Hi All:
94 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4, 5.9 lt, automatic...
I got 2 questions...

A: How do I adjust my parking/emergency brake? It does not grab & I see a adjuster (in front of the drivers rear wheel, but it appears to only tighten on side?

B: My speedo is off badly. I used to have 265 x 16 tires on it & the speedo was reading faster than I was realy going. Then I needed new tires & the tire store told my the tires on my truck should be 245 x 16. Now my speedo is reading even faster than I am going (about 10 mph).
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Bob

 

Sorry I don't know about A.

B. My truck's previous owner put on 285s from either stock 265's or 245's, so my speedo is off about 4 mph too. From what I hear the only way to fix this is to either borrow someones or buy your own programmer (such as hypertech). I'm curious as to why the guy at the store told you your truck should have 245's, especially as a 4x4. Although now you probably have some sweet acceleration and can easily burn some rubber.

 

That cable adjusts both sides.

Adjust the the star adjusters on the rear brakes themselves. That's what you need to do FIRST. Set the shoes out against the drums and then back them off just a touch. You'll get better overall braking and your parking brake will set better.

 

My truck is a 2WD but the sticker in my door calls for a 245 tire.

 

That's exactly what I used to do, but first I'd remove thr drums and let everything take a blast from a can of brake cleaner. Some people put anit seize on the adjuster.

Good luck.

 

Excellent point ... good time to check for scoring of the drums, too.

 

Yeah I think my truck also says 245 as a 4x4, I heard you shouldn't put on any tire smaller than that size for some reason, can someone clear this up?

 

How do you know that you're speedometer's off so badly? Usually it's the other way around. Stock tires on a Ram is 245/75/16 but mine came from the dealer with 265/75/16. I've since replaced them with 285/75/16's ... of course my speedometer reads low. There is a good chance that if the speedometer really DOES read high, the previous owner replaced the speedo gear (in the tranny) with one for larger tires. Get the correct gear for the tire you're running and all will be right with the world.