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River water flooded and electrical gremlins

1K views 14 replies 5 participants last post by  ws6ta01 
#1 ·
Hey everyone,
i recently came into a 2003 ram 2500 because a good neighbor accidently sunk it in the river up the street from my parents. They asked me if i knew a wrecker and instead i dove in the river and hooked up to it and pulled it out myself. Instead of paying me to do it they just gave me the truck. It is a 2003 quad cab 8ft bed, appears to be a vin C model. 6 speed manual, manual windows and locks. Ive already pulled the injectors and cleaned everything...twice actually. Yesterday I fired it up by jumper wire on the start relay and a new starter later it did run for a few minutes on gas fumes. Im hoping i can get the old girl up and running reliably to keep for myself. Ill be lurking on this forum in hopes of finding all the info im gonna need to restore it. Hopefully ill be able to help some other guys out as well.
Thank you guys in advance
 
#2 ·
As i am trying to decide on the future for this truck, the electrical issues are probably going to be my biggest nightmare. the river it went in has very slight salt but still salt. I say slight because its Southwest florida and shrimp wont live in the live well running through here, mostly mullet only. Still it has some salt so im debating on trying to eliminate as much of the electrical as possible, i.e No radio, no inside lights, etc and then just repair from there. Or can i run a standalone harness for motor and trans only and work the rest of it out somehow? its manual trans and trnsfer case. Has anyone dealt with something like this and made it out halfway decent or am i better off just yanking motor and trans and dropping in an OBS ford or something? any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
#4 ·
Thank you,

I was finally able to drop the fuel tank after pulling the entire bolt out of one of the straps, not taking the nut off like planned. I siphoned fuel/water out with a hose then laid tank on top of me to fight with the ridiculous fuel line “quick” clips. Then the clip for electrical harness was so filthy I couldn’t release tab. Long story short I got it and cleaned the tank real good. Put fresh diesel in it now I’m in the process of trying to remove the water from the lines/injector and rail. Not going so smoothly.
 
#6 ·
So I dropped tank and cleaned. Charged the batteries up and put them back in. Key on the fuel pump kicks on and I can crank from key but I have no power to anything on instrument cluster. All fuses in engine bay are good. Anyone got any ideas on where to start tracking that down? I’m still working on draining water from fuel lines if anyone has tips on that as well. Thank you
 
#8 ·
Yes it was, I drained fuel tank, changed starter, removed injectors and spun motor. Motor runs on gas fumes. I’m trying to bleed water from fuel lines by jumping starter relay with fuel lines off of common rail and letting water purge out. If I run off gas I see diesel/water bubbling out of the top of the 4 threaded ports. When I open valve on water separator I can I tiny bit of water still here and there. I added 5 more gallons of diesel with 1 oz of howes fuel treatment which states it emulsifies the water. I’m thinking it’s almost time to hook fuel lines back up to try and run on its own. I’m under impression there should be a ton of pressure shooting out of those ports on rail but it only appears to bubble. Any guidance?
 
#9 ·
Okay heres an update for anyone thats curious. I have the motor running on its own, cranks for about 1 second and runs really smooth. Problem now is i do not have any power to fuses 28 down through that row. I think it ends on 32. Anyway, i am assuming there is a plug/harness on that bottom side where all of these sit and that must be suspect. if i put a volt meter on negative batt terminal to fuse or prong under fuse, i am not getting power down that row. those are all of the things that arent working i.e tail ights, turns, cluster etc. I need to pick up a scanner to try the obd port to see if that will allow me to pull codes.

where i get stumped is i might actually be having an issue with the ignition cylinder. when i got truck, key was removed from the run position after the man helping steer as i towed him down the road removed the key. apparently ignition was already doing this where key could be pulled while truck was running. i dont really know if those two issues would be correlated with each other or not. also do i need key on for the fuses in that block to show voltage to one side?

ive got this far just by trial and error. if anyone could give me any input on this electrical portion, id really appreciate it. i found the FSM sticky which im going to try and go through now.
 
#11 ·
Well there’s the problem. I’m gonna clean anyway but will be ordering one tomorrow after I’m disappointed after wasting my time and putting it on anyway. I’ll prob need fcm too. If I do end up needing ECM, which is currently working. Does anyone know if there is an available swap not requiring a dealer flash? It’s the most basic truck they could’ve put down assembly line so will any ecm work with same trans?
 

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#12 ·
I am guessing that is the ECM?

remember, the water from the gulf got pushed up the river, hence the storm surge. Where was the truck when it got flooded? Fort Myers beach and Sanibel were 16 to 21' under water, but further up river 'only' saw 3' to 8' of storm surge.
 
#13 ·
It was parked high on a “hill” for the surge and only got up to tires that time. The swim in the river must have done it in. I’m sure from surge the components got a nice splash but they survived that endeavor. The submarine exploration appears to be a little harder on it.
 
#14 ·
So I finally got a replacement IPM and FCM. Hooked them up and I’m getting headlights on without headlight switch on. Still no power to instrument cluster. Pulled the cluster and obviously have some corrosion there as well. I’m gonna get a replacement cluster next. I noticed one of the wires pulled out of its place in the harness. On a base model truck, I should be able to use any cluster of that year, correct? Based off my searches that’s what it’s showing but any input would be great.
 
#15 ·
I have no specific answers towards a cummins equipped truck as I just picked mine up yesterday. But I have “restored” flood damaged vehicles before. First one I did I went about the way you are going and replaced one piece at a time chasing down electrical gremlins. What I did on the last one was I just rewired the entire truck myself I sent fuse panels and modules out to be done by professionals that repair circuit boards and it ended up being ALOT less headaches. More money but less headache.
 
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