Well, I`m reading my owners manual trying to learn all I can about my new beast and I ran into a couple surprises.
#1.Under "Understanding Your Instrument Panel" I saw that my OD switch is to the right of the inst cluster.But when I look at my truck, at that spot there is an air/heat duct.Then I notice that the picture in the manual looks nothing like the dash in my truck.It`s the wrong dash!What`s with that?
#2.A couple pages later is a picture of a transfer case shift lever.You guessed it, nothing like the one in my truck.The lever in my truck comes straight up and the shift sequence front to back is-4L-N-2H-4H.The lever in the manual has a big curve to it and the shift sequence front to back is-2H-4H-N-4L.
Did Dodge carry these pictures over from the 97 model?
My manual says "The New Dodge' 1998 Ram Pickup Owner`s Manual Cummins Turbo Diesel, so I must have the right one.Can anyone shed some light on this?Thanks for any help.

 

I have the same truck ......and the same manual. I don;t know what Dodge did, looks to me like a 97' manual with a 98' cover. I quess no one is perfect.

Bear

 

It sounds as if there was a change from 97 to 98. My 98.5 has the O/D on the end of the gear selector, and my t case shifter is 4L - N -2HI - 4HI.

 

And if you look at the capacities table, it doesn't list a 3500 4x4 d80 rear axle either...but it lists 3 2500 rear axles.

 

Tiny:
Under the heading "Overdrive" in my manual, the 1st paragraph says the OD switch is in the end of the shift lever,and mine is there.A few remarks later under "Overdrive" it says -to turn your OD off, push the OD switch on the instrument panel,a light in the switch button indicates that the switch has been activated.So it reverts back to the switch on the dash.
I hope Dodge did a better job making this truck than they did this manual.

 

I have a 98 also and my manual came with a couple yellow update pages stuffed in it with the new dash and controls on it.

 

Remember 98 is the was changed mid year. There may have been more things that were similar in the new on then the old one. It seems kind of cheap but maybe they delayed intro of the change and only had newer books.

Randy

 

The reason for the change is because of the engines. they used the 97 books in early 98 because of the 12 valve engine. mid year, they released the newer books with the updated rest of the book. the biggest differences are found on the engine seciton of the manual....

 

durasmack- that makes some sense but wouldn`t it have been easier to issue the new book with the 98 pics and the 12V specs then when the 98.5 debuted all you had to change were the motor specs since it was a 24V.