning bells. It was a work truck, still had some life left. So we get back, I give it a look over, look at the wife and she's giving me the oh please can I have it look, didn't even give me a chance to haggle. Said ok dear, you want it, pay the guy. So money and papers change hands, and we go our seperate ways. Get going, first stop gas station. First thing she says: Fix the steering. Yeah...because I'm a mechanic. Pump gas and get to leaving. She goes to throw it in reverse, and guess what happens. Nothing. No reverse. Ah ha, SUCKERS!! Yep, he got me. Whatever. So, first thing next morning a local shop does a full inspection. Brakes, tie rods, pitman, ball joints upper and lowers, contol arm bushings, sway ling and arm bushings, and of course trans....all shot. I said, just do the trans, we'll worry about the rest later. Trans gets done and the truck sits for 6 months or so sans short hops to p/u, d/o kid at school, because the damn thing is nearly impossible to drive. About April of last year I say screw it, I want to be a diesel mechanic, and I enroll at UTI. At that point I'm putting some scary miles on the truck driving 50 miles a day back and forth. 4 months in and I have an opportunity to bring the truck into class to do the work. So me and a fellow classmate tackle my truck. This is where I learn the benefits of an air hammer and a chisle bit, pealed those rivits right off the ball joints. Fun! Control arm bushings as well, learned a trick to suck those puppies in (ask me how I did it). Tie rods, sway arm bushings and links, pitman and idler, and a new set of front tires, and viola! I could drive straight again!! Too easy!! So of course that truck became my go everywhere driver. Then the problems started. Started having a baby whining sound from the trans. Then one day, KERPLOW!, trans blew up. 5000 miles on a completely rebuild trans and it goes bye bye. So warentyed the damn thing then went to AMMCO myself. They told me the old trans had evidence that there was no fluid flow, and they told the shop that did my service to flow test my lines and cooler...which they did not. So I said the hell with it, I replaced lines, cooler, and radiator. Solved that problem. Next problem, damn thing developed bladder issues. Lower radiator hose split. Replace. Upper hose. Replace. Then bypass. Replace. Wanna guess the next weak link in the system? Thats right. Water pump started ******* out the weep hole at a stop after driving 60 miles. Luckly I had a handful of 1/2 sockets and a wrench siting in the drivers door, and there was an AutoZone at the light I just happen to be sitting at. So I swapped out the pump, beat the flag rate I might add. Didn't have the fan clutch tool at autozone though, so I ran back up the hill with no fan on the freeway. Handled great I might add, can anyone point me towards a good electric fan to swap in? Anyways, now that the cooling system was addressed, I decided I wanted A/C. Buy name brand, that's all I'm going to say about that. But as of 2 weeks ago, I now have ice cold a/c, and I did it all by myself, lol! Swaped in a CAI, went with an alloy because I intend on isulating it, regarless, much better performance and breathing over the stock box. Also shaved and polished my throttle body yesterday, noticible input right off the throttle, I recommend this mod to all 2nd gen guys. So, in the future.....kegger mod, tuner, exhaust (really have my sights set on the American Thunder series), suspension, rear end....got to get away from that 3.56....,and at some point I should really think about cosmetics. My tailgate opens with a screwdriver, my dashboard caved in (got a cover so noooobody knows!), my clear coat was givin up a long time ago to this California sun, and my grill is currently zip tied in. But I LOVE my truck, I named it the WAR PIG, and everybody knows. I keeps a couple of my military hats on the dashboard so that everybody knows this eyesore belongs to a grunt. I feel its a good representation of myself, broken, thrown away, but making a comeback.
I know EXACTLY how you feel. I had these pains with my '79 Trans Am. It's like the more you dig, the more you find. Found out it's needs a complete frame off resto =( She's the one on the right
