Well, glad I watched your video, because EXACTLY what happened to you happened to me and I did EXACTLY what you had to do! Thanks for the tips, had to get a long bolt with nuts as well.
I ran into the issue with that lower left bolt (stuck in the actuator case). I used a micro cut off tool to slice thru the bolt. Once the actuator was removed, the remaining stud was then easy to spin off. After re-installing the 3 bolts on the new unit I drilled a hole, like he did, in the shock tower, to make install of that 4th bolt effortless.
funny, I just inspected mine today, thinking it may be broken. Or a bad turbo. I had the same problems you had, I saw the thumbnail and new exactly what had happened... I almost gave up today, so its not just me. I managed to break it free by cutting a flat head in the bolt, and used a hammer screw driver to remove. yup corrosion in the shaft, not the turbo threads. Note, that same rad hose broke on me, the wheel well rubbed against it, making a pinhole in the hose. So keep an eye out for that.
For the pain in the ass screw, I sprayed it with PB blaster along all the visible threads. Let it soak while I drained the coolant (from radiator drain). It was still tough to loosen, but I used a standard Allen wrench with a nut driver slipped over the long end for grip and leverage. It backed out, no problem.
I do these actuators all the time. Bottom left bolt. Cutoff wheel through the threads and actuator. Vice grips or welded nut on leftover bolt once you get the actuator out of the way. Simple.
Deju Vu on that lower left bolt on a 2013 2500 Ram. I didn't have shock tower issue and all 4 bolts easy to get to but that one was seized terribly in the aluminum housing plus seized in the turbo both ends seized. I soaked for several days. Stripped the head, chiseled it off flat. Then drilled it out to just the diameter of threads trying to stay only on the bolt and not the housing since I was returning mine as an expensive core.. Had to drill all the way down until out of the aluminum so had about an inch of bolt left stuck in turbo. Once drilled out, actuator could finally come off. Used heat, cursing, pliers, still couldn't budge that bolt from tuirbo. Finally MIG welded an oversized 1/2 nut onto bolt, carefully tightened it, loosened repeatedly little by little spraying WD40 often. That took about 15 minutes very slowly back and forth. Finally it came out without breaking at turbo or messing up the threads. It came out bent and twisted but didnt break off. Plan D if bolt breaks at turbo was to just simply drill out turbo threads and run a bolt and nut like what you did. There is plenty of room behind turbo housing to manage a nut. Looking at other models that have shock tower issue, I think drilling an access hole in tower is the smartest thing to do and should probably just be done first as soon as the bolt head is compromised. But the 2013 for some reason luckily does not have this issue.
Nice video! I just did this on my 2014 2500...decided to get the "problem" screw loosen first (after a nice PB Blaster bath on the exposed threads). Broke loose no prblem and came out fine, although it is a PITA with the shock mount bucket in the way. I also upgraded my cooling lines to the Mishimoto silicon lines when my first "Y" leaked, so I couldn't do a power dump of the radiator as shown. The drain on mine is only accessable after removing the front grill and drains on top of the frame (perfect design). Other than that easy install and works great. I did use 5 gallons of coolant to fill and top off system.
just happened on this video. Always spray bolts with PB blaster the day before trying to loosen them. at least you will have a fighting chance... The hole in shock plate is GENUS.. that should be SOP for everyone done a actuator replace.. thanks for that handy tip.. :)
Thanks. Watching your video was very helpful. I have a good idea of what I am up against. A problem I see is not being able to determine if the turbo is bad until you go through all the effort of taking off the actuator. Can see the possibility of a lot of down time.
Nice video I watched before did mine. Thanks for tips. I soaked mine with BP, also before remove bolts I tap them with aluminium rod. Hold the aluminium rod against the bolt head and tap with hammer. Removed all 4 with no problem. Now my exaust brake is back.
Thank you, Glad to hear you got those bolts out and your back up and running. I think if I did a better job pre soaking I would have had better luck with that one bolt. Thanks for watching!
When you left the actuator off and turned the engine to run position I saw the gears turn as you indicated at 21:34. I was wondering what the correct start up “RUN”position of the turbo vanes are since you left them pointing down at 19:40 and you installed the new housing? Was the gear lever pointing down or to the left? You left the lever pointing down at 20:13. My question is back to the time at 21:37 when the camera cut from the gears moving to installing the gearbox back on the turbo….but the video left out the final position of the lever and if the engine switch was still in run position? Thanks for your video.
Mine stripped out same place. What I did was got a grinder with a small enough cutting wheel and cut through the old actuator housing right before it mounted to the turbo and cut through the bolt, pulled the old actuator out and unscrewed the stud out.
Nice work! I have the same year ram and just went over 205k miles. My actuator went out but my turbo is good so installing the city diesel unit as well. Hope you get lots of life out of your truck.
@@H-RutherfordHill usually the active codes present or the order which they presented will determine condition. But you can also physically try to move the shaft in/out and check play on your bearing. You can also drain your coolant, remove passenger side wheel well and then remove the actuator and inspect for damage or material. If you physically can’t move the actuator gear more than likely it’s an actuator issue.
@@H-RutherfordHill usually the active codes present or the order which they presented will determine condition. But you can also physically try to move the shaft in/out and check play on your bearing. You can also drain your coolant, remove passenger side wheel well and then remove the actuator and inspect for damage or material. If you physically can’t move the actuator gear more than likely it’s a main turbo issue.
Sean had exact same thing thought about drilling a hole like you, i live in the mid west rust belt i cut mine with a harbor freight air saw 3/8" away from the turbo flange got the actuator off heated the bolt and it came rite out with a pair of vice grips still could not drive what was left of the bolt out, its seized to the aluminum housing thanks for the honest video !
Not many have a easy way to loosen that bolt, I found getting enough torque was easy with a special ratchet wrench, but forgot the heating up part and ended up also rounding out the head on both bottom bolts.
I rounded my bottom left bolt, an absolute nightmare and my miracle fix was a 6 star size 30 bit. It fit right in and it grabbed it and started turning. The Lord answered my prayers, what seemed impossible was possible. I Never gave up.
Inch lbs. The assembly goes together with inch lbs. It would be nice to know the codes too. Thanks for the video. How many miles on your truck. Mine has 360k and I'm wondering if the whole turbo has died although a week ago it was working normally now nothing with codes.
@@srmcontracting Thank you for the response. I replaced mine with a whole turbo from DDP that has the City Diesel actuator. My turbo had a sticky spot at the end of travel. Talking to DDP the correct way to fix the turbo was a rebuild. I saw a guy do one with an amazon kit for Just over $200 but I really didn't want to go that route. The turbo from DDP is aftermarket, a bit larger and brand new. Thanks again, Cris.
You should have cut the bolt off with a cut-off wheel 3/4" of an inch from the turbo housing. Let the wheel cut into the actuator housing. Then slide off the actuator and do like you said, vice grips on the 3/4" stud sticking out after treating with Kroil.
they have extractor bits at harbor freight "icon" I used the bit and clamped a mini clamp plier then the extractor bites into the head of that 5mm hex screw' the extractor bit is a spiral going left to bite into the rounded head of those screws .. only took 2mins to remove.
My second actuator is going out now. Factory part is $1900. I seem to be getting about 120,000 miles out of these junk parts. I noticed your replacement is a two piece system. Wondering if your new one ever fails if you'll have to drain the coolant again to replace the control section. It looked like it would be sealed away from the fluid.
Thanks for the video, it's very insightful! Out of curiosity, since I'm going through the same issue, what size drill bit and bolt did you go with? Thanks again!
Sir I know it’s two years later but I’m having the same issue with my 2016 and last week I spent $6000 to have the transmission rebuilt so this stings a little and I want to try and do what you done. Is it still working good for you and have you had any turbo problems yet.
Thank you, I don't remember exactly how much but I purchased two of the concentrate bottles and that was enough to refill. Good luck and thanks for watching
@@srmcontracting copy! Thanks for the reply. I figured it wouldn’t drain all like 5 gallons of coolant but have never drained the coolant on my rig so was curious.
When you installed the part did the actuator stop spinning when you tested it? i installed the same one i turned the key on it did what yours did. but i guess what i am asking is it doesnt just sit there and spin tell you turn the key off? thank you
I had the same problem the bolt broke off in the turbo took the turbo off to remove the bolt it removed real easy with a pair of vise grips from the back side of the turbo it was seized in the actuator not the turbo every time I do an oil change I crack that one lower bolt free and snug it up again just to make sure dose not seize up again
So when your code P003A going out .. did your truck smoke bad , my truck threw that code , now around 60mph it smokes bad .. same year as your truck 323k miles on it ..
For anyone doing this I’ve yet to find one that does not free up by using a Allen socket and tapping on an extension with a hammer then try it, if it still feels tight tap some more.
Glad to see I’m not the first one to think of drilling a hole in that shock tower. I’ll be doing that in the morning and praying the ezout works. Terrible design. Makes me want to punch an engineer
@@srmcontracting no ez outs didn’t work. Ended up getting in there with a cutoff wheel on a dremel tool and cut the bolt and part of the actuator body. It worked. Got the nub of the bolt out with vice grips and some cursing. It’s all fixed now and running. Properly again.
How does one know that it’s not the turbo that’s out? Or if it’s just the actuator? I put a computer on mine and it just says it’s the actuator. I hate to buy this kit and put it in and find out I have to replace the turbo after.
Check out the video at 19:30. There's an arm that you test for movement on the turbo. Also most of the time if the turbo is being replaced the actuator will be replaced with it. So it's not a wasted part either way. Hope this helps
Hello all, I am looking into this on my neighbors truck. Does arm on the turbo get positioned to the left or right prior to the installation of the new housing?
Those were concentrated jugs, so they made 4 gallons. From what I recall I had some left over. I want to say it took about three or three and a half gallons.
How do you determine "too much". The directions say push it with an outstretched finger and it should move easily. I also saw that the motor in this replacement actuator has much more torque than an expensive OEM actuator. Wish my kid could get me a whole turbo but where he works they only build the X12 Cummins and a turbo won't fit in his lunchbox anyhow.
I had to do the exact same thing today. As I was drilling the broken bolt out, the bit caught it and screwed it out the rear of turbo. It was glorious
Well, glad I watched your video, because EXACTLY what happened to you happened to me and I did EXACTLY what you had to do! Thanks for the tips, had to get a long bolt with nuts as well.
Glad I could help!
I might suggest undoing the motormount and jacking up the engine an inch or two to improve access to the two lower bolts
I ran into the issue with that lower left bolt (stuck in the actuator case). I used a micro cut off tool to slice thru the bolt. Once the actuator was removed, the remaining stud was then easy to spin off.
After re-installing the 3 bolts on the new unit I drilled a hole, like he did, in the shock tower, to make install of that 4th bolt effortless.
funny, I just inspected mine today, thinking it may be broken. Or a bad turbo. I had the same problems you had, I saw the thumbnail and new exactly what had happened... I almost gave up today, so its not just me. I managed to break it free by cutting a flat head in the bolt, and used a hammer screw driver to remove. yup corrosion in the shaft, not the turbo threads.
Note, that same rad hose broke on me, the wheel well rubbed against it, making a pinhole in the hose. So keep an eye out for that.
Glad you were able to get it! Thanks for the tip about the rad hose
For the pain in the ass screw, I sprayed it with PB blaster along all the visible threads. Let it soak while I drained the coolant (from radiator drain). It was still tough to loosen, but I used a standard Allen wrench with a nut driver slipped over the long end for grip and leverage. It backed out, no problem.
I do these actuators all the time. Bottom left bolt. Cutoff wheel through the threads and actuator. Vice grips or welded nut on leftover bolt once you get the actuator out of the way. Simple.
Deju Vu on that lower left bolt on a 2013 2500 Ram. I didn't have shock tower issue and all 4 bolts easy to get to but that one was seized terribly in the aluminum housing plus seized in the turbo both ends seized. I soaked for several days. Stripped the head, chiseled it off flat. Then drilled it out to just the diameter of threads trying to stay only on the bolt and not the housing since I was returning mine as an expensive core.. Had to drill all the way down until out of the aluminum so had about an inch of bolt left stuck in turbo. Once drilled out, actuator could finally come off. Used heat, cursing, pliers, still couldn't budge that bolt from tuirbo. Finally MIG welded an oversized 1/2 nut onto bolt, carefully tightened it, loosened repeatedly little by little spraying WD40 often. That took about 15 minutes very slowly back and forth. Finally it came out without breaking at turbo or messing up the threads. It came out bent and twisted but didnt break off. Plan D if bolt breaks at turbo was to just simply drill out turbo threads and run a bolt and nut like what you did. There is plenty of room behind turbo housing to manage a nut. Looking at other models that have shock tower issue, I think drilling an access hole in tower is the smartest thing to do and should probably just be done first as soon as the bolt head is compromised. But the 2013 for some reason luckily does not have this issue.
Nice video! I just did this on my 2014 2500...decided to get the "problem" screw loosen first (after a nice PB Blaster bath on the exposed threads). Broke loose no prblem and came out fine, although it is a PITA with the shock mount bucket in the way. I also upgraded my cooling lines to the Mishimoto silicon lines when my first "Y" leaked, so I couldn't do a power dump of the radiator as shown. The drain on mine is only accessable after removing the front grill and drains on top of the frame (perfect design). Other than that easy install and works great. I did use 5 gallons of coolant to fill and top off system.
I think if I would have presoaked mine a few days in a row then it may have came out. Thanks for watching and commenting!
just happened on this video. Always spray bolts with PB blaster the day before trying to loosen them. at least you will have a fighting chance... The hole in shock plate is GENUS.. that should be SOP for everyone done a actuator replace.. thanks for that handy tip.. :)
Great video bro. You know what's funny, i have 2015 3500, same tool box set and same problem with the actuator i lost exhaust brake but not power 😂.
Thanks man, what are the chances! Good luck with it
Thanks. Watching your video was very helpful. I have a good idea of what I am up against. A problem I see is not being able to determine if the turbo is bad until you go through all the effort of taking off the actuator. Can see the possibility of a lot of down time.
Glad it helped, It depends what issues your truck is having. The actuator is usually the first step anyway. Good luck
Nice video I watched before did mine. Thanks for tips. I soaked mine with BP, also before remove bolts
I tap them with aluminium rod. Hold the aluminium rod against the bolt head and tap with hammer. Removed all 4 with no problem. Now my exaust brake is back.
Thank you, Glad to hear you got those bolts out and your back up and running. I think if I did a better job pre soaking I would have had better luck with that one bolt. Thanks for watching!
When you left the actuator off and turned the engine to run position I saw the gears turn as you indicated at 21:34. I was wondering what the correct start up “RUN”position of the turbo vanes are since you left them pointing down at 19:40 and you installed the new housing? Was the gear lever pointing down or to the left? You left the lever pointing down at 20:13. My question is back to the time at 21:37 when the camera cut from the gears moving to installing the gearbox back on the turbo….but the video left out the final position of the lever and if the engine switch was still in run position?
Thanks for your video.
Best part of the video was rollin' coal! Haha, thanks for the step by step video, great info on replacing the actuator!
Thanks, its one of the joys of having a deleted truck! Thanks for watching!
Mine stripped out same place. What I did was got a grinder with a small enough cutting wheel and cut through the old actuator housing right before it mounted to the turbo and cut through the bolt, pulled the old actuator out and unscrewed the stud out.
Nice work! I have the same year ram and just went over 205k miles. My actuator went out but my turbo is good so installing the city diesel unit as well. Hope you get lots of life out of your truck.
Thank you, I hope you do as well. Make sure you spray that bottom left bolt so you dont have the same issue I did. Good luck and thanks for watching!
How do you know if the turbo is good?
@@H-RutherfordHill usually the active codes present or the order which they presented will determine condition. But you can also physically try to move the shaft in/out and check play on your bearing. You can also drain your coolant, remove passenger side wheel well and then remove the actuator and inspect for damage or material. If you physically can’t move the actuator gear more than likely it’s an actuator issue.
@@H-RutherfordHill usually the active codes present or the order which they presented will determine condition. But you can also physically try to move the shaft in/out and check play on your bearing. You can also drain your coolant, remove passenger side wheel well and then remove the actuator and inspect for damage or material. If you physically can’t move the actuator gear more than likely it’s a main turbo issue.
Thanks for the video. This really helped me out.
Glad to hear it!
Sean had exact same thing thought about drilling a hole like you, i live in the mid west rust belt i cut mine with a harbor freight air saw 3/8"
away from the turbo flange got the actuator off heated the bolt and it came rite out with a pair of vice grips still could not drive what was left of the bolt out, its seized to the aluminum housing thanks for the honest video !
Great video. I have to do mine right now, because I’d your video I know exactly what to expect. I will be well prepared. Thanks for the video.
Nice video! Straight to the point!👍🏾
Not many have a easy way to loosen that bolt, I found getting enough torque was easy with a special ratchet wrench, but forgot the heating up part and ended up also rounding out the head on both bottom bolts.
Nice instructional video. Got it in my saved video's file for future reference.
I rounded my bottom left bolt, an absolute nightmare and my miracle fix was a 6 star size 30 bit. It fit right in and it grabbed it and started turning. The Lord answered my prayers, what seemed impossible was possible. I Never gave up.
Does the new actuator need to be calibrated with an OBD2 readers of some sort? Thanks for the video.
The City Diesel doesn't, that's why I went with it over the stock. Thanks for watching
@@srmcontracting Oh nice! Thanks!
Inch lbs. The assembly goes together with inch lbs. It would be nice to know the codes too. Thanks for the video. How many miles on your truck. Mine has 360k and I'm wondering if the whole turbo has died although a week ago it was working normally now nothing with codes.
My truck has 190k on it, the actuator started acting up around 170k miles. Thanks for watching
@@srmcontracting Thank you for the response. I replaced mine with a whole turbo from DDP that has the City Diesel actuator. My turbo had a sticky spot at the end of travel. Talking to DDP the correct way to fix the turbo was a rebuild. I saw a guy do one with an amazon kit for Just over $200 but I really didn't want to go that route. The turbo from DDP is aftermarket, a bit larger and brand new. Thanks again, Cris.
You should have cut the bolt off with a cut-off wheel 3/4" of an inch from the turbo housing. Let the wheel cut into the actuator housing. Then slide off the actuator and do like you said, vice grips on the 3/4" stud sticking out after treating with Kroil.
they have extractor bits at harbor freight "icon" I used the bit and clamped a mini clamp plier then the extractor bites into the head of that 5mm hex screw' the extractor bit is a spiral going left to bite into the rounded head of those screws .. only took 2mins to remove.
Dude your my idle hahah you get down while keeping cool composers 🤙
Good instructional video. And wow 30lbs of boost ?
Excellent job!!
Thank you!
My second actuator is going out now. Factory part is $1900. I seem to be getting about 120,000 miles out of these junk parts. I noticed your replacement is a two piece system. Wondering if your new one ever fails if you'll have to drain the coolant again to replace the control section. It looked like it would be sealed away from the fluid.
Thanks for the video, it's very insightful! Out of curiosity, since I'm going through the same issue, what size drill bit and bolt did you go with? Thanks again!
Your welcome, the bolt and bit were 1/4" I believe
Sir I know it’s two years later but I’m having the same issue with my 2016 and last week I spent $6000 to have the transmission rebuilt so this stings a little and I want to try and do what you done. Is it still working good for you and have you had any turbo problems yet.
Great video! Will be tackling this soon, just need to find the time. How much coolant did you actually drain and replace?
Thank you, I don't remember exactly how much but I purchased two of the concentrate bottles and that was enough to refill. Good luck and thanks for watching
@@srmcontracting copy! Thanks for the reply. I figured it wouldn’t drain all like 5 gallons of coolant but have never drained the coolant on my rig so was curious.
Thanks for the video!!
Get in through the right front wheel well. Easy access to the 4 acuator
screws after that.
30 minute job
What did you use to get those 4 bolts? Thank you for the video. I'm doing mine now. lol
When you installed the part did the actuator stop spinning when you tested it? i installed the same one i turned the key on it did what yours did. but i guess what i am asking is it doesnt just sit there and spin tell you turn the key off? thank you
I had the same problem the bolt broke off in the turbo took the turbo off to remove the bolt it removed real easy with a pair of vise grips from the back side of the turbo it was seized in the actuator not the turbo every time I do an oil change I crack that one lower bolt free and snug it up again just to make sure dose not seize up again
That's dedication! I thought about pulling the turbo but I decided to take the easy way out lol. Thanks for watching!
had the same problem with that bolt, i stripped it. i ended up just pulling the turbo
I thought about doing the same, but I got all MacGyver on it! Thanks for watching
nice video, bit u didn't have to calibrated it?
Put some Lube on the threads of those bolts and a bit under the head, it will only make things easier next time !
So when your code P003A going out .. did your truck smoke bad , my truck threw that code , now around 60mph it smokes bad .. same year as your truck 323k miles on it ..
No smoke, I would only lose my exhaust brake. But I think different things can happen when your actuator is bad.
For anyone doing this I’ve yet to find one that does not free up by using a Allen socket and tapping on an extension with a hammer then try it, if it still feels tight tap some more.
Glad to see I’m not the first one to think of drilling a hole in that shock tower. I’ll be doing that in the morning and praying the ezout works. Terrible design. Makes me want to punch an engineer
Yes that steel is pretty thick so I don't think that hole is compromising anything. Did the EZ out work?
@@srmcontracting no ez outs didn’t work. Ended up getting in there with a cutoff wheel on a dremel tool and cut the bolt and part of the actuator body. It worked. Got the nub of the bolt out with vice grips and some cursing. It’s all fixed now and running. Properly again.
I have to antiseize the wheels or that happens to me too. Even rotating every 6,000 miles.
How does one know that it’s not the turbo that’s out? Or if it’s just the actuator? I put a computer on mine and it just says it’s the actuator. I hate to buy this kit and put it in and find out I have to replace the turbo after.
Check out the video at 19:30. There's an arm that you test for movement on the turbo. Also most of the time if the turbo is being replaced the actuator will be replaced with it. So it's not a wasted part either way. Hope this helps
Hello all, I am looking into this on my neighbors truck. Does arm on the turbo get positioned to the left or right prior to the installation of the new housing?
On this actuator from City Diesel I don't believe it mattered the position. Double check with the instructions they provide.
25:28 You have a drip. Is this road water from the test drive?
Thats from the AC running
Did you have to put only 2 gallons of coolant back in?
Those were concentrated jugs, so they made 4 gallons. From what I recall I had some left over. I want to say it took about three or three and a half gallons.
Hey where did you get that actuator from?
I ordered directly from City Diesel. I believe Geno's garage and a few others distribute them as well.
Damn I'm having a same situation taking off my actuator. Same bolt lower left. 🤬this.
is this fix still working?
Fingers crossed everything is still working as it should
Looks like the arm on the turbo has too much friction.
It moved pretty easily. Fingers crossed everything is working great. I put about a 1000 miles on it since. Thanks for watching
How do you determine "too much". The directions say push it with an outstretched finger and it should move easily. I also saw that the motor in this replacement actuator has much more torque than an expensive OEM actuator. Wish my kid could get me a whole turbo but where he works they only build the X12 Cummins and a turbo won't fit in his lunchbox anyhow.
Why do you want to roll coal. That is so stupid
He was showing that the turbo had failed your stupid