So I picked up a nice 98 2500 5.9 4x4 extended yesterday from a used dealer who had no idea what they were doing. they wanted $2900 for it but every single light possible was on. CEL, ABS,4x4,brake,speedo didnt work. Interior lights didnt work(therefore he couldnt read the light) I pretty much knew wat all the problems were, walked out of there and bought it 1500 cash!

So I get home and start trouble shooting.

First off had to get the interior lights working so I could get power to the obdII port. Ended up being the IOD fuse in the interior. Scanned the code. Got a Vehicle wheel speed sensor error. Threw a new speed sensor in, and awesome. brake/abs/cel turned off and speedos back.

Now the only thing Im left w/ is the 4wd light. I crawl underneath and see that the 3 vaccuum lines on the CAD. reds hooked up correctly, the large hose is venting but the black line is hooked up differently. The factory hard vaccuum line on the frame where the black line should go into has nothing plugged into it. Its just sitting not capped off or anything. And the black line goes all the way into the engine bay, into one of the intake manifold vaccuum port. Does this make sense to anyone else? When i put it into 4wd it doesnt feel nearly as well as my 96 did. think maybe the guy didnt know what he was doing? and I should just plug it into where it should go? I just dont know if maybe theres a secret or a trick I dont know about hooking that black line up to a direct vaccuum source. Any help would be appreciated!

 

congratulations on a great truck at a great price.
you'll love the 2500. It has the heavier duty dana 60 and front and rear.

my 1500 CAD only had 2 vac lines, both from the hard pipes that run from the t-case and under the cross member. you're 3rd line direct into engine bay is probably a previous owner thing. any uncapped vac line is potential vac leak, so beware.

here's the best info i've seen. this should get you going.
http://www.dodgeram.org/tech/repair/..._engagment.htm