Dodge Diesel - Diesel Truck Resource Forums

2nd gen dually rear brakes: right rear "self-tightening"

'pants — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 20:45:30 GMT

As per title, shortly after rebuilding everything in both rear drums, the right side is dragging and refuses to stay at a reasonable adjustment. The fix isn't obvious (it's not swapped adjusters, for example). It takes just one short drive for the drag to recur.
On rechecking a few days ago, it was absolutely necessary to defeat the spring-loaded adjuster before I could back off on the star-wheel.

Maybe back to fundamentals: what causes the adjuster-lever to engage and tighten the star-wheel by a notch (or several?)? I think I need to see this animated to understand...
AI raised the possibility that I've got the shoes reversed front-to-back. Here are some photos...can anyone determine from them whether shoes are in their correct places?
With a 4WD dually, short of disconnecting the drive-shaft, is there really a good way to assess the brake-shoe rub/drag by trying to spin the rear wheels? Even in N (and with the 4WD selector also in N) I find it's impossible to get them spinning enough to judge whether there's too much rubbing - but from listening, there's no brake-drag per se, just a lot of mechanical inertia elsewhere in the driveline.

RR from above hub

RR from behind hub

RR from front of hub

RR closeup of adjuster

Shot in the dark

cougar — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 23:29:09 GMT

Found a company that is making replacement clock springs for the 1st gens so I ordered one. It is about the same price as the Dorman and you don't have to do any wire hacking, a direct replacement. It would sure be nice to get my cruise control back. I'll keep you posted as to how it goes.

Break room 14-20 June

Shovelhead — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 13:21:23 GMT

Happy Flag Day! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Dragon is still asleep, but he managed to keep the coffee pot warm before drifting off.
Donuts have been reduced to a few crumbs.
Gotta get up earlier. 🤪

Have a great week!😎👍

High Tech Turbo htb2

wlcantrell — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 17:04:40 GMT

It appears that High Tech Turbo is no longer in business. I was going to send my 2007ish turbo to them for a refresh.
-It's a s300 htb2 62/65 13ss
-Are there any other vendors that'd touch it?
-I'm fairly handy, but I've shied away from touching turbo internals. Are there upgrades I could do, if I decide to do the refresh myself?
-What vendors would I want to chat with?
-

Tail lights not working

freesimons — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 03:18:10 GMT

Tail lights not working on my 1997 2500. I can�t figure out which fuse it is but I�ve checked most of them and they are good. What else could it be?

Returning a 2011 Ram 5500 back to stock

2011Ram5500 — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 21:02:41 GMT

I am currently getting a 2011 Ram 5500 donated to our organization. However, the truck was put on a diet and in order for our organization to accept the truck, we need to put it back to stock. Has anyone gone through the process of returning it to stock? I have a ram dealership who has offered to put the truck back to stock with the parts, they would provide the labor and the flash the truck truck. Is there a parts list somewhere? Does anyone have the parts laying around they may want to part with?

Just an observation

nonrev — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 17:27:25 GMT

In the last month or so with the help of Robm, madhat, maybe368 and myself the spammers are disappearing from our forums and I'm seeing a lot more folks are starting to use it again. Go team DTR.

Intercooler tubing

WarriorChicken — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 05:25:55 GMT

Well, I just got back from the 1st Gen Homecoming and now have lots of ideas and things I want to do to my truck. I've been reading up on some of the stuff I saw and have already talked myself out of a couple of things, luckily. One thing I could use some help on though is new intercooler tubing. Is it worth it? Yes I can get 3" stainless, but is it going to even make a difference with the 2.5" inlet/outlet on my stock i/c? Would this be a bigger can of worms than just a chunk of money for the pipes? Would I need a different i/c to see any benefits? The truck is bone stock as she sits right now (1993 with a freshly rebuilt injection pump), but I'd like to start chipping away at doing good things for her.

Trucky Story Time

Blue Truck — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 03:56:04 GMT

Hey friends, first post. Just thought I'd holler and tell a brief story about my 1st Gen.

A few years back in 2009 or maybe 2008, I had a college room mate at Oregon State (Go Beavs!) named Eli. He invited me over to his parent's place one weekend and I met his folks. Great people. His dad, Dennis, is a long time remodeling contractor in the Monmouth area (Oregon). Really kind man. He's just about retired now. Anyhow, from the get go, I saw his old Cummins and fell in love. Lol. (I've always loved Dodge trucks of this generation. I've owned three and a Ramcharger. All gassers, LA engines, two slant sixes.) We may have chatted about his truck back then, but it was his work rig and he never had any intention of parting with it. Aside from the diesel, it had a full pull out bed drawer, canopy/over-canopy truck rack to keep those tools dry on our many soggy Willamette Valley days. And air conditioning. That was about it.

Well the years went by, we graduated, and Eli got married and moved to South America--he's a missionary of some kind down there. I joined the local carpenter's union (formerly #1388) in the Portland metro area, became a journeyman, worked for lots of different folks. Then one day, I felt that life wasn't enough of a pain in the a$$ so I decided to become a self-employed contractor too. Lol. Not quite like that, but I am a general contractor--residential remodels, some commercial, etc. I officially started my business several years ago now. I must confess... I had a couple gasser Fords (gasp!) to start out with. A nice 1989 F250 XL with the 300, and 5 spd for several years. Started earning a bit more and bought a 2003 F250 Powerstroke XLT 4x4. (7.3... not the 6.blow) Now with 201k. I started having trouble with it so began to look for a backup truck. Lots of overpriced garbage for sale out there on 24" rims with mud terrains. (Honestly, why?) Was also wanting something reliable and older so I could work on it. Some time went by and I found this blue D250 for sale on FB. It was Dennis, selling his old rig! I reached out several times through the app and never heard back. So I let it go, figured he sold to someone else and never wrote back. But a few months went by, went to a concert in the Portland area and ran into Dennis! We chatted and caught up a bit. I hadn't seen him in almost two decades. I (of course) asked about his truck, and he still had it! Almost got scammed, I guess, so pulled the ad. And we set up a time for me to come take a look as he still wanted to sell. Drove down to Monmouth. Not much had changed. Love that. After a test drive with the rig, and looking everything over, I went ahead and bought it! It's a 1991 and runs like a top. The VE pump gives it that instant fire on turning the key that I just love. But... it's honestly too original. At somewhere over 200k (167k on odo broken about 5 years ago), it rode crazy so I asked when the shocks were replaced last and he said he never has. So it might have factory Mopar shocks. (!!) Tie rod ends are blown out. It's biggest problem was that it was running at about 16 volts at all times and blowing up regulators and batteries. Thanks to the forum here, I eventually sleuthed that problem out with the common relay fix you all recommend. Seems to be running steady for now at 14.1 volts. Will keep an eye on it. Dennis took care of it in that he was not hard on it, but I think he only fixed what broke and bothered him. That's just fine. I'm a sucker for a project. It's my first Cummins. Anyway, I've got a few photos in my gallery of it, but I'll try to include one here.

Current laundry list:
-standard LOF and cleaning
-Prepping for full paint job. Removing the factory door trim. Going to be navy blue with my business logo hand painted in a yellow/gold on the doors.
-Odo repair
-Non working fuel gauge.
-Doubtful KDP has ever been done. Prob minor issue at this point...
-Saggy headliner
-New shocks
-Go through steering and align
-Intermittent low beams
-Carpet kit and soundproofing
-Blown speakers and head unit gets stuck on and at high volume. Ask me how I know. (Actually not high volume, it's what my brother has coined "Cummins volume" to hear over the engine.)
-My Creed album is stuck in said head unit.
-Speedo is about 10% fast?
-A little body work.
-Fork lift loadable truck rack.
-Probably change non-working AC system over to R134
-Looking to level the front for larger diameter tires all around. Nothing huge. Mostly looking for a workaround with the 727 at freeway speed.
-Lots of little things here and there. Sill seals, bulbs, repairing/replacing lots of cracked plastic.

But all it all, it's a straight clean truck! I'm looking forward to getting it road worthy and then eventually will dig into some minor engine mods and changes.

What could this be?

N. Besonderes — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 14:29:41 GMT

This was stuck to my oil drain plug magnet.
There was no shavings or glitter.
It has smooth rounded edges all around it so not sheared off.

-Niemand

New ZF 8sp retrofit into 3rd gen?

RobG — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 14:21:19 GMT

Anybody know if somebody has put one of the new ZF TorqueFlite HD 8AP1075 transmissions from the 2025+ trucks into a third gen yet? I'm honestly done shifting my G56 esp with the TERRIBLE South Bend dual disc clutch I had installed in early 2022.

I looked into the Allison conversion options and they get extremely expensive, and if I'm gonna spend anywhere near that, I want more than six gears. Plus every time I start looking at new trucks I get frustrated with the high prices and terrible option configurations -- like being forced into the big 12" screen that eliminates all the HVAC buttons. And that thing has a reputation for failure every few years.

My 2005 is still pretty darn nice... 177k miles, still nice inside and out. I'd never sell it, but I sure would like to make it nicer.

So anyway I thought I'd ask.

Black smoke in between shifts normal?

Motorhead_22 — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 00:14:35 GMT

Is black smoke with a manual in between shifts normal? My huess is ots becaise the turbo has to build boost again and once it does that the smoke clears up. So its like a 3 second puff in between shifts. Now if you're fairly light on the throttle its nice and clean, but get on it more than that and you get the 3 second smoke puffs on each gear. Wonder if I need some injectors at this point? 250k?

2018 2500 Diesel - fix for the ABS dinging?

Hornswoggle — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 10:46:29 GMT

There appears to be no resolution in sight for this **** recall 🤬 Is there any way to make the f*cking warning ding stop?

Door Glass Glue?

N. Besonderes — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 02:56:08 GMT

Driver's side window glass has been separated from the window regulator channel for a long time. I keep doing temporary fixes with Gorilla Tape (aint no more permanent fix than a temporary fix), but I need to take the time to glue this thing down good.
I've come across Dupont Betaseal U-418 and 3M Channelseal Adhesive.
Anyone tried one or both of these?
I'm going to order both and just pick one, unless I hear an opinion before I apply it. I'm sure either one will work as long as I wire-wheel out the channel, real good like, and squirt it down with good ole brake cleaner first.

Thanks,
-Niemand

Looking for info on 06 5.9 oil bypass, coolant filter and coolant bypass info.

B.klair — Wed, 27 May 2026 09:49:09 GMT

Thinking these will most likely be the next upgrades on my 06 since i just rebuilt the top end. Thinking this would help protect my investment?