SRobertson

Here is the column shot. The column itself runs from upper left to lower right. The pedal is just left of center and the green "box" is the ignition switch that has a rod that runs up to the key switch.

Any ideas? How do your manuals work?

Thanks,

DevilzTower

lmao @ pull a wheelie ...

anyway, to the steering column. I think the later first gen diesels (maybe 91.5 - 93) used the 2nd gen column, since I remember someone mentioning they were able to use a 2nd gen dual gauge pod on a first gen steering column, but the wiring might be different, I dont' know ... I was referencing the mechanical bits.

Looks great so far, can't wait to see her all completed!

Alwaysworking

my clutch switch is bypassed so it will start in gear and for beads on the end of the intercooler pipes, you could just put some weld on them thats what i did.

SRobertson

I need to upload some new photos, but I am slowly ticking items off of the list. Have new batteries, new front shock mounts, near rear shock mounts and....

the driveshafts are in. I can't speak highly enough of Tom Woods Custom Driveshafts. They are just north of me in Ogden Utah and did a great job. The rear shaft was shortened to about 30 1/4" and I took the front yoke off of the 96 front d.s. and put it on the CV and tube of the ramcharger. Bolted right up. I was going to have them lengthen it but the CV joint is hard to come by / expensive to rebuild and it was shot so one of their guys helped me swap it over and put in a new U joint.

Great guys to deal with. the rear shaft was a little long after the first cut and they went ahead and shortened it another 3/4" to make it right.

I did find a cracked grill and was able to epoxy it back together and it does fit, but I won't have AC for a while as the intercooler is pretty close to the grill as it is.

I do need to find an Driver side grill turn signal and headlight bezel, so if anyone has a lead yell at me. Thanks,

Getting closer!!!

SRobertson

Here are a few more shots, the steering is done, new drag link an tire rod .25 wall 1.5 o.d. DOM. Shocks are in. I was able to use the rear shocks from the 96 on the front (welded some mounts to the axle) and the front shocks from the 96 will go on the rear of the ramcharger, Rancho 9000 so I should be able to adjust them to get a good ride.

nice having the front end done and being able to steer it. Grill is resting in place. Found a cracked one that I epoxied back together and did some patching. Holding up fine so far. Need to find passenger bezel and turn signal.

Next is rear shocks, modify the clutch pedal to clear the ignition switch and than do some wiring. I want to drive this thing badly.

Getting closer.

Trooperthorn

Looks like you might have to air down to get it out of the garage heehee. Looking good, cummins ramchargers are sweet.

SRobertson

I have interspersed questions along with the update hopefully in bold...

As to airing down I didn't, but I did buff the garage door on my way out and took of the top layer of dust off the ramcharger. Aired down to 20-35 psi and I only gained about 1/8th on my way back in and the tires don't look that low at all. Amazing how much lighter it must be.

Wired up the batteries so I could start it and after cracking a few injectors and purging the air she sputtered to life and smoked up the garage pretty good. After running for a bit she smoothed right out and now lights off immediately when I jump the starter. Its nice to just bump and not even get a full turn from the engine before she fires up.

I did take her around the block a couple times to see how she felt. Weird and loud as the downpipe dumps right below the back seat. Steering is very light, lighter than I expected and desired. Doesn't come back to center as fast I thought she would with as much caster as it has. Maybe a bit more toe would help????

TOO HIGH, I don't plan on running any bigger tires and it is just a bit too high for me. I could go an 1" in the back and 2-2.5" in the front further down and be happy. The front has 4" Super Lift springs (3) pack. I wonder if I pulled the bottom spring out if I could replace it with a flatter stock one and lose some height. Maybe play a bit of swap a roo with the back bottom spring. Hmm. The back has the 96 truck blocks and an add a leaf with the stock charger springs. If I swap out the add a leaf for the front spring and swap the flatter rear stock spring for the bottom spring on the front end it just may work, that or time to visit the local custom spring shop. We'll see. Not too hard just annoying.

Looks like I need to pull the engine mounts and re drill my holes to lift the engine up slightly. Not too bad but I didn't have the room at the fire wall until the put the 1" pucks in.

I have a brake leak, no water or fuel leaks... But my slave cylinder is bad so a new one is in the future. I cut and bent the clutch pedal a couple times and I still don't have enough throw to completely disengage the clutch, but now that I think about it, it was that way on the 96 as well. Must have been going bad. I am assuming they can deteriorate over time and not just stop working, but stop working as well?

She has some bugs and it will be nice to get the wiring done. Plan on taking the Ramcharger harness and just tapping into what I need for the engine ie. starter, fuel solenoid, heater relay and the heck with the rest. On the guages do the 1st gens use an electronic speedo / odo pickup like on the later trucks? I can probably get my hands on one and if I could get it to work that would be great. I won't have a tach but I can take care of that later and it will be fully legal.

I think I'll take a look at adding one of the swaybars back on. The 96 had front and rear, the charger only had a front sway bar. I would like it to stay pretty flat and see if there is a kit that can be cut and welded on for wheeling to disconnect it.

Thanks guys, nice to have it running.

Kenny D

ide love to pull up next to a cummins ramcharger awsome truck man

SRobertson

Worked a few more bugs out and I am liking it better today.

Pulled out an add a leaf from the rear spring pack and the bottom spring out of the front pack. Put the bottom Front spring in the rear pack and pulled a fairly flexible / flat rear spring and used it as the front bottom spring. Dropped the front about 1.5" and the rear 1" or so. Still a bit too high in the front, but I'll have to find a middle spring for the front pack and swap it out at sometime.

Got the brakes fixed, now just need to bleed them again. Should stop on a dime when all said and done.

Used to the steering a bit more, but it is still pretty light and I am surprised at how much bump steer I get with the crossover steering. My thoughts are that with the 96 drop pitman arm it is actually a bit behind the tie rod so as the axle moves backward it pushes the drag link to the drivers side causing some bump steer. Looking at the stock Ramcharger arm it only drops an 1" maybe less, but the joint bolts in from the bottom giving it more clearance. I think it will work better and it is not quite as long so it should "slow" the steering down a bit. We'll see.

Dropping it just a hair made the front driveshaft much happier and I think my initial vibration was coming from some lose tranny bolts. (Check EVERYTHING TWICE!!!)

I put the stock 12cm housing back on and I may try a smaller one!! With as light as it is I don't think I am getting real spool up until 2k or so. I got on it a bit more and it squats pretty good but it doesn't load the engine enough to spool down low.

Just want to get it legal so I can start working out bugs. But today was much better.

A new shot of how it sits along with the steering setup.

SRobertson

Getting the wiring sorted this wonderful Easter weekend.

I bought the 2 1/16th Isspro Universal 4k tach and the harness but my bad I bought it for the 92+ so I have a harness that doesn't work as I don't have the 4 pin inline connector.

They do sell a kit that has a magnetic pickup off of the dampener and I am wondering since I already have the Crankshaft position sensor, can I not plug into that? I am not going to use it as I am not using the ECM from the 96.

Basically with the wiring I am using the Ramcharger harness and wiring in the fuel shut off solenoid, heater grids will be on a momentary switch (hold it down for a couple seconds) and using an external regulator on the alternator. For speedo I swapped the pickup from the transfer case tail housing to the manual cable which will also run the mechanical / vacuum cruise control.

It is nice as I made a 3 gauge pod to sit right over the stock gauges and the Isspro tach, boost, and egt all match with oem gauges. Hopefully the signal will be similar and the oil and water temp will hook up and and I'll be 100%.

Bad news on the driveshaft as it looks like I'll need to run a CV on the rear shaft that I already paid to have shortened, its just money....

Any help on he crankshaft position sensor to tach wiring would be appreciated.

Cheers, Happy Easter, HE IS risen

SRobertson

Here are some wiring shots,

Its actually not too bad, but haven't gotten it warm enough to see if the water temp sensor is going to work (spliced into the ramcharger wire). Oil sensor moved slightly when I hooked the ramcharger wire to the 96 sensor. Didn't seem right so I took the ramcharger sensor and plugged it in on top of the oil filter housing and I have good pressure.

Lights all work, as do the other items, washer pump, heater, wired in the fuel shutdown solenoid with a new bike tube boot and just need to hook up my momentary switch and the heater grids will be 100%. Working on the neutral safe switch on the clutch master cylinder and I don't have enough throw to engage it fully. Not 100% sure how to deal with this. I can bypass it but if someone else accidently starts it in gear it is going to move!!!

Not sure if I am not getting enough throw on the clutch pedal or what. I have modified the pedal a couple of times but at the slave end I only get 1.5" of travel.

Getting closer.

Any advice on the alternator would be great. I have the external regulator wired in. Long wire running to drivers side positive, short wire running to ground and the rest are on the alternator itself or hooked to the regulator ie. feild and ignition hot. When it was running the alternator got pretty toasty, too hot to hold my hand on it so I did something wrong,

Thanks,

SRobertson

I have the hood on and driving around. I re-did the rear springs and basically built my own leaf pack from the ramcharger pack and a set of chevy 3/4" springs. It makes the rear ride height just about perfect and gives me nice progressive movement, ride is great and should hold the tongue weight of the boat just fine. In total I have 6-7 springs per side in the back and it flexes nicely as well and has reduced the axle wrap.

Still have the tach to wire up, sounds like the magnet and sensor from Isspro is the way to go, haven't received much feed back from the 2nd gen forum on the oem crank sensor, if it would work or not. Oil pressure gauge doesn't move much unless I use a bell sender from the ramcharger on the oil filter port so I am assuming the 96 ecu / pcu converted the signal from the old (96) sender.

The clutch is breaking in and holding better. It just moves in 3rd gear and so far with 4th and 5th I have to be fairly gentle or the clutch slips, but that should go away here pretty quick. I haven't moved my plate since putting it in but I am assuming it is running 275hp at the wheels or so. Most boost so far is 30 psi, so with the stock HX I can push it another 6-8 psi.

I am getting some gnarly bump steer. It has crossover steering and from doing some inspecting I think my issue is that the stock / drop pitman arm from the 96 is putting the draglink too far behind the passenger knuckle. As the spring moves backward the steering jumps left as the arc tightens dramatically. Its bearable but I would not feel comfortable letting any body else drive it. The stock pitman arm is shorter center hole to center hole but would interfere with the frame. I thought about drilling and reaming a new hole farther back on the pitman arm that is on there but want some input before I do. Or do you guys know of a pitman arm that has some drop that is shorter center hole to center hole (I'll pull some measurements today) but the stock 96 arm that is currently on it is about 1" longer center hole to center hole, verses the ramcharger stock arm.

Just fine tuning now and need to get it sprayed one color, even if it is primer. I am going to take the rear D.S. to Tom's Wood's again to get a CV joint welded on. Right now even at the current height it is running 15* or so at the transfer case to D.S. angle. In 4th or 5th the driveshaft sounds real ugly so I am relegated to lower speeds and side streets.

I'll get some videos up on youtube here shortly. (one more picture in another post)

Cheers,

SRobertson

Here is the steering shot from the pitman arm to the passenger knuckle. The angle is visible verses the lower tie rod.

Darryl&Rita

Good sheetmetal (ducting/Air cond) shop should be able to roll beads in pipes, or cut/MIG old ones.

SRobertson

Thanks Daryl and Rita,

I am assuming you are referring to the intercooler piping? I was able to use the stock pipe as it had (2) beads rolled in it and I just used the second one.

Now its working out the surprisingly few bugs of steering and driveshaft cost. The 1350 series CV are expensive.