Haggar

Greg, For the racing trailer I use a nitrogen bottle. Dude that will save your life. its easier and cheaper than sketchy cords and low voltage on a compressor, or trying to run tanks back and forth to the tire guys, or pulling out, setting up and listening to a stupid generator to run the compressor.... I can in a pinch run air tools. GL HTH Hag

That would be much more awesome than that shall not be named..... GL Hag

Manimal If you think you are in a situation where its gonna act up, (or while hot see if it starts like its cold, when it doesn't pour cold water over the vp.) You could also try just a bump with no start, that should leave the lift pump running for like 30 seconds. Then try a normal start. (this would circulate cooler fuel through the pump cooling the circuit board.) You won't like where I am heading, but it is a known failure mode of the VP. (while hot the circuit board doesn't make some specific contacts, but when cold it will....) (my brother's vp was opposite. you heated it to get it to run right. Hot air gun was very handy.) Hag

IBM, I agree I found both of the different references you found.... I think the bolts are M12. Need to know the class of bolt. (and materials to be fastened) Metric 12.9 (similar to our grade 8) maximum suggested tightening torque is 123 ft*lb. grade 10.9 is suggested max 106 ft*lb. grade 9.8 is suggested max 83 ft*lb. This chart from the manual says the m12 at 12.9 can go to 95 ft*lb in cast iron. Our crank is forged steel. (significantly stronger in tension) so I think the 101 ft*lb is fine if the fastener is 12.9 or stronger. HTH Hag

Newbie, Sorry you are taking it that way. I don't see anyone that responded, intended for you to take it that way. That is a huge list. Most of those things I have performed on my own truck, so someone else's truck needing it is not out of the ordinary. But trying to think through a lot of them, takes some time. We have all performed them but in smaller bites. I agree that there seems to be a lot of double charging for labor. The labor of 2700 for the waterpump tappet cover and timing/oil pan cover seems high. The oil pan is a pain. and the tappet cover requires removing the injector pump. but 2700 worth of pain? ( i would really be surprised if ALL of those gaskets are really bad. I think someone shotgunned that issue. I would clean the block up and only replace the gaskets that were bad.) The front end may need to be rebuilt, but it does not necessarily all need to be rebuilt at the same time. Some of it comes down to, is this your son's only vehicle? This seems to be a list of "I want to drive this truck daily for the next few years, what do I need done?" vs "This is my secondary vehicle that I use ocassionaly, what do I need to repair to make it safe." The suggestion that he perform the work himself is very valid. Very little of this work is rocket science. It is hard work (heavy, aggrivating, dirty) but just takes time.. Most of us could not afford to pay someone else to perform these functions. (we have more time than money....) So trying to expand our mental view into that is hard. I am also worried that there are going to be adders..... I cannot believe that the front end is this worn out, but the brakes are wonderful. The front end repair seems the most reasonable. I would probably have that done. The oil leak, I would diagnose myself. That is just cleaning the motor and watching for where the leak really is. and doing a targeted repair on that seal only. HTH Hag

Evan, Pull strings from your rear tires forward. (probably have to have front tires off.) This will let you "see" where the rear end angle is in relation to your front suspension. This should help you visualize if the rear is really out of alignment. Take a string attached to the truck near the differential pull it across the rear of the tire, it should be long enough to go past the front end. Start with the string only touching the rear of the tire, slowly move the string towards the truck until it touches the leading edge of the rear tire. This is a reference line of the outer edge of the rear tire. Do this also on the other side of the truck. (you can tie them to jack stands or something. now you can measure the distance between the strings close to the tires and in front of the truck. the difference is your rear toe angle. (they should be parallel or slight toe in. never toe out on rears) the center of this rear toe angle relative to the center of your front suspension is your thrust angle. It should be nearly zero. This will also show you if you have "parallel offset" or dog tracking. (you need to check the body relationship to the suspension relationship also.) You can do it without removing wheels and just measure from parallel lines on both sides of the vehicle, but you just get measurements. there is no visual of the strings following the rear wheels to the front. If something is really wrong it will show up visually really quickly. Hag

grrr, Sorry. Looking back at it. I bet item 4 is the bracket to transfer case. It is item 6 you were looking for which is m10x1.5p bolt. It is very close and would thread together. (the 3/8 bolt is smaller in diameter than the M10 by about 0.02" and 16 threads per inch is about 1.58mm pitch.) So close enough to thread together, but not a uniform tightness. When you get a chance put the correct bolt in. The looseness of the standard bolt in a metric thread will fall out eventually. (or if you can get above the welded nut, just add another 3/8" nut on top to jam against the welded nut. That would prevent it backing out.) HTH Hag

Irie, (starting a new thread is the best thing to do!!!) here is a picture from the 2001 parts manual. (you may want to download and look at the 1999 to make sure yours is the same the same, but it is in the chapter called "engine mounting" It looks like you need an M14x1.25P (14mm diameter 1.25mm thread pitch) bolt. I do not know the length, though It might be that the 0.437" measurement is the length. (that would be about 12mm long) GL HTH Hag

Behind the fuel tank seems to be a common place to lose a line due to corrosion. I have not experienced this, but have seen other posts where it happened. GL Hag

Gip, Sorry, was out of town yesterday. In the FSM page I attached you will see the OR/BK (Orange with black tracer) wire goes from pin 37 on the ECM connector to pin 8 on the C1 connector at the cluster. You can look up each of those connectors in the 8w-80 section of the manual for "connector pin-outs" and the 8w-90 section for "connector locations" (the 8w-90 section will also help you find the connectors C134, C130 and C126.) If you are trying to "check for shorts" and you are not using the FSM wiring diagrams, you may not be finding all the possible areas that a short can be and causing problems. GL HTH Hag

Gipper, I hope you find it. I am pretty sure they can tell too much amperage flowed through pin 37. Here is the wiring diagram for an 01. That wire goes through three junctions and goes near the steering column. so good potential for issues. It is a computer output going to a driver, so it should only see a small amount of amperage flow. Disconnect the ECM and pull the cluster and check to see if you have continuity to ground on the orange/black wire. If you do, its in the wiring. It will be harder to troubleshoot the cluster itself. hope that it is in the wiring. GL Hag 2001 FSM Ram 8w-30-34.pdf

When you go to push it back, and it won't move, open the bleeder. Does it suddenly move then? If yes, the problem in is in the brake lines (most probably the hose, but could be anywhere from that caliper to the master cylinder) If it won't move back easily with the bleeder open, it is a stuck/sticking caliper. Usually very easy to tell the difference. Hag

Just keep an eye on it. Since you hadn't driven it in a while, the rotors probably had a nice skim of rust on them. that takes a bit of time to wear off, and all that time is extra drag, making more heat. But definitely keep an eye on it. HTH Hag

Have you replaced the flexible hose to the caliper? Known troublesome spot. Had to do one of my buddies while in Florida this summer. It was right side hose failed, but truck pulled left on braking. My thoughts for this is right brake has gotten too hot. When you apply brakes, the left one being cool has a higher coefficient of friction (in is not in the throws of brake "fade") so the vehicle pulled left. Put new hoses on both sides right now. Keep your calipers, they are probably not bad. In fact if you want to test it, drive truck get caliper to start sticking. bleed that caliper, if the fluid shoots out, it is under pressure. (a truck sitting still should have 0psi of pressure in the caliper.) You then know "something" is retaining the pressure you put in with the brake pedal but not allowing that pressure to return to the master cylinder to become 0psi again. HTH Hag

Dan, OMG. That will make it a bit harder to figure out too...... Just go slow, try to make your own wiring diagram of exactly what wires you have.... It will take a while, and some long jumpers. Try and get a copy of the superbright wiring diagram. hopefully the installer sort of followed their diagram so some of what you see will start to make sense. GL Hag