Haggar

LOL VECTOR,I was thinking the same thing. Need a bottom that doesn't kill my be-hind.Hag

Stodg,That is a great write up! I had read it many moons ago, but couldn't find it again. The only thing I respectfully disagree with, there should be 0 (Zero) movement. The part is worn if it moves (excepting old style 2pc wheel bearings, but then it becomes a game of not enough/too much movement). I agree that many of us "let it go a bit" but we know we are on borrowed time, and are giving up some tire wear etc, for a more convenient time to change the parts. Hag

Texas,You have to inspect the front suspension! You can do it at the house with jacks, prybars and a friend. Or take it to a GOOD alignment shop. I mean GOOD. Forget the chain stores for this, talk to the manager and tell him what you are looking for.What you are looking for is ANY relative movement in any two adjacent components. lay under the truck, and with the engine off, have a friend start slowly rocking the steering wheel left and right. put your hands on each of the joints TOUCHING both components of the joint. If you feel one part move and the other part not move, it is bad. Even just the slightest bit!!!! NO, just a tickypoo is NOT ok!!!! This will get your steering. (turn engine on, and have him grind it left and right to look at steering box/frame movement.) steering box type trouble usually only happens with wider than stock tires and or lift kits.Now put the frame on jackstands. Wheels off ground. use a pry tool (4' long 2x4) to lift a wheel. Put your hands on upper and lower ball joints to steering knuckle. while buddy is lifting wheel, have him grab tire at 12 o'clock and rock it in and out of wheel well. Keep feeling, and looking for funny movement. If you feel it or see it, it is wrong. Check the control arm bushings!!! have buddy try to move wheel fore and aft. since the frame is supported and axle hanging, you should feel movement in the control arms if they are bad.Track bar is a bit harder to check, but it is sort of the same situation. Have buddy jump up and down on bumper compressing and extending the front suspension. feel for relative movement of track bar to frame or tack bar to axle. (both ends should only rotate, no movement in axial directions.)Since you are wobbling on braking, I believe it is a toe change during wheel drag. So it is most likely steering related.GL HTHHag

Sorry man,I have been trying to work those "friends" out of my life. I try to treat anything I borrow SIGNIFICANTLY better than something I own. I don't know why that is such a hard concept for people. Hope everything works out.Hag

Fire,The hydro-boost is really pretty easy to rebuild. (if you want I can send you some pictures etc. on the rebuild) I have not done it on the dodge yet, but did it a couple times on the 6.5TD Suburbasaurus. Look for piratejack dot net. They had the best prices on kits, and seem to know them REALLY well. I think a call to them might help you out a bunch.My borgeson box works great, and since yours worked well earlier, I am betting some dirt got into the Hydroboost making the apply non-linear. GL HTHHag

Wohooo!!!! do keep us posted! Good luck!Hag

Mohok, You may just want to stop by a "real" parts store. The guys at the box stores won't know. IIRC the tubing is 5/32". You can replace broken parts of the tubing with 5/32" vacuum hose. The older guys will know exactly what will slip on and hold vacuum. This will definitely get you by. If all else fails, see if there is a Cummins dealer near you. They should have that part. I know they supplied the connection to the vacuum pump, and possibly the next part also. GL Hag

Tony,You are thinking properly. I have not done the 2wd version of this truck, but should be similar.I put the frame on jack stands, use a jack under the lower control arm. Do be careful, the spring is dangerous. (a chain to keep it from flying out is not a bad Idea.) Jack up on lower control arm until I am compressing spring some, disconnect upper ball joint/steering knuckle. (if you are going to leave the jack here keep going, if you are fully decompressing spring you will need to take shock and sway bar loose) (while I am in the "danger zone" I leave the castle nut on the upper ball joint, but basically flush with the end, so the steering knuckle can move, but not come completely apart.) I then slowly lower the jack to let spring decompress some (or all the way. depending). When spring is mainly decompressed it won't just fall out usually. So now you can work on upper control arm. I usually use a 4 1/2" grinder to remove rivet heads. I then use a punch and hammer to remove rivets. It can be a bear to get to the rivet heads depending on car.If you are not going to fully decompress, do not trust the jack!!! use an extra jack stand to lower the lower control arm onto. DO NOT TRUST YOUR LIFE TO A JACK!!!! (unless your doctor is named Jack or something...)Good Luck HTH and isn't too late!Hag

Bren,Start where you worked last. Look closely where you reconnected the body harness. Could be a broken wire or bad connection. The tail lights are fed by Fuse F in the PDC (underhood) to the headlight switch. Then a black/yellow wire to the rear feeding taillights and tag lights.Fuse F also is a fuse that would prevent the instrument lights from working. You may have blown it.Page 8w-51-4 in the '01 manual. (look at top of website, click on downloads tab. Then click on Factory service manuals and download the 01 manual. it is in a zipped format, so have a program to unzip it. your computer may have this already.)Good luck!!Hag

Bri,Welcome to the site!!Sounds like you are heading down the correct path. Sorry I can't help you on the MAP. From an engineering standpoint, as long as the voltage output table relative to intake pressure is the same, the physical shape, size, brand shouldn't make a difference at all. The vp can have no codes (it doesn't know that it has a problem) and still have problems. My brother's 01 is a perfect example. You need to eliminate the APPS as a problem and the lift pump. If these are rock solid, and you still have dead pedal, it is the VP. My brother has noticed that his is temperature related mainly. If the truck is cold, he has dead pedal almost constantly, when the truck is warmed up or warm weather, the problem almost does not exist. The VP is not really dead, just cold solder joints on the circuit board. If you THINK the apps could be part of the problem, get an app from Timbo. Give him a call. (super nice fellow. Will bend over backwards to help you!!!) He will try to talk you out of buying one after a couple tests (assuming yours passes those tests.) GL HTHHag

LOL, in fact ROFLMAO!!!! Too true!!! Thank you for pointing that out. I need to modify my statement. Will take care of it!!!!Hag

Kerley,I only have a 2001 manual, but the wire colors for the hot on ashtray and cup holder lamps are ORANGE for the hot side. (Black is rarely ever the hot side on vehicles*. edit: this statement only applies to US wired cars after about '70. for "prince of darkness" and other European wired cars you are basically on your own!) and black w/ orange stripe is the ground. HTH Hag

COOL!!!I always worry a bit about the "factory" harness connector.What I got from Crutchfield was an adapter and had to solder it to the Kenwood pigtail. So I had just recently looked at all the extra wiring and had to blind off a bunch of wires. (the adapter brought through a bunch of wires that were unusable in the new head unit.)Glad you are finding it and getting it worked out. Hag

mmmm, (sorry rick didn't see you were here too. I will stay out for a bit.) (notice that Mopar1973man unlocked the downloads area for you. you should be able to go to the download tabs and find a manual in pdf form there and download it.) loose ground should not cause a short. unless it drug across power wires. Hmmmm with the loss of the gauges.... make certain that you know which power wires are what. in connecting to the radio.... it sounds like you could be looping something. or you have some other problems and disturbed the wiring. You need to look at your manual. The CCD system is part of the wiring to the radio. It sounds like you are crossing some wires to the CCD or the central timer module. The gauges are really driven by the PCM and displayed by data across the CCD. I hope you have just popped a few other fuses..... GL Hag - - - Updated - - - manual is "zipped" with a program called win rar. (the technical reasons are for smaller storage space and less transmission time (bandwidth) for downloading. you will have to find a program to un-zip a winrar. do a boogle search for a quality unzipper. this should allow you to view it with adobe reader. HTH Hag

Nuck,No worries. There is a .pdf around here of the 2001 manual. (i think since you are a limited member you can't get behind the firewall to download it. It will be close (wire colors may not match etc.) This will bridge you until you get a manual. If you plan on keeping the truck, and do even the littlest of your own maintenance, its worth the $150 to have a manual if you have to spend it.You could have blown your dash light fuse btw. On the 2001, the dash lights are actually protected separately from the headlight switch. (variable voltage power leaves headlight dimmer, goes thru a fuse, then goes out to the bulbs in the Instrument cluster/ overhead/ radidio:wink: ) In the fuse block by the drivers door it should/could be one there (5 or 10 amp)GL HTHHag

Welcome!The dash lights and stereo smell like the problem there. The factory stereo has wires hooked into the illumination circuit. Sounds like you might need to pull it back out and take a look. You may not have the ability to get the manual yet. page 8w-47-3 is where the panel lamps and daytime brightness connect into the radio wiring harness.the reverse lights. 8w-51-2 (electrical) 21-237 (actual location mechanically). With an automatic your "reverse light switch" is a three wire switch. here is the troubleshooting info.PARK/NEUTRAL POSITIONSWITCHDIAGNOSIS AND TESTING - PARK/NEUTRALPOSITION SWITCHThe center terminal of the park/neutral positionswitch is the starter-circuit terminal. It provides theground for the starter solenoid circuit through theselector lever in PARK and NEUTRAL positions only.The outer terminals on the switch are for the backuplamp circuit.SWITCH TESTTo test the switch, remove the wiring connector.Test for continuity between the center terminal andthe transmission case. Continuity should exist onlywhen the transmission is in PARK or NEUTRAL.Shift the transmission into REVERSE and testcontinuity at the switch outer terminals. Continuityshould exist only when the transmission is inREVERSE. Continuity should not exist between theouter terminals and the case.Check gearshift linkage adjustment before replacinga switch that tests faulty(I work from a 2001 manual, so your mileage may vary.)HTH GLHag

I found no good place to make an adaption into the dimming system without using a scotch-lock. (scotch lock pierce the factory wire and let corrosion in over time.... they eventually fail.) (I prefer to remove a pin from a connector, solder my wire and the existing wire to a new pin, and reinsert the new pin to the connector.) I ended up using a piggy back fuse. Littlefuse add a circuit. http://www.littelfuse.com/data/en/Data_Sheets/FHM02FHA02.pdf I did this both for keyed power for the pod and illumination. fuse 5 and fuse 16 (spare). HTH Hag

Clanton,chances are you will be. It is usually a broken vacuum line somewhere. Just gotta search for it.CheersHag

Bob,Sorry I have nothing helpful to offer. I couldn't find the subscribe button, but I just bypassed my core due to a leak, so I will be playing this game soon....... I too am trying to find out what I am coming up against.(found the button now... in the "thread tools" pull down. Imagine that!!)Hag

Bob,there is really very little to go wrong in the pump itself. 4 phenolic vanes, and the input "bearing". (there is not a bearing, it is just the front assembly with a properly sized hole in the aluminum.) our most usual failure is the rear seal (as the vacuum pump runs flooded with engine oil.) So no I would not do this as preventative maintenance. But, if you are leaking, it is easy to fix. Pete is a great fellow.HTH Hag

Guys,Please keep explaining.... I am similar to Kman, except I have no chip at all at the moment. So I am trying to glean from your experiences."tapping the pump". I have heard this mentioned before. What difference does it make. ( I have seen the stealth plate etc) is this just for interrupting the pump timing?ThanksHag

Clanton, The most probable problem you have is a vacuum leak. Follow the vacuum tubing from the vacuum pump (located between the power steering pump and the timing cover) to the firewall on the drivers side. It Tees here and goes to drivers fender for cruise control if equipped, and to the transfer case if 4wd. It then moves across the firewall to the passenger side in the bundle with all the wires going across. it loops down and goes into the HVAC unit. (blend door is electronically controlled, mode door and recirculation are vacuum operated.) Most people have leaks. find the leaks and correct them. Second most common is a bad switch (meaning the vacuum does not get directed to the mode door.) least likely but possible bad mode door actuator. Here is a pdf of the 2001 factory manual. Look at chapter 24. pages 26, 27 and 28. (24-26, 24-27 and 24-28) http://dl.dropbox.com/u/42304/2001DodgeRam.pdf HTH Hag

Rebel,On a 2001, it is fuse 12 that provides power for the radio, mirrors, overhead console, underhood light, dome and cargo lamps. Not certain which fuse it might be in yours, but I bet they are all on the same one.GL HTH Hag

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!!!! Do try to spend a minute and remember the what and why. Tell your kids about it too!!!Pulling the Kubota to SC for some work on the farm tomorrow. Hope I will have time to check in before next week and see what is going on!!Have a wonderful Independence Day you all!!!Hag

Me too!!!!! I have not gotten the gear out yet this year.... and don't see a chance in the near future. (I might just dive in my neighbors pool!)We could tow those lines out deep for you!!! Happy 4th!!!Hag