Fat stack of shiny new hardware for my Dak!
#1
09-25-2014, 02:51 AM
Fat stack of shiny new hardware for my Dak!
Hey everyone,
Recently spent a bunch of money to get my '92 Dakota looking pretty and running strong.
The link below will show you a picture of almost all the stuff piled up in my living room. Some of my recent purchases aren't shown in the picture, but I will snap some more pictures and post em up soon. Some of the stuff is already installed, some of it is not. Wish I had taken pictures of my work as I was doing it.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...2/IMG_2231.JPG
From EBay - stock-equivalent center caps for my stocker alloy 12-spoke wheels. They look just like the stockers but unfortunately don't have the ram's head logo debossed on the centers. It is 100% IMPOSSIBLE to find new original stock caps (with the ram's head logo debossed on the center.) or even used caps that aren't weathered to hell. I had been driving around for a while with no center caps because the rattling was driving me nuts. All but one of my original caps was missing at least one of the ABS plastic snap tabs, so they were not sitting in place snugly as-installed.
From All Dodge Truck - A used crankshaft pulley. It is 100% impossible to find a new OEM-style pulley for a Magnum engine, so here I settled for a used part from a parts recycler. This pulley is much nicer than the one on my engine right now. When the guy that swapped the 5.2 into my dak (a factory six banger) put the engine in the truck, he put on a crank pulley that was damaged. The pulley has a big dent/gouge in it and as it sits on the balancer, it wobbles a bit.
From Summit Racing - In the above picture, the air filter, roller rockers, and valve cover gaskets had not yet arrived. I also had extra baffles in there for the valve covers, which I have since returned since the covers already come with baffles installed!!
From RockAuto:
So, like I said, I'll take some more pictures and tell everyone a bit more about what I've been doing
Recently spent a bunch of money to get my '92 Dakota looking pretty and running strong.
The link below will show you a picture of almost all the stuff piled up in my living room. Some of my recent purchases aren't shown in the picture, but I will snap some more pictures and post em up soon. Some of the stuff is already installed, some of it is not. Wish I had taken pictures of my work as I was doing it.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...2/IMG_2231.JPG
From EBay - stock-equivalent center caps for my stocker alloy 12-spoke wheels. They look just like the stockers but unfortunately don't have the ram's head logo debossed on the centers. It is 100% IMPOSSIBLE to find new original stock caps (with the ram's head logo debossed on the center.) or even used caps that aren't weathered to hell. I had been driving around for a while with no center caps because the rattling was driving me nuts. All but one of my original caps was missing at least one of the ABS plastic snap tabs, so they were not sitting in place snugly as-installed.
From All Dodge Truck - A used crankshaft pulley. It is 100% impossible to find a new OEM-style pulley for a Magnum engine, so here I settled for a used part from a parts recycler. This pulley is much nicer than the one on my engine right now. When the guy that swapped the 5.2 into my dak (a factory six banger) put the engine in the truck, he put on a crank pulley that was damaged. The pulley has a big dent/gouge in it and as it sits on the balancer, it wobbles a bit.
From Summit Racing - In the above picture, the air filter, roller rockers, and valve cover gaskets had not yet arrived. I also had extra baffles in there for the valve covers, which I have since returned since the covers already come with baffles installed!!
From RockAuto:
So, like I said, I'll take some more pictures and tell everyone a bit more about what I've been doing
Last edited by DukeDomB; 09-25-2014 at 03:18 AM.
#2
09-25-2014, 03:15 AM
In the mean time, I'm hoping to ask about some troubles I've been noticing on my Dak.
1) Ongoing for 2 years now - When I am applying moderate brake pressure AND applying a slight steering input, I often feel a sort of a thumping or snapping through the wheel and the brake pedal. I haven't characterized what speeds are involved, but it's usually when the truck is gradually slowing down from street speed and has decelerated to, maybe 10 mph? And it's when returning the wheel back towards center from having turned left or right that seems to be strongly associated with this braking noise/sensation.
2) I had all my upper and lower ball joints, upper and lower control arm bushings replaced, and brake calipers replaced. This was done by a very good local wheel and brake shop, who then did an alignment. After that, I replaced the sway bar end links and bushings myself. None of this was strictly necessary, I just wanted to have my truck be super solid. Since then, the truck has started squeaking noisily when I go over speed bumps. I don't recall if this developed before or after I changed the end links/bushings. Should I try putting dish soap on the bushings, one at a time, to try and quiet the offending bushings? Might I need to re torque the sway bar end link nuts?
3) I haven't yet fully characterized the combinations of speed and gear at which this occurs, but sometimes when I press on the brake, there is immediately a single sharp and pretty loud snap or pop that seems to come from the front end of the truck. Is this in the engine, transmission, or driveline? Is it in the brakes? I'm 2WD by the way, and I'm pretty sure I have good pad life.
4) Last week the truck was really hard to cold start. But now that problem is gone this week. The weather is not different. I didn't change anything. Two weeks prior to this cold starting difficulty, I had installed the Gates belt, tensioner, and pulley, the MSD coil and plug wires separators, and the Summit Racing plug wires.
5) Sometimes now when I shut the engine off after driving the truck around, there is a single loud clanking/banging sound that comes from under the hood. It only happens sometimes, so I can't reliably get out under the hood and pinpoint the noise. What could this be?
6) I've got a tapping noise on cold start. It fades after the engine warms up. Could this be a manifold leak? Using a bamboo stick as a ghetto stethoscope, it seems to be coming from the right side of the engine. Perhaps this is valvetrain noise, such as a crappy lifter?
7) My PCV valve intermittently rattles like a mad dog at idle. Will this go away when I install my new covers with new grommets gaskets? The existing grommet is pretty baked out, seating the PCV valve rather loosely. The valve cover gaskets also leak oil.
1) Ongoing for 2 years now - When I am applying moderate brake pressure AND applying a slight steering input, I often feel a sort of a thumping or snapping through the wheel and the brake pedal. I haven't characterized what speeds are involved, but it's usually when the truck is gradually slowing down from street speed and has decelerated to, maybe 10 mph? And it's when returning the wheel back towards center from having turned left or right that seems to be strongly associated with this braking noise/sensation.
2) I had all my upper and lower ball joints, upper and lower control arm bushings replaced, and brake calipers replaced. This was done by a very good local wheel and brake shop, who then did an alignment. After that, I replaced the sway bar end links and bushings myself. None of this was strictly necessary, I just wanted to have my truck be super solid. Since then, the truck has started squeaking noisily when I go over speed bumps. I don't recall if this developed before or after I changed the end links/bushings. Should I try putting dish soap on the bushings, one at a time, to try and quiet the offending bushings? Might I need to re torque the sway bar end link nuts?
3) I haven't yet fully characterized the combinations of speed and gear at which this occurs, but sometimes when I press on the brake, there is immediately a single sharp and pretty loud snap or pop that seems to come from the front end of the truck. Is this in the engine, transmission, or driveline? Is it in the brakes? I'm 2WD by the way, and I'm pretty sure I have good pad life.
4) Last week the truck was really hard to cold start. But now that problem is gone this week. The weather is not different. I didn't change anything. Two weeks prior to this cold starting difficulty, I had installed the Gates belt, tensioner, and pulley, the MSD coil and plug wires separators, and the Summit Racing plug wires.
5) Sometimes now when I shut the engine off after driving the truck around, there is a single loud clanking/banging sound that comes from under the hood. It only happens sometimes, so I can't reliably get out under the hood and pinpoint the noise. What could this be?
6) I've got a tapping noise on cold start. It fades after the engine warms up. Could this be a manifold leak? Using a bamboo stick as a ghetto stethoscope, it seems to be coming from the right side of the engine. Perhaps this is valvetrain noise, such as a crappy lifter?
7) My PCV valve intermittently rattles like a mad dog at idle. Will this go away when I install my new covers with new grommets gaskets? The existing grommet is pretty baked out, seating the PCV valve rather loosely. The valve cover gaskets also leak oil.
Last edited by DukeDomB; 09-25-2014 at 03:17 AM.
#3
09-29-2014, 07:58 PM
#6
01-20-2015, 04:13 AM
#7
01-20-2015, 09:34 AM
Did you ever fix the thumping/loud snap while on the brakes? My truck does this. The issue is that the bushings in the caliper pin holes are shot and the caliper is floating around. The thud is it smacking the pins, and the thumping is it moving around while braking. Also my pads are worn unevenly. Take a look at yours as see how they look.
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#8
01-27-2015, 02:06 AM
Did you ever fix the thumping/loud snap while on the brakes? My truck does this. The issue is that the bushings in the caliper pin holes are shot and the caliper is floating around. The thud is it smacking the pins, and the thumping is it moving around while braking. Also my pads are worn unevenly. Take a look at yours as see how they look.