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Welp, just ponied up for another year, and I've got to say that this one of the better expenses that I have. The amount of technical knowledge, experience, and willingness to share is outstanding and needs to be supported. For those of you who use this site for information and advise (as I do) remember, it costs money to keep it up and running. Mike and his Mods aren't trying to make money, they're just trying to cover costs. For less than $10 bucks a month we can maintain this site, and continue to have access to one of, if not the best sites for our trucks. Remember, information not shared, is information lost. Mark

Well, I'm completed with chemo and all surgeries... This all comes at a cost to me of 8 months of cancer treatment has weakened me quite a bit. I'm slowly working with my body giving myself a chance of pushing a bit and working muscles that haven't worked in 8 months. I'm off all my Big Pharma drugs and my blood pressure is back to normal. No pain meds or anything. I'm back to using my herbs are supplements and managed to keep normal blood pressure now. I'm now without a bladder or prostate I will never have bladder cancer again. This is a weird one I know people have phantom limb and experience pain and a sense of feeling. How about having a phantom moment thinking I have to urinate? Yup, I had a moment in the morning thinking I needed to pee and get to the bathroom looking down at the bag. Face palm moment knowing that my body doesn't work like that anymore. Yeah, I've had 5 different times feeling like I had to take a leak but nothing there. Try calling to open the bladder and urinate. I more or less get a message back "Printer not available" I've had one ER visit having a bleed on my stoma and wound up spending the day in the ER. It was my blood thinners and of course, my body just wouldn't heal up with anti-clotting pills and blood thinners. That was a bit scary to wake up and find the tubing full of bloody urine and about a full liter overnight. By the time I was done with the ER my backup mount started to fail because of the wipes they used to clean me up so I had my shirt plugging the hole and drove home to change my mount and bag again. Argh! Be aware most hospitals do NOT supply any ostomy supplies because of how rare it is to see one of us. I've been learning how to live again. For a while, it was here at home sore from the pain I could feel and then my blood pressure would reflect the other pains I couldn't feel. It's not too bad being the way I am and I can see how people get along with life but I had to build my confidence in handling my bag changes and doing the mounts quickly. Now I'm showering without any appliance on my body just me and my little red stoma poking out on my belly. I shower normally and wash all the sealants off around my stoma. Yup, I'm currently fighting a minor yeast infection around my stoma. The bad part is having an itch under the base mount. Oh, talk about crazy trying to rub or scratch close to the base to stop the itch. As for my mental state, I'm still a crazy Cummins owner. Seriously, my makeup work and cosplay are getting better as time goes on. It has been a wild ride working with many medical people and at the same time dealing with all the depression that you could be faced with and finding a way to always pull it together and do something wild and make people laugh and smile at what I do. For a very short time, I'm capable of enjoying life with all the medical devices I've had on my body between the pair of bags hooked to my kidneys and now the ostomy and stoma on my body. Something else to throw in there... I met a gal in one of my appointments. On my last ostomy appointment, I was 2 hours early because of worry about road construction but made it early. I was waiting in the hallway by the elevators and started talking to older gal that was waiting for her appointment you have to remember I'm in full makeup and with my spiked collar and concert shirt on. Suzanna came off the elevator and points at me and said, "I remember you from the last visit!". I was very curious what she had to say. Suzanna was the first of anyone to ask me for my phone number because she was truly interested in me for my wild nature and makeup work. We talk every evening and phone calls last for hours talking about all kinds of topics and being very open with each other. We both come from abusive past so neither one of us wants to hurt the other. The crazy part is I wouldn't have met her unless I had my ostomy surgery and went to my appointments in full dress mode with makeup. So my limitation now is I'm a high hernia risk for life so I cannot lift anything heavy at this point because my belly has a lot of scars where the doctor was pulling my bladder and prostate out then a larger scar under my belly button where he reached in a cut about 9 inches of small intestine where my small and large intestine met. This is brought forward to hook both my kidneys to the right side of my belly. All this healed up well and no issues. Good news! I'M CANCER FREE !!!! Now keep in mind I just cheated death TWICE. I will survive this but I'm pretty sure it took a bit out of my lifespan. So I'll admit my life has been forever changed by the two runs of cancer. Its very frustrating to attempt to do some of my old tasks and have issues with the ostomy being in my way or limiting what I can do because currently I have to still be careful of my kidney till I hear bac on my labs if my kidney are improving.

Big thanks to you for getting those computers back to me. Also, I messaged Mike on here this morning and he was a phone call away in no time helping me source this issue! That’s a community This is why I really enjoy this forum. In the beginning we had Dave Fritz/Dodgeram.org, now we have TDR (to some extent). Finally we have this place where all the mysteries have been solved. Don’t forget Mike as we discussed: You may perish of cancer but the forum lives forever, so you live forever!

Thank you for the wonderful comment. Truth yes it's still paying to keep the server alive and keep paying the bills. Remember Mopar1973Man.Com is the LAST PRIVATELY OWNED WEBSITE left. I'm not owned by a corporate clearing house like Cummins Forum which is owned by VerticalScope Inc. Or DieselBombers which is owned by Internet Brands. All these other websites are corporate owned groups.

@Mopar1973Man It looks like he has the updated main shaft already. I purchased several of my transmission parts from Allstate Gear online. The 5th gear nut I used was their "super nut" kit that cane in the master rebuild kit that I bought. I has to replace all 3 shafts, input shaft, counter shaft and the kit came with the full spline updated main shaft as well. My trans was trashed. The main shaft bearing in the front took a massive dump and trashed everything. Also, get a big torque wrench! As Mike mentioned, the 5th gear nut needs to be torqued to 300ft/lbs. DO NOT use a chisel and hammer and think it's good. It isnt. I post some pics of mine below. The carnage More carnage New input shaft and counter shaft New counter shaft in place, reused the small reverse idler. Case has been cleaned here also New main shaft installed, also replaced the tail housing with a cast iron piece. OEM was aluminum and had the mount holes hogged out of round. Now, the shift ring or collar that I have circled in this pic are important! I installed the ring backwards. If you look closely the ring is flat on one side and has a tapper on the other. The flat side has to go toward the large gear to the right as shown in the pic. Due to installing that ring backwards I do not have the use of 1st gear. I don't need it unless towing and I will pill it and make it right, just haven't yet. Hope all this helps!

Well I'm coming back. I'll admit I'm not able to do a lot of jobs. Anything in the heavy lift is over. Currently have Thor stuffed in the house garage and getting ready to go back over the injectors again. Now Thor my 2006 Common rail is my pet project. Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes the new version of me will be going public. Sadly no more wrench time for me. I'll still play with my own rigs. My problem is I've got to consider my stoma and kidneys. So I'll continue my education of the Cummins line. As for my medical issues I'm clean of cancer nearly 6 months. Check up coming. I'm stuck with Stage 3 Cronic Kidney disease this is due to my kidneys being choked by the cancer. The website I'm going to upgrade software and there is a lot of new features coming. Stay tuned in. There is a feature to have live chats again and when the chat ends it will convert the chat unto a forum thread auto-magically. One of many.

I'm still here. I'm still waking up every morning ready to battle each day. Even though my body is not quite ready for the world of work but I'm trying to figure out how to work with my new body. I'm thankful I've got a few good friends that advocate for me and helped out. I need to call out Mark Hall thank you for being a close friend and helping out get my firewood for the winter. Then Dan Catherman for bringing his Datsun pickup with his fishing pole setup that loaded all the logs on my trailer. Then Einer for helping up in going out and doing the heavy work getting the firewood loaded. I'm even making attempts to see how much I can do. I had the driver's wheel joint fail last spring. I managed to change it out but took two days getting it done and still not quite right. The wheel joint is fine but my slide pins on the calipers need replacing and the kits were missing the rubber boots. Now to add a bit of good news. I had to endure hell to get to heaven. What do I mean by this. My hell was handling my mother's dialysis, my mother's death @MoparMom, 3 bad relationships. Then hit with bladder cancer both times on 2018 and 2023 Christmas. Then deal with 4 months of chemo. Then a 7-hour surgery to modify my body to no longer have a prostate or bladder which are gone! Now on my trip to Portico West medical building, I ran into Suzanna Lopez and had a few words and got called into my appointment. Now during my appointment, I rescheduled for 2 weeks not the 4 weeks that the doctor wanted. This lined me up to see Suzanna a second time and she came off the elevator and said "I remember you from the last time!" yes this was true. I was decked out in my Black and blue hair and makeup. She got in and sat down and the first thing she asked was for my phone number. Crazy fact Suzanna is the first woman to walk up to me in 53 years to ask me for my phone number. I asked why she was impressed with my makeup and appearance as well as some of my story about my cancer and taking care of my mother. Suzanna has more or less just stayed with me. She is attempting even right now to sort through all the Social Security documents and getting information dealt with. She has been there for all my medical appointments too. We have already been together already 2 months and have a difficult time when we are separated for a length of time. Suzanna issues are that she was injured in an accident that broke her left ankle and then had issues for most of her life. Now she had her ankle fused and now we are healing together attempting to support each other to work out and get back into shape. So there you go gang a tidbit of good news. I'm trying to get over the Social Security hurdles and she is being a huge help.

If your seatbelts are stiff or slow to retract, I found this little trick online that really helped mine out. I was constantly having to force feed my seatbelts back into the retractors and it was driving me nuts. I got some clamps, pulled my belts all the way out and used the clamps to hold them out. I filled two medium sized bowls with hot water and dawn dish soap and let the belts soak overnight. The next day I changed the water and used a brush to scrub them a bit and then did my best to dry them with a towel. I left the widows down and let the belts finish air drying for the day. When I removed the clamps the belts were slow to retract from having the springs compressed for so long but they bounced back after a few uses. Now my seatbelts work like new, no more force feeding them in.

I'm still here its just been very busy running back and forth with my medical appointments. I'm also on another leash issue. I've got to be careful how much I'm working on my website since the different government agencies know that my website is still here and producing income so it has been reported. Now if I'm working too many hours on my website it could disqualify me from getting any benefits from these agencies. I'm very limited on what I can do. I'm sorry if I'm not here in the lime light as usual...

I finally got around to installing my Geno’s dash top and junkyard dash core. This also marks the near completion of my interior color swap. The only thing I have left to do is paint the overhead console. I also installed a new pioneer head unit I had ordered several years ago as well. It’s so nice having everything on the dash attached to something else. I used a dash core from a slightly older truck which only has the one driver side power port. I didn’t realize my airbag switch wouldn’t fit so I hid it behind the dash and got the other power port from the junkyard that properly filled the hole.

My buddy traded me a first gen 6bt to do some body work for him on his truck. So several patch panels later I got a "free" engine.

Wanted to show something here. Here’s the new APPS, number on it is 133284, same as the Timbo. Even though I ordered a 131973 this is what comes now. You can buy these at any truck dealership. Here’s a pic of my relocation bracket.

I would like to introduce myself to all of you. I met Michael last July in Meridian, Idaho at a medical facility. He had a follow up appointment for his urostomy/ileostomy, while I was getting wound care treatment for my ankle. We briefly met at this place once before but had not been able to chat. On this particular July day, we had a few minutes to chat. As I learned more about Michael's life, I realized that he is an amazingly unique person with a kind heart and good old fashioned values. Upon listening to how he sacrificed on behalf of his mother's need for dialysis in the midst of dealing with his bladder cancer, I began to highly respect and admire this wonderful man. He genuinely cares for people. I knew he was amazingly unique...and I did NOT want to lose track of him. So...I asked for his phone number immediately after he was called in for his appointment. I wanted to know more about him. The crazy thing is that I was adamantly resolved to never get involved with another man at that time! However, we have NOT been apart for more than a few consecutive days since the time we met up at his house shortly after our encounter in Meridian! My interest grew even more when I learned he's a Diesel Mechanic. I was already familiar in auto mechanics, as my dad was an auto mechanic himself doing it as a hobby. I come with a small background in basic auto mechanics...my dad graciously taught me how to do a few maintenance repairs on my own car. To further expand my knowledge base, I have recently joined the Mopar1973man website as Michael's partner, another site administrator and his "soon to be" wife! Our plan is to get married this Spring! We have discussed a few exciting ideas that we would like to implement in the future. We are also working on improving this website for all of you. Be safe out there on those roads!! And...stay tuned!!

WT mod should be done in full first. I don’t have much troubleshooting experience with autos as I have the 6 spd but from what I understand a lot of issues are solved when the mod is done. At least you can rule that out.

We were right, the harness itself was wired incorrectly. IAT and ECT plugs reversed. New harness arrived and problem solved! 3 and 6 both work with correct values displayed.

@mace, I have performed the power steering pump and vacuum pump conversion that you brought to this site. I hope you are still perusing the site and will see this. The time and effort spent on this project (and the APPS relocate) has been very worthwhile. Much engine space has been freed up and the power steering reservoir is right where it should be for easy fluid check / fill. The reservoir is like the brake master cylinder reservoir – you can see the fluid level through the reservoir. An unexpected benefit is that this direct mount power steering pump outperforms any previous power steering pump that has been on this truck. There is no more stopping of the steering wheel when the power steering is under high demand, such as when maneuvering in tight spaces, steering from stop to stop with little forward or backward movement of the truck. I started the project by finding a location for the new power steering reservoir, which was going to be right where the APPS assembly used to be. Then I built a mounting bracket for the reservoir (shown below). The first part of the bracket assembly is designed to let the weight of the oil and reservoir rest in the V slot. In the above photo, note the welded nut where the tab on the top of the reservoir is screwed into the bracket. In the photos below, more brackets are added to fasten the unit to the engine. Below is the new location for the reservoir in the engine compartment - lots of space available for mounting with the removal of the APPS and APPS mounting assembly. I don't have any photos of the actual pump mount, but the mounting is straight forward, especially with the addition of studs instead of bolts. Much easier installation the old vacuum pump / power steering pump combination was. I didn't use a gasket - just the grey Permatex RTV gasket maker. The one thing that Mace did that I should have done (which he clearly mentioned) is to have the pump suction fitting turned down on a lathe from 22 mm to 19 mm to match the 19 mm connection on the reservoir. Because I didn't do that, I have not-so-neat connections from the pump suction to the reservoir (another reason to not take a photo down there). @Mace, thank you again for making this possible. That’s all, folks! John

One step closer

This is an entirely new method of not just relocating the controller but making one from scratch. It's independent of an ECU. I made a github project with all the details https://github.com/Greatwrk/VP44-EXPLORER

Another update. Medically I'm healing slowly. Finally made it past my first cancer check and still going. No medical appts except for PT which I need to help ditch my spare tire. I need more core strength to prevent having hernia anytime soon. Still a risk with any heavy lifting. Tidbit that is funny that my makeup and Goth look now has nurses betting with money what I'm going to be wearing. Yeah it true I just was down getting resized from 1 inch stoma to 7/8 inch stoma and change the Rx. The nurse was overjoyed when I was there with my black and purple hair and makeup.

I decided to open source my stand alone VP44 electronics project. I started a github repository. It's far from a bolt on replacement. It's just a prototype but it has been running reliably for a couple of years now. Unfortunately, it's not a project for beginners and requires good soldering experience and there is one surface mount part on the board. The circuits have some high energy parts and requires some testing before operating. The software is not simple and has time critical routines. An in depth understanding of the MCU internal peripherals (timers, PWM) is also required. Any mistakes in assembly or coding can cause permanent damage to the fuel solenoid or speed sensor. My project explores the electrical operation of the mysterious VP44. I included some diagrams and tutorial. The mechanical operation is described on various websites so I skipped it. It may help to review some of those sites. https://github.com/Greatwrk/VP44-EXPLORER

Corners done and ready for paint....

With stock sized / near stock sized tires and stock suspension height - I say no. I am not sure that there would be any benefit even with bigger tires and raised suspension. I installed a steering brace years ago and I have since removed it. The one thing that bothered me about the steering brace was that there were only two set screws (90° apart) for centering the bearing on the the Pitman shaft. That never made sense to me - it always forced the bearing to one side which in turn forced the Pitman shaft to one side, and the set screws would never stay tight. That did made sense to me. I would think that three set screws at 120° apart would have allowed for accurately centering the bearing and would have kept the set screws tight. - John

Got to spend a day at L&L classic auto in Wendell, ID last week. They have 120 acres of vehicles from the 20’s and up. They loaned us a trailblazer for $10 to tool around the yard in. My friend Dan got some parts for his 59 Plymouth and my other friend Matt got a door for his 82 mustang. The yard was awesome, my only complaint would be the pricing. They tell you when you get there not to remove anything until you get a price just in case you don’t like it. Thankfully I was only there for the scenery and to help scout.

So my trips back and forth to medical appointments are coming to a end. I'm attempting to get my disability fired up but I've got to play ball with all the different agencies and play by their rules. Social Security limits me on the amount of hours I'm allowed to work my website currently. Then Welfare limits me on how much income I'm allowed to have as well. As for information, I'm still helping guys with different truck issues. I have to do it where I'm not in public view sadly. Like I got to run and get a plumbing part today. I'm trying to build my strength up and return to my old self. Sadly I'm still very weak and have issues just holding my 1/2" impact gun in my hand it too heavy to do much work with it yet. My belly I've lost most of my muscles through my abdomen and gained more fat more so. Ugh! Yeah I still weigh the same old 235 pounds but my body fat content is higher. Ugh. I took a break and went camping for 3 days at Smokey Boulder Rd. Yeah, it was great, the simple task of hitching the RV will wear me down and get me huffing and puffing to catch my breathe at times. Not having the endurance I used to have... But I didn't get here overnight it was 8 months of cancer treatments and surgeries that did this and will take me time to recover my strength. I'm working at smaller and lighter jobs like picking up the loose stones in the yard and cleaning up the yard carefully and slowly. I'm a high-risk hernia patient now. I'm no longer capable of heavy lifting of anything now. Like doing a transmission or clutch job is out of my range of work forever sadly. My endurance last about 4 to 5 hours on average before I'm too tired to work anymore. I still have to monitor my blood pressure since I can't feel pain internally in my back or around my kidneys. When my blood pressure rises I've got to go lay down and let my pain levels back down to get my blood pressure back to normal realm. You have no idea how much not being able to handle my business and work on truck affects me mentally. It absolutely sucks and very depressing. Then not looking forward to more medical visits all the time you are doing this. 3.5 hour drive to Boise to be poked at by a doctor for one reason or another. Running across town to handle Norco Inc for my Ostomy supplies I'll be using forever. How about sitting on my riding lawn mower (zero turn) and have your ostomy bag blow out and soak you in your own urine? Yup this happened twice now. I've even have to be careful standing up if my bag is nearing full. I can catch it between my thigh and squeeze the bag and blow it out over my lap. I've done that too. I'm still learning and still trying to get all this figured out. My fun stuff... I still enjoying making smiles as I travel back and forth to places.

They listed a ton of possible causes for failure to check. Basically every sensor on the truck, damage to the harness, TSB’s, faulty grounds, etc. The truck ran perfectly and has for the last ten years when I pulled into the garage so I had no clue what to even look at. I did check some of the harness and found one tiny hole in a wire possibly from a probe, it wasn’t close to touching anything but I wrapped it up anyway. If I have time this weekend I plan to go through the whole thing and check all the grounds and fuses.

I ordered a front drive shaft from Torque King today. The sell strap and bolt kits for this application. https://torqueking.com/product/40709/qu40709-universal-joint-strap-and-bolt-kit-for-spicer-1350-or-1410-yokes/?searchid=1393311&search_query=driveshaft+strap+and+bolt+kit

The only thing I can suggest is contacting https://idahodrivetrain.com/ . You should be able to get information from them,

I appreciate the phone call as well. Good to chat with someone that actually knows what they're talking about! I hope to update this next week with a solution! This has been an ongoing thing for years now!

Hi everybody, it s ok. The truck works now..... intéressant is no cut off.... The culprits: rebuilt injectors 75hp more, and tps ( I don t understand why it worked before... electronic 😁😁, like the vp44 😓😓). Thank you very much for your great help ! ! If one Day you go at Monaco send me a mail , it s with great pleasure !

Minnie has been down for a few weeks with electrical issues. The funny part is the solution was straightforward. Remember start easy start at the battery terminals. Sadly I started ripping the dash apart thinking the ground issue was in the cab being the fuel gauge would drop to empty and chime there was no fuel left there was over a 1/4 tank. I've got another I've gotta check on power door locks but they just quit. Maybe a fuse? Minnie is back to running with a bit of effort.

Running boards ready for dry fit. I know I have notch something for the cab mounts.

I'll see if I can get a picture of mine during lunch.

This is a tech article regarding those who (like me) think the oem spot for the apps is not ideal. Exposed to outside elements, heat, vibration and potential corrosion, moving it inside was most practical. Non Dodge/ midrange applications of Cummins 5.9 24V ISB’s all have their TPS/APPS inside the cab, mounted on the pedal assembly. So nothing is changing on the apps operation, just moving it. This mod does not works on trucks that are auto/use vacuum for cruise. The auto trans kickdown cable is attached to the bellcrank assembly. As with the vacuum solenoid setup too so if you can live without them then it will work. Parts needed: 699-5101 pedal assembly (2x) 6 pin Duetsch connectors kits Zip ties Grommet 6’ of 6 wire harness Tools needed: Duetsch connector terminal pliers Wire strippers Making the mount will be up to you. I can show you pictures on how I made mine but it’s just a one off. Either way you need to mount it inside. First, disconnect the 6 pin Duetsch connector from the apps, remove the bellcrank assembly from the cylinder head. Cut off the cable and discard. The oem pedal assembly will need to be removed and the oem mount has a pivot pin on the bottom that’ll twist out with some channel lock pliers. Once you mount your new pedal to the mount and it’s installed all that is needed is how to control via ecm. So a 6 wire jumper harness is needed. I would HIGHLY recommend removing and tossing the apps that comes supplied with the new pedal and install your current one in its place. I can’t guarantee its quality. If you need an apps, a Williams Control 131973 or 133284 will work perfectly (Timbo is just a repackaged WC). Available from any oem truck dealer (I.e. Kenworth or Freightliner). On your engine side of your harness you need to make a 6 pin male Duetsch connector. Ensure you new connector kits have the locks in them, some kits do not come with them for some reason. YouTube or Google can provide a video on how to use Duetsch connector pliers, they’re super easy to use. Using the hole in firewall that the original pull cable went through install a grommet to prevent rubbing and feed your harness through. If you prefer to drill a hole the same size of the connector body you’ll need a 7/8” drill bit. **It’s easier to make the harness, THEN crimp the new terminals on after feeding it through the oem firewall hole for a cleaner look.** Cut your 6 wire harness to length and crimp on the terminals, install the connector body and plug it in. Theoretically the engine doesn’t know where the apps is so it will work. Make sure you mate up each wire in its proper spot on each connector, if you mess them up a CEL will come on/non functionality of the apps. Secure the harness to various points with zip ties so it’s rigid. This provides a clean look and more room in the engine compartment for future servicing. Start the engine and test. Throttle response should be crisp since there is no cable anymore that has slack as it wore. View full Cummins article

Ram recommends the use of a licensed ATF+4® MS-9602 specification fluid for the NV241, NV243, NV244, NV271, and NV273 type transfer case fluid change. Automatic transmission fluid (ATF) is often used in transfer cases because it handles hydraulic pressure well and works in a wide range of temperatures.

Just completed hooking up a network switch for Mark to have in his place to plug in other network stuff to CAT5 Cable. We ran a test on his old computer running 24.04 Ubuntu Linux and... Feb. 22, 2025 SpaceX / Starlink speed test... Beauty of this network. Im firewall secure. Im also behind the firewall of Starlink (CGNAT). Then hooked up IPv6 internet address system. My WiFi is separate from the cabled network so people on WiFi can't see any of my PCs (cable driven). I've had several WiFi devices hoping on from neighbors wanting to get any signal. My neighbor to the south has no internet. So her kids jump on when visiting. Cat5 cable devices - 192.168.0.xxx Guest WiFi - 192.168.10.xxx Private WiFi - 192.168.20.xxx My guest users are limited to 10Mbits down and 5Mbits up. Private WiFi is unrestricted. Then Cat5 cable devices are even faster at a full 1Gbit up or down. All device are load balanced too so no one can horde the bandwidth. My guest account is without any password and fully open to any one to use even broke down people stuck along the highway. My outdoor WiFi is 1/4 watt and transmits over 700 feet. My indoor heads are also 1/4 watt too but 2.4GHz and 5 GHz frequencies biased towards 5GHz first for speed and auto-magically backs down to 2.4GHz for range when needed. Managed Controller TP-Link SG2428 and Gateway ER605 Starlink dish and my outdoor WiFi antenna.

Keep working the issues! I know there are several new sleep apnea options out there that are way less of a PITA than the standard old school options were.

Yup it is true. Strange enough I was in full makeup when we met both times. She enjoys my artistry of my makeup and wigs which she continues to encourage me to learn more about the art. Yeah after I did give Suzanna my number it seemed like there was so many questions and so much to talk about most of our phone calls went till 2am most nights. Strange some night we still just talk till early hours. Yes it's true we plan on getting married in the spring of the year. Suzanna was amazed by what I've created with Beast. She enjoys good Cummins power. Now we both want to build into 3rd and 4th Gen lines hence why the active work on Thor to attempt to give me time to repair Beast which is nearly 500k miles now. There is a lot going on with software changes, server changes, and even things on the site. Suzanna and I are going to fix the website up and bring more newer generations to the article database. Right now I'm just cleaning up after moving servers to cut operational costs.

Not a problem and your welcome always here to support the Cummins family.

If your going to pull the 5th out why not just put a new one in while you have it apart? At least it should get you home, then to a proper rebuild. I rebuilt mine (4x4), they're not extremely hard to do, many good videos online to take you step by step.

Remove and Replace Fuel Injectors First step you need to have all your tools ready and clean place to layout parts in the assembly order. Make things a bit easier take a moment and disconnect the 2 plugs going to the valve cover. Grab a 10mm wrench or a short socket on a ratchet. There are 6 bolts holding the valve cover in place. You don't need to pull the bolts out of the cover just loosen and leave till you lift the valve cover off. Now you should see this below. You are going to grab a 8mm short socket and ratchet and remove all 12 wires from all 6 injectors. Don't worry about tagging there is no wrong way for those wires. Then just lift the gasket off carefully and watch for snagged nuts. Now you have the spacer to remove. There is 10mm bolts holding the space in place. Be aware there is one bolt at each end right near the gasket. There is 7 bolts in total. The rear most is difficult to see bu the next photo should help. Showing the bolts for the spacer. Now your ready to pull the exhaust rockers of using a 10mm socket and just loosen and lift of each rocker and lay in order on your clean area. Make sure to grab the valve bridges as you go they have to stay paired up with its valve set. If you don't you will have to do a valve lash adjustment afterwards. It should look the same as this with all 6 exhaust rockers removed. Now you have the external stuff to handle. 10mm socket and 11mm socket and remove the single 10mm bolt holding the dipstick to the air horn. Then loosen the 11mm nut on the hose clamp and slip the air tube off the air horn. Then the last 10mm should be 4 holding the air horn to the grid heater and intake. Now grab a 19mm open-end wrench and start loosening all the high-pressure lines from the fuel rail and the crossover tubes. There will be 10mm bolts holding the lines to the manifold. Be aware cylinder 6 you have two 15mm bolts in the hoist ring. The right bolt is a 13mm nut holding the injector line. Use an 8mm wrench and loosen the clamp. Remove the 13mm nut and flip the holder off the stud then you can remove the 15mm bolts to gain access to cylinder 6 line way in the back. Now using a 24mm open end wrench or socket you can remove all 6 crossover tube nuts in the driverside of the head. As for removing the crossover tubes, there is cap tools that aid in the removal of the tube from the heads. I wrap a rag around and gently grab with channel locks in a rocking motion and pulling it will come out without much effort. Just for the backyard mechanic. Now use an 8mm socket and remove all 12 bolts holding the 6 injectors in place. Using a flat-blade screwdriver insert it below the collar and twist the screwdriver to lift the injector out of the bore of the head. Cylinders 1, 2, and 3 Cylinders 4, 5, and 6 Injectors and crossover tubes. INSTALLATION Now I'm going to show you how to install new injectors in your common rail Cummins. Lay out all your injectors. Remove protective caps. Look and see if the copper washer are installed on the nozzle. If not use a small dab of axle grease to hold the washer in place on the injector. Now place the injector in the cylinder head. Please take notice to the crossover tube hole and its location on the injector and make sure it faces the driver's side. You will also notice the one side of the collar is square and the end towards the exhaust valve side is rounded. Install the two 8mm bolts and torque to 44 inch/pounds. After this loosen both bolts. This is only to seat the injector completely in the bore. Now install the crossover tube with the BBs facing up. Then install the collar nut. Then torque to 11 foot/pounds. Now complete the torquing of the injector hold down to 89 inch/pounds. Make sure to do both bolts evenly. Then you can finalize the crossover tube torque to 37 foot/pounds. Install the valve cover spacer and tighten the 10mm bolts. Don't forget the one bolt in back. Install the valve cover gasket and electrical. Torque the electrical nuts to the injectors at 11 inch/pounds. Install the exhaust rockers. Remember these must be in correct order to the cylinder in which it came from. Don't swap rockers to another cylinder you will be forced to do a valve lash adjustment if you do. The torque on the 10mm rocker arm bolt which is 35 foot/pounds. Install the fuel rails to each injector. Torque the line nuts to 37 foot/pounds. This should get all the injectors installed but you'll need to install remaining things like the grid heater and air horn. View full Cummins article

This should help others to install common rail injectors properly. More to come!

All your testing are no good. You need a DVM capable of less than 2 volts AC with multiple frequencies, not just 60 hz. A household DVM will do this, which is why your test data is confusing. Look for a DVM like a Fluke or SnapOn DVMs which are very capable of multifrequencies and voltages less than 2 volts. Just look your DVM has a 200 VAC setting too large. Needs to be 2 VAC or less.

Formed edge

Yes sir you can. Just key on and click the switch through the different modes and report back the values seen.

Well, Elvis (TODD) has left the building...off to paint!

It’s at LMC truck, runs about $80.

Vacuum? Now that I owned... 1996 Dodge Ram 1500 5.9L V8 46RE 2002 Dodge Ram 2500 5.9L Cummins 5 Speed 2006 Dodge Ram 3500 5.9L Cummins 6 Speed I can say loses to spinning hardware are minimal. Being 2002 Dodge is a solid axle and spins constantly and still can reach 30 MPG. My 1996 Dodge had a CAD axle and barely got 14 MPG and nothing spins. As for the 2006 Dodge it can reach 15 to 16 MPG but it 2,500 pounds over weight with a flat bed and huge winch bumper which I'm removing and putting a factory bumpers and bed back on and going to get a CR truck to 30 MPG again with a solid axle.

Truck is fixed. All 3 ECMs I was working with were sent out to Automotive Computer Specialists and they were able to send me back a repaired operational ecm. They sent me a lengthy printout out what was found wrong with the warrantied rebuilt ecm I purchased. While the ecm was being repaired I redid all battery connections all new military grade clamps, did the alternator wire mod, had alternator tested to eliminate excessive noise. Big thank you to Automotive Computer Specialists and Mopar1973man for all the advice and help

I agree, the concept seems sound. If the added bearing is centered and well anchored, then it should be beneficial. It seems like you may have the equipment and the skills to do that. Let us know how it turns out if you decide to make the modification. - John

I'm still alive and still battling away at figuring out my new life with an ostomy bag. I even tried to do some shop work yesterday helping Mark a bit but man after being laid up for over 8 months with surgeries and chemo treatments I'm still fragile and have issues with holding even small amounts of weight for any length of time. I am still having issues with my kidneys and need to work at getting my kidney function back to the good realm. Part of my kidney issues could be because of the head cold I had and then I had an issue with food that made me sick. That may be fouling my labs. We will see soon. Now my race is on to figure out finding enough help and support to get firewood onto the property. Typically I need about 9 to 12 cords to keep the property warm and not freezing. Being my income is extremely limited I can't afford to heat with an electric heat pump for this winter. This is a problem I'll have to visit soon. Beast is going to need a set of wheel joints in the front axle I "think" I can get the job done with a bit of help from friends. Holloween is coming soon so I've been working on my look. This is the way I went to McCall hospital for my labs and handled my Norco supplies for my ostomy. Still is all I get people that come up to me and give me huge hugs and give me great comments.