Almost a year ago I posted that I had procured a 95 2500 ram. It had (at the time) 501,000km on the odometer and was in. . . interesting. . . shape. over the last year I have learned just how bushleague a truck can be when someone sells it. Believe me, this thing was hackneyed.

Prior to owning this truck the most intensive mechanical thing I had done was replace the clutch/flywheel on my 7.3 with a single mass, and redo the glowplugs on that same truck with a deadman switch and relay. So what has been done here is. . .monumental, for me.

I call it. . .The Basket Case.


(yes that shock has since been rebolted. )

I got it back in november of 2013 and this thing had all sorts of issues. oil from every orifice on the front of the engine (and a couple along the side). a transmission with no forward clutches left (lets rev at 1700 just to get moving).

So, found a wrecker with a 5 speed manual, clutch, slave/master/hydros, a rear driveshaft, and a steering column, and started into it.



Cutting the hole for the shifter was my moment of no return. Well, one of them. Another was getting pissed off at the tranny cooler lines and taking a set of bolt cutters to 'em.


Buddy was a little worried about this transmission. the fluid was. . .we're gonna say it was bad, so we swapped that for new stuff. And the thing had some play in the input shaft, more than he woulda liked to see. But we took it to a transmission shop, and the guy there said "it'll need a rebuild soon, but it'll go for now if you're on a budget to get this truck up and going."

Fair enough.

turns out I got seriously taken by this wrecker (the only time it has ever happened). transmission had no 5th, column didn't fit, flywheel was heat checked and had cracks in a number of places. clutch disc was glazed lookin. bout the only good part was the slave/master. I still had to find a front driveshaft and worry about the transfer case, but at this point I figured "how bad can switchin an input shaft be?" (little did I know. . .)
But, it was what I bought, and I didn't have much choice. cash sale left me with no recourse. I got boned hard. time to harden da hell up and get it goin.

Much swearing, lotsa cursing, and lifting my truck with a 10 ton ceiling crane, and this happened:


the steering column was a really bad time. I was stuck on getting rid of the column shifter. that had to happen.
plus, the wrecker column was in much better shape. but it didn't match my intermediate shaft for some reason. rather than being splined, like my current one, the knuckle on the new column was keyed (round with a square edge).
So off to another wrecker. where I got an intermediate shaft that matched the new column, but still had the wrong mating for the knuckle. F***in dodge.

So. . .we got creative. We drank some beer, and figured we could frankenstein the thing together from 2 columns and 2 shafts.

I don't even know which one is which and what we took off of where. I do know that we fluked it off because the knuckle that was "right" and matched up "correctly", still had a master spline that was spun 180 degrees from mine, and I thought that we put it in upside down, but we didn't. fluked it off so it sits right.

regardless, next was the T case. And oh my. . .did it need attention.



main range fork was worn down cause it had long ago eaten the pads.
range selector ring was chewn and eaten.
all the bearings were hooched.
Synchro snaprings were hooched. that large one was half eaten. it's that's bent looking piece of metal near the bottom of the photo.
oil pump was busted. . .

So, after a few days on and off of finding new s*** to replace constantly, it was back together. Sealed up with anaerobic sealant and ready to go.
I put the t case up, and wired the clutch safety at -30C, in a snowy driveway, cause I couldn't get the truck into my garage, since my brother was doing heads on his 07 Hemi in there, and asking him to move was no bueno. I'm dedicated.

And so it drove! I didn't need it since we were working outta town, so it sat and waited for me, but it drove! It even hauled some stuff like my then-girlfriends car when she grenaded the motor, which I swapped for a good one a few days later. I was becoming quite the mechanic:


After that I turned my focus mostly to my motorcycle, and the truck went without further repair until late July, when this came in:


Lacking the confidence to do the transmission rebuild at that point, I instead used my ambition to get the front end of the motor sealed up. I cannot fully describe just how much it leaked, beyond "2L in 140KM @2,000 rpm". it was BAD.

I was told by numerous people that I would have to separate the fan from the fan clutch, and then pull the rad shroud and fan out separate from the rad, and then take the clutch assembly off.
sure.
sure.
regardless, all said and done (just before tearing out the cam)


the most parts I have ever had off a vehicle at any point.

I was originally told to use zipties to hold up the tappets. that was dumb.

this is the dumbest *** idea I've ever encountered when working on a vehicle.

this worked much better:


I think I needed some new gaskets:


I had one dirty *** motor.



Upon putting it all back together, I reset the idle to 950 from. . .well. . .as low as it would go. the PO had said he set it nice and low, but the toolbag set it so low you had to keep the truck running or it'd die. the throttle stop didn't even touch the set screw. *head shake*.
Also managed to murder the old lift pump, so I bought a new one and deleted the fuel heater.

And then it was transmission time.




I think it's toast. . .




Had some fun gettin it together. Put the 5th/reverse synchro hub on backwards so it wouldn't pull out of 5th hehe. tried to spin it on the bench and it'd bind. gave me a moment or two of frustration.
and the synchro rings for 3rd and 4th are apparently very close but not quite the same (maybe just wear on the clutches? I dunno). pulled them off, switched em, and I went from 4th not spinning freely, to 4th spinning freely when I switched them. So I dunno.

regardless, I have 1,000km on it now and it is flawless. buddy owns a getrag'd 1st gen and he says it "shifts like a f***in car!".

Next up is injectors from a 215 6bt (brand spanky shiny new from cummins for 190 bucks), a boost controller, and then if the pump (OEM from a 95 auto) won't feed those injectors, I'll have to make it happen. somewhere in there, I'll do a new clutch from. . .somewhere, which is able to hold what I'm doing (clutches are rated for whp right? or is it crank. . .). I'd like 250rwhp or so.

 

Well looks like your doing great !!!

I know the feeling you have with yours ..

I bought a 2wd short cab Long box CTD 12, Auto 2 years ago .. for 5500 .. I have since spent at least .. 3K ..

Exhaust, Manifold, BHAF, VB, Mag Tek auto pan, Rear diff bearings4.10's, then a new diff 3.55's, whole front end is way loose, Head studs, now leaking HG, the list never ends ..

Looks like Your doing it right though ..

Keep us posted for real !!

 

I finally got a blowby tube (PO ripped it off). so when I bother to bolt that up I'm gonna check the blowby. if it's good. . .it's POWAH time.

Oh, and I bought a 6bt block and rotating assembly for 250 bucks a few weeks back. So if this one is blowing by bad, I'm just gonna take a few months and rebuild that while I run this thing till it's dead. machinign for the one I have should be about 500 bucks. thing has the oil filter housing, flywheel, oil pan, crank, tappets, and pushrods. but no cam or head. still, 250 bucks.
Oh, and a good water pump. :

figured I'd just toss that out there.

 

NICE !!!

Always a good thing to have a back up plan .. !!!

 

Update time!

Cut off the muffler (no photos. I took an angle grinder to the exhaust, you get it.

BHAF.

Waiting on a pre-filter sock from Grand west. till then, I'll be nice to it. Spooldown on upshifts sounds awesome. Throttle response is some better.

Also, this is happening.

From on 02 chevy. 6 way power, power lumbar, heated, leather. And it all works. they should go in tomorrow. gonna retain the dodge centre seat/fold down console I figure. I like that thing.

also, big **** up at Cummins. Quote me 193 for the set of reman injectors, charge me for what I think is a set, get there, and they say I've paid for one and that my bill is a thousand bucks. F***ers quoted me unit price as set price.
so I got my money back on the one and told them to kick rocks. I can get CPP or DDP SACs with way-better-than-oem performance for a third of that. F*** that noise.

 

TADA!



Few little things to do with mounting I need to figure out more. But they are in there and power works on the drivers side. Gotta run a new 30A circuit from the fusebox (I believe there was room in there for it) for the passenger side.

 

Nice now I know they will work in my truck .. I am gonna go find me a wrecked Chevy ( wonder if the ones from an escalade will work ? ) .. and be super comfy and warm !!!!

 

How was the mounting of those chevy seats? And how do they compare to the stock second gen seats?

 

It's always nice to see someone else's troubles!!! Cummins sold me a defective head gasket that took my engine out with it... it leaked oil into the #3 cylinder and scored the crap out of it... I've had the tranny out 4 or 5 times now, first the 5th gear nut, then the 5th gear snap ring, then the clutch, then the 5th gear stipped the teeth, then the input shaft broke... The tranny I have now seems to be alright.. I don't know how many times I've lost all my coolant.. first a water pump, then a fan blade came off and slashed the rad, then a head gasket leak. I've also had my rearend spin a carrier bearing, can't seem to keep the rear wheel bearing tightened right. finally got pizzed off enough at the front wheel bearings I put Ford knuckles with standard bearing there, that's a relief... it goes on and on.

I put Rx7 seats in mine, nice deep buckets which work great for a skinny bastard like me.. not power seats, but I'm OK with them, they're certainly better than a dodge seat that got bagged out by a 400 lb guy.

 

^^^Pics of RX7 seats??