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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.
KRB,
The auto has been kinda fun to drive. I will be honest I shift it into most of the gears anyway.
I am happy to report my left foot has not matted the brake pedal to the floor once during a gear shift....As my brain is used to my left foot matting a clutch pedal during every shift for decades.
The snow at higher elevations has stuck to the Mts for most of the week.
I have the RC ready for winter in the shop with a list of things I want to do to improve over the winter.
Been fun cruising it around finally last summer after 22+ years off the road.
I threw a few things together at the end to get it on the road for the summer.
Some of the Autometer gauges need to be hooked up. I never got inner door panels cleaned up and installed. I want to go over the motor and check a few things out. I have a drip of ATF out of the speedo port on the 47RH. The water pump seems to weep a bit even through it is a new Gates unit. I would like to get the Compu Shift mini hooked up, but likely keep the manual switches I am using now. Kinda set up like a his and hers shifter option. So I could toggle between O/D and Lock up working using the Compu-shift easy peasy, or be able to switch to manual O/D and lock up which also lets me lock it up in D.
I also want to take 1 1/2 - 2 inches out of the front springs. I feel with the shorter wheelbase there is less weight on the front end, then a long bed truck. A Ramcharger is also lighter and does not carry a load. I feel the stock OEM used D-250 spring I used as still making it sit too high. I plan on cutting a coil or a little less out of them this winter. The Ramcharger sits higher off the front bump stops than a couple of D-250 OEM Cummins trucks I have.
Just out of curiosity, how easy does that P-pump start vs your VEs? The Road Tractor engine takes a little more cranking than my older engines, kind of like how a 24V cranks before it fires.
BHD,
No motor starts like a VE 12V. They are awesome.
My understanding is the VE pump is at a "full fuel" setting until it reaches 400RPM. So it starts instantly with a small puff.... as long as it dies not have an air leak in the fuel lines, or an old fuel filter O-ring.
With the '94-'98.0 P-pumped 12V, the factory actually recommends that you apply the throttle just a touch when starting them. I have some older P-pumped 12Vs with higher milage that will crank a few rotations if you do not add a little throttle.
I finished up my '95 winter truck build. It took a little longer than I had hoped, but I did more stuff than I expected. I started a thread over in the 2nd gen section, but with only one comment, I stopped adding much detail.
I am now working on pulling apart the front end of the Ramcharger to cut some of the factory coil spring out to lower the front end. The 1/2 ton rear springs and longer rear, drop shackles combined with a complete Cummins D-250 front end with only the weight of a Ramcharger over it makes the stance not look quite right to me. I am hoping to drop the front end about 1 1/2 inches. I am going to try and level out the driver's side lean as well. Right now both the passenger's sides - front and rear sit 1/2 inch taller than the driver's side.
To save yourself some aggravation with trying to even the front end ride height, have you thought about swapping in a set of half ton coils up front? Dodge built those RCs with an RB V8 for years. The difference in a fully dressed RB vs a CTD is only a few hundred pounds.
To save yourself some aggravation with trying to even the front end ride height, have you thought about swapping in a set of half ton coils up front? Dodge built those RCs with an RB V8 for years. The difference in a fully dressed RB vs a CTD is only a few hundred pounds.
My RC had a 400 in it and with the engine and all the front sheet metal on it still sits about level, maybe a slight bit lower in the front but not sagging like I thought it might. I'm not sure if the spring rate is different from big block to LA engines.
I got the upper ball joints separated without destroying the boots which was important as they are basically new.
I ended up cutting just under 3/4 of a coil off the driver's side and just over 3/4s of a coil of the passenger side. This got me just under a 1 1/2 inch lower on the driver side and just over 1 1/2 inch lower on the passenger side. At the same time the rear came up 1/8 inches on both sides.
This mostly was about lowering the front.... but also helped address the 1/2 inch sag that the driver side, both front and back, had compared to the passenger side.
The new stance makes me happy.
It is back on the ground, sitting on the tires but I still need to re-attach the calipers on the front end. I left them hanging on a wire, in case I needed to pull the front end all apart again to cut /adjust the coil springs more.
Ollie's progression: The first picture is before I cut out the coils,
The middle is with the same tires and rims on after chopping the front coils. The next is with the cut coils, but with bigger / taller tires installed.
Let me know if anyone needs anymore details on my suspension mods.
The blue tape, in the first picture, running along the lower edge of my front fender was to help me visualize what it would look like with the sheetmetal hanging down an extra 1 1/2 inches.
