ryan powers
Junior Member
A little background on this truck.... I told the wifery that she should look around for a decent 4x4 for us to rebuild. After about a month she found this 03 Ram 2500 with a 5.7 and a NV-4500 behind it. Great combo for the mountains up here with temps upwards to -45 in winter at high altitude.
First inspection revealed leaking transmission fluid from the transfer case coming out, but other than that it was to be expected from a truck with 180k miles. On the way home a lower power steering hose came loose from the pump and we lost power steering on a dirt road mountain pass. The wifey being badass as she is wouldnt let me drive it home for her even with no power steering. She wrestled that truck for 15 miles up winding dirt roads.
Once home i was able to fix the power steering hose and thats when we found that the clutch and servos in the transmission were shot as well as the transfer case had been cracked and welded shut to prevent it from leaking. I didnt have the time to repair this myself so i decided to have AAMCO do the job and replace the clutch, rebuild the transmission, and replace the transfer case, and did i mention the front driveshaft was missing as well?
After all of this was fixed, we thought we would be able to get the truck out for a proper test drive... well we were wrong, the thing was steering all over the place. every symptom you could imagine at once, so i made some orders and got myself a new steering box, new moog drag link, new moog ball joints, new moog tie rods, new moog steering linkage. after a lot of adjusting and backyard broomstick alignments it was determined that i solved maybe a 1/4 of the problem. while doing all of this i noticed a slight issue.... my control arms looked like they had taken boulders to them, full of dents passenger side was crooked and bent, and also my hub bearings were very grindy sounding and didnt want to really spin freely. I replaced both hub bearings only to have fixed half the problem...........
Now at this point the truck was plagued with a horrid bump steer and a pull to the right that was quite annoying. well after replacing too rough country adj lower control arms at stock length the bump steer was almost gotten rid of. I also installed upper control arms at 1/2 inch longer because i believe im running a 4 inch lift kit. W hile doing this I looked at my rear to measure my lift and i noticed that my passenger rear axle had a u-bolt completely loose on it and blocks had shifted around in a sketchy way. After tightning the rear axle and measuring its center by front shackle to plate i was able to get the u bolt bolted in place and the axle kicked back so that it wasnt dogtracking anymore, for some reason this also seemed to remedy some of the right hand pull but not all.
I expect the last 1/4 of my steering problem-(slight bumpsteer and slight pull to the right), to be trackbar related since they lifted this truck and kept all the original suspension stock, no relocation brackets, no adjustable trackarms or drag links
So now here is my question after all of this.....
Im new to the world of lifting these 3rd gens, but im no stranger to mechanic work and i have the tools and equipment to get most jobs done right. However Im unsure at this point what the previous owner did with the lift of this truck, this truck was downright abused and left to die in a backyard with rust, so now i want to bring her back to life. How do i measure what lift kit i have in these trucks, and depending on my lift what should i be running for control arm lengths.
First inspection revealed leaking transmission fluid from the transfer case coming out, but other than that it was to be expected from a truck with 180k miles. On the way home a lower power steering hose came loose from the pump and we lost power steering on a dirt road mountain pass. The wifey being badass as she is wouldnt let me drive it home for her even with no power steering. She wrestled that truck for 15 miles up winding dirt roads.
Once home i was able to fix the power steering hose and thats when we found that the clutch and servos in the transmission were shot as well as the transfer case had been cracked and welded shut to prevent it from leaking. I didnt have the time to repair this myself so i decided to have AAMCO do the job and replace the clutch, rebuild the transmission, and replace the transfer case, and did i mention the front driveshaft was missing as well?
After all of this was fixed, we thought we would be able to get the truck out for a proper test drive... well we were wrong, the thing was steering all over the place. every symptom you could imagine at once, so i made some orders and got myself a new steering box, new moog drag link, new moog ball joints, new moog tie rods, new moog steering linkage. after a lot of adjusting and backyard broomstick alignments it was determined that i solved maybe a 1/4 of the problem. while doing all of this i noticed a slight issue.... my control arms looked like they had taken boulders to them, full of dents passenger side was crooked and bent, and also my hub bearings were very grindy sounding and didnt want to really spin freely. I replaced both hub bearings only to have fixed half the problem...........
Now at this point the truck was plagued with a horrid bump steer and a pull to the right that was quite annoying. well after replacing too rough country adj lower control arms at stock length the bump steer was almost gotten rid of. I also installed upper control arms at 1/2 inch longer because i believe im running a 4 inch lift kit. W hile doing this I looked at my rear to measure my lift and i noticed that my passenger rear axle had a u-bolt completely loose on it and blocks had shifted around in a sketchy way. After tightning the rear axle and measuring its center by front shackle to plate i was able to get the u bolt bolted in place and the axle kicked back so that it wasnt dogtracking anymore, for some reason this also seemed to remedy some of the right hand pull but not all.
I expect the last 1/4 of my steering problem-(slight bumpsteer and slight pull to the right), to be trackbar related since they lifted this truck and kept all the original suspension stock, no relocation brackets, no adjustable trackarms or drag links
So now here is my question after all of this.....
Im new to the world of lifting these 3rd gens, but im no stranger to mechanic work and i have the tools and equipment to get most jobs done right. However Im unsure at this point what the previous owner did with the lift of this truck, this truck was downright abused and left to die in a backyard with rust, so now i want to bring her back to life. How do i measure what lift kit i have in these trucks, and depending on my lift what should i be running for control arm lengths.
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