Well I need to replace the Distributor Cap on my 95 Ram 1500 4x4, and I noticed its behind the motor and will be difficult to get at, are there any tricks to getting at it?

 

Pull the intake.

One member took off the air box, and laid a piece of plywood from the radiator support, to the throttle body. (cover it with a rag first....) and laid on that to do the cap. Looked like a good idea to me, so, that's what I did as well. works fairly well. Far more comfy than trying to fold yourself up into a pretzel in the engine compartment, and lean down far enough to be able to work on it.

 

I did mine by braille. Felt around, removed screws, flopped cap with wires connected, remove and install rotor, replace cap then jumped wires to other terminals on new cap.

 

X2. That way you can do the plenum if you havent already.

 

I did it the easy way. Took it to the neighborhood garage. $20.00 later it was done. LOL

 

I like my tire step for these kinds of things, but if I had a larger garage I'd have an overhead creeper.

Be careful you don't break the hardware getting the old one off. Apparently the screws like to seize and break upon attempted removal from what I've read here. What I do with potentially seized hardware wherever I encounter it: Whack it with a hammer (to crack the corrosion between threads), then soak it down with penetrating lubricant. And just so it's said: WD-40 is NOT a penetrating lubricant. For the itty bitties like the distributor cap screws, of course, a center punch is used. I don't often break fasteners -- the job takes a little longer than it would if everything would just come out nicely without the additional effort, but a helluva lot less time than hauling out the extraction kit and maybe the Heli-Coil kit.

 

Get an M1

 

I just removed the intake tube and housing, sat on the fan shroud and straddled the motor.

Then I just used the touch and feel method and removed the plug wires and two screws.

Also watch out for the vacuum lines on the passenger side of the intake, they are known to break/unplug.

 

i did touch n feel to change mine. i layed onto of the fan bezel, and just poked around, you can accually see the driver side screw if you look deep beside the intake. or underneath near the O2 sensor, just look up. the passenger side is a diffrent story. gotta touch n feel.

 

i have one of those folding steps that you put over the tire works nice