jaredwins

thanks brother that was the trouble. jacked the truck up and with it off, turned the wheels lock-to-lock 30 times. Made sure fluid was full and now it's running quiet and driving fantastic! Loving the new bluetop steering box.

What Moparman said is spot on. If you dont mind putting in some work, those morimoto retrofit lights are a one-and-done job. You'll have better light output than most vehicles on the road. I built a set a while back and never want to go back to another style of light. Not gonna lie, it wasnt cheap (~$450 lights and ~$80 new housing + random materials). If you have any questions, lemme know!

Hey thanks for your help, I finally got the bluetop gearbox installed and wow! what a difference. This truck drives so well now. Loving it. Minor issue though - I'm now getting a hum/whine and some steering wheel feedback and low speed turns with rpm ~1000-1300. > my suspicion: When bleeding the PS fluid BEFORE the gearbox install, I let the fluid run low and suspect i hurt my ps pump > steps taken: i bled system before installing the gearbox. followed the guide here for the 3rd gen to flush. installed gearbox and followed bluetop's guide after connecting lines to gearbox - lifted tires off ground, disabled fass and cranked motor a few times for 10second intervals. then turned steering wheels loc-to-loc many times (30?), refilling when low, and waiting for foam to disappear. then started truck, turned loc-to-loc another 20-30 times, added more ps fluid when low. after no foam, clear good looking fluid, went for drive. in parking lot at low rpm (1000-1300) and turns the PS pump started humming/whining. > random thoughts/info brakes work but make a faint ps pump hum when fully pressed. have over sized tires > 33s fluid in the bluetop gearbox may have been atf. i didnt flush it... it looked kinda red compared to my clear PS fluid in the resivour. would mixed fluid cause issues? tomorrow I'll try jacking it up, reving motor and turning loc-to-lock to try and bleed air. I suspect it's my PS Pump and have been debating replacing it, the lines, and the vacuum seals.... Would now be the time to do it? > tl;dr i replaced the steering gearbox and now my ps pump whines/hums. I suspect it's either air in the system (somehow...) or when I flushed the PS fluid i let it get to low and toasted my ps pump

Hi! Finishing up the install of the Bluetop steering gear tonight and I'm second-guessing myself. How deep should the steering shaft (I think it's called) go onto the new gear box splined input? I attached two pics. first shows about the length of the gearbox input, and second is as far as I could shove the steering shaft onto that gearbox input spline. Does that look like a good depth? if not, any tricks for getting it on further? It's been a bit of a battle so far.

I crawled around another 30 minutes cleaning grease from fittings and shining the UV all over the front Condensor looking for leaks from road debris. Also checked the front of the compressor where you marked, and still not seeing any dye. So the evidence for a leak in Evaporator is growing.... I think I'll take it to another shop who has a sniffer and see if they can find it. Thanks for all the help though. Wish I could have found the problem myself :/

Alright guys, I filled up the AC system from the fill valve with about 1/3oz of dye with a can of r134, jumped the compressor wire (on top the accumulator) and let the truck run ~30 minutes with ac on max and vent high. Air started blowing a little cold. About 2 hours later i crawled all over with a UV light tracing tubes and didnt see any leaked dye. Paid special attention to the high and low valves, compressor, condenser, accumulator.... Should I wait a few days and check again? I'm thinking the leak is so small maybe i didnt give it enough time? I'm a little confused on the drain port... Is there something I should do to test that it's draining? It's definitely draining water to the ground and when i touched it, got few drops water on my finger. So it seems to drain fine? I didnt see UV dye in this water. Below are some pics if it means anything to you. The compressor didnt look like an oily mess to me (no more than the rest of the truck). compressor: low pressure/fill valve High pressure valve drain port near ECM, not clogged. Some condensation drops came out when i touched it. compressor w/ uv light accumulator w/ uv light

Thanks for the info everyone! This has given me some good next steps and I'll get after it

You're a mechanical wizard my guy! I'll get to work trying to find the leak. Again, forgive my ignorance, but how long does that UV Dye last? The mechanic added it about a month ago, so does it disappear after that amount of time? Should I get a bottle of dye and some refrigerant and circulate it through the pickup for an hour to charge the system and give me a better chance of seeing the leak/dye? I've seen some guys use soap and water instead of dye... would that be an option here? Or is the dye and sniffer my best bet? "Check the water drain for the evaporator" Is that the small black drain nipple that is located on the passenger side firewall (engine compartment side) just under the PCM? Should I look for dye coming outta there, indicating a leak from the evaporator? Should I get a sniffer and shove it up inside that water drain?

First off, thanks to Moparman and IBMobile's A/C troubleshooting tips. I'm not mechanically inclined, and A/C is a mystery to me, but after spending a good portion of the day reading, and watching videos I'm starting to understand. Some background - took to the shop, mechanic recharged and put dye in, A/C was good for ~1 month then started blowing warm. Took back, he couldnt find the leak, recharged with dye and kept it for a week, blowed for ~1 month, now it's warm again. I believe he used a Freon with leak patch. Since it's a time and money commitment to get it to him, I got a loaner Manifold gauge and Vacuum pump and set it up tonight. With the truck off, not warmed up: LOW side = ~82 HIGH side = ~80 Should I have started the truck up and measured like that? "Dodge along with other manufactures suggest to do it with: the engine at full operating temperature, the engine rpms at 1000 (others say up to 1500rpm), A/C control set to A/C-Max, temperature control to cold, fan speed at max (others recommend a medium fan speed), doors and windows closed with thermometer in the center vent. " It's ~85 degrees here, so per IBMobile's guide, my High side should be 190+ so that means my problem is: { Refrigerant is low or restriction in accumulator or evaporator. High Side: Low Low Side: Normal } Am I on the right track? When truck is warmed up, the Compressor/Clutch kick on and off multiple times a minute making me think the refrigerant is low...but it's weird cause the mechanic recharges, it blows cold for a month, then blows warm even with a decent Low number... I've seen two guys on Youtube reporting that they replaced their A/C Orifice Tube line and Accumulator/Receiver/Drier to fix it. Should I just do that? Or are there some more steps I should take? To pull those two units, do I need to evacuate the entire A/C system? The Evaporator is near the heater core, which basically requires a dash pullin, right? Any simple way to dye test, or sniffer test this? _______________________________________________ tl;dr AC blows warm. Took to mechanic twice, he couldnt find leak. He recharged and used a leak patch with dye. Measured with A/C Manifold tool and LOW=82 and HIGH=82. Should I just replace the Orifice tube line and Accumulator? Or is my Evaporator shot?

Cool cool. I'll work on this when I get some time!

I got the new Master+Slave cylinder kit installed without much trouble (that pin above the pedal was a pain...) and the truck is back on the road. Appreciate all the help!

Hey everybody, I just about have all my steering troubles fixed (thanks @Mopar1973Man for the steering box tightening tips!). However, my steering wheel is still slightly off-center/crooked. I found a video showing how to remove the steering wheel, so is it simple enough to remove the steering wheel and adjust it a few degrees to the right? Or is it more complicated?

Thanks dude! I'll get er done tonight!

@Silverwolf2691 @Mopar1973Man thanks for all the help so far guys. That video you have on YT really helped. I got everything installed tonight but had one quick question. I bought the south bend kit, and on the slave cylinder(?) there's a black plastic piece on the end... Does this piece need to stay on? Or should I try and remove it? (Of course keeping the white plastic tabs so the piston remains compressed...) Also, is there and Up and Down position? I was just gonna put the writing facing down towards ground.

I appreciate the input. So I should probably just replace that whole Master/Slave cylinder unit with something like https://www.genosgarage.com/product/HYD-X-150/engine-replacement-parts-2 ?