Hope this is ok to put here.

 

I wanted to put the history and semi build up of my truck so far for both record and might be able to help others some how. 

 

So, I have been a dodge fan for years, partly because my father works at a dodge dealership and because the only non dodge product we have ever had in the family was a mid 2000s Subaru Legacy. My first time driving anything was when I was like 3-6 years old, my father let me steer his Jeep Grand Wagoneer down the road. We actually still have that jeep but it has fallen into disrepair because of reasons. I personally have had a 1999 Jeep Cherokee (on loan from the parents), 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 (was my first vehicle I could call my own, sold a few years ago), 2001 Dodge Ram 2500 (nearly my dream truck, needed to be a sport to be my 100% dream truck), currently also own a 2019 Ram 2500 (needed because I chose to start sled pulling with the 2001 Cummins and I needed a second vehicle). Also have a 2016 Yamaha Stryker for a motorcycle.

 

So this was the morning after it was dropped off to me in 2015:

 

I actually bought the truck off of a classmate of mine so that was a fun surprise.   

 

And so began my foray into the world of diesels.

 

Unfortunately, previous owner didn't take good care of the truck. No power steering fluid, and it was really low on oil, like half of the required amount drained out my first oil change, and the steering was really all over the place. Also, the exhaust was cut off right at the end of the cab, and the mounting rod that attaches to the tranny had broken off allowing the exhaust to just rattle against the tranny crossmember. So I swapped it to a set of MBRP cool duals.              Out with the old

 

 

In with the new.

 

Few months later gave the truck a bath. 

 

 

 

Also after, digging through my photos, I don't take a lot of photos of the projects I've done. Or I cant find them. 

First big issue was that when I went and got new tires for the truck, the place that was doing the alignment broke my nv5600. Unfortunately, said place is a regional chain in the northeast and gave me $500 as compensation after the company that rebuilt the tranny said that they had seen this kind of failure quite often. they forced the shifter into a place it wasn't supposed to be and separated the circular thing from the actual shift rails. Top right corner is where it was disconnected.

      

 

So i used this time to get a fresh rebuilt tranny, rebuilt driveshafts, a Valair dual disk clutch and new shift tower.

@dieselautopower, I did a stupid and jumped my truck and forgot to unhook the Quad. Is that a full death sentence for it? 

 

Guess what im asking is, should i send it in to have it looked at?

 

Possibly add that on top of my no Wait To Start and no CCD bus bus issues.. 

Alright here goes. I've wanted to do the W-T mod for a while but both Articles ( @W-T's and @Mopar1973Man's) even after reading them multiple times over a couple of years, I still couldn't wrap my head around the process. I think its a combo of my lack of knowledge and a bit of formatting of the articles themselves. It might just be the way my brain works/interprets things as well.

 

So I guess it comes down to I need a bit of clarification. And I don't know the best way to format this so please bear with me.

 

Things I understand fully about this mod:

- Its intent. Remove a problematic splice and poor ground run.

 

Things i mostly get:

- Where things from the factory are run. For the most part. (see below)

- The bundle of small gauge grounds that go into the timing cover. 

 

Things im not sure of:

- the alternator charge lead I think is part of the confusion i have with this mod. Where does it run and what does it hook up to?

- where all the new connections are. (I have some idea for this one. Just need confimation) 

- is the Small gauge ground bundle we make a replacement for the long cable? or do we have to add the other ground lead? (green wire on the timing cover for @W-T's article.)

             - looks to be a requirement.. "...absoute ground..." - W-T 

 

Just trying to finish wrapping my head around how this is laid out and accomplished. 

 

Thanks in Advance

I was overwhelmed trying to remember the entire process.  I kept my phone with me and did each thing one at a time. It was really simple to me doing it that way.

 

The alternator charge wire runs from alternator to drivers side battery over radiator. You will shorten it to run to passenger battery. This is where you can splice either a 150 Amp breaker or fuse if you want. The ground wires that you will cut to get the crummy oem connection out will be grounded to the timing cover. I used the extra charge wire to add a ground from same timing cover ground point to drivers battery. 

 

Don't forget to do the fuse mod in the blue wire to the pcm.

 

I may have explained it wrong, but if you go step by step,  it's not a bad or confusing job.

I think I'm more confused now that I've looked at the wires of my truck...

 

I think I need a crash course on alternator/electrical workings... So the charge lead comes off the alternator then goes into the PDC, through the 140A fuse then into the drivers battery. by moving the the charge lead to the passenger battery, we render the PDC fuse useless, needing to add a fuse to the new charge line. Am I understanding this correctly so far?

 

So what is powering the PDC? Seems like the red power cable from the battery does that.

 

The second grey connector that heads up to the firewall/cowl, I think @IBMobile has an article about this, where is that going/what is it connecting to? Trying to follow it in the wire diagrams on the site but it isnt immedeately clear.. Says that s126 is the PCM and data link grounds, but it says that it terminates at the firewall not the battery...

So I remembered that I downloaded the FSM and spent the last hour plus going through it.. Think I finally have things a bit straightened out now. 

 

Still need to keep combing through stuff.. but getting better..

1 hour ago, Silverwolf2691 said:

Am I understanding this correctly so far?

Yes

 

1 hour ago, Silverwolf2691 said:

So what is powering the PDC? Seems like the red power cable from the battery does that.

Yes

 

1 hour ago, Silverwolf2691 said:

Says that s126 is the PCM and data link grounds, but it says that it terminates at the firewall not the battery...

The splice is at the fire wall but terminates at the battery.    

 

https://mopar1973man.com/cummins/articles.html/24-valve-2nd-generation_50/51_engine/electrical/pcm-ground-splice-repair-r675/?tab=comments#comment-115

On 1/14/2023 at 9:16 AM, Silverwolf2691 said:

@dieselautopower, I did a stupid and jumped my truck and forgot to unhook the Quad. Is that a full death sentence for it? 

 

Guess what im asking is, should i send it in to have it looked at?

 

Possibly add that on top of my no Wait To Start and no CCD bus bus issues.. 

Call and talk with Quadzilla.  They may be able to repair it, if not they offer a new board as a separate item.

Strange I've jumped many vehicles and never unhooked the Quadzilla. No damage. 

 

No wait to start is a ECM death sentence, then the CCD codes are most likely because the ECM is not responding because the ECM never booted up which goes back to the lack of wait to start light.

Quadzilla is more of a checkup vs having issues..

 

Im assuming no ccd causes the no start condition as well.. 

27 minutes ago, Silverwolf2691 said:

Im assuming no ccd causes the no start condition as well.. 

 

CCD typically will not prevent starting...

 

Now the missing WAIT TO START will 100% of the time. Being that ECM never booted up and is not responding at all. The fact that CCD bus error means the PCM booted up and attempted to talk to the ECM and since the ECM is completely brain dead it will not repsond nor start being the is not software to turn on the fuel pump relay (power for the VP44) and then no information will be fed to the VP44 being the software is not booted. I would give @Auto Computer Specialist a call and have the ECM tested out and follow their suggestions on fixing. 

Had a contact us ticket into them on monday, still waiting. 

 

Ok, the way you said that makes sense. That was part of the reason for the other post. I didnt know if i was fighting multiple issues or if one thing was causing the others.

Reverse it. Now if the ECM was booting up but PCM wasn't talking it would start but things like alternator won't work being the PCM doesnt recieve the tach signal from the ECM.

Hoping to pull my ECU tonight an get it sent out in the morning. Cold, Rain, the Dark, and work put a real damper on working on My truck.. First decent day that i didn't have something already planned or was raining.

 

Finally got a hold of @Auto Computer Specialist, they told me that its the ECU. 

 

Need to work on the battery cables and W-T mod next as well.. 

Have to keep this up to date..

 

Haven't done much with the truck besides get new weights for it. My brother bought the concrete I was using and used it for redoing his mudroom.

 

Pulling season is starting soon, so I have to start taking care of some of the lingering wintertime projects.

 

Main reason for posting is that this morning, I blew the #9 fuse in the dash fuse box area. #9 is the fuse for the ECU, PCM, and the Quad. Drove to the gas station fine, got coffee and breakfast, went out to the truck to start it, and crank no start. Tried cranking again, had all the symptoms of a bad ECU, then i remembered about my fuse blowing previously, and sure enough it was blown.. had a spare 15 amp fuse to get me home but i dont want to play around with the power supply for the brains of the truck anymore than i have to. Drove the truck home, swapped cars and posting this from work..

 

I'm guessing there's a small break somewhere that i have to track down. But I'm also wondering if a health check from Quadzilla would be worth the effort..

So. Pull the Quadzilla lose and test that red/white wire for short to ground. 

 

Then I would test the power leads for both ECM and PCM. Again you need to unplug the ECM and PCM to verify.

 

While your doing all this look for mouse damage or rub damage to the power leads for all 3 devices.

Sorry for not keeping this up to date regularly... havent had proper funds to get things started/finished.. solved that problem though.

 

hopefully going to be posting a bit more now that pulling season is about to start.

 

Plans for this year are similar to previous years.. clutch, bump stops, traction bars, safety items for peace of mind, cylinder head if i can manage it.. probably not this year though.

 

still need to do some maintenance stuff and trouble shooting/fixing of some random odds and ends..

Yeah I totally get that my spring has been below average for jobs. Now the weather warmed up now I'm getting busy. 

 

Heck with business it's the 4th of July weekend. I'm going to enjoy myself camped out in Parma ID. 

 

My fix was another job change, but glad things are turning around for you Mike.

 

Finally ordered a new clutch, sintered iron triple disk from kennys diesel out of kentucky. Also ordered a tubular crossmember to replace the factory one. Hoping to save some weight and make trans removal and re installation a bit easier.

 

Only problem is I dont think parts will get here in time to get them installed for my first or second pull. We shall see.

Meant to keep up with this a bit more but things didn't turn out that way. 

 

New job is going well, albeit the exhausted feeling every day is a bit rough.

 

Sled pulling season was a well earned 2nd place. Me and the puller that got 1st were going within feet of each other pretty much every race. 

 

New clutch worked well on the track but is a bit rough on daily driving. To be expected...

 

I will say being able to spin 3700 rpm down the track is helpful too. 

 

Got traction bars for Christmas so that will help...

 

Lots to do and I don't have an open garage to do most of them. 

 

Side bar.. I missed my last pull (Oct 21) because my brother and I helped my best friend move from the ct shoreline to tacoma washington. We turned it into a mini vacation. Visited Yellowstone and the LaMay automotive museum. @Mopar1973Man, I was gonna let you know that i was coming through but we were coming through on I90 i think.. I was a bit far north for a detour on our timetable unfortunately.. Next time hopefully...

Well you tried...