Well im sorry to say I do not have much of an update. Today was one of the worst days possible I think. Get up early, get parts, stop at mc d's for some grub. Get back and pull that starter out no problem. Things were going great to say the least until I ran across that one pin clip connector that attaches to the starter. My buddy had done one on his 97 diesel so I asked him to give me a hand. Get that clip off no problem. Pulled out that new starter and attached the pos lead wire and then on to that little one wire connector. Well that wire was becomming a royal pita! It simply did not want to go in under any circumstances. I was starting to get a little frustrated and pulled out a pair of channel locks and gently pushed them together. It looked like they were together..., so my buddy pushes the red clip down and it doesnt want to budge either. So he pulls out a small set of plyers after seeing what I just did and procededs to push down on the red clip (so he thought). Ends up breaking the black clip that holds the connector on in the first place. I assume the red is to lock it the black clip into place. Hmm... what to do? Call my local dodge dealer and they tell me "yea we dont sell that connector by itself, you need to buy a wiring harness for 2100 bux." hahaha... I about fell onto the propane heater after I heard that I laughed so hard. Call the dodge dealer my buddy uses and they say "well I can't find the connector, but I do have a whole box full of random connectors we cut off of harnesses just for this reason. Travel down the road bout a half hour to get there... look in the box and no luck. Drive back another half hour. I couldnt think of how to rig it up.. so we looked on. I was in the closest junkyard last week and had three dodges, all with no engines and as stripped as could be. So we went in the complete opposite direction from home and drove another half hour down that way to the next closest junkyard. I figured... hey I'll just grab that positive lead wire and that wire will come out with it after we drop the starter. Make things a tad easier. Well that would have been a heck of an idea since they wanted $5 for the whole pos wire. Nope, about 8 dodges all lined up. Most with no engines and strip'd like crazy. One that caught completely on fire... it looked bad! No luck on the wire that I came to get... but I did run across a powersteering pump. Score! It was from a 97 dakota with a 5.2L and I just prayed that it was the same pump. Looked the same except for two bolts comming out of the back of mine. (made no difference... drain plugs I was told altho i dont really care) Bracket lined up, pump looks good. Guy told me at the counter 30 bux. I was like.. damn 30 bux, I dont even know if it is going to work. Talked him into 25 bux and out the door I went. Swap'd the pumps tonight, put the battery back in (mounted) just not connected. Just have to figure out what to do about the starter. What really pisses me off about the whole thing is, dodge can't tell me where to get that connector. They suggested ordering the battery cable, but... can't even guarrentee that it would come with it. Thats the worst part. I hope the pump works because that would be the best 25 bux I have ever spent. I have the parts to rebuild my old pump, but really do not want all the hassel. honestly I put up with enough this afternoon that I was half tempted to have dodge put the powersteering pump in.......... until they quoted me around 500 with parts and labor. Guess im gonna cut that connector off and solder some wire to that starter pin and connect it. What else can I do?

 

Yep well I got pissed off today and figured.. what the heck, mise well deal with what I got. Ended up cutting the connecter off the truck and using a heat shrink wire splice when it was all said and done after putting slicone on the outside starter connector and slid the plug on. ziptied the heck out of it. I used about 7 zipties to hold the connector on. She's not comming off anytime soon. We threw the new starter up in. wired everything back up. Turn key... nada. I was pissed. Tried again, tried with battery booster on, tried while holding my belly button. no go...lol. Yep so we get the voltmeter out which I should have done the first time. She's not getting power after the key is turned to start position. So I said.. lets just get her started and ran a wire up through the engine bay and wired directly to the starter. Had my buddy turn the key to start positionand I grabbed the wire and touched the positive on the battery. Crank crank vrroooom. fired right up! So for now she's rigged up but I can get her where im going. Time for a push button start I think..lol. The ignition switch isnt bad because you have to turn to the start position she she will fire. otherwise she will just crank. and when you pull the key, the engine dies like its supposed 2. Its in between the starter and the ignition switch. and the only other thing is a relay. Prob is I swapped the relay's with the blower motor and she still dont work. Im getting aweful tired of this. Not to mention the powersteering does work, but she jolts alot. If your at a stop and cut the wheel, it feels aweful wierd like a hammer hits and sends a jolt through the steering wheel. It's like it drops, picks up, drops, picks up. She will do fine for now, but in the near future, I'll swap it out again with a rebuilt one. At least I have the luxury of working on a pump while the other is still in the truck. For now I need to trace that wire back somehow or something to figure out whats causing the problem. She goes into that black box next to the battery and from there im lost.