What's new
By:
Ram Heavy Duty Forum

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Crusty's 75th Annv PW #1590 build/mods adventure

So drove into town to get some things. Get a vibration off and on. Different roads, different speeds. So not sure if it's tires or not.
 
So just drove a 200 mile road trip. The vibration woukd come and go. Had it at different speeds. So going to go back to a spin balance and stick on weights and see what happens. Maybe I have a different issue i don't know about.

So started at 5000 feet, drove up to 7200 feet at Donner summit, then back down to almost sea level.
Did 75 most of the way with a few stop and ho traffic. Got 17.5 MPG. Best I ever got. But I did have a 30 mile down hill from Donner summit.
Will check again on the way home.
 
So made the return trip today. Only difference was I did 80 to 85 MPH with some acceleration to 90. Had a 30 mile up hill to 7200 feet rather than the down hill. Had to accelerate some on the uphill after getting around slow cars doing 50 to 55 because they don't know what the go pedal is for when climbing a hill and staying in the left lane.
Got 13.7 MPG.
A 4 MPG drop.
Just goes to show how much difference speed makes.

One thing I did notice was the vibration would come and go when running a steady 82 MPH.
 
Went back to the tire shop yesterday. 3 1/2 hours lost. Paid $100 for nothing.

Their tire machine was semi broke, so they coukdnt fully unseat the back bead to get the tires off. Didn't tell me till they were into it an hour and had 2 tires off the truck. Had to show them how to pull the front bead out and get in there with a shop vac. They said their shop vac was too big to get in there. Said let me see. If it needs the small attachment, hell I'll go buy it.
They drag out the shop vac and low and behold, it has the attachment on the hose. As he was trying to vacuum out the beads, said it was in clumps. I stuck my hand in there to check the beads and they felt oily or damp.
Another hour goes by and I ask them to check on the guy and see if he's getting them balanced OK. Was told he's working on it but taking his time to make sure it's right
Another hour goes by and tires are still not on the truck.
Go and look and see the guy is struggling to get them balanced. Called him over to talk and he said yea, he's chasing a 1/4 ounce. I said yea, probably didn't get all the beads out. Told him to let them know, just put 7 oz in the tires and I'll find another shop.
Talked to the manager and told he to put 35 front, 30 rear and don't rotate as we did that last week.
Finally get my truck and happened to notice the paperwork. 80 PSI front and 65 rear. WTF! Called them out on it and the adjusted it. That would have been a fun drive with the left tires at 35/30 and right at 80/65.

Get in the truck to leave and sure enough, they swapped tires. **** it, I'll swap them at home.

Today, I get a call from the area manager about my negative review. Told him what happened. He's trying to tell me beads are no good and I have a steering issue. They says I was being rude and using vulgar language to the employees. Told him they were liars as I was being cordial and didn't use any bad language.
He's going to refund my money. Told him I paid cash, so he's going to send a check.
I still will not use Big Brand again, after being a loyal customer for about 30 years. Too many lies and incompetence in that shop, which is the only one in town.
 
Went back to the tire shop yesterday. 3 1/2 hours lost. Paid $100 for nothing.

Their tire machine was semi broke, so they coukdnt fully unseat the back bead to get the tires off. Didn't tell me till they were into it an hour and had 2 tires off the truck. Had to show them how to pull the front bead out and get in there with a shop vac. They said their shop vac was too big to get in there. Said let me see. If it needs the small attachment, hell I'll go buy it.
They drag out the shop vac and low and behold, it has the attachment on the hose. As he was trying to vacuum out the beads, said it was in clumps. I stuck my hand in there to check the beads and they felt oily or damp.
Another hour goes by and I ask them to check on the guy and see if he's getting them balanced OK. Was told he's working on it but taking his time to make sure it's right
Another hour goes by and tires are still not on the truck.
Go and look and see the guy is struggling to get them balanced. Called him over to talk and he said yea, he's chasing a 1/4 ounce. I said yea, probably didn't get all the beads out. Told him to let them know, just put 7 oz in the tires and I'll find another shop.
Talked to the manager and told he to put 35 front, 30 rear and don't rotate as we did that last week.
Finally get my truck and happened to notice the paperwork. 80 PSI front and 65 rear. WTF! Called them out on it and the adjusted it. That would have been a fun drive with the left tires at 35/30 and right at 80/65.

Get in the truck to leave and sure enough, they swapped tires. **** it, I'll swap them at home.

Today, I get a call from the area manager about my negative review. Told him what happened. He's trying to tell me beads are no good and I have a steering issue. They says I was being rude and using vulgar language to the employees. Told him they were liars as I was being cordial and didn't use any bad language.
He's going to refund my money. Told him I paid cash, so he's going to send a check.
I still will not use Big Brand again, after being a loyal customer for about 30 years. Too many lies and incompetence in that shop, which is the only one in town.
 
Just noticed some excessive wear on a couple of the outer legs of the right front tire. :(
 
Got home, 70 mile trip, and checked all the tires. No rhyme or reason to the payteren. But it's random and on both inside and outside of all 4 tires.

This
1000012044.jpg

Should look like this.
1000012045.jpg
 
Crusty old shellback said:
Figured I'd start a build thread. Have a few ideas going on in my head of what I want to do. We will see how they pan out.
2021 75th anniversary edition power wagon in Delmonico Red Pearl. Only factory option was the bed group.

Current list of mods.
AMP power steps.
35x12.50R17 BFG KO2
Magnaflow muffler and delete the ugly resonator. Black tip.
Ceramic window tint.
Kenwood VHF radio I use for off road racing support.
Soft tri fold bed cover.
LED light bar?

One thing I'm going to try and figure out is how to mod the factory rock sliders and use them with the AMP power steps. That may be a big chore from my initial looking at the sliders.

More to follow.

My canvas.

View attachment 18087
Click to expand...
Found ya
 
Well, hit 100K miles now
Decided to try and change the plugs. Started on the driver's/hard side first. Got the bracket off after a bunch of cussing and cut up hands
Got the first coil pack out with more of the same. Couldn't get the 3rd pack back unplugged
Finally called it quits for now.
Going to check with the shop I use and see what they will charge to change the plugs
Damn RAM engineers. They obviously don't work on vehicles
 
I gave away the '96 Chevy Silverado 2500 with the 7.2L engine this summer to my nephew.... All the plugs are right there and the engine bay looks empty in comparison to these new rigs.... Good luck sir....on my Xterra I removed the intake plenum for the hard to reach coil packs... Have not approached 40K yet on the Ram so that job will be a while from now....
 
So went to get my tires rotated and balanced yesterday
Asked them about changing plugs. They said they could do it. Book says 2.7 hours of labor to complete the job.
I questioned that. Told them it took me over an hour just to remove the bracket to get to the coil packs on the driver's side. They said they could get it done.
Ok, how much. So they ask me 8 or 16 plugs. I told them 16, but I have the plugs already.
Oh, then if we use your plugs, we charge time and a half for labor. And you need to change the coil packs too. I asked why? They are fine. Oh, the bay manager says they always break when trying to remove them. Told them we will cross that bridge when we get there. I had no issues removing one of the coil packs.
So they quoted me a price of $850. :oops:

I asked well how much if I use your plugs. Hmm. Plugs are $35 each. $1100. :oops::eek::oops::eek:
WHAT? I paid 10 bucks a plug for Mopar plugs. Which are stamped Bosch.

So when it warms up some, I'm going to give it a second go. I did find a guy on YouTube who said his buddy does them in his sho. The trick is to remove the driver's wheel and inner fender to get to the back ones from underneath. So I'm going to try that route.
 
Crusty old shellback said:
So went to get my tires rotated and balanced yesterday
Asked them about changing plugs. They said they could do it. Book says 2.7 hours of labor to complete the job.
I questioned that. Told them it took me over an hour just to remove the bracket to get to the coil packs on the driver's side. They said they could get it done.
Ok, how much. So they ask me 8 or 16 plugs. I told them 16, but I have the plugs already.
Oh, then if we use your plugs, we charge time and a half for labor. And you need to change the coil packs too. I asked why? They are fine. Oh, the bay manager says they always break when trying to remove them. Told them we will cross that bridge when we get there. I had no issues removing one of the coil packs.
So they quoted me a price of $850. :oops:

I asked well how much if I use your plugs. Hmm. Plugs are $35 each. $1100. :oops::eek::oops::eek:
WHAT? I paid 10 bucks a plug for Mopar plugs. Which are stamped Bosch.

So when it warms up some, I'm going to give it a second go. I did find a guy on YouTube who said his buddy does them in his sho. The trick is to remove the driver's wheel and inner fender to get to the back ones from underneath. So I'm going to try that route.
Click to expand...
lol, damn highway robbery.
 
So rear cylinder is done. Only took an hour
Might have gone a bit faster if I had a second 3/8 swivel. But there isn't much room back there. On to the next one. Hopefully it goes faster
I was able to get my air rachet in there to remove/install the plugs. They have a ton of fine threads on the plugs, so takes a bit
 
In post 508, is it just me not knowing any better or is there something that looks like a staple roughly 80% of the way from the left side ?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top