My Dodge Truck Project (Cummins Inside)

[olds307 and 403]

We may of had them longer up here. It may have been an early year option as well. Yeah, all 3 turbo diesels were comparable power and mileage wise.

 

[joesregalproject]

 

[Ugly1]

Not a whole lot new with the Dodge lately, I've been driving the F-150 for the most part because remote start and heated seats are hard to argue with, but I still take it out a few times a week. We haven't had much snow and rain has washed the salt off the roads for the most part so I haven't felt bad taking it out.

Cold starts haven't been much of an issue, today was the first time I had to cycle the grid heater to help it start and once I did it fired right up.

The horn has started working intermittently so I'm going to need to look into that before long. There are some other items I want to address when I get some time. Emergency brake cables need replaced and the front axle seals are leaking. The axles seals are a PITA and the carrier has to come out to do them. That being the case, I'll probably do the drivers side ball joints at the same time and maybe rotors since the axle shafts have to come out to replace them.

I did a side job a couple weeks ago taking some trees down and we used it as an anchor for a snatch to pull the trees down. It was the only truck heavy enough to not get dragged.
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I saw this video on YouTube the other day, thought it was funny/interesting. The other truck manufacturers must've been pretty worried when these trucks came out. Worried enough to make a video addressing it to their sales force anyways.

Yup but didn’t match truck for truck. Chevy kept showing you had to “upgrade “ to match and didn’t show (at the point I stopped ) the seat had room to recline.

 

[Ugly1]

Sorry about the front axle seals. Just a heads up, if the axles show a wear grove replaced them. My 98’ had the dealer fix the first one ( inner right side) dumass “tech” didn’t say anything about it and slammed the axle back in. Leaked even worse. Made the dealer eat the cost of redoing it and put a new axle in. At that point had them do both seals and axles. I’m not one to play their games. While your in that deep check the pinion seal and pinion for same wear.
You can get greasable axle u-joints. Not sure on the diesel HD front ends, but you could on the 1/2 ton. FYI: you can do all that in truck, at least on the 1/2ton, and never drain the fluid.

 

[Mighty]

Sanded the floors in my dually some, painted it, and set the new carpet out with the old carpet laid over it to use as a template but it’s been on hold. Had a return line start leaking on my 97 daily driver, and a return line also start leaking on my duramax right at the fuel cooler so in my free time I’ve been tinkering with those. I just had my duramax on the lift last night spraying on the surface shield as it was snowing outside here. Pretty interested to see how it works! I replaced the front end on my 97 at around 250k miles. A torch and 8 pound sledge were the universal dodge tools of choice for that process…..

 

[joesregalproject]

Sorry about the front axle seals. Just a heads up, if the axles show a wear grove replaced them. My 98’ had the dealer fix the first one ( inner right side) dumass “tech” didn’t say anything about it and slammed the axle back in. Leaked even worse. Made the dealer eat the cost of redoing it and put a new axle in. At that point had them do both seals and axles. I’m not one to play their games. While your in that deep check the pinion seal and pinion for same wear.
You can get greasable axle u-joints. Not sure on the diesel HD front ends, but you could on the 1/2 ton. FYI: you can do all that in truck, at least on the 1/2ton, and never drain the fluid.

Good to know. The drivers side is the only one leaking so far. The axle seal design is dumb. Stupid that you have to pull the carrier to replace them, you need a special tool to press the new ones in (I'll make one, I'm not buying it), and because they sit so deep in the axle tube it is very easy to nick the new seals putting the axles back in.

I already replaced the axle shafts u-joints with new Spicer ones. I used sealed ones because I'm lazy and it's one less thing to grease. I haven't done the rotors yet. They aren't bad but if I take this apart again, I'm replacing them because I don't want to pull these axles out again.

 

[joesregalproject]

Coldest start I've ever done with this truck. 3°F unplugged. Wind chills are -20°F. It complained but it started. If it had been plugged I imagine it would've probably started without much issue.

Afterward I took it down the road and back. Roads were slick and it was easy to break traction if I wasn't careful. Temp needle never moved, it is damn cold out. Supposed to be warm out next week so I'll hose the slush off.

 

[Supercharged111]

My dually wasn't super happy with the -5* start yesterday, it's about 2* now and I'm going to do it again but this time with the laptop running so I can clean that up a bit.

 

[DRIVEN]

 

[joesregalproject]

My dually wasn't super happy with the -5* start yesterday, it's about 2* now and I'm going to do it again but this time with the laptop running so I can clean that up a bit.

If I was actually planning on driving it I would've had it plugged in for sure. The 5w40 oil helps and the batteries are strong but there isn't any anti-gel in the fuel right now. Probably should fill it and dump a bottle of Power Service in it.

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Truly the most fun part of owning an old diesel.