Hello to all, I have a exhaust leak on the driver side of my engine. I opened the hood and started looking around and I noticed that the very last manifold bolt was sticking out about 3/4in. I soaked it for a while with some penetrating oil. Then I went to see if I could take it out and I barely turned it and it snapped off. I know how to take the manifold off, my question is how hard would it be to drill out the old bolt and re-thread it? It is the last one closest to the firewall. The warranty is expired and I know it was in the shop about 6 years ago and I know the dealership had it off to replace the head on that side. Lazy bums probably started cross threading it and then just left it. I don't drive it a lot anymore so I never really noticed, but I am going to be driving it a lot this summer. If it doesn't really bother me is it that big of a deal to even worry about?

Also, I had to change some bearings and a race in the rear differential about 3 years ago. I'm pretty sure I got the gears lined back up and it is driving ok. However the abs light comes on and stays on when I start the truck up. I replaced the abs sensor on top of the differential but that did nothing. Any suggestions on what I could do next would be great. Again I have not noticed any changes in the driving or the braking system so if anyone thinks that it is not a big deal then so be it. Thanks

 

Is any of the bolt potruding out past the exhaust port? If so, you can likely heat up the bolt with a torch (get it cherry red), run a candle across it and back the bolt out with a good set of pliers, such as Knipex pliers. For an example of how its done, see this video - it worked for me.


As for the differential issue, did you re-install the tone ring that sits between the ring gear and the carrier? If not, that will cause this issue.

 

Without taking the manifold off I can not tell if any would be sticking out. From the looks of it there may be only a little bit of the bolt in there because the bolt I pulled out was a good 3 inches roughly maybe a tad bit longer. As for the gear ring that has been about 3 years ago I can't recall if I did or didn't. I want to say I did because there was no extra parts or anything like that laying around. That was a big project for me and I wanted to take my time with it. I wish that I would have asked this question last weekend because it was due for gear oil to be drained and I upgraded it to synthetic so I would have been able to look maybe last week when I had it apart. Thank you

 

Do you have 2 or 4 wheel ABS?

 

2 wheel abs

 

What year is your truck? (that information REALLY needs to be in your sig, and profile.)

 

Sorry I thought I had all that information in there. 1999 dodge ram 1500 4x4 5.9L

 

Is your speedo working correctly?

 

yes it is

 

Probably not the rear wheel speed sensor then, as the speedo also gets its signal from there.

Might be time to take it in somewhere and get the ABS codes read.