Hello all,

Name's Drew. I come from the Toyota world (mostly pre-2000 land cruisers), but got my hands under a dodge hood this week when a friend of mine bought an '02 2500 V8 plow truck from his boss. it's a little rough around the edges, so he asked me for help (knowing i've done a lot of work on LC's and other cars). I'll just list the issues I hope to get a push in the right direction with:

1. Parking brake light is on. I've read a lot about the ABS-PB-speedo issue, but this is just the parking brake light. It seems that these trucks don't have a brake fluid level sensor??? If that is correct, I assume that the only trigger for the light is the park brake. i tested the W-GR wire that goes to the grounding switch by the petal and it didn't have any voltage. Can someone confirm that that wire should be hot and weather or not there is another trigger for the PB light? Or better yet, is there a link someone can provide me with to look at a wire diagram?

2. Mystery hose. on the passenger valve cover, there is an open hose fitting, similar to the PCV hose fitting on the drivers side. I don't believe it's actually part of the PCV system because there's no vacuum there while the engine is running, and I didn't see any open hoses coming off the intake. Instead, I found a hose that had been sitting (melting) on the exhaust that goes down to what appears to be a charcoal canister on the passenger frame rail. should this hose be connected to the valve cover?

3. 4wd won't engage. Haven't poked around with this one too much yet, but when the tranny is in N the T-case lever physically wont move anywhere outside of N and 2H. wonder if this is a common issue?

That's it for now. If y'all want some pics I can snap some next time I'm with the truck, otherwise I hope those descriptions will do for the time being (I know you want pics anyway). Thanks in advance, looking forward to hearing from y'all

 

Going off of this diagram
http://redirect.viglink.com/?format=...&txt=2000-2001

It looks like I've got a short between the light and the switch. On the optional wiring, what does "DRL" stand for/how do I know if the truck is "DRL" or "Other"? I thought it might be a transmission code but that abbreviation isn't listed

 

Well, DRL will be your "daytime running lights"

 

Haven't poked around with this one too much yet

 

wow I'm an idiot haha thanks

 

I'll try to help:
1. - I don't know, I'll let someone else chime in.
2. I believe your mystery hose connects back to the air box. Should be on the underside of the air box.
3. The 4WD system is CAD operated and relies on vacuum. Start by checking all the hoses for leaks.

 

UPDATE

We've been tackling a bunch of the other issues but the development of the brake light continues. After taking the dash apart to look for a short, I decided to test the ABS light to see if it was working or not (it being incandescent and the brake light being LED) and sure enough, it was burnt out. put it in and it lit right up, so a short is no longer suspect and we turned to the rear diff. We replaced that sensor with a new one from autozone, reset the lights (disconnected the battery, but key to ON, held brake for 30 seconds) but no lock getting the lights off.

Did I miss anything? I was expecting to find fragments stuck to the old sensor, but it was just covered in old diff oil. Am I going to actually need to open up the diff or could anything else be causing the brake/ABS light to stay on?

 

Does your speedometer work reliably? If so, then the sensor on the diff is doing its job, and something else is going on. Do you have RWAL? Or 4WAL?

 

the speedometer worked for the most part before we replaced the sensor, now it doesn't do anything at all haha. I believe I have 4WAL because there's speed sensors for both front wheels...is that correct? I read like 13 pages of this beast from the durango forum
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen...t-help-18.html and am curious if the 2500 also has a speed sensor at the tranny. fround a plug that could be, but it looked pretty different from the one on the diff so I'm not sure.
Thank you for your help guys

 

Well I got a multimeter and started testing all the sensors I knew, I think we're coming to the end of this:
Rear diff: old, open. new, ~2000 Ohms. so no money wasted there.
Front right: OPEN
Front left: ~1000 Ohms.
According to the link above, the 1000 and 2000 ohm readings are in spec and consistent with readings other folks have been getting with their durangos of similar years, I think it's safe to assume that the rams would be no different. We're in the process of tearing the hub down to the sensor and buying a new one. I read these ones can get pretty pricey, does anybody have a recommendation for where to buy one for a reasonable price?