Nekkedbob

My though was a sliding plate on top of the grid heater with a cable. It seems it might be easier to seal and not reduce or disturb the air flow.

That might work but you have to remember that there is a large amount of air that goes through these engines that you would have to displace to kill it.

As a victim of a true runaway on a Cummins 855 many years ago that I was able to save, it is a terrifying experience. A stuck or floored throttle is not bad because they all have governors to limit the RPMs and can be killed by turning off the power. When there is a true runaway you cant stop the fuel flow or limit the RPM and in my case it was engine oil from a failed turbo that was fueling it. The only thing that saved mine was it had a compression release on the motor that opened all the exhaust valves. Years ago all of the over the road trucks had some sort of emergence shut down device but it appears that that is a thing of the past. Just as a side note when my turbo failed it never gave be any indication that it was going until the instant it went.( at the bottom of a hill I put my foot in it and in about 30 sec. the turbo made a different noise so I let up in it and the fully loaded truck gained more power then it ever had and was still accelerated even when I turned it off). I have seen emergency shut dows for the 5.9s but they are pricey and I have been saving for one.

For rebuilding try this place. I don't know them but it looks interesting. http://rebuilderinabox.com/

A life time ago it was normal to add a small can of water soluble oil to the coolant if you ran water only. With todays coolants I cant see a need because if you feel coolant on your fingers it has a oily feel.

I for one agree that the diode failure seems to be caused by heat. I had a brain storm last year when researching alternators and my thought was to over build the stock alternator with something in the way of 200 amp diodes mounted externally. As I see it the max output at 130 amps should not come anywhere close to stressing the diodes at that point. My only problem is sourcing the parts and getting their dimensions. I kept my old core but it was rebuilt once before and all of the tags are missing. Come next spring I will pursue this farther. I didn't want to go with any of the after market unit because I do spend 30 days on the road in the fall and want to be able to find parts if needed.

After rereading some of the earlier posts I thought that I should chime in. When I started working back in the 70s electrical and electronic part were made for X power but were heavy enough to almost double that before you worried about it. As time has gone on the over power capability has gone down. This is why I think that a original alternator would go so long and the rebuilds (using new parts ) don't last. I worked as a R&D tech and was allowed to do things (destructive testing) that would get a person fired today. As time has gone by I have noticed that this has happened to all aspects of my life and that to many things that I deal with. If you look in a UGLYs reference you will find that almost all of our harness wires are under sized for the current vs run. A good example is we would put a v8 in Toyota with the stock rear end and not break it. Today you can over stress a rear end just by putting a tuner on one.

Just a FYI I had two different trucks that had that problem and on both I found that the axle seals had failed and contaminated the shoes. One had no outside indication of a leak. Both I replaced the shoes ,the seal and cleaned everything and all was good.

If his truck is a quadcab check the seat belt module under the center seat. I just spent hours on mine this summer because of what me and a electrical tech thought was a 2 amp draw and after many more hours of research I found it. First off turn off the truck with the driver side window down, make sure that there is nothing on and walk away from it for at least 20 minutes. After 20 minutes reach on and pull on the seat belt with out opening the door, it should be locked and only come out a small amount. If it is not locked and comes out like it does when you get on the seat then the seat belt module us not shutting off. I don't know where the timer is for it ( it may be in the module ) but there is a impact sensor built in to it and if it gets displaced it can keep the solenoid in at the top of the seat back where seat belt goes in on. Hope this helps.

I used the dorman pins and bushings on two different two door explorers that I drove for my work. I was in and out up to 15 times a day and put 100k miles after I replaced them with no problems.

Just replaced mine this summer after being rear ended. I got a replacement from the dealer. I didn't keep the receipt so I cant give the the P.N. but they had them in stock or could order them. Make sure that it is for your body style and not the new style.

Thanks guys. I guess I will be installing a switched charge line. I like the idea of using the 7 strand wire and will start looking for it. I was thinking about a 3 wire cable but 7 wire sounds better because I want to run a larger brake wire also. It may be newer trucks that have the switched line.

I just purchased my first trailer that will need a charge line ( my last two had solar and 110 ac charging) and I noticed that the charge line in my truck has no relay that I can find. This concerns me because if the grids turn on they will pull current from the batteries including the trailer when plugged in. Being that the grids pull 100 amps each and the alternator will not even supply what is needed for one grid at idle. I my have heard wrong but I heard that our trucks had one just for this reason and so you cant draw from the truck batteries when parked and draining them down. I found the relay for the clearance / running lights but none for the charge line. Has anyone pulling a travel trailer had any problem with this or is there a relay I missed.

When I replaced mine last spring it was .05 so I had the parts house test it and confirmed. They tested the new one and it passed and they told me that anything over .01 was a failure on their tester.

I went to a flat parking lot today and did some more measuring. The truck is 3 inches high at the rear axle as measured at the tire to fender height. I put 3 inch block under the front tires and it leveled it out at the top of the bed. Went home and set the trailer on the hitch and it only squat 1 inch from unloaded. The clearance from the bed rails at the front of the trailer is just under 6 inches but even with a short bed right now I lose 1 inch at the end of the bed. I am going to start collecting the parts and drop the rear 1 1/2 inches and see how it looks next spring. Thank for the response and the ideas. I will start a new thread in the spring when its all done.

I do have 285s on the truck and per the PO the truck was not raised. The spacer blocks are about 4 3/4 inches with a 1/4 inch plate under them and one of them has a casting mark that looks like it could be a two pieces. I thought about spacer blocks for the trailer but am worried about axle rap under heavy braking or even in a panic situation flopping a shackle. As it sits now the rear tires are 11 inches to the fender and the front are 8 1/2 inches and I think that 1 1/2 inch drop in the rear should look level. I cant move the trailer until next spring as it is mothballed for the winter but I will get the truck to a flat parking lot and do some more measuring next week.

That was a storage box but it was removed and I am going to build a motorcycle rack for my old Honda 200 dirt bike.

I am against raising the trailer as I go through some high wind areas during my yearly trip to Nevada. About 50% of the time that I hit Wyoming there is a wind warning and I have seen 50 MPH winds and the only thing that kept me going was that my bumper pull trailer is only about 6 inches higher then my camper shell. The axles are all ready flipped and the ground clearance is way more then I would ever use. My pin box only has 2 settings and they are 4 inches apart. When I picked up the trailer my hitch height was 2 inches higher then the PO and he pulled it for 27 years without any problems. As I look at mine I think that I could use a little drop in the rear to ride level when loaded. As it sits it is only 4100 lbs and it doesn't squat the rear as much as my 2500 lbs bumper pull trailer. I did find a set of 4 inch blocks on a 1 ton in a scrap yard that they will remove for me next week. I am going to save my original blocks and new u bolts so if I feel the need to restore it to stock I can.

Unless it is a optical illusion your trailer looks to ride nose high by a few inches(comparing it to the curb in the back round). It is not as noticeable as mine because mine is less then half your length. Because of the angle that mine sits at and the axle position it looks like it will touch the bed if I have to go over a large speed bump!! I may just be paranoid but at my age this will probably be the last truck and trailer that I will buy unless someone hits it. As I look at mine I think that if I was to drop it by 1 1/2 to 2 inches it should level the truck and give me the clearance that I would like.

Well I finally bit the bullet and bought a 5th wheel. As most of you know our 4x4 trucks sit a little high and the rear of my bed is a little closer then I like. I did some research and found that dodge made at one time shorter spacer blocks that was 1 7/8 inches shorter then stock. I checked today and the local dealer said that they are not available and none are listed in stock in there system. Soooo I had a thought that I should be able to just have a set machined off and shorter u bolts installed.. The RV dealer that installed my hitch said that they send there rigs with this problem to a local welder (I have dealt with him and he does excellent work) to weld dropped attachment points on the trailer to raise the ride height of the trailer. I don't like the last idea and would like to hear what the rest of you have done when you had this problem. Just for reference the trailer is a 1987 21 foot Aries by Aljo and is not much higher then a bumper pull trailer.

Just a F Y I . I found a adjustable pressure switch that goes between 8 lbs and 18 lbs from Honeywell that I set for 10 PSI. Check at a performance parts place for one with no name they that they list.

Well I think I will try to sneak it in with the plate. The old gasket came out all in one piece and it is as clean as if I already scraped it. I did try to clean the inside edge where the dirt builds up and it looks as clean as it has been since new.

I changed injectors last Friday and over tightened the 2 bolts in the back that has the injection lines on them. The gasket must have been a bit brittle and split and blew out. I only removed the lines to 1,2,4, and the plate came out the front. Now the problem that I see is getting the plate and the gasket back in there together. I was wondering if it would be a problem if I put something like silicon or grease or gasket shellac to hold the gasket in place or is it a no sealer type of gasket.

Many years back when I was a owner/operator I had a turbo intake side oil seal go. Bottom of a hill as I was putting my foot back in it the turbo made a different noise so I let off and much to my surprise it continued to accelerate as hard as when I had my foot in it. Turning the key off had no effect. Thank god that it was old enough to have a compression release. We don't have a compression release or any other emergency shut down and if you don't have a manual transmission and kill it in gear it could get real exciting real fast. The only way that I can think of on a automatic is to let it go until it runs out of crankcase oil and or throws a rod (remember during a run away there is no governor)or block the intake with a piece of wood. To me I like mine to much to ever chance that.

I put the one that Hagger has linked and adjusted it to 12 pounds. I have mine on a snubber and it works great