looking at my first 3rd gen
looking at my first 3rd gen
I've owned 3 2nd gen rams and am super familiar with them. I'm looking at buying a 2004 4x4, crew cab with a hemi. It has 152k miles on it I'm just wondering what are some things other than the obvious (trans fluid, leaks, noises etc....) Thanks for your advice guys.
Professional
Joined: Apr 2011
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Record Breaker
Joined: Sep 2007
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From: PA
If its a 1500 with a limited slip diff from the factory, pop the rubber cover off the fill hole of the rear diff and see if there is metal in the fluid. Look at the internet for 9 3/4 LSD issues, should have plenty of material to read.
Again if its a 1500, watch out for seized up parking brake levers on the rear discs. Those things tend to rot up and cause the brake to stick on. Not easy to work on, you either fiddle with it for hours to loosen it up... or pull the axle so you can remove the dang thing and do it right. Either way, you'll be spending silly time on something that wasn't designed to be removed easily.
Since its in the rust zone, you will want to know that the fuse box has a circuit box in the bottom that is exposed to the elements and often will corrode and fail. They can be repaired with some solder surgery, or replaced at $400+.
The vent doors inside the housing have small plastic stops that break off, and then what follows is the door ends up breaking the axle it rides on. There are several solutions out there to fix.
Front axle bearings go in the 1500, and in the rust zone you can be assured that the aluminum / steel bearing is fused together... Its doable in your driveway, but be prepared to have corrosion issues.
Rear quarters tend to rot out from the inside out, the factory has two holes in the inner fender that open up the panel to all the moisture, dirt, salt that gets kicked up in there. I can't imagine why they didn't put plastic plugs in those holes, its like they specifically engineered it to rot out.
Rockers have holes in the back, covered in black tape. I've seen many that were missing a couple of the tape covers, allowing all the moisture, dirt, salt to get into the rocker... causing the rocker to rust out from the inside out.
Factory suspension was perm lubed, and I suspect you'll have all new parts there by now... if the PO was smart they replaced with MOOG upgraded parts that have grease fittings... otherwise you may find some bad joints again.
My truck runs great, but I gotta tell ya, not happy with the engineering oversights when it comes to making these things rust belt robust.