Buzzinhalfdozen

I highly recommend the rubber line kit. It's nice knowing I have one less thing that's going to leak or fail on my truck.

What about routing the "start" signal wire from the ignition switch to a momentary switch. Like a button for the power seats. So turn the key, push a button on the power seat to complete the circuit. ...just to keep everything looking factory.

On the industrial side of things all the sight glasses I've seen are brass screwed into in a steel or aluminum case.

I'm fairly impressed with the AT3. I sunk my loaded trailer and pickup yesterday in red clay up to the mud line in this picture. Trailer had about 6k lbs of deck material on it. Took a fair amount of wheel speed but I crawled right out.

I'm not saying all tires are this way and 17's kind of fall in a grey area, but on the thousands of tires I've mounted the vast majority have been this way.

I'm not sure as to the reason why it's just something I noticed back in my tire tech days. A typical 16" AT tire would come with about 16/32nds tread. Same overall height tire in an 18" would have 13 or 14/32nds. Now bump up to a 20" wheel and they'd only have 11 or 12/32nds. As a disclaimer I never looked into if the the tires were going the same miles. Just common sense in my head said less tread=less mileage. Maybe it's a harder compound on the bigger wheels?

Another thing to consider is typically the bigger the wheel the less tread depth a tire comes with. So more money and less tread, part of the reason I'm sticking with 16"

http://www.zenithspring.com/leaf_springs.html I got new springs and U bolts from these guys a few years ago. I ended up getting "1 ton" springs because for some reason they were quite a bit cheaper. New shocks and springs made a huge improvement to how it drives especially while loaded/towing.

Is it possible there's still some air in the system?

Another thing to check is the sending unit on top of the tank. Mine rusted out and started leaking on the return line.

The first listing for superduty wheels won't fit, that generation has a different lug spacing. The only Ford wheels that fit are pre 97 I believe. The second set should fit. The 8x6.5" he's referencing is 8 lug with a 6.5" lug stud spacing.

I bought a posi lock a few years ago and I'm not real impressed. No good way to route the cable or mount the lever and still a pain to engage or disengage. Only upside is leaving it engaged on snowy days and having instant 4wd.

Yes it looks like you're reading the measurements right. I'm running mid 90's superduty wheels made by Alcoa. They move the tire out about an inch, maybe 1 1/2". I have noticed some more rock chips on my doors than normal but my new tires tend to pick up a lot of rocks so I don't know which to blame for that. If you ever make it up to northern MN I have a set of stock wheels you can have for a case of beer.

@AH64ID What's the site you get filters from? I know you've mentioned it before but it's slipping my mind.

If you want to disable the abs just pull the fuse or relay. The brake/abs lights will be on but the speedo will still work. From what I can tell all the rear wheel abs does is cut line pressure to the rear brakes if it detects a slip. Trying to stop on ice the front tires will lock up while the rear tires are free wheeling. Now pull the abs fuse and all 4 tires lock up. With that said obviously the abs module can control rear braking pressure. I suppose if the module is having problems it could be pulsating rear brake pressure giving you the shuddering.

I'm contradicting myself some, but I find it hard to believe the hydraulic side of the brake system is causing so many problems just based on fluid temperature. Unless there are extreme temp changes typically a hydraulic system won't change in pressure/flow that much. Keep doing what you're doing. Replace the shoe/drums and report back.

One more experiment for you. Before driving it, trans in neutral, jack up the rear end and rotate both rear tires by hand to get a feeling for how much drag is on the brakes. Then go drive it until it's acting up and do the same thing. If they feel tighter this will point to a mechanical problem, if they don't it's probably a hydraulic problem. Obvoiusly something is heating up and making your brakes grabby. If it was mine (assuming parts are still under warranty) get a new set of drums and have them machined. I've seen A LOT of brand new warped drums. Get a high quality set of shoes and make sure they make even contact with the drums before installing. If none of this works sorry to say but you'll probably have to put the proportioning valve back in. I know others have had success bypassing it but like I said before mine will lock up hard if I adjust the valve to far.

18 or 20 gauge is pretty easy to work with. Obviously avoid galvanized if you're welding it, any bigger hardware store should have a piece of sheet metal that'll work. Nothing special required, I made a patch panel out of an old metal cabinet once.

Is anyone running a 10w-30 year round? The duramax/powerstroke guys have been for years and it seems like the OTR trucking industry is heading that way also.

So what fixed it? Installing stock sized wheel cylinders and turning the drums?

Is that year Durango full time 4wd or automatic 4wd? Just wondering if you'll have to upgrade the transfer case or any other drivetrain pieces?

I find it a little odd people have had success removing the rear proportiong valve. The "load adjusting rod" on mine that goes from axle to valve has been gone for years so I just tapped the adjusting arm on the valve up or down to find a sweet spot for towing/daily driving. I know that if I give it to much rear brake pressure the rear tires will lock up at highway speeds with a loaded trailer...

That's where I went wrong. Now I just gotta get the kids to quit whining about the funny tasting chicken nuggets.

My wife gets all pissy when I have transmission parts laid out on the kitchen counter though.

Oh dear lord hammer and bearing should never be in the same sentence.