Bob L

TJE

oliver foster

I was going to say I have seen his name on the "on line" list, but have not seen a post from him in a while.

NJTman

amen !

Jim Lane.

maybe368

Careful fellas, he who says the name of the great one is doomed to do better work than him ...Mark

NJTman

Aren't you required to say it 3 times, one right after another, spin around twice, while rubbing your belly and patting the top of your head?

Ending in snapping your fingers once?


I didn't do any of that, so I should be okay!

ZAAR

beetlejuice?

Jim Lane

Hey all of my DTR family,

I did not know that I would be missed so much, Life here has been crazy, my truck has been having its own share of things going wrong,

Some of the crazy started back in July when we were having some of the 110* plus weather, my daughter was waiting in my truck with the air conditioner running while I ran into the house, my wife said; your truck is making a loud noise so I ran out to see a cloud of smoke coming out from the hood a quick diagnosis shows my air conditioner was venting R-12 into the hot exhaust system.

That was easy enough, one of my electric fans had seized up sending the A/C head pressure past 500 psi so for the next couple of days I had to be careful while I waited for a package from Amazon, I installed 2) Mishimoto MMFAN-16 16" electric fans,

I made all new bracketry to mount the fans closer to the condenser and on the same plane.







Not shown but I made all new 10-gauge power harness to both (-) and (+) to each of the dedicated 30-amp relays.

These fans scream, and drawing between 13.0 to 14.0-amps each they move a considerable amount more air that the old eBay special ones and they sound like a pair of cyclonic vacuum cleaners on the front of my truck, but amazingly inside the cab with the doors closed and the windows rolled up, they are almost undetectable.



It is just an awsome looking fan.



They fit nice and snug behind my grille.



They move a considerable amount of air.

Jim Lane

And then my Gates Tensioner # 38157 went out and ate my Gates K080825 serpentine belt, I replaced that under warranty and was back on down the road.

Looking down from my #110-555JHO 160-Amp alternator at my old Tensioner.



New tensioner installed and a new belt.



Here it has to be modified, I had to grind away a section of the casting or it will rub on the oversized cooling fan.



And another view of the modified belt tensioner.







Then I have a few good months and then one evening I was checking the oil I noticed it was going the wrong way on the dipstick, again,

Then after a quick check I confirmed my recently new junk Spectra fuel pump was indeed leaking diesel fuel down the backside of the housing so about $70.00 later, the fuel pump was replaced and 3 gallons of Rotella was drained out then oil and filter were replaced.

Yes a piston pump is on the list of things to do and sooner than later.

I was looking at the injection pump around 11:00 PM and thought I better pull it out and check the front seal, just didn't have a good feeling so I got it out and found the shaft was indeed a bit wet and smelled of diesel, the body of the seal had not moved but the seal itself was hard, luckily I had several Bosch overhaul kits and seals to use.

I had a heck of a time trying to pull the body of the seal out of the bore without taking the pump apart, the sheet metal screw in the body trick doesn't work so well when it is so small but after about 20 minutes and few tools I made, it popped right out. I locktighted the new seal in place and put everything back together.

After several months the oil on the dipstick seems to be going in the right direction and I called it a success.

This brought me to the end of the year and the truck seems to be running fine except for the passenger side power window stopped working, and I had to replace the plastic gear in the lift motor.



For Christmas from my wife I got a pair of Osram 110-watt LED headlamps that I still need to install, I also got 4) 3X5 LED pods for my backup lights and a pair for work lights inside the shell.

I also got a nice trauma kit for my truck a new IFAK for my bug out, and some refills for my EDC and a new SAM-XT tourniquet. SAM Medical from my son

I bought my daughter and me a new backpack and my son got us ballistic panels to up armor them for when we go to the mall or are around other crowds. we now both sporting NIJ level III-A protection.

Way back around June I had stopped at Detroit Auto Body who does all of my body and paint and showed the manager Larry a couple of spots on the hood and cab where the paint looks like it is starting to delaminate from the metal and a couple of other issues and I told him that I think the paint is defective, it looks like it is starting to break down, he took pictures of it from all angles and he said he would contact the paint vendor.

Several months go by and he calls me and said Mr. Jim, guess what?

I say Larry, tell me what?

PPG agreed with you and said the paint had some issues and was defective, PPG agreed to replace the paint and catalyst to repaint your truck.

Detroit auto Body will cover the labor under their lifetime warranty to sand down to the bare metal, prime and reapply the paint.

So on January 07 2019 I had to take in my truck to get repainted, but first it took almost a week to take all of my work tools and materials from the back of the truck, and then after I dropped it off, he calls me and I had to come down and remove the auxiliary battery and all of the wiring under the hood so they could get the fenders off.

He said it will probably take about 3 weeks but in reality it took 5 weeks because of all of the rain we are having, all the work they did was inside a paint booth with heat lamps on to control the moisture.

I felt bad about them having to do all the labor for free, so I had them weld up the cowl cracks and patch them after I showed them how to make it so they were able to recover about $1000.00 for this.

So this brings up to December and it has been raining almost every day since November



Using the way back machine,

Going back about 8 years and my wife's mother falls and breaks her hip, and now who do you think out of 12 siblings has to take care of her, yes, we won the lottery, she moved her into our house and ran my wife ragged pushing her around in the wheelchair taking her to the store and waiting on her hand and foot to where she had to have surgery.

Poor wife, the only time she could get out of the house was to take her to the doctor office which was at least once a week, she took the day shift and I had the night shift.



Jump back to December,

So all of the time that my truck is in the body shop, I still had to get some work done so I work out of the trunk of my Honda Here in Southern California, it has rained almost every day in the month of January and February, we're floating away, they are whining about the dumb drought yet I read the other day, they are letting over one trillion gallons of rainwater through or flood channels out to the pacific ocean and not holding anything back to replenish the groundwater.



When I had to take everything out of my truck, it gave me a lot of time to think how I was going to reinstall everything, there is a lot of old technology I was going to replace with newer technology, for one, I am upgrading to all LED lighting for the headlights and work lighting, so now I need a newer electrical distribution system.

At the present time, I am putting together some ideas, I was able to get my hands on an up fitters system out of a Dodge Charger Police interceptor, and it is all modular and based on the Dill Blox system

http://www.dillblox.com/Downloads/021001-2_02.pdf

I have a lot of ideas for this, including multiple relayed circuits, input battery selector and a remote battery disconnect so that I could disconnect all of the DC battery power from the truck except for what I choose like the alarm and lights.

In addition to my 4 channel DVR and Viper alarm, I also have 24 hour panic alarm in the cab and while I am at the back of my truck.

While the truck was in the shop, I was trying to decide just what to do about the paint on my Leer camper shell because the fiberglass was starting to fail. I was going to have it sanded down and have it covered in LineX but that was going to cost me around $1600.00 to be color matched to my truck but then he said he would not give me a lifetime warranty although I am sure he would have to honor it because it is listed in the brochure.





A few weeks ago we were in Fountain Valley out in the OC and I stopped by American Camper in Stanton (Authorizer Leer Dealer) on our way home, I ask him if they could still get a Leer shell for my 1991 D-350 Ram and after calling the factory he said yes we can have one custom made for your truck

So I am probably going to do that, it will cost $2600.00 complete, painted to match my truck and a lifetime warranty on the fiberglass.

The last half of 2018 has been terrible for us, with my wife taking care of her mother, she was run into the ground, she was way beyond exhausted, she was supposed to have major surgery back in June had to keep putting it off due to the situation and getting no cooperation, house was a nightmare, calling the paramedics several times a week near the end, Rebecca was going to work with me so she could get out of the house,

Rebecca got sick and I had to put her in the hospital for a few days so this was like a mini vacation for the both of us, she got the hospital bed and I got the comfy chair, I had a backpack full of snacks, drinks and the nurses kept bringing me cookies and coffee, we had late night fun watching movies till dawn till they came in at 5:00 A.M. to wake us up.

Wife's sister came by and brought her food and was someone to talk to for awhile she was really only running on adrenaline but like caffeine you soon burn out and she sure did.

Then on 08/14/2018 I was at work and I got a call that she was having difficulty breathing, so once again I raced home and called the paramedics where they transported her to our local hospital, she died the next day, a day before her 99th birthday

About a week later, my wife went in for her surgery, now physically and mentally exhausted for what was supposed to be a 45-60 minuet surgery and then into recovery so Rebecca and I wait, and wait. 2 hours later and now I panic going to everyone I could see trying to find out what had happened to her then a nurse said, oh she is in recovery back where I had left her. Hours later the surgeon comes out and I tried to find out what happened and he would only tell me it was worse that he anticipated and that he will never operate on her again.

So for almost 2 months she slept on the couch in pain, unable to walk or barely have enough energy to sit up. Now she is only able to spend about an hour out of the house before we have to come home so she can lie down.

To add to the misery, during this time her oldest sister living in Arizona had died and one of her brothers a twin in Utah was diagnosed with cancer.

Jim Lane

Probably didn't know this but. On St Patrick's Day 03/17/2019 it was my 20 year anniversary of my big accident, It was St Patrick's Day 1999 at 7:00 P.M. when my 1982 6.2 Chevy 1-ton truck was struck from the rear as I was at a stop light by a drunk celebrating St Patrick's Day, he was going 70 mph and I stopped him in less than a half car length but doing so, put my head through the rear window of the cab.

My life has never been the same after that night.

This is also the night that I found out I would have an allergic reaction to compazene.

The insurance company totaled my truck and I bought my 1991 D-350,

Although I have owned both Chevy and Ford, Dodge is the truck that I have wanted ever since I have been driving really since I was a boy.

So this kind of explains what has been happening for the past 6 months or so,

I would check in to DTR once and a while to see what was going on but really did not have much time to stay.



Last week I went to get into the passenger side and I found the lock broke so I hope to hear from Oliver soon with another one.

Last week, finally having enough time I installed my new LED headlamps on my truck that I got for Christmas,

These are my old composite housings with my Silver Star Ultra's

They really run hot, these were cheap housings so the cutoff was sloppy but never had anyone flash their lights back at me though.



These are my new Osram 110-watt LED's, they have an impressive cutoff even to the side for when you turn.



Here are the lamps from the side, they are odd looking lamps with big lenses behind a clear cover, they have the 3 aiming dots and claim to be SAE compliant.



Here we are closer showing the cutoff.



This is on High Beam.



I still need to check the adjustment, the buckets were aligned for the 4" drop @ 25'.

As of yet, I have not had any oncoming traffic flashing their lights at me including police cars accross from me in a turning lane.



On Thursday, we went to Huntington Beach to have lunch at Rubys and to break up the week.

Here is a little Southern California eye candy for all of you that are still buried under all the white stuff.

There was hardly any surf and a lot of bummed surfers.



Looking down the pier from Pacific Coast Highway.



The shoreline and the side of the pier.



And here is where we came for lunch.



Hey Edwin,

Rebecca keeps asking when we are going to meet our friend at Norms again and I said soon.



So I hope this kind of explains where I have been for the last 6 months or so, wish I could say we were out partying and having fun, but I cannot lie, it has been miserable. :[

I really wanted to let everyone I was still around but like I said, it was nuts.

Jim

Fordzilla

What do they say about when the going gets tough?...Thanks for the update, tough guy......Ben

oliver foster

Wow, sorry to hear about the busy times you have been having.
Nice that they covered the paint on your truck. It is also cool to hear if you want to drop $2600.00 Leer will still make you a capper for your 1st gen!

Don't worry after I dug around through several passengers doors frozen in the snow against the outside, back wall of the shop I found a good door latch mechanism and sent it out to you Thursday.
You should see it today. I will PM you the tracking # now.

Danderson

I got back ended at 45 mph. Indeed it changes you forever. My rearview mirror gets lots of use as I'm still scanning traffic while stopped at intersections.
The vehicle was a 2000 Trooper with zero crush panels. Like your Dodge,zero cushion.
19 yrs later my neck still hurts and I'm going into pt for hopefully,some relief. AAA gave me pennies on the dollar for compensation. No wonder folks hire a lawyer.

Bob L

Wow, sorry about all your episodes. Really nice to hear from you. LED Headlights look REALLY GOOD !.
New camper shell sounds good. New paint sounds good too.
Nice to have you back on the forum.

NJTman

Welcome back, Jim.

The old saying... "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger."



At least that's been the way things affect me.



It does, however, get old fast constantly dealing with uncertainty.

Best to you and your wife