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1st Gen. Ram - All TopicsDiscussion for all Dodge Rams prior to 1994. This includes engine, drivetrain and non-drivetrain discussions. Anything prior to 1994 should go in here.
Pulled Patches into the shop for a greasing and fix a couple lights that burnt out. While crawling around under the truck I noticed a couple repairs that are going to be needed....Drivers rear hub inner seal is toast and leaking gear oil all over the place also the E-brake cable seems to be loose not aligned properly anymore...clip came off? So gonna need new seals and brake shoes of the rear, also another set of rear E-brake cables.....just did those two years ago.
Also for the last month or so while still using the 4wd this winter I noticed a vibration, well turns out two of the three U-joints in my Cardin-joint off the TC have one cup that was not getting grease, even though I greased it a couple times over winter and these were Spicer joints too. Not sure if some old grease dried up and got lodged and was not allowing fresh grease to get to those cups or what, but 5 years and it's toast seems a little short to me.
I just used brake cleaner on the shoes of my leaking seal wheel. It cleaned the oil off very well and no problems. YMMV
Edwin
My understanding was that once the oil gets into the brake friction material it may appear that they are clean, but under hot braking the oil will leach out? For $40 I will get a new set of shoes....I'll clean the old ones and keep them to use on the D70 for Sno-ball's cummins conversion.
Tore apart the front hubs on the truck last night since I burn through inner seals about once a year, sure enough the pass side was totally gone and the drivers side was bad but still in one piece, the grease was getting black and even a small amount of gray from water contamination. Did a complete cleaning and re greasing of everything with new inner seals, tried the National 415009 this time, and even tore the 4wd locking hubs down to clean and re-lube. Should be good for another year.
My understanding was that once the oil gets into the brake friction material it may appear that they are clean, but under hot braking the oil will leach out? For $40 I will get a new set of shoes....I'll clean the old ones and keep them to use on the D70 for Sno-ball's cummins conversion.
Probably this summer, I have to tear into it again because I want to replace the Parking Brake lines. The one on the right isn't releasing completely which stops the self adjuster from working properly. I'll replace the shoes also. I don't drive the truck much anymore but have been on a couple of highway trips and it stops just fine. I don't see any smoke coming from the rears which I think would indicate any oil burning off so I think I'm good.
No I think it is the spindles themselves are worn from previous owners lack of maintenance. I can feel a very slight "dip" in the under side of the spindle where the old bearings have worn away a few thousands of material so i think the hub sits off center slightly and burns up the inner seals.
I know I can buy new spindles, and probably will one day but doing the seals and re-packing the bearings once a year is not a bad thing for my peace of mind.
I can feel a very slight "dip" in the under side of the spindle
Swap the spindles left to right, (which will move the worn area from the bottom) and, if you are feeling adventurous, dimple the worn area slightly with a ball hammer, which will upset the surface enough to tighten up the fit of the inner race slightly.
Well just had the worst time ever redoing the rear inner hub seals and swapping on some new brake shoes. I had the LH rear hub seal go out a couple weeks ago, diagnosed things and put an order in to rockauto. Parts arrived friday so thought I would get to it this weekend...new inner seals, new brake shoes, new shorter intermediate cable on the E-brake system (more on that later), and a new LH E-brake cable.
Everything started well, go the driver side apart and started cleaning the oil off everything and was ready to start re-assembly so grabbed the new E-brake cable and it was not right! Checked multiple times against the current cable and nope wrong one....so did I order the wrong one or did rockauto? Well turns out I did not pay attention to where I was when i selected the rear cable....I was in the 93 Ramcharger section looking for a shorter intermediate cable when I selected the park cable. Went for a return and the shipping back was almost as much as the part....guess I have a spare for Sno-ball?? So then spent a couple hours farmerizing a fix to the current cable, couple old tractor trailer glad hand seals, and a small gear clamp got me back in business.
Then installed the new inner seals, new shoes and all the clean hardware, everything was looking fine until I slide the drum on....would not bottom out easily. Thought this was odd but just tighten the nut on the spindle and it went on OK, adjusted the bearing end play and moved to the pass side. Then couldn't get the friggin drum off! Spent another hour or more poking around to get the adjust lock loose so I could back the wheel off. Finally got that done and proceeded to swap the new shoes and new inner seal....same issue as the other side woth the seal.
By this time it was after midnight so called it a night, but that inner seal bothered me and my brain was munching on it until this morning when I got up. I just felt something was not right so I checked my order packing slip.....turns out I ordered front inner hub seals (SKF 27452)...Dooh!! So make a call to the local jobber with the seal number I "thought" needed, made the 70 min drive into town and back and went to install the new seals but thought I should try them on the spindle first.....good thing I did because these were wrong as well!! I had looked up 93 W350 inner hub seal with 12 x 2.5 rear drums (SKF 24917)....turns my axle is a factory 12x3 set-up so runs a bigger inner hub seal (SKF 28754)...so another 70 min drive back to town to swap and grab the correct seals. Once the seals were worked out it was just a few minutes to assemble everything, then about 30 min to set-up the rear drum adjustment and get the E-brake system adjusted properly.
So moral of the story, check, double and triple check your on-line orders before placing them....I am usually pretty good about this but clearly I was brain farting that day.
So the story on the intermediate cable is that I had been buying the 84 E-brake cables for the rear diff previously, but last set I ordered I mixed up and order them for a 93 1st Gen. Didn't realize until I Installed them and the intermediate cable was about 6" too long! So I pulled out my back yard engineering degree and made something work....not pretty but did the job. When I was searching for park brake cable I noticed a few shorter intermediate cables....so went out and did some measuring and found that a 42" cable (Raybestos BC93028) would allow me to use the 1st gen axle cables and hook up to the OEM crewcab main cable perfectly. I had never come across anyone mentioning this in all the years I have been reading and researching SRW long box crewcab builds.
when I was working the parts dept at the IH dealer, a trucker came in for parts for a truck he was building. Came back later for different parts. Came back again for different parts, and in frustration, he told the guy that was waiting on him "don't give me what I asked for, give me what I need!"
Forgot to post this up....been a crazy busy few days off. Finished my last day of my night shift 4 days ago and was coming home around 4am....vehicle was following me fairly close and I had a weird vibe and thought it might be the police....well I was right as I came into town he flipped on his lights, so I pulled over. Cop walks up and says "Hey Brian how you doing!" Thought that was weird that he used my name like that, then he proceeds to let me know my insurance had expired 2 days ago....DOOOHHH!!! He was nice enough not to give me the $600 fine that this would have warranted, but would not let me drive it any further and I had to park it at the gas station I was right beside.
So after calling and waking up the wife we decided I would just sleep in the truck for 3-4 hours until she could swing by and get me on her way to work. When I woke up there was a cop sitting in the lot near me...my guess is they had been checking on me from time to time to make sure I was not some low life P.O.S and drive home anyway after the cops had left. Anyway wife drove me to get the insurance and all was well again.
Yesterday I got insurance for my trailer since my order of siding and supplies for the shop was supposed to be ready today. Hooked up the trailer last night to get ready for today and no and behold I had lights. Had brake and turn signals, but no running lights. Pulled it into the shop and climbed under neath and found that the main power for the trailer lights had corroded to blue goo in the connector under Ol' Patches. Found another connector in my spare parts and spliced that in and got everything working properly. Dragged the trailer around today but my order did not show up on the freight truck....so next week I guess.
Last little while I have been getting "the death wobble" when hitting some sagging section on the down hill road from our place....not too bad but enough to cause me some concern. Today out and about with my daughter and it happened 3-4 times in town.... Decided to crawl under the truck and see what was going on.
Well turns out the pitman shaft on my steering box is leaking, and the nut started to back off on the pitman arm and allow a bunch of slop, also my steering shaft couple is worn out again, and the drag link is starting to get weak. So tightened up the pitman arm nut and put in a rockauto order for a new drag link, steering coupler rebuild kit and a re-seal kit for the pitman shaft on the steering gear. Should get things back in shape.
03-28-2019, 11:13 PM
Be like Chuck Norris tapping someone on the shoulder....
Once the seals were worked out it was just a few minutes to assemble everything, then about 30 min to set-up the rear drum adjustment and get the E-brake system adjusted properly.