just bought my first dodge yesterday...96 1500 ext cab. got the 360. dang truck is almost pristine and only paid 2000 for it....got it home put it in the driveway was hotter then heck outside so went in to set in the ac for a few....5 min later my 6 yr old came in to tell me that the neighbor kid through a rock and broke out my rear drivers side window....

god i hope this aint a sign of things to come

 

welcome to DogdeForums, whatever gets broke on your truck we will help you fix it for as little as possible. Abunch of knowledgable people on here. Sorry about your window. wait till others chime in

 

that sucks.....

BUT welcome to the forum first of all...

and im going to inform you on some very common problems with our rams.


#1 the Transmission:
-Our trannys are weak...check the fluid in neutral while running to get an accurate reading...if it smells burnt, or if its dirty, expect to have the transmission rebuilt soon. Typically our trannys dont last to much longer than 150K


#2 The Plenum Gasket:
-Yours will blow out, no way around it. look down into the throttle body, if theres any sign of black, or oil, its bad...it WILL blow out eventually. You CAN NOT just replace the gasket, you must get a Hughes or APS Plenum kit.


#3 Fuel Pumps
-Very common problem...you'll know when this goes...

#4 Catalytic Convertor
-Due to the plenum leaking it can clog up the honeycomb on the inside of the cat, and when it clogs up, you aint going nowhere.


#5 LSD's
-The lsd's do have a tendency to blow up, thus having to replace the rear end.
keep up with fluid changes.


sorry to drop this on you when you just got it...just wanted you to be aware

 

its got 124000 actual miles on it...the guy i bought it from had the tranny rebuilt 30000 miles ago....he said he went heavy duty on everything when he did it....showed me the bill for 2500 so kinda believe him....so hoping that wont happen...honestly the only thing i have seen wrong with it is a slight vibration in the front end going down the highway over 65...and the center console door hinge is broken...oh and someone hooked up trailer lights and just rigged it so dont seem to have right rear break light or blinker lol...but thats tomorrows project....

 

Rotate your tires, and see if your vibration moves.

 

or the tires need to be rebalanced

 

oh yeah almost forgot about that...guys brother gave him 2 brand new tires on dodge rims...he only put one of them on the front passenger....only thing wrong is they are 285s and the other other 3 tires on the truck are 235

 

Not to try to hijack or anything, but I just got a '96 Ram 1500 5.2 w/t SWB reg. cab to work on. Needed an engine swap and finally got that accomplished so now on to other things. My mileage is about 165K or so and the interior is pretty much perfect, except some cracking on the vinyl side of the seat. White paint is literally falling off the body though. The truck has not a single rattle inside and suspension is really tight (steering is horrible, however) which really surprises me. Not trying to ramble, but just wanted to say this looks like a great site to learn more about my "new" truck (I'm generally a Honda fan, but want something rear-wheel drive for a while) and I hope to contribute as much as possible also. Anyway, I'm off to look around for a while and thanks to everyone that has contributed to what seems to be a great site.

 

whats w/t?.....thought that was a chevy thing

 

Maybe it's a w/s? lol Yea, the w/t is a chevy thing now that I think about it... I pretty much have a base model with a/c, power mirrors, cloth seats, cassette, and auto.