Drafter

Just did this following these directions. Here are some tips/ comments.On my 02, The oil breather unscrews (it is threaded) from the cover in front of the injector pump. There is a rubber seal between the breather and the cover that could use penetrating oil similar, at 103 k miles mine was very stuck. I couldn't get a good grip on it and tried to use a screwdriver inserted in the hose nipple to help turn it. It is a hard reinforced plastic and the nipple broke without warning. A little JB Weld took care of it, but I wish I had gotten some lube on the rubber seal before I tried to remove it.My 5 mm allen wrench was a good fit on the valve adjusters. I love a metric and SAE hardware mix, it sells tools anyway.This is when I wished I had a complete set of Snap-on opened wrenches or at least a 9/16 th's. There is not a lot of clearance around the check nut and the closed end of Craftsman wrenches didn't drop all the way down. I had good results with snugging the check nut down with the open end and then torquing with a socket. Sometimes this left the valve lash tight on the feeler gauge and needed to be re-done.The Haynes and Dodge manuals want you to use a special barring tool (I think they called it that) that went thru a hatch and turned the flywheel with a long extension. Using a 15/16th socket on the alternator worked slick. Just in case you were wondering, the trailing edge of the fan blade is holy F sharp enough to deeply shave a knuckle on the way by.When removing the valve cover, keep the rear most bolt down in the valve cover. Mine was up and it ripped the insulation on the firewall above it, which dropped some crud on the valve train. Blow the area off with compressed air before going in. 18 Ft-lbs on the valve cover bolts.

Hey,Got the email about cleaning inactive accounts. Don't cut me off man! I just started to look into this and figured I would post to make sure I was active. My steering box/ gear appears to be leaking and is a bit sloppy. I saw this at a autopart chain's site. AGR Performance Steering gear. "Super Box 2 Variable ratio 13-16:1 with firm valving for better handling and drivability at hwy speeds. Many performance components like AGR’s tribearing, Billet aluminum caps, etc. All in vibratory finished case."Anybody recommend this or something else? Sounds good, I like the variable ratio idea, but this aint no sports car.

Update. It is fixed.Better late than never. The dealer I bought the truck from replaced the right front wheelbearing/ speed sensor assembly with a factory part for no charge. The wheelbearing was not worn, I was told that sometimes a sloppy worn bearing can cause speed sensor issues. This sensor dropped off to 0 at speeds under 5 mph, when the left still registered speed, activating the ABS. This started intermitently and happened more consistently over 3-4 months. Removing the ABS fuse disables the speedometer. Disconnecting a speed sensor will keep the ABS from activating and keep your speedometer working(I picked the right one because I knew it was bad).Unfortunately I didn't get the old one to take a look at, so I couldn't check the tone ring for rust, mud, or anything, from what I understand these (2000-02) trucks have a sealed tone ring and sensor integrated into the bearing hub. Hope this helps somebody.

So, I finally got around to having a proper computer talk to my truck. Turns out that the speed sensor in the right front drops off to 0 at around 5 mph, then the ABS does it's thing, like it is supposed to. I went over every ground I could find, cleaning and reassembling with die-electric grease and knew it would have no effect and it didn't. I measured the resistance for each speed sensor and they are all cool as far as I could find in google. The plan is to replace the wheel bearing/ hub/ speed sensor with a genuine Dodge part.Anybody think that this will not solve the problem for some reason? My trusted mechanic thinks it will as well as the dealership who is going to cover it. I would pick up a wheel bearing from the junkyard to check out the theory, but it isn't my dime.other ideas? I will post of the hub-ectomy results here.

Well... Browsing the local national part store chains made me think that I was going to have my pick of calipers, all different brands and options etc. Calling around showed otherwise. One Mfg isn't offering them anymore and nobody had the adapter bracket I needed with or without the caliper, but they did have the caliper. Dodge could have gotten the bracket in 3-4 days. With nothing to lose, I went after the broken bolt in the adapter bracket. Cut a slot for a flat head screw driver in the exposed bit of the bolt, but it just rounded out. Then I started to drill it out. I've never had much luck with drilling out bolts or using easy-outs (which I don't even bother owning), but this one worked. Started with a 1/16th diam bit, which immediated wobbled out of my punched centermark. I stopped just at 1/32 deep and dragged it back to the center with a small Dremel burr. This time the 1/16" bit stayed remarkably centered and I worked up to the minor diameter of the bolt, when the old bolt threads let go with sudden bind. Of course I was missing my 5/16 - 18 tap, so I needed the old threads to come out. Back together and torqued down with Anti-sieze. If car MFG's had an "anti-sieze option", I'd be all over it. I got the brakes bled and fluid changed, but the ABS is still kicking in every now and then. I found these posts, with no definative answer. http://www.dieseltruckresource.com/dev/ ... p?t=202000 http://dodge.justanswer.com/questions/1 ... mmins-scan The second guy watched his speed sensor output over the OBD2.... I wonder how much time he spent before that, then the Dodge tech has him replacing a bunch of stuff that doesn't seem to be helping... Ouch. I think that I have new bearing/ sensor assemblies since the hub and cotter pin are shiny new. These seem to only be available as an integrated unit. Any reason to go in after them? The first post above the guy did just that and they were fine. Talking to the dealership mechanic, who is out of state, he suggested a bad ground, which wouldn't throw a code or other bad connection. I have to learn more about the software ( http://www.obd-2.com ) to see how to watch and record those sensors. So, onto the wiring.

250k out of the rear brakes is tough to beat!Yesterday AM I hit the bleeders with PB Blaster in the center and around the outside, drove the truck to work and home again. I found one of the caliper slide bolts was missing on the rear in the AM and picked up new bolts and bleeders at lunch. It turns out that the bolt snapped off at the caliper, not sure if it sheared or was over-torqued. I would say over-torqued because the caliper seems to be working fine and as if the bolt was there, pads are even. Working with rusty calipers reminded me why I have gotten lazy and started buying re-man'd loaded calipers for brake jobs. The rear bleeders opened right up after the PB (I'm never sure if it is the PB or fate). $190 for a pair of loaded rear calipers (Morse) or $88 for a single unloaded caliper (Fenco) at the local parts stores. The math isn't tough, but the other caliper looks like it had been replaced and the pads are good. New rear brakes and not have to deal with anything from them for a good while, might be worth replacing the pair.I bled the rear using the conventional 2 man method after messing around with a mighty-vac and kludged up mason jar that wouldn't hold enough of a vacuum to draw fluid consistently. Pedal is just a bit firmer, still getting random ABS kick in. Front tires were 15 PSI different (thanks tire shop knuckleheads), and that seemed (not sure) to help ABS during slow speed hard turn.That missing bolt in the rear can't help the ABS, but I don't think it is causing the issue. Talking with a motorhead buddy, he suggested rust on the gear used by the ABS sensors, not sure if it could be an issue with these models but worth a look.

Well, it is definately the ABS kicking in. Turning into a parking space is the sure way to get it to do it. The "grinding" is thru the pedal and Im sure is the ABS pump now. Listening to a ball game on AM and I could hear the electrical noise of the ABS pump thru the radio as it kicked in. The fluid is old and dirty, so I pumped out the reservior topped it off with new, but the bleeders are corroded so I couldn't bleed off the old fluid. The calipers were not replaced by the dealer, they just put new pads in squeezing the pistons back in. It is clear from the rust they didn't open any of the brake circuits.Got any tricks to dealing with bleeders rusted in place? This truck came from the salted road capitol of North America and I am afraid every simple maintenance job is going to be an ordeal. Heat and or PB blaster?I wonder if the tires have even pressure all around, they look even...

02 2500 CTD. Dealer replaced the front brakes (calipers and rotors I think) before I bought it. My first impression was that the pedal felt firm and the brakes were smooth and responsive and 99.5% of the time they are. It seems like the ABS is kicking in on occasion under heavier braking. Not knowing the ABS feel in this truck, I would describe the pedal as getting harder to push, downward pedal motion becomes jerky, there is more of a grinding noise than the ABS whir I am used to, and decreased braking performance. I have to try some more things to reproduce it but it seems that being pointed downhill, first brake application after start up, braking when making hard turns at parking lot speeds. No ABS light comes on when it happens. I was thinking about bleeding the brakes incase some air worked into the ABS. Can I pull a fuse to disable the ABS for troubleshooting to see if that is what I am feeling?Is the ABS sensitive to different wheel speeds?Think there could be an trouble code and no light?I have done a number of brake jobs on a bunch of cars and never seen an intermitent brake problem.