Hello everyone, I have owned a 97 ram since 2010. It's been a really good truck, and I have put 90k miles on it which put it up to 183k. So unfortunately it's time to put some money into it if I want to keep it. I thought about getting another truck but I really like this one. So far I have done upper and lower ball joints, inner and outer tie rod ends, inner and outer wheel bearings, sway bar stabilizer link, brake pads and brake shoes, valve cover gaskets, dropped the transmission, and changed the rear main seal all in the past week. The transmission needs to be rebuilt but I have another set right beside the one that came out. Tomorrow if everything goes well I will be putting in a trans, only thing left after that will be finding out why the air-conditioning doesn't work, and I'm thinking I have a vacuum leak because the vents flip from front to defrost while driving up a hill. The truck has been down for several months now, but I'm anxious to get it up and going again.

 

Change the freeze plugs on the back of the engine while you have the trans out.

Have you checked the plenum? (there is a thread that covers this topic in the 2nd Gen Ram section.)

Welcome to DF!

 

Welcome to DF! Check out the 2nd gen Ram section.