Lesson from working on a Dodge

Their engineering is really half assed sometimes , I am removing the transmission from a 1988 Dodge Ram 4x4 half ton , and Dodge really did not take into account that at some point the transfer case and transmission may have to come out for repairs , I do like the late 80s and early 90s Dodge trucks though .

Hilux wrote:

Their engineering is really half assed sometimes ...

"Their" covers a lot of ground .... it's not just Dodge. Ever try to change the rear plugs in a 5.4L F-150, the starter in a V6 4Runner, or do anything other than routine maintenance on a Powerstroke equipped SuperDuty? You'll be cussin' a mean long blue streak on the first two and you'll have to pull the front clip on the latter. Cramming evermore stuff into smaller and smaller spaces means "half assed" is par for the course.

Just about anything from that era will be the same way. Same can be said for many things in history when compared to today.

To remove the transfercase on my '00 Chevy I have to lift the cab.
You were saying?

Hmm maybe this is part of the problem , I found this picture of the dodge I am working on , the previous owner that destroyed the transmission was driving in salt water to the top of the tires must be why it's so rusty underneath .

That can never be good. I have refused to help friend put in their boats with my truck if they want to put it in salt water. One year early 90's we had a bad nor' eastern that brought the salt water up the streets about 6'' deep. I had a 91 Ford pickup and it really rusted out the undersides. I had to change the brake system, rotor, calipers, and pads as they rusted bad and locked up bad after every rain. During the last hurricane I pull all the vehicles up as close to the house as I could get them. Lucky for me, the water only made it to the curb across the street. The neighborhood that I lived in with the Ford got washed out to sea.

A pic from today after we got it driving , I will have swap out the front axle as it has the central axle disconnect and it doesn't work .

My old man worked for an Electric Co-op in the 80's, they bought a fleet of 80's Dodge trucks, with about 500 miles on my old mans, the door fell completely off. They had that fixed and the other door fell off.

That era of Dodges are best left to rot.

pup wrote:

My old man worked for an Electric Co-op in the 80's, they bought a fleet of 80's Dodge trucks, with about 500 miles on my old mans, the door fell completely off. They had that fixed and the other door fell off.

That era of Dodges are best left to rot.

I like the 1988 to 1993 Dodge full size trucks , they are old school with EFI , think they look kid of cool too .