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9 Posts
Hello All,
Roughly 10 months ago, I bought my 2003 Ram 2500. Originally the truck was my neighbor's truck when he bought it new in 03. For many years, I really liked this truck. One day, a conversation started between my neighbor (Curtis) and me about him getting a new truck. If I was interested in buying the truck from him? The entire truck is tired as it has over 500k miles on the same motor/transmission. I've known Curtis for a very long time and know that he takes care of his stuff. I asked him how much he wanted for his truck. He said not much as the truck has served him well and to just take over payments. He laughed and just gave it to me. This started the journey as I know it today. Our other neighbor down the way is John. John is our local business owner and owns and operates a Mechanic shop that primarily works on all types of diesel for almost 40 years. One day Curtis, John, and I were all carrying on, after hours, in John's shop. The topic of the truck came up and I asked John what it would cost to freshen up the truck. John said that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. I blatantly said a total redo of the truck. The topic went way in-depth about what I intended to use it for. I explained that I needed to tow my 12,000 lb excavator. He said that the 5.9 24v would do that all day without any issues. The conversation ended shortly after.
About a month had passed and John said, you ready for redoing your truck? I said, sure, what is this going to cost? He said not much, There will be no labor cost. I said damn John, that's awesome. Bring your truck in and get to wrenching. I thought nothing at the time but John was not going to charge labor because I was the laborer. He had an old vacant stall just outside his large shop, where he used to work on vehicles years ago before the large shop was built. It was a large concrete pad with a lift. I was standing there overwhelmed, not knowing where to start. John walked up and I said to John, I'm not a mechanic. He said I know. You have everything here you'll need, tools a lot of Mechanic for advice. This started the journey of knowing my truck.
Brian is John's senior Mechanic and has worked at John's shop for over 30 years. Every once in a while Brian would show up and ask if there was anything I needed. He said to keep everything in order. All bolts and parts, take pictures as I go forward. This weekend I pulled the engine. The transmission and transfer case was on the next day. Started to tear the engine down. This was interesting, Once the engine was torn down took the block to a large parts washer. With Brian's careful eye. Chased the threads in all tapped holes. Remove all burrs and casting slag from the block interior. Tap the main galleries at the front of the block so that pipe plugs can be installed. Align hone or align the bore of the main caps and saddle. Machine the deck for straightness and proper surface finish. Bore cylinders. Hone the cylinder. Took the block to a large parts washer again. Used air gun to blow out all holes. Obviously, this is the shortlist. So much is involved in rebuilding an engine and only writing down from memory. The engine is now completely rebuilt and sitting in a corner of the shop covered. While I move on to the next step, Transmission.
Keep in mind that I'm not a Mechanic. So I ended up selling this old transmission and bought a new transmission, if I remember right, it is a 48RE 4-speed. Wanted to rebuild the transfer case. So, I bought a rebuild kit. This was not bad or difficult. Came with bearings, seals, a chain, and an input shaft. Had to send out the driveshafts sent out to be rebuilt. This didn't take too long and was back in about a week. Started on ring and pinion and new axle shafts. the rear is a 14 bolt 11.5" rear sorry I can't remember what the front is. I want to say it's 9.25" but I could be wrong. Anyways the gear ratio is 4.10. This was kind of difficult as brian was telling me to make sure the gaps were right. Used some sort of paint between the gears to determine the gap. I know for sure it would have been a total disaster if brian didn't do it for me. Bought new brakes calipers, brake lines, and a master cylinder with a booster. this was easy.
All this took approx. 4 months. To be honest, the majority of the time was waiting for parts. A lot of waiting time as the supply is either slow or low. Once all together, the day to start was nerve-racking, to say the least. The truck fired up and sounded pretty good. After about 30 sec of running Brian shut down the engine. He said we lost oil pressure but came back up as he shut it down. After, Brian said that it could be sending unit. The sending unit is new and not from the old engine. He said it was worth the effort to install another. I went to go buy another sending unit. Installed it, and started the engine. The engine fired up right away and sounded really good. This time as Brian and I were sitting in the cab the oil pressure dropped again. The engine was shut down again. Brian started to look for a short in the wiring and found nothing. Brian said to drop the oil pan and we'll inspect the oil pump/pickup tube. This was really frustrating as I thought all the T's were crossed. Dropped the pan, and on the pickup tube was a small crack close to the flange. Brian pulled a rod bearing and saw slight discoloration and said we should install a new set of bearings. Assembled everything back together, which took a little over a day. The day came to start the engine again. The engine popped off very nicely. Brian was bird-dogging the oil pressure gauge and quickly shut it down. His first words were, we lost it again. We called it a day and I was left scratching my head. A week had, and I showed up to see if I can find out what is going on with this engine. First I stopped by John's office to pick his brain about what he thinks it could be. John was sitting at his desk and greeted me with a smile. After some small talk, I asked, John, what do you think is wrong with my engine? He said, nothing, Brian worked on it yesterday and found that one bolt on the flange was dead-headed and allowing air to sneak in and lose prime, we both laughed. On my way out I saw Brian and thanked him, and that I owed him a beer.
Well, that's the story of my first Cummins. My 2003 2500 Ram has ~1500 miles on it now and is running strong. I will update this story as I continue to drive. I know I'll have a lot of questions and experiences.
Roughly 10 months ago, I bought my 2003 Ram 2500. Originally the truck was my neighbor's truck when he bought it new in 03. For many years, I really liked this truck. One day, a conversation started between my neighbor (Curtis) and me about him getting a new truck. If I was interested in buying the truck from him? The entire truck is tired as it has over 500k miles on the same motor/transmission. I've known Curtis for a very long time and know that he takes care of his stuff. I asked him how much he wanted for his truck. He said not much as the truck has served him well and to just take over payments. He laughed and just gave it to me. This started the journey as I know it today. Our other neighbor down the way is John. John is our local business owner and owns and operates a Mechanic shop that primarily works on all types of diesel for almost 40 years. One day Curtis, John, and I were all carrying on, after hours, in John's shop. The topic of the truck came up and I asked John what it would cost to freshen up the truck. John said that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. I blatantly said a total redo of the truck. The topic went way in-depth about what I intended to use it for. I explained that I needed to tow my 12,000 lb excavator. He said that the 5.9 24v would do that all day without any issues. The conversation ended shortly after.
About a month had passed and John said, you ready for redoing your truck? I said, sure, what is this going to cost? He said not much, There will be no labor cost. I said damn John, that's awesome. Bring your truck in and get to wrenching. I thought nothing at the time but John was not going to charge labor because I was the laborer. He had an old vacant stall just outside his large shop, where he used to work on vehicles years ago before the large shop was built. It was a large concrete pad with a lift. I was standing there overwhelmed, not knowing where to start. John walked up and I said to John, I'm not a mechanic. He said I know. You have everything here you'll need, tools a lot of Mechanic for advice. This started the journey of knowing my truck.
Brian is John's senior Mechanic and has worked at John's shop for over 30 years. Every once in a while Brian would show up and ask if there was anything I needed. He said to keep everything in order. All bolts and parts, take pictures as I go forward. This weekend I pulled the engine. The transmission and transfer case was on the next day. Started to tear the engine down. This was interesting, Once the engine was torn down took the block to a large parts washer. With Brian's careful eye. Chased the threads in all tapped holes. Remove all burrs and casting slag from the block interior. Tap the main galleries at the front of the block so that pipe plugs can be installed. Align hone or align the bore of the main caps and saddle. Machine the deck for straightness and proper surface finish. Bore cylinders. Hone the cylinder. Took the block to a large parts washer again. Used air gun to blow out all holes. Obviously, this is the shortlist. So much is involved in rebuilding an engine and only writing down from memory. The engine is now completely rebuilt and sitting in a corner of the shop covered. While I move on to the next step, Transmission.
Keep in mind that I'm not a Mechanic. So I ended up selling this old transmission and bought a new transmission, if I remember right, it is a 48RE 4-speed. Wanted to rebuild the transfer case. So, I bought a rebuild kit. This was not bad or difficult. Came with bearings, seals, a chain, and an input shaft. Had to send out the driveshafts sent out to be rebuilt. This didn't take too long and was back in about a week. Started on ring and pinion and new axle shafts. the rear is a 14 bolt 11.5" rear sorry I can't remember what the front is. I want to say it's 9.25" but I could be wrong. Anyways the gear ratio is 4.10. This was kind of difficult as brian was telling me to make sure the gaps were right. Used some sort of paint between the gears to determine the gap. I know for sure it would have been a total disaster if brian didn't do it for me. Bought new brakes calipers, brake lines, and a master cylinder with a booster. this was easy.
All this took approx. 4 months. To be honest, the majority of the time was waiting for parts. A lot of waiting time as the supply is either slow or low. Once all together, the day to start was nerve-racking, to say the least. The truck fired up and sounded pretty good. After about 30 sec of running Brian shut down the engine. He said we lost oil pressure but came back up as he shut it down. After, Brian said that it could be sending unit. The sending unit is new and not from the old engine. He said it was worth the effort to install another. I went to go buy another sending unit. Installed it, and started the engine. The engine fired up right away and sounded really good. This time as Brian and I were sitting in the cab the oil pressure dropped again. The engine was shut down again. Brian started to look for a short in the wiring and found nothing. Brian said to drop the oil pan and we'll inspect the oil pump/pickup tube. This was really frustrating as I thought all the T's were crossed. Dropped the pan, and on the pickup tube was a small crack close to the flange. Brian pulled a rod bearing and saw slight discoloration and said we should install a new set of bearings. Assembled everything back together, which took a little over a day. The day came to start the engine again. The engine popped off very nicely. Brian was bird-dogging the oil pressure gauge and quickly shut it down. His first words were, we lost it again. We called it a day and I was left scratching my head. A week had, and I showed up to see if I can find out what is going on with this engine. First I stopped by John's office to pick his brain about what he thinks it could be. John was sitting at his desk and greeted me with a smile. After some small talk, I asked, John, what do you think is wrong with my engine? He said, nothing, Brian worked on it yesterday and found that one bolt on the flange was dead-headed and allowing air to sneak in and lose prime, we both laughed. On my way out I saw Brian and thanked him, and that I owed him a beer.
Well, that's the story of my first Cummins. My 2003 2500 Ram has ~1500 miles on it now and is running strong. I will update this story as I continue to drive. I know I'll have a lot of questions and experiences.
