The first thing to do is a Borgeson steering shaft upgrade. Then new kingpins and new tie Rod joints. Next up is the steering box mounting plate. It likes to crack and cause slop. If everything works you can get an identical turning circle to the left and right! A lot of lifted Rams put on a crossover steering conversion. Steering and Dodge have a unique and strained relationship. It often leads to a fight that causes death rattle.
You are a great mechanic. I have seen you fixing and resolving mechanical issues where someone else has failed. And still, you are humble enough to ask for help. That by itself shows professionalism because as good as we are, we still have lots more to learn. You are a gentleman and a scholar.
If nobody has ever told you, denatured alcohol will dissolve Permatex 2. It cleans your fingers and tools nearly instantly. And removes it from whatever surface it was used on. (I was in my 40's when I found this out. Has made the last 25 years easier.)
I feel bad for all you TH-camrs that are just trying to help and share information. People just JUMP all over you guys. Sad thing is, all the people that complain and say you skipped steps or did it wrong, are the ones that don't actually have a clue. Haha you're all just regular people, TH-camrs make mistakes also. They're not claiming to be the best or know the most. They're just trying to help the average person save some money by sharing their experiences. I appreciate ALL the information I've gained through these mechanics. Thank you for sharing Wes.👍👍
Accomplishment = A vital part of feeling good about yourself, your abilities and being proud of what you do. It’s the essence of why we do things and what we gain from our hard work.
Comment #2. In regarding the 94+ Dodge Ram. 1. Replace the steering shaft with a Borgenson unit. 2. Replace the power steering gearbox with a 1998 GM/Chevy 3500 one-ton Saginaw. 3. Install a steering shaft brace. Mounts on frame and mounts with a bering to steering gearbox shaft. 4. Install Left and right front leveling doughnuts. 5. Install Speedway Engineering sway bar kit. Uses a torsion bar and actual links for the stabilizer bar. 6. Install optional Bilstein shocks. Replace any worn steering components. Problems solved.
Wes I had a 94 dodge with extremely bad death wobble. I did literally everything. New ball joints, new sway bar bushings. All new tie rods, steering gearbox stabilizer kit. Nothing changed at all when I did all of that. What did fix the problem for me is upgrading the track bar from the 2nd gen ball joint style to the third gen adjustable bar with bushings. That eliminated the issue completely. Not a bad install either. The kit came with a piece that mounted to the frame and a bolt ran through the existing ball joint socket. If all of your other components are in good shape I would absolutely do the track bar conversion. I’m 100% confident had I done that first it would have solved my issue completely.
I've said it before and I'm going to say it again. If you've got negative opinions about Wes"s work you're clueless. As far as I'm concerned he's an ultra professional mechanic with lots of knowledge about the various vehicles he works on. Plus he doesn't rely on the old 1 click of the wrist stupidity that way to often causes serious damages on pretty much everything mechanical. As a Veteran Coast Guard Aviation Machinist Mate I have absolutely no doubt that if he had chosen to enter the Aircraft mechanic profession he'd have been a top notch one Aviation companies would have been trying to scalp hire him. One thing awesome about being a Aircraft mechanic for an airline is free air travel for you and your immediate family.
We do it at the Honda dealership I work at fairly often. A lot of customers prefer the lower price and we get paid more to do it. Win-win. Plus if we do brake jobs on our own cars, it costs $0. Just turned the front rotors on an Acura TL belonging to the valet supervisor here yesterday as part of a side job. Even easier since we have those fancy on-car lathes.
I can’t believe that people would try and second guess your level of competence in your work. You clearly are a high skilled craftsman of your trade. I watch you all the time because I learn from you not to teach you. Tell the nit picky ones to kiss your ass, you don’t need them around anyways. As usual keep up the great work now I know how a Dana 60 comes apart.
That's a survivor truck it looks great for it's age. I've got two of them and they are definitely a labour of love. I did the KDP on both of mine...cheap insurance!
Seeing that old style truck brought back some good memories. Got my drivers license back in 1994. Learned to drive on that style truck. 1989 dodge similar color. 318 gasser. It was grandpas work truck. That thing had around 400k hard construction miles on it when it was retired. It wasn’t a perfect truck , leaks and rattles. Always got us to and from the job site . Hauled everything we needed .
What an awesome old Dodge Truck. I had a red version of that truck back in the late 90’s. It was not very quiet in the cab, but would pull whatever you wanted. They were impressive for 1992. Thanks for the Videos, Wes. Always a treat.
@@Johnny_Guitar My company ran a fleet of them with flat beds in our hot shot division all over the lower 48. Not once did one fail on the road. I admit they were a hand full to drive but stout and dependable. When I left in 2000 they still had one of the first Cummins powered running with over 400,000 miles with the engine never touched. Probably 4 or 5 front suspension rebuilds but nothing else. One man's junk is another man's treasure and we did treasure our Cummins powered Dodges.
Love love love my 97 dodge Cummins, owned for 24 years and can say the absolute best truck I’ve ever owned. My son drives a 92 dodge w150, he’s driven it for 8 years now trouble free. My neighbor ownes a 93 dodge Cummins with over 800,000 miles on original engine, he drives it everyday as a contractor, lol truck has plenty of battle scars.
Don't forget the lower steering column bushing. To rid yourself of the last ¼ of slop.½million miles and the crank bearings are still minimum tolerance .0037".( back 4 tapered to max new clearance .0047 due to a bent crank when the KDP went through the gearset, retardingthe cam/ injection timing 5°)Rods within new spec.
When I was in auto shop class 22 years ago in high school they taught us how to turn rotors on a brake lathe. I would venture an educated guess that they don’t teach any of that anymore
I had a 93’ W-250 Power Ram with 43,000 original miles. It was purchased by a company brand new and sat in a parking lot for years. It had a plow on it as well. When I bought about 12 years ago it had some really bad rust. I ended up selling it after a few years but if the Ohio winters hadn’t ruined it, I’d still have it. Really cool truck
👆Thanks for watching, love you so much fan!! Tell Aɴᴅʀᴇɪ Jɪᴋʜ, you were referred by me he has something new to share with you easily get in touch with him
The best thing I did was add the pillow block bearing support, and then do the "rock solid ram" delrin steering shaft bushing in the column. The steering linkage fix can be done on that truck but you have to cut new tapered seats for that early generation of 2nd gen. 2010 steering linkage of a 2500 will be what you need to order. But those 3 things will make it as good as it will ever get. Note on the delrin bushing, it is affected by temperature, so make sure there is clearance in the warm shop, cold will make tight spots since the shaft is not round stock but rolled tube.
In the future, place the metal to rubber seal in a plastic bag in the freezer for several hours ahead of time. Heat the plate access up with a heat gun so it is warm to the touch. Remove the metal to rubber seal from freezer, apply sealant and it should fall right in. This method has worked for my 41 years in aviation maintenance. Great info on the brake and seal replacements.
A trick I used on a crankshaft pulley recently, to hold it while breaking loose and later torquing it. I took an old accessory belt, wrapped it around the crankshaft pulley such that it was pinching itself. Then looped it up and around the most-stout nearby idler or accessory, and clamped it around that with vise grips. Basically a static, improvised strap wrench. Worked a treat and I will probably do that from now on
I hope enough people in your area watch you to spread the word how you work for them. Some of the things you do to prevent future problems that most don't do saves them many problems in the future. You are truly one of the good guys. Not many left.
I remember being at the dealership when I was 12. They had a brand new shiny black, curvy, dodge dakota that I convinced my dad to buy. Parked next to it was one of these and I remember thinking how old and outdated it looked. Now I look at it and think what a beautiful collector.
My 02 cummins thats driven year round in canada is basically as rust free as the first gen, my frames actually less rusty then this first gen's. Washing the truck thoroughly sometimes twice a week is even more effective the spraying oil over it.
beautiful truck. i had the same one but with a 5 speed manual but i sold it because the body was completely rotten. drove it for 13 years without one problem. tough as a blacksmith's anvil.
Biggest improvement I had on a 01 dodge 2500 was to drop the tire pressures to something reasonable. The truck wandered all over the road at 60 psi but dropped to 30-35 all around and it drove way better. Pressure up when towing of course. That was on general grapplers, I believe they were load range E tires calling for 80 psi. Driving like that empty was nearly impossible.
Track bar where it ties into the frame will get wallowed out there, due to the gear box flexing the frame horn that holds it. They sell a new addional crossmember that ties both frame horns together allowing for proper support of the gear box.. It has an extention that goes through a block bearing mounted on the crossmember that extends down to allow for proper alignment of pitman arm that pivots every time you turn the steering wheel, and supports the lateral load of the suspension. The track bar mount on the frame itself gets chewed up for the excessive movement of the gear box and has to be cut off and a new higher grade steel mounting plate welded on, are at least added to the original plate to repair the damaged hole The other end of track bar that attaches to the passenger hub assembly typically is also worn out by the same thing. New steering gear box New addional crossmember added Replacement of track bar Addional repair of mounting plate of track bar at frame driver's side. And typically tie rods, if it doesn't have the stabilizers dampers for the steering It's usually a good idea to install the set with two stabilizers even if it has just a single one mounted, and especially if none at all in place. Also found that while shocks appears to be good its mainly just the springs doing majority of the work, and a good set of bilstines helps greatly control the death wobbles along with the above mentioned items. I've rebuilt 97, and 95 one a 2500 the other 1500 both 4x4's. But they share the same parts as well as the f'ed up design all the way up to 3500's. Not really all that expensive to buy, but fairly labor intensive, except for the benefit of actually being able to drive it like a normal vehicle instead of you constantly chasing the direction the truck is going, are then sudden attack of severe case of death wobble its not really that much labor considering the benefits and longevity of the truck was doubled are even tripled it's normal life span.
I use to work on our 1999 250 Cummins turbo diesel trucks. We rebuild the front end on one at about 200,000 miles and we still had slop. I tightened up the steering gearbox per load about 1/8 to 1/4 turn to get about 5-8mm of play in the steering wheel from the center point then set the locknut. and it took care of our 10 trucks, but that was after every front-end part was checked to be within specs. If it was too touchy I loosened it to about the same play 5-8 mm. Good luck Wes. :)
Me and my dad bought a 1990 Dodge D350 5.9 Cummins 5 spd and a 1993 Dodge W350 5.9 Cummins auto for the farm. Replaces a lot of ''Dodge stuff'' over the years but they're both still used daily. That there is truly a unicorn though, ours are beat up, scuffed up, and got some rust even though they've been POR-15 treated since new. Thanks for this awesome video Wes! Love the nostalgia!
Heh - you should've seen the auto-locking hubs on the old IH Scouts. They weren't really locking hubs, they were roller-bearing sprag clutches, for light duty, emergency 4wd but nobody ever bothered to manually lock the hubs, so those clutches would get the balls beat off them. When you pulled'em off, a dozen worn out rollers and busted springs would just fall all over the floor.
My backyard hillbilly method to hold a smooth crank pully is to use an old timing or other flat belt (even v belts work) wrap it around the pulley then reflect it back over something round like a screw driver handle , socket ratchet handle...basically anything within reach lol. Then anchor the other end either with a ratchet strap or even a pry bar. Once you get it tensioned up it will hold the world without marring anything up. Basically it's just a make shift strap wrench but works well. Seems like you always run into this after the car is up on jack stands and there's no way to keep the motor from turning. Always a pain!
I do the same thing (actually commented right around when you did). I anchor the other end by wrapping the belt around something and clamping it with a vise grip
Suggestion for working on trucks: Let most of the air out of the front tires, or jack the rear of the truck up, or both. Makes it real easy to work on trucks!
As for the second gen, check the frame where the steering box is mounted. It tends to flex and can crack. There are lots of braces out there to stabilize it. It's also very common to put steering stabilizers on this model, though that might correct a symptom, but not the core issue. Otherwise it's just replacing worn suspension parts. You're right, though... Dodge means death wobble.
Steering box stabilizer kit. I put it on all of mine. It replaces the pitman arm nut with a shaft and the brace holds a bearing on the shaft. Also triple check the track bar.
I have a 95 Dodge. It was going all over the road. There are a series of fixes to do, not one or 2. First thing is redo the front end bushings and tire rods ends if play is found. Then adjust the steering box to its maximum setting. Then you want to install a steering stabilizer bar that removes the flex from the frame. The last thing would be to change the steering wheel shaft plastic bushing located just outside the firewall on the engine compartment side. It will decrease the wandering about 80 %. If you have a show truck and a lot of money you could adapt a more recent steering pump and linkages but you will have welding to do on the frame. That would be 100% cure. Deboss garage had a video of a guy who did that on his second gen truck. It was an impressive mod. Hope that helps. Bernard.
Riding with my cousin in his binder and it had manual locking hubs. Out hunting on a snowy day on a back road, fump, we are in a snowbank up to the headlights. He casually said, "Want to lock up the hubs?"
Always get a good laugh at your videos Wes you have the patience of a saint mate cracking job you done on the truck it’s in good condition for it’s age brilliant content as usual take care to you and the family and max all the best from here in Scotland 👍👌🔧🔧🔧😉
Kudos to the owner of that truck, he figured out the key to making one of them last, don't ever drive it. lol Nice work Wes, I hope that truck stays off the road and lives another 30 years.
One of the best things to do with the brakes is to replace the wheel cylinders on the rears with larger ones. The stock ones I think are 1" bores, and you can go up to either 1 1/8" or 1 3/16". It really improves the rear brake performance.
Correct you are. I replaced my rear wheel cylinders with ones from a one ton chevy, exact fit, better braking pressure. I load my Dodge with a camper and disconnecting the rear brake proportioning valve linkage also also results in more pressure to the rear brakes so that the front brakes aren't doing all the work. The addition of Hawk super duty front pads is another way of getting better stopping power.
THAT SOUNDS MORE LIKE MY ELBOW AND SHOULDER CLICKING THAN THE TORQUE WRENCH. Time to go buy the lottery ticket, the drum coming off that good. I am happy to see you cutting rotors, most people say they are too inexpensive to turn just replace.
Basic solid front axle stuff to make it tight. A big thing no one probably does but people who Jeep/offroad do is a steering box brace, in my Jeep there was a night/day difference when I braced the steering box, took a lot of the slop away. Still A LOT of slop, but theres only so much you can do with SFA
To mostly cure death wobble and shit front end on 2nd gen 3/4 and up trucks, upgrade your sway bar to a third gen. Also look into the power steering stiffener bracket, those two things alone will change the whole driveablitly of those 2nd gen, oh and one last thing, as others suggested, upgrade to the borgeson steering shaft. That was one of the 1st things I did on my 97 ram 2500. That was a huge improvement alone
Kuddos to you ... your previous "professional Life" shines thru ... NOBODY else would have checked (properly") the end play ... tip of the hat Cowboy !!!
I had a friend that bought a Dogdge 1 ton dually of that vintage brand new and he had steering complaints from the get go! They replaced the Steering gear along with other front end parts he even took it to a Frame shop for front end allignment . Nobody could fix it and Dodge finally bought it back under the Lemon Law. They got him another Dodge and he drove it for quite a few years with minimal complaints.
Nice work Wes. I have the same Alemite bearing packer, although it doesn't get used nearly as much these days as it did a couple decades ago. I'm glad you see you double check the end play with a dial indicator vs. merely backing off the nut which is what I see most people do. I have a client that has an old 1997 Dodge W-250 that is also in pretty nice shape for its age but it has nearly 200k miles. Mike
In my 1960s high school shop classroom, our instructor had a sign hanging above the blackboard the said "If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over". About the only thing I remember from high school!
@@Watchyn_Yarwood my dad would tell me the same thing repeatedly when I was growing up. "If you don't have time to do it right the first time, when will you have time to do it again?"
Great video on that old beast. Dodge had a period of time there in the late 80s and early to mid 90s where they couldn't design a front end to last. The only advice I can give is be ready to change out most of the frontend components. Tie rod ends, ball joints all of it. And don't forget to check the steering gearbox and its mounting. Stay safe my friend.
I'm no help I know nothing about front end repairs, heck I couldn't even find the spark plugs on that Dodge, I just like watching you repair stuff and explain things. That dowel fix was a good idea, very important to for anyone that has this motor...
If you have to pull the rear shafts again, the two nut and tab washer spindle nut system on the front axle will also work on the rear. Much better system than the single nyloc nut and wedge keeper. Great video, always entertaining!
👍👌👏 2) Pretty nice looking pickup truck. I absolutely loved to see the restored brake disk and drum grinding device in action again. Although it was only for a short time. Best regards luck and health to all of you (including Max of course).
This is the second time I have watched this for some reason I like diesel pickups they were so well-made I watched it a year ago when you did it the first time there were some not-too-smart things engineered but on the whole, they really did build solid stuff, I miss it.
A new quality (redhead/ blue top) steering box and rebuilding/ replacing ever singe steering component was the only thing that “remedied” my 2nd gen. Still drove like a dodge but was at least predictable at the end. I went from having roughly 12” of steering wheel free play to 1”.
For the 97, If the steering slop is in the box try a red head steering box. Those original boxes are know to wear out. Also the make a steering gear stabilizer kit that braces everything.
I think it has a recirculating ball steering box. On top of the box is a allen fastener with a lock nut holding it's position. Loosen the nut and tighten the allen head fastener to remove slack from the mechanism. Retighten the lock nut. Do not over tighten, there still should be slight back and forth clearance when moving the steering shaft, as this might cause binding when steering. 🙂
The 95's front end can be upgraded in many ways. The best places to start are putting a 4th gen steering box in and switching to a 4th gen style linkage setup. Also switching to a 3rd gen panhard bar normally tightens things up a ton. There is a ton of other parts that improve it further Carli/emf ball joints, a good set of Theuren/Carli control arms, Borgson steering shaft etc. But id start with a 4th gen steering box and linkage setup alongside a panhard bar.
i like this comment sounds like you talk from experience buddy of mines 2nd gen had steering slop it is lifted manual 2000. he complained about the truck being "all over the road" for probably a good 6 months or so. Ordered a Red head steering box and (can't remember the name of the brand) probably a borgson steering shaft. or something along those lines. suffice to say its been in his truck over 4 maybe 5 years now drove it once i drive almost exclusively superdutys suffice to say. it seems to fixed his issues entirely seemed his steering on a lifted dodge of all things was tighter than a couple of my Super duty's if not as tight almost as tight.
I've had three of them and the steering boxes were junk in every one of them. I've heard good things about the Red Head boxes. One thing I've heard about but never tried was putting a steering damper in like the off-roaders use, but that is just something I heard about in forums and things.
I've been trying to research this and would love any details you can provide on fitting a 4th Gen steering box into a 2nd Gen. Looks like the 4th Gen input is square rather than splined and return line is M20 rather than M16.
You said according to Dodge, about 5% of these will have the dowel pin failure. Does age have anything to do with chance of failure? Just thinking that since it made it this long, what are the chances it fails? That being said, the condition of this truck certainly warrants the fix. Nice work dude. Oh by the way, always enjoy the Max cameo.
age does not. a realtives daily had this happen at just over 300k a year ago. it did the works on the motor turned it into a paperweight. and my dads work place they almost exclusivly drive dodges for their work vehicles that need to pull trailers minus the one 7.3 super duty and their 2 6.0L E350 Econoline vans. they got 6 98-01 Ram 2500-3500 with the same engine they ofcourse all ofem have a million plus miles but not too long ago one of them got a new Reman (old new stock) engine. its engine was just slap wore out. not even 35k on the new old stock dowl pin came out. busted their timing cover. don't mean to throw any shade at dodge but. reason why i like powerstrokes especially the 6.0L easiest to repair. and least likely to turn your block into a very nice Coffee table and a rolling chassis in the yard.
If your luck is bad then yeah it can happen. LR had an issue where they forgot to Loctite an oil pump bolt on the early td5's. Saw a forum post from some unfortunate person that had it fall out at 300k km. Him and his mechanic had assumed it had either been loctited already or had been from factory.
Age or mileage mean little. If you have one you should get it fixed now and mark the timing cover so the next owner knows it’s been done. There are literally no downsides to doing the job. Worst case you tear it apart to find it’s been done already. Or you open it up and find it almost out. It’s a cheap fix to avoid total catastrophe.
I know an older gentleman that has a 1992 Dodge Ram 1 Ton dually with the Cummins and 40k original miles. One owner truck that he bought new. Southern truck with no rust. It's a beauty.
Nice work Wes. I've never seen that particular KDP fix but I like it - simple and elegant. I bought a 93 2wd club cab new. It had the most comfortable bucket seats I've ever experienced. Buddy had a 4WD and the ride was brutal!
That's not an oil leak, that's a rust prevention system.
Its great when you don't even need to change em, you just keep adding LOL 😁👍😄
Don’t forget driveway sealer! 👍
Haha, true story. I have an 18 Ram with a Cummins that doesn't leak a drop of oil. Rear wheel wells are already rusting.
He called five fifteen five one five
Noice
"Drives like a lumber wagon, it's all over the road, door seals leak...Yep, pretty much tip top." Lol. That's signature Wes right there!
The first thing to do is a Borgeson steering shaft upgrade. Then new kingpins and new tie Rod joints. Next up is the steering box mounting plate. It likes to crack and cause slop. If everything works you can get an identical turning circle to the left and right!
A lot of lifted Rams put on a crossover steering conversion.
Steering and Dodge have a unique and strained relationship. It often leads to a fight that causes death rattle.
Agree 💯 on the Borgeson.
I used a redhead brand box, but yea.
@@drakesfear borgeson shaft gets rid of the rag joint.
Might try the steering gear box brace. The brace supports the output shaft of the gear box.
@@brianh8955 I agree with this. Loose stuff on the outside cause just as much slop as the inner bits.
You are a great mechanic. I have seen you fixing and resolving mechanical issues where someone else has failed. And still, you are humble enough to ask for help. That by itself shows professionalism because as good as we are, we still have lots more to learn. You are a gentleman and a scholar.
39 years ago, the man that taught me my trade would say that gentleman and scholar quote to me all the time
If nobody has ever told you, denatured alcohol will dissolve Permatex 2. It cleans your fingers and tools nearly instantly. And removes it from whatever surface it was used on. (I was in my 40's when I found this out. Has made the last 25 years easier.)
"now no one can complain"
Who are you kidding, this is the internet.
Now that's a Dodge
Ain't no oil under it, ain't no oil in it! That's a beautiful truck!
No matter what, that old bearing packer is the coolest tool you have!
I feel bad for all you TH-camrs that are just trying to help and share information. People just JUMP all over you guys. Sad thing is, all the people that complain and say you skipped steps or did it wrong, are the ones that don't actually have a clue. Haha you're all just regular people, TH-camrs make mistakes also. They're not claiming to be the best or know the most. They're just trying to help the average person save some money by sharing their experiences. I appreciate ALL the information I've gained through these mechanics. Thank you for sharing Wes.👍👍
Seriously, Wess, you've done a great job with this channel and I look forward to each and every episode. Thanks, bud.
Just a loyal 12 valve Cummins
Wes, you are an amazing man! No wonder a lot of the big TH-camrs refer to you with reverence.
Accomplishment = A vital part of feeling good about yourself, your abilities and being proud of what you do. It’s the essence of why we do things and what we gain from our hard work.
Nice to see you get to work on something that wasn't rusted out!! Thanks for posting!!
Badass truck love these first gens nothing better
Comment #2. In regarding the 94+ Dodge Ram. 1. Replace the steering shaft with a Borgenson unit. 2. Replace the power steering gearbox with a 1998 GM/Chevy 3500 one-ton Saginaw. 3. Install a steering shaft brace. Mounts on frame and mounts with a bering to steering gearbox shaft. 4. Install Left and right front leveling doughnuts. 5. Install Speedway Engineering sway bar kit. Uses a torsion bar and actual links for the stabilizer bar. 6. Install optional Bilstein shocks. Replace any worn steering components. Problems solved.
Wes I had a 94 dodge with extremely bad death wobble. I did literally everything. New ball joints, new sway bar bushings. All new tie rods, steering gearbox stabilizer kit. Nothing changed at all when I did all of that. What did fix the problem for me is upgrading the track bar from the 2nd gen ball joint style to the third gen adjustable bar with bushings. That eliminated the issue completely. Not a bad install either. The kit came with a piece that mounted to the frame and a bolt ran through the existing ball joint socket. If all of your other components are in good shape I would absolutely do the track bar conversion. I’m 100% confident had I done that first it would have solved my issue completely.
The best fix is to install a 94 Ford truck in its place.it’ll work.great show Wes. Thanks.
I've said it before and I'm going to say it again.
If you've got negative opinions about Wes"s work you're clueless.
As far as I'm concerned he's an ultra professional mechanic with lots of knowledge about the various vehicles he works on.
Plus he doesn't rely on the old 1 click of the wrist stupidity that way to often causes serious damages on pretty much everything mechanical.
As a Veteran Coast Guard Aviation Machinist Mate I have absolutely no doubt that if he had chosen to enter the Aircraft mechanic profession he'd have been a top notch one Aviation companies would have been trying to scalp hire him.
One thing awesome about being a Aircraft mechanic for an airline is free air travel for you and your immediate family.
Pretty hard to get rotors turned anymore, nice to see.
Really? You can get them done at some O'Rileys
We do it at the Honda dealership I work at fairly often. A lot of customers prefer the lower price and we get paid more to do it. Win-win. Plus if we do brake jobs on our own cars, it costs $0. Just turned the front rotors on an Acura TL belonging to the valet supervisor here yesterday as part of a side job. Even easier since we have those fancy on-car lathes.
Wes has a video on commissioning that old brake lathe.
If there was no pedal vibration I would have pad slapped that job.
Turning rotors is still a very common practice in my experience.
I like how your dog stares at you uncomfortably while you work. My dog did the same thing
Earl Scheib painted that hood in 1996 after a hailstorm damaged it. All in all it held up pretty good.
I can’t believe that people would try and second guess your level of competence in your work. You clearly are a high skilled craftsman of your trade. I watch you all the time because I learn from you not to teach you. Tell the nit picky ones to kiss your ass, you don’t need them around anyways. As usual keep up the great work now I know how a Dana 60 comes apart.
Friday night, pizza and Watch Wes. Let's get this weekend started! Regards from Luxembourg 🇱🇺
im not a dodge person but i had a truck lust like this and i have to admit i loved it
Sure must be nice to work on a vintage truck without it crumbling apart as you try to repair it 😅👍
No structural floor mats on this one. 😂
That's a survivor truck it looks great for it's age. I've got two of them and they are definitely a labour of love. I did the KDP on both of mine...cheap insurance!
Seeing that old style truck brought back some good memories. Got my drivers license back in 1994. Learned to drive on that style truck. 1989 dodge similar color. 318 gasser. It was grandpas work truck. That thing had around 400k hard construction miles on it when it was retired. It wasn’t a perfect truck , leaks and rattles. Always got us to and from the job site . Hauled everything we needed .
I absolutely love the snarky sarcasm about the "yer doin' it wrong" comments. "That way no one can complain" had my laughing out loud. Thank you Wes.
What an awesome old Dodge Truck. I had a red version of that truck back in the late 90’s. It was not very quiet in the cab, but would pull whatever you wanted. They were impressive for 1992. Thanks for the Videos, Wes. Always a treat.
The only 'awesome' part was the 'awesome piece-a-junk' in it's day!
@@Johnny_Guitar My company ran a fleet of them with flat beds in our hot shot division all over the lower 48. Not once did one fail on the road. I admit they were a hand full to drive but stout and dependable. When I left in 2000 they still had one of the first Cummins powered running with over 400,000 miles with the engine never touched. Probably 4 or 5 front suspension rebuilds but nothing else. One man's junk is another man's treasure and we did treasure our Cummins powered Dodges.
Love love love my 97 dodge Cummins, owned for 24 years and can say the absolute best truck I’ve ever owned. My son drives a 92 dodge w150, he’s driven it for 8 years now trouble free. My neighbor ownes a 93 dodge Cummins with over 800,000 miles on original engine, he drives it everyday as a contractor, lol truck has plenty of battle scars.
Don't forget the lower steering column bushing. To rid yourself of the last ¼ of slop.½million miles and the crank bearings are still minimum tolerance .0037".( back 4 tapered to max new clearance .0047 due to a bent crank when the KDP went through the gearset, retardingthe cam/ injection timing 5°)Rods within new spec.
Just love the comments from a man that's been there..."if there's a worse brake design I HAVEN'T SEEN IT".
Dude I love to see rotors turned, like the old days. You did a great job on your brake lathe.
When I was in auto shop class 22 years ago in high school they taught us how to turn rotors on a brake lathe. I would venture an educated guess that they don’t teach any of that anymore
I had a 93’ W-250 Power Ram with 43,000 original miles. It was purchased by a company brand new and sat in a parking lot for years. It had a plow on it as well. When I bought about 12 years ago it had some really bad rust. I ended up selling it after a few years but if the Ohio winters hadn’t ruined it, I’d still have it. Really cool truck
👆Thanks for watching, love you so much fan!!
Tell Aɴᴅʀᴇɪ Jɪᴋʜ, you were referred by me he has something new to share with you easily get in touch with him
The best thing I did was add the pillow block bearing support, and then do the "rock solid ram" delrin steering shaft bushing in the column. The steering linkage fix can be done on that truck but you have to cut new tapered seats for that early generation of 2nd gen. 2010 steering linkage of a 2500 will be what you need to order. But those 3 things will make it as good as it will ever get. Note on the delrin bushing, it is affected by temperature, so make sure there is clearance in the warm shop, cold will make tight spots since the shaft is not round stock but rolled tube.
In the future, place the metal to rubber seal in a plastic bag in the freezer for several hours ahead of time. Heat the plate access up with a heat gun so it is warm to the touch. Remove the metal to rubber seal from freezer, apply sealant and it should fall right in. This method has worked for my 41 years in aviation maintenance. Great info on the brake and seal replacements.
A trick I used on a crankshaft pulley recently, to hold it while breaking loose and later torquing it. I took an old accessory belt, wrapped it around the crankshaft pulley such that it was pinching itself. Then looped it up and around the most-stout nearby idler or accessory, and clamped it around that with vise grips. Basically a static, improvised strap wrench. Worked a treat and I will probably do that from now on
Or use the starter to break it loose… 😮
@@SteelheadTed did that on a Dodge Neon once. Worked great.
I almost missed this. I was thinking where’s Wes? Thanks Wes.
I hope enough people in your area watch you to spread the word how you work for them. Some of the things you do to prevent future problems that most don't do saves them many problems in the future. You are truly one of the good guys. Not many left.
Your description of the test drive is basically how everyone who purchased these new described how they drove. So this truck drivers flawlessly.
Wow at how clean the undercarriage is That is impressive for a 31 year old rig from Illinois @Watch Wes Work
I remember being at the dealership when I was 12. They had a brand new shiny black, curvy, dodge dakota that I convinced my dad to buy. Parked next to it was one of these and I remember thinking how old and outdated it looked. Now I look at it and think what a beautiful collector.
I wish my 2006 looked like this. I’m constantly fighting the rust… frame, body rot, you name it, it’s got it. Props to you for being able to do it!
i spray my fleet undersides with drain oil yearly, works in WVa.
@@pnuttheclownh2254 I love the Southwest!
My 02 cummins thats driven year round in canada is basically as rust free as the first gen, my frames actually less rusty then this first gen's. Washing the truck thoroughly sometimes twice a week is even more effective the spraying oil over it.
First scene is the two trucks that paved the way for todays light duty diesel trucks.
Yes!! Missed you last week!
beautiful truck. i had the same one but with a 5 speed manual but i sold it because the body was completely rotten. drove it for 13 years without one problem. tough as a blacksmith's anvil.
Biggest improvement I had on a 01 dodge 2500 was to drop the tire pressures to something reasonable. The truck wandered all over the road at 60 psi but dropped to 30-35 all around and it drove way better. Pressure up when towing of course. That was on general grapplers, I believe they were load range E tires calling for 80 psi. Driving like that empty was nearly impossible.
I own that exact truck. Stick. Same color.
Pull hell off hinges.
Track bar where it ties into the frame will get wallowed out there, due to the gear box flexing the frame horn that holds it.
They sell a new addional crossmember that ties both frame horns together allowing for proper support of the gear box..
It has an extention that goes through a block bearing mounted on the crossmember that extends down to allow for proper alignment of pitman arm that pivots every time you turn the steering wheel, and supports the lateral load of the suspension.
The track bar mount on the frame itself gets chewed up for the excessive movement of the gear box and has to be cut off and a new higher grade steel mounting plate welded on, are at least added to the original plate to repair the damaged hole
The other end of track bar that attaches to the passenger hub assembly typically is also worn out by the same thing.
New steering gear box
New addional crossmember added
Replacement of track bar
Addional repair of mounting plate of track bar at frame driver's side.
And typically tie rods, if it doesn't have the stabilizers dampers for the steering
It's usually a good idea to install the set with two stabilizers even if it has just a single one mounted, and especially if none at all in place.
Also found that while shocks appears to be good its mainly just the springs doing majority of the work, and a good set of bilstines helps greatly control the death wobbles along with the above mentioned items.
I've rebuilt 97, and 95 one a 2500 the other 1500 both 4x4's.
But they share the same parts as well as the f'ed up design all the way up to 3500's.
Not really all that expensive to buy, but fairly labor intensive, except for the benefit of actually being able to drive it like a normal vehicle instead of you constantly chasing the direction the truck is going, are then sudden attack of severe case of death wobble its not really that much labor considering the benefits and longevity of the truck was doubled are even tripled it's normal life span.
I love those old dodges, my grandpa had a 93 that he bought new. I miss that old truck for sure
I use to work on our 1999 250 Cummins turbo diesel trucks. We rebuild the front end on one at about 200,000 miles and we still had slop. I tightened up the steering gearbox per load about 1/8 to 1/4 turn to get about 5-8mm of play in the steering wheel from the center point then set the locknut. and it took care of our 10 trucks, but that was after every front-end part was checked to be within specs. If it was too touchy I loosened it to about the same play 5-8 mm. Good luck Wes. :)
No suggestions but love your work ethic.
Me and my dad bought a 1990 Dodge D350 5.9 Cummins 5 spd and a 1993 Dodge W350 5.9 Cummins auto for the farm. Replaces a lot of ''Dodge stuff'' over the years but they're both still used daily. That there is truly a unicorn though, ours are beat up, scuffed up, and got some rust even though they've been POR-15 treated since new. Thanks for this awesome video Wes! Love the nostalgia!
Painting over rust was a horrible idea
@@mikem5475 POR-15 is designed to be applied to rust. It won't even adhere to bare metal.
@@BrodieBr0 yeah and how did por15 work for you?...
Dang, you weren't kidding! That's probably the only dodge I'd drive. She's purdy!
Heh - you should've seen the auto-locking hubs on the old IH Scouts. They weren't really locking hubs, they were roller-bearing sprag clutches, for light duty, emergency 4wd but nobody ever bothered to manually lock the hubs, so those clutches would get the balls beat off them. When you pulled'em off, a dozen worn out rollers and busted springs would just fall all over the floor.
Seen you do the front brakes reminds me of my 77 Jimmy all time four-wheel-drive same set up I wish I still had that ride👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
My backyard hillbilly method to hold a smooth crank pully is to use an old timing or other flat belt (even v belts work) wrap it around the pulley then reflect it back over something round like a screw driver handle , socket ratchet handle...basically anything within reach lol. Then anchor the other end either with a ratchet strap or even a pry bar. Once you get it tensioned up it will hold the world without marring anything up. Basically it's just a make shift strap wrench but works well. Seems like you always run into this after the car is up on jack stands and there's no way to keep the motor from turning. Always a pain!
Just like a strap wrench, good ingenuity.
I do the same thing (actually commented right around when you did). I anchor the other end by wrapping the belt around something and clamping it with a vise grip
Suggestion for working on trucks: Let most of the air out of the front tires, or jack the rear of the truck up, or both. Makes it real easy to work on trucks!
As for the second gen, check the frame where the steering box is mounted. It tends to flex and can crack. There are lots of braces out there to stabilize it. It's also very common to put steering stabilizers on this model, though that might correct a symptom, but not the core issue. Otherwise it's just replacing worn suspension parts. You're right, though... Dodge means death wobble.
I've had 1st 2nd and 3rd gen Dodges and none had death wobble. No bigger tires than 285 on all.
Poor maint or abuse means death wobble, only one one of four was exhibiting that and toe in and tires fixed it
You do the best work I ever seen I wish we some people like you here .
Steering box stabilizer kit. I put it on all of mine. It replaces the pitman arm nut with a shaft and the brace holds a bearing on the shaft. Also triple check the track bar.
I have a 95 Dodge. It was going all over the road. There are a series of fixes to do, not one or 2. First thing is redo the front end bushings and tire rods ends if play is found. Then adjust the steering box to its maximum setting. Then you want to install a steering stabilizer bar that removes the flex from the frame. The last thing would be to change the steering wheel shaft plastic bushing located just outside the firewall on the engine compartment side. It will decrease the wandering about 80 %. If you have a show truck and a lot of money you could adapt a more recent steering pump and linkages but you will have welding to do on the frame. That would be 100% cure. Deboss garage had a video of a guy who did that on his second gen truck. It was an impressive mod. Hope that helps. Bernard.
Always loved the simplicity of manual locking hubs.
Riding with my cousin in his binder and it had manual locking hubs. Out hunting on a snowy day on a back road, fump, we are in a snowbank up to the headlights. He casually said, "Want to lock up the hubs?"
Those old things will run forever.
Always get a good laugh at your videos Wes you have the patience of a saint mate cracking job you done on the truck it’s in good condition for it’s age brilliant content as usual take care to you and the family and max all the best from here in Scotland 👍👌🔧🔧🔧😉
Kudos to the owner of that truck, he figured out the key to making one of them last, don't ever drive it. lol Nice work Wes, I hope that truck stays off the road and lives another 30 years.
Thanks for the video Wes great job on the old truck. Take care of yourself and family ❤️❤️👍
I see your dog is speechless what's some of the stuff you bring in
One of the best things to do with the brakes is to replace the wheel cylinders on the rears with larger ones. The stock ones I think are 1" bores, and you can go up to either 1 1/8" or 1 3/16". It really improves the rear brake performance.
Correct you are. I replaced my rear wheel cylinders with ones from a one ton chevy, exact fit, better braking pressure. I load my Dodge with a camper and disconnecting the rear brake proportioning valve linkage also also results in more pressure to the rear brakes so that the front brakes aren't doing all the work. The addition of Hawk super duty front pads is another way of getting better stopping power.
THAT SOUNDS MORE LIKE MY ELBOW AND SHOULDER CLICKING THAN THE TORQUE WRENCH. Time to go buy the lottery ticket, the drum coming off that good. I am happy to see you cutting rotors, most people say they are too inexpensive to turn just replace.
That truck deserves to have a pair of driving boots. What a sweet friggin truck.
You are a true craftsman working on this old stuff.
Basic solid front axle stuff to make it tight. A big thing no one probably does but people who Jeep/offroad do is a steering box brace, in my Jeep there was a night/day difference when I braced the steering box, took a lot of the slop away. Still A LOT of slop, but theres only so much you can do with SFA
I love this channel it's like therapy
To mostly cure death wobble and shit front end on 2nd gen 3/4 and up trucks, upgrade your sway bar to a third gen. Also look into the power steering stiffener bracket, those two things alone will change the whole driveablitly of those 2nd gen, oh and one last thing, as others suggested, upgrade to the borgeson steering shaft. That was one of the 1st things I did on my 97 ram 2500. That was a huge improvement alone
Kuddos to you ... your previous "professional Life" shines thru ... NOBODY else would have checked (properly") the end play ... tip of the hat Cowboy !!!
Beautiful first gen. I had a 1991 that was from Wyoming and was rust free. Thanks for the video 😊
I had a friend that bought a Dogdge 1 ton dually of that vintage brand new and he had steering complaints from the get go! They replaced the Steering gear along with other front end parts he even took it to a Frame shop for front end allignment . Nobody could fix it and Dodge finally bought it back under the Lemon Law. They got him another Dodge and he drove it for quite a few years with minimal complaints.
Nice work Wes. I have the same Alemite bearing packer, although it doesn't get used nearly as much these days as it did a couple decades ago.
I'm glad you see you double check the end play with a dial indicator vs. merely backing off the nut which is what I see most people do.
I have a client that has an old 1997 Dodge W-250 that is also in pretty nice shape for its age but it has nearly 200k miles.
Mike
In my 1960s high school shop classroom, our instructor had a sign hanging above the blackboard the said "If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over". About the only thing I remember from high school!
@@Watchyn_Yarwood my dad would tell me the same thing repeatedly when I was growing up. "If you don't have time to do it right the first time, when will you have time to do it again?"
@@zmotorsports62 And you never forgot it. Young people today are taught "Don't worry about it, I'll get you a new one".
Frame stiffened helped my trucks. I have three Rams 96, 01, 08 and put one on my friends 2014. They work and help with front end problems.
Great video on that old beast. Dodge had a period of time there in the late 80s and early to mid 90s where they couldn't design a front end to last. The only advice I can give is be ready to change out most of the frontend components. Tie rod ends, ball joints all of it. And don't forget to check the steering gearbox and its mounting. Stay safe my friend.
I'm no help I know nothing about front end repairs, heck I couldn't even find the spark plugs on that Dodge, I just like watching you repair stuff and explain things. That dowel fix was a good idea, very important to for anyone that has this motor...
If you have to pull the rear shafts again, the two nut and tab washer spindle nut system on the front axle will also work on the rear. Much better system than the single nyloc nut and wedge keeper. Great video, always entertaining!
Now THAT is a Dodge pickup! I have always loved this generation of Dodge Ram, especially with a Cummins!
👍👌👏 2) Pretty nice looking pickup truck. I absolutely loved to see the restored brake disk and drum grinding device in action again. Although it was only for a short time.
Best regards luck and health to all of you (including Max of course).
This is the second time I have watched this for some reason I like diesel pickups they were so well-made I watched it a year ago when you did it the first time there were some not-too-smart things engineered but on the whole, they really did build solid stuff, I miss it.
Heard about some kind of steeringbox-stabilisation kit some years ago. I think the material flexes, so you need to stabilize it with some bracket
A new quality (redhead/ blue top) steering box and rebuilding/ replacing ever singe steering component was the only thing that “remedied” my 2nd gen. Still drove like a dodge but was at least predictable at the end. I went from having roughly 12” of steering wheel free play to 1”.
For the 97, If the steering slop is in the box try a red head steering box. Those original boxes are know to wear out. Also the make a steering gear stabilizer kit that braces everything.
best reason to buy cummins my daughter works for them.
I think it has a recirculating ball steering box. On top of the box is a allen fastener with a lock nut holding it's position. Loosen the nut and tighten the allen head fastener to remove slack from the mechanism. Retighten the lock nut. Do not over tighten, there still should be slight back and forth clearance when moving the steering shaft, as this might cause binding when steering. 🙂
Then check steering wheel alignment. I think some mechanics mess with that to align the steering wheel.
Always cool to see Dodges that aren't rusted to pieces lol
We were kind of worried about you Wes. We haven't
heard from you in a while.
Thank you I have a 5.9 1990 commings , I do not believe that has ever been done 250.000 miles on it thank you
The 95's front end can be upgraded in many ways. The best places to start are putting a 4th gen steering box in and switching to a 4th gen style linkage setup. Also switching to a 3rd gen panhard bar normally tightens things up a ton. There is a ton of other parts that improve it further Carli/emf ball joints, a good set of Theuren/Carli control arms, Borgson steering shaft etc. But id start with a 4th gen steering box and linkage setup alongside a panhard bar.
i like this comment sounds like you talk from experience buddy of mines 2nd gen had steering slop it is lifted manual 2000. he complained about the truck being "all over the road" for probably a good 6 months or so. Ordered a Red head steering box and (can't remember the name of the brand) probably a borgson steering shaft. or something along those lines. suffice to say its been in his truck over 4 maybe 5 years now drove it once i drive almost exclusively superdutys suffice to say. it seems to fixed his issues entirely seemed his steering on a lifted dodge of all things was tighter than a couple of my Super duty's if not as tight almost as tight.
I've had three of them and the steering boxes were junk in every one of them. I've heard good things about the Red Head boxes. One thing I've heard about but never tried was putting a steering damper in like the off-roaders use, but that is just something I heard about in forums and things.
@@justnsaliga8518 Lifting a straight axle truck takes away caster and that can really hurt tracking.
I've been trying to research this and would love any details you can provide on fitting a 4th Gen steering box into a 2nd Gen. Looks like the 4th Gen input is square rather than splined and return line is M20 rather than M16.
I have a 1993 D250 in absolute prestine condition in Massachusetts - love the cummins
You said according to Dodge, about 5% of these will have the dowel pin failure. Does age have anything to do with chance of failure? Just thinking that since it made it this long, what are the chances it fails? That being said, the condition of this truck certainly warrants the fix. Nice work dude. Oh by the way, always enjoy the Max cameo.
age does not. a realtives daily had this happen at just over 300k a year ago. it did the works on the motor turned it into a paperweight. and my dads work place they almost exclusivly drive dodges for their work vehicles that need to pull trailers minus the one 7.3 super duty and their 2 6.0L E350 Econoline vans. they got 6 98-01 Ram 2500-3500 with the same engine they ofcourse all ofem have a million plus miles but not too long ago one of them got a new Reman (old new stock) engine. its engine was just slap wore out. not even 35k on the new old stock dowl pin came out. busted their timing cover. don't mean to throw any shade at dodge but. reason why i like powerstrokes especially the 6.0L easiest to repair. and least likely to turn your block into a very nice Coffee table and a rolling chassis in the yard.
If your luck is bad then yeah it can happen. LR had an issue where they forgot to Loctite an oil pump bolt on the early td5's. Saw a forum post from some unfortunate person that had it fall out at 300k km. Him and his mechanic had assumed it had either been loctited already or had been from factory.
Age or mileage mean little. If you have one you should get it fixed now and mark the timing cover so the next owner knows it’s been done. There are literally no downsides to doing the job. Worst case you tear it apart to find it’s been done already. Or you open it up and find it almost out. It’s a cheap fix to avoid total catastrophe.
The biggest concern is that it's a dodge crummins. You're doomed until you fix that issue.
Age isn't relevant. It was mostly a problem on the 94-98 trucks with the P7100 injection pump, but definitely happened on the earlier trucks too.
I know an older gentleman that has a 1992 Dodge Ram 1 Ton dually with the Cummins and 40k original miles. One owner truck that he bought new. Southern truck with no rust. It's a beauty.
Nice work Wes. I've never seen that particular KDP fix but I like it - simple and elegant.
I bought a 93 2wd club cab new. It had the most comfortable bucket seats I've ever experienced. Buddy had a 4WD and the ride was brutal!
I guess the 4WD was a high boy with painfully stiff leaf springs
Back when trucks were work vehicles and not grocery getters.
Its OK Max, my dog Troy hates the winter as well. Wes you're my spirit animal