winter blues

hopefully the super charger. goes in the doba.the hills are a live with mopar .thanks for the center caps dcaspen.​
 
Gator said:
. . . in my 99 ram.that dash is brittle after 19 years took me 4 hours.
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About a decade ago, I was involved in multicar pileup on interstate (middle vehicle). The person in front of me, his trailer hitch ball (or whatever it was) went through my ’97 Ram’s intercooler and radiator.
I had my wife and kids in the truck. My wife wasn’t wearing her seat belt (the rest of us were) so wife hit the dash. It didn’t hurt her but it sure did a number on my plastic dash.

I had just replaced the heater core a short time before then and the dash wasn’t exactly in pristine shape them.
I made a bobo and I need to take the dash back off again (not directly related to heater core) and want to find a “decent” one first – for there is no way I can remove my existing dash in less than four different major pieces, and several smaller ones.

Not looking towards that project, at all.

By the way, my Dodge has a 5 speed (NV4500-HD) – in which the shifter stub gets in the way of dash removal. Auto trucks and 4x4 – the dashes are not hard. It takes me twice as long on 5-speed ones – because of the shifter stub. ’98 (or ’99) they changed it to a much easier shifter design to work on.
BudW
 
Could you pull the boot and floor plate and then remove the shifter stub from the top of the trans? I usually do that at work when pulling a trans to replace the clutch. With the stub attached, in most cases there isn't enough room to move the trans back far enough to get input shaft out of the pressure plate all the way. It's worst on small trucks like Rangers for example.

By the way,,,,,,,,,,,winter blues. Cabin fever is in high gear about now. Gets so you don't feel like doing a darn thing except lay on the sofa and watch TV through your eyelids.:(
 
Aspen500 said:
Could you pull the boot and floor plate and then remove the shifter stub from the top of the trans?
Click to expand...
The only way it can be done, or dash won’t come out.
You have to get a large crescent wrench and work at an awkward angle to push down while twisting, in a recessed area, while you are sitting in the truck seat with your head leaning down even with your knees. The shifter stub, the domed plate you twisted and a spring comes out as an oily assembly. Not a fun job. Be sure to place something down over the hole – to keep anything from falling into the transmission hole.

The ’98 (or ’99), the shifter tower will unbolt using 4 small screws. A HUGE improvement.
BudW
 
That's the ones I was thinking about, the 4 bolt style. Had forgotten al about the God forsaken twist on ones.
 
In another 50k miles (at 300k miles, or so), I plan on removing the NV4500-HD transmission to rebuild it (bearings and synchros). I WILL be updating that shifter at the same time.

Actually, I’ve been thinking about removing the diesel engine and transmission out as an assembly to replace the timing cover (a KDP victim) and toss a better camshaft into it, at same time.
The timing cover can be replaced - in truck – but is a 27.1 hour job (per Alldata) all by itself.
I have put off replacing/fixing the timing cover for a dozen years now . . .
BudW

EDIT: I was recently told by a friend. He said to get under the truck, remove the transmission mount and let transmission down to sit on crossmember. That, he said, will allow for enough room to allow dash to swing down with stub still attached.
I might try that – as long as there is no issues with radiator fan or with firewall.
 
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Replaced the kitchen counter top and sink. Man I love plumbing, NOT! No car stuff going on right now.
 
You love plumbing you say? When are you coming by to replace the waste pipe on my bathroom sink? Not the trap, the pipe from the trap to where it connects under the tub. I'm dreading the job which is why I haven't been able to use the sink for the past 4 or 5 months.......The bathroom needs gutted and all new plumbing and was hoping it would be OK until then. Guess not.
 
What's everyone up too .I hate cold weather.trying to wrench in the cold sucks.im trying to work on too many projects as usual
 
I'm up to trying not to get cabin fever and spend a lot of time in the garage doing this or that on one of the cars, wishing I could drive either one of them (especially the Aspen). There's so much I want to do on the house but most of it involves things like circular saws, miter saws, table saws and other mess making tools, nothing gets done. I don't want to use that stuff in the house or garage and get sawdust everywhere but, it's way too cold outside for doing work like that so,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,here we sit. Same reason goes for exterior work on the house. Last place a person wants to go is up and rip a dormer roof off to rebuild it for example. Sigh.............................:(
 
Six tables in the greenhouse are no longer table tops sitting on top of 55 gallon drums. Now there are six tables with wooden legs, at the proper height, AND a storage shelf underneath with a 1 x 6 backstop so everything doesn't slide off the back. Yea!

8 - 55 gallon drums need to be moved out of the garden and taken to recyling. Boo!

Got a box with two new radiator hoses for the backhoe and tomorrow they go on the backhoe.

Got a box of 10 new, extra soft nasal cannulas from a different manufacturer. Already put that on the oxygen line so hubby gets to try a new product tonight.

JW
 
I am blessed to have an integral 2 car garage that I have electric forced air heat in....so I CAN work when I need to. Such a PITA.

The rub is playing musical cars to use the space. LOL

That and dealing with the general winter duldrums and the short daylight hours. Even if working inside, I find I am affected by the short dark days.

Need to address the loose steering column bolts in the Dippy and there are two patches of rust bubbles on the CUda that I have been meaning to address for a couple years now....what NEEDS to happen is new small patches of metal welded in......that I can handle, I think. But that leads to paint and THAT I have no talent or patience for......LOL...so, the rust stays for now....waiting.....silently creeping, I am sure.

Handful of other "I could do this if I wanted to spend $$$...." but trying to be frugal.

Sigh.
 
The winter blues are worse than normal this winter (four to five feet of snow on the ground and 30 degrees below average temps doesn't help one tiny bit). The only thing that keeps me going is the nice warm garage, Don't necessarily always get any actual work done out there but it helps just to spend time with the cars, even if I'm just out there doing nothing,,,,,,,,,,if that makes any sense. It may not, might be that I'm just going a bit insane waiting for spring to come:p I don't mean spring on the calendar, I mean spring when it actually gets warm and the snow melts. This year, that could mean June, since it's going to take FOREVER for all this crap to melt.:(
 
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