Hi, this is my first post. I'm doing maintenance on a '97 1500 Ram. The maintenance involves new front pads and rotors; and a new water pump. I have a few questions before I begin.

1) Where can I buy a 36mm flare wrench to remove the nut attaching the fan to the water pump? I've looked a few places and I can't find any local venders, except for Harbor Freight, that carry such a large size flare wrench. I was considering going to a local Dodge dealership and seeing if the shop loans out tools.
2) Some of the lug nuts have the decorate wrapping (I call it) gone and my 3/4" socket doesn't work for these lug nuts. I had to use a 11/16" socket instead. Is this a common problem? Is there a recall where I could get new lugs nuts from Dodge? I'd be screwed if I had a flat tire and could not use the equipment that came with the truck.
3) The two bolts that fasten the caliper to the knuckle, what size Allen do I need? I think it's 3/8".
Thank you.

 

my lug nuts had a few of those come loose and they would come off every time i put a 4 way on them, i just glued them onto the lug nuts and it fixed that. i eventually replaced them all with a locking set. i believe they are 1/2-20 lug nuts and you can get a new set at wal mart for 20-30$. i got mine at advance for 5$ on clearance. they were labeled 20$ but rang up 5$ so i didn't complain. at advance you can get a folding 4 way for about 15$ and its pretty nice because you can keep it under the seat without taking up near as much room as one that doesn't fold. you can actually put it under the strap for the factory tire tool. with that you will be able to get the lug nuts off with and without the caps.

you can use a strap wrench to get the fan off the water pump or you can make a strap wrench using a strip of rubber and a ratchet strap. when my dad did his i took a piece of rubber and wrapped it around the pulley then i took the ratchetless end of the strap and put it over the top of the pulley on top of the rubber and went around it and tucked the end under the strap on the top. i had the hook attached to a hole in the frame on the drivers side. when you put tension on the nut the strap gets tight and it'll come right off.

my caliper bolts are 6 point bolts, i believe they are 1/2 inch.

 

+1 what Sheriff said. I have a 97 and have not lost any of my lugs. If I did, they are easy enough to replace and cheap. I once lost (or it was stolen) one of my center caps off my wheel (with the Ram head on it) that was a dealer only Item, $20 just for that little cap. I replaced my water pump with just using an adjustable wrench, but if you really got a problem and can't do it, go with Sheriff's idea.

 

I happened to curb hop a few weeks ago with my front tire and messed up my lugs (thank god the studs were alright). I had to use my impact wrench to get them off and it busted up the chrome covering. I went down to AutoZone and picked up 5 new ones for like $2 a piece.

As far as the water pump, make sure to leave the belt on the waterpump initially. Put the wrench on the fan clutch nut and smack it with a dead blow hammer. If you just try to pry on it it will just turn, what works best is to jolt the nut and it will typically just pop right loose.

One thing that makes the replacement easier is to pop the fan shroud out along with the fan and it will be a lot easier to get in there!

Good Luck!

 

The caps are very prone to falling off. You can glue them, but 90% of the time, you lose them driving down the road. Make sure you use a regular hex socket, and not a star socket. The star sockets are hell on the caps. The nut underneath is actually metric, so if your using standard and an impact gun, be careful, or you will round the nut off. They are around $5.00 a piece at Oriely's. If you've lost more than 6 of them, then I would look into buying a replacement set since decent ones are close to $30.00.

 

Yea, I got mad after that happened with the cap, so I put clear silicon in place to hold them on. Didn't want to loose another one. One other thing I lost, and I'm pretty sure was stolen was the rubber gromit on the center hole of my bumper covering the two hitch openings. I had to glue those in place too. Always an a$$hole out there stealing stuff instead of just buying one like descent folks do. After that I noticed almost every truck has them missing. After all these years I still had my original rubber caps.

 

While going through my adventures with my screwed up lugs here is what I found:
My 4-way says 3/4in/19mm. and once the cap broke off an 18mm socket fit on it perfectly.

 

The lugs with caps suck, as everyone knows. I too kept losing them, plus since I live in rust central, they look like crap in a week. Got tired of wasting money, so I bought a whole set of solid/real ones,as in no damn cap. Well, went through the whole winter and not a spot of rust on them. And they don't loosen up on me like the other garbage was doing.


And btw, when you do the WP, do NOT bang it with a hammer to loosen it from the timing chain cover, unless you want other probs. Use a putty knife or utility knife and cut the gasket as much as you can, and carefully pry the pump form the cover. And one last thing, depending on how many miles you have, you might want to do the timing chain anyway.

Do yourself a favor and atleast buy a Haynes manual, you"ll be glad you did. Trust me on this.

 

Water pump spanner wrench. I got a loaner from the local parts store. That to hold the pulley in place and a large crescent wrench got the fan and clutch assembly loose for me after every other method described here failed. Mine was really on there.

Proper tool = easy

 

zman, just for the record if you were talking about my WP advice I was only referring to getting the fan clutch disconnected, and not the actual pump away from the engine. No biggie for the mis-understanding, just letting you know. Please don't take this the wrong way, i'm not trying to get in a pissing match or anything, I respect your advice and you've helped me quite a bit in the past!