Jump to content
  • Welcome To Mopar1973Man.Com LLC

    We are a privately owned support forum for the Dodge Ram Cummins Diesels. All information is free to read for everyone. To interact or ask questions you must have a subscription plan to enable all other features beyond reading. Please go over to the Subscription Page and pick out a plan that fits you best. At any time you wish to cancel the subscription please go back over to the Subscription Page and hit the Cancel button and your subscription will be stopped. All subscriptions are auto-renewing. 

Squirrels Got Me Good


Recommended Posts

2 minutes ago, LorenS said:

Thanks, @wil440.  I just pulled the trigger a bit ago on a weather-pack set, supposedly genuine Delphi (for the cost I sure hope it is...)

Perhaps I should cancel it and buy this even more expensive set- but I may have to do something different for the 12-gauge wires:


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00724M7SK/ref=sspa_dk_detail_4?psc=1p13NParams&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzUEZJN0ZHRzZIUkZZJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwOTM4ODg1MlFPUjY2VU9FNDJVNiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMzQxOTk0Mjk3WjVFUThGNU0wMCZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2RldGFpbDImYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

That is the very kit although there is smaller, I have a smaller kit, as for the 12 gauge wires there are different terminals that except different sized wires

The upside of the Deutz stuff is it comes to pieces easily but is very waterproof

1 minute ago, IBMobile said:

Yes, never know which pronunciation to use, either one will bring up what you need in a search...... they are really the dogs nuts and everyone that runs anything sort of old ish needs a basic kit 

the really big last time I did save some ££ was a Cat 972H machine harness @£2500 + ........ cost less than £10, a lot of time to fix it but no where near £2500 maybe £75, reason being Cat wiring insulation breaks down to glue if exposed to hydrocarbons :wow:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rumor is for many years now the wiring insulation is soy based and not rubber or plastic and the critters love to munch down on it. We have to spray vehicles in the storage lot to keep the mice and ground squirrels from eating the insulation. I will look to see if I can find the name of the chem we spray on. Seems to work ok but needs reapplied monthly.

Bob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The thing is, my truck was hardly in "storage", I had driven it about 9 days before discovering this mess, and was parked in a prime parking spot in my nice, concrete driveway!  Only reason it went 9 days without being driven is because I pretty much slept for a week, sick with the flu or something that wasn't the Wuhans.  Meaning I wasn't going to go out and spray anything under the hood, either.

No shortage of acorns or walnuts this year, so not sure why the bastard needed a chew toy at bedtime.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When my truck was parked for a while (week or two at most) in the early summer, I popped the hood and staring at me from a partially built nest of firewall insulation was a rat.. like body (not including tail) was as wide as the valve cover.. no munched wires at the time but I have a feeling he just moved down to the tranny tunnel. A while later found a nest on top of my tranny by the shifter.

 

I don't think any piece is better than the other per se.. The biggest thing to get right is the crimp(s), followed by the correct sized wire seals and/or plugs. After that its what package/footprint do you want. 

 

For reference, the apps connector is a deutsch connector. Specifically a dt series.

 

@LorenS, whatever kit you get, just make sure you have the correct crimper for that kit/connector series. Weatherpack, metri-pack and deutsch have different crimpers/way of crimping I believe. Way of crimping meaning how much to strip, where (dimensionally) to attach the crimp, whether or not to attach to the insulation.. It gets complicated the more you dive in to automotive wiring..

 

ceautoelectricsupply.com has a lot of the info/parts/tools I have found. Don't know their price vs. what's the average/normal.. Also not the easiest site to navigate..

Edited by Silverwolf2691
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, Silverwolf2691 said:

just make sure you have the correct crimper for that kit/connector series

I ordered a supposedly-genuine Delphi kit that includes the crimpers and assortment of seals, pins, bodies, etc.  And the removal tool.  If this setup leaves me stranded maybe "next time" I'll get the Deutsch connector set - or just hardwire it all.  In 21 years and 345k miles this is probably the first time those wire looms have been pulled out of their resting place on the firewall.  They may have needed the connectors in Saltillo, MX to build the truck, but haven't been used since.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff
1 hour ago, LorenS said:

They may have needed the connectors in Saltillo, MX to build the truck, but haven't been used since.

 More than likely. The harness was split into multiple pieces to be installed quickly on the assembly line. Most systems go in as modules. Engine(with wire harness), dash(fully assembled dash with instrument cluster, heater controls all installed). Anything to get their production numbers up. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Doubletrouble said:

 More than likely. The harness was split into multiple pieces to be installed quickly on the assembly line. Most systems go in as modules. Engine(with wire harness), dash(fully assembled dash with instrument cluster, heater controls all installed). Anything to get their production numbers up. 

Yes Caterpillar call it Six Sigma, basically subsystems built away from the production line and all relying on Lean build which means carry nothing except just what is needed right now.

Engines and trans arrive at the fitting station fully assembled then bolted in, cab would arrive at cab drop fully built with the only parts not fitted  being stuff that stops the actual cab from being fitted, they have 100's of people usually more than the actual people that assemble making all this work, takes ages to rectify problems, copied from the Japanese

Upside of it is no skills needed for assembly line as each person follows a procedure to the letter, downside is anything outside of the "procedure" is no ones problem and no one is skilled enough to deal with problems anyway.

I spent 5 years at Cat working in major repair on the backhoe line, wrong cabs fitted, wrong frames used, and anything else you could possibly imagine

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, wil440 said:

wrong cabs fitted, wrong frames used, and anything else you could possibly imagine

 

Wha.. bu.. huh..?  How?! How does an assembly line get that wrong?

 

I get the assembly of assemblies to make a car, its just that it leads to.. interesting ways of dealing with some "regular" maintenance. I believe that there are quite a few vehicles that want you to drop the subframe/k-frame from the vehicle to do sparkplugs. Or like the super duty, that to take care of the turbo or things related to it, want the cab and nose taken off.. 

 

I think the connectors that got eaten were the ecu/pcu connectors. Since its a Cummins engine and not a Dodge engine, the engine and body were entirely separate so just have everything needed to make the engine run on the engine, then anything needing to talk to the pcu go into a set of connectors that get attached at assembly. No messy wiring bits just connect and go.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Silverwolf2691 said:

 

Wha.. bu.. huh..?  How?! How does an assembly line get that wrong?

It's the assembly line mentality, if the wrong frame is in the frame line then there is no way to take it off and if they could there is no way to replace it with the correct one and the correct frame would be weeks away anyway, this is JIT assembly so if the "system" thinks the wrong frame is the right frame the actual right frame never gets built unless asked for again by the "system" which means a bod going in and re requesting

American spec backhoe is different to the rest of the world as your legs fold down where ours come straight down from turrets each side of the frame so wrong frame is always a frame change later by guys like I was, cabs are the same, don't forget the actual time in each station was around 6 minutes then the line moves, so cab drop was 6 minutes to drop onto the frame bolt down and hook everything up, very stressful job that.

I  and 7 others actually spent nearly 2 years pulling trans out of backhoes because of oil leaks between torque convertor and pump, was over 50% failure rate straight off the line but production kept going, took over 2 years to figure out why the leaks even though it was plainly obvious, which was , 6 minutes to pick the torq and flex plate bolt the two together and fit to trans AND then marry the trans to engine and bolt everything up inc fit the starter. The nose of the torq was never checked or cleaned and was then just fitted into the pump with no thought for the seal or bush, everyone we stripped had seal damage or bush damage or cardboard/debris in the seal lip, I think 8 of us did around 800 over 2 years and we had 3 failures

We spent a month in Waco Texas at a Cat storage facility and 3 teams of 2 and we were doing 2 each per day, trans out, new pump,new torq and refit did 130 in a month, cheaper to send us than use the Texas cat dealer which is Holt caterpillar who were charging $6k each and taking 2 days each one, we'd done 100's by this time so was real easy, was a good months holiday really 

Oh and as for interesting maintenance..., Range Rover with the V6 diesel, turbo problems the whole body has to come off  POS

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not my 2005 Passat!  The engine's not even transverse, and it's FWD.  Handy for some things, not handy for other things.

However, if you want to drop the oil pan you have a real project on your hands - the subframe/cradle/whatever does have to come out.

 

Fantastic steering and seats, 38 MPG, and my 5-year old being able to get himself in the car are major reasons (besides squirrels) I no longer drive the Ram every day.  Well, that and I had hoped to get the truck in the body shop by now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Every Cummins in a Dodge I pulled the cab. Three trucks now. I use 2 tractors with buckets and 4 inch wide straps, bolted to cab mounts. Lift cab pull truck forward set cab on planks across  bed. Always remove radiator first. Me and a helper can do it in about 1.5 hours. Unbolt master cylinder from booster leave lines connected . Parking brake cable and AC lines are the biggest hassle. Good luck on the wiring. That would be a very expensive job at the dealer they would replace it all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Silverwolf2691 said:

@LorenS, hows the ecodiesel?

I sold it.  I drove a 2015 Ram 2500 for a while so was familiar with DEF, regens, and the like.  I never once got the "go drive on the highway for 20 miles" message to clear the DPF, but  that Ecodiesel was constantly needing to actively regen, and never failed it was after I'd just driven for 2 hours on the highway - it couldn't have regen'd a little early?!?  Coupled with the constant stream of catastrophic engine failures I was seeing on an Ecodiesel Facebook page I followed, I just wasn't interested in it anymore.  $10k engine if they don't cover it under warranty, and it can take a few months to get the new engine.  Then even normal maintenance items were going to be stupid expensive.  I mean it's like $800 to change the water pump, the thermostat is a couple hundred dollars, and on and on.  Screw that.  I wound up nearly breaking even on it when I sold it to a dealer.

I think if you ONLY use the truck to haul a trailer, then it seems they do really good - like several hundred thousand miles.  But if you drive empty, even on long hauls, it's a crapshoot if you make it to 100k, with way too many failing before 30k miles.  And it wasn't people putting in the wrong oil, or otherwise being dumb.  It'd be people that really know how to maintain and drive vehicles.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sold the ecodiesel and got the passat?

 

The 19-20 Cummins with the cp4s are similar. seems if the pump is gonna die its gonna be in the first 30k. otherwise you're mostly good. They did finally come out with a recall for it though, no parts are issued though. Essentially, there's a fix in the works that everybody approved of but now we need to actually get and distribute all the parts and fixes. and if I had to guess, since I'm not on the hdrams forum often, it's the 21+ timing cover and pump plus the programming for it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bought the Passat first, but essentially yes.  They have their own quirks, but much cheaper to deal with!

I kind of wish I'd never sold my 1995 Suburban.  Wasn't great on fuel as the miles racked up, but total cost per mile was very reasonable.  If it was 3/4 ton I wouldn't have sold it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, LorenS said:

Bought the Passat first, but essentially yes.  They have their own quirks, but much cheaper to deal with!

I kind of wish I'd never sold my 1995 Suburban.  Wasn't great on fuel as the miles racked up, but total cost per mile was very reasonable.  If it was 3/4 ton I wouldn't have sold it.

 

I love my Passat. Mine has the 1.8T gas in it though. But a APR tune, with a glass pack and it runs great.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff
19 minutes ago, pepsi71ocean said:

 

I love my Passat. Mine has the 1.8T gas in it though. But a APR tune, with a glass pack and it runs great.

I like the looks of the Jeep Rubicon Unlimited (extended wagon style) but, the forum talk says they aren't so good. At 50 K average for a used one I think I can stay away.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff
2 hours ago, JAG1 said:

I like the looks of the Jeep Rubicon Unlimited (extended wagon style) but, the forum talk says they aren't so good. At 50 K average for a used one I think I can stay away.

 Those jeeps are soooo overpriced. I haul new ones from the plant in Toledo Ohio. I see the sticker price and thank God I have a truck I love and plan on keeping it for a long time. I'll deal with the high fuel prices for a while if I have to.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...