Darn Dodge

[donkey]

I have an older pickup (93 Dodge Dakota) that I use to tow my camper around and yesterday I had a coolant leak. Now the truck has a 318 Magnum V8 (5.2L), pretty good motor, maybe the best Dodge ever made, but the engineer who designed the cooling system should be fired if he hasn't already been. At first I thought it might be the thermostat, so I removed the A/C compressor, the belt and the alternator and then took a look at the thermostat, the gasket was damaged so I thought, well that was easy ! Nope, with the new thermostat and new gasket installed it still leaked. So back into my garage and I began to look at other possibilities, the block is fine, nothing in the oil so the next thing to check is the water pump, not that either. It turned out to be the bypass hose and that is a nightmare. In order to replace the bypass hose (a 2 inch long piece of rubber hose) I have to remove the front grill, the A/C radiator, the main radiator, the transmission intercooler, the fan and fan clutch, all the pullies, the a/c compressor, the alternator, the water pump and several other small components then finally the accessory mount which covers the hose. Now, I'm supposed to be going camping on Friday and though I'm a fair mechanic it looks like a 3 or 4 day job, and that's without the pressure test. What engineer in their right mind would put a hose under the main accessory mount in such a way that it involves at least 9 hours to dismantle and another 9 to put back together, not to mention the money to recharge and check my a/c and replace the viscous fan clutch (its usually useless once its removed). The local Dodge dealer quoted around $950 ($1.00 for parts, $949.00 labor) to change the hose, and it would take the garage a week, the lowest estimate I could get was for $560.00 its a 2 inch freaking hose !!!

[hutch--]

Edgar,

If you are creative, try a piece of stainless steel braided high pressure fuel hose if you can get your hands on it. From time to time various car engines had silly problems like that and if it wa a common engine, there were often common tricks around problems of that type.

I remember a Ford V8 in my youth wher ypou had to remove the steering box to change a starter motor which was the difference between a 5 minute job and a 2 day job.

[donkey]

Hey steve,

Yeah, I've been thinking that the next time I get a week off I'm going to remove the engine from the truck and give it a minor rebuild. I want to clean the fuel system and flush the tranny anyway so at the same time I guess I can change all of the hoses to high pressure braided and give the engine a complete work over. The engine only has around 280,000 Km (~174,000 miles) on it so it still has a long life ahead of it and I do take pretty good care of my vehicles so I want this truck to give me at least another 5 years. I always liked pulling an engine and getting it all new cables, gaskets and hoses then power washing it and repainting, nothing like getting covered in grease and oil and having a beer with the buddies in my garage.

For now though I have searched for an alternative to having to pull the front end and can't find any, I'll have to get started on it tomorrow and hopefully finish by Friday afternoon, just to change this:

[dedndave]

like so many products of today...
it's not strictly an engineering issue
it's a marketing issue
the guys in the marketing dept are thinking "when that hose goes bad, they'll buy a new truck"   :P

can't tell you how many times i have been told not to design a quality product

[hutch--]

I had to do an engine swap in an early Ford once, saw this really nice dead straight 1956 Ford Mainline Ute in the middle of the night driving down to my dads place so I asked him to find out about it. Was a one owner company that bought it in 1956 and used it to carry car batteries for many years. My dad picked it up for peanuts as it had 2 blown head gasgets. I lifted the heads and both heads and the block were damaged from it being driven with blown head gasgets for a long time so I tried a couple of tricks but there was too much damage.

I hunted up another engine from a 1957 sedan then half killed myself doing the complete engine swap in 2 days. Old Ford Y blocks weighed about 600 pounds then there was the weight of the bell housing and tranmission that nearly stood the crane truck up off the ground. First and last engine swap done that way.  :P

[donkey]

Well, I've got a 10 ton jack and a 5 ton chain hoist in the garage so the weight doesn't mean much, its all of the work disconnecting and reconnecting the peripherals that takes time, reseating the heads is a job but I'll send them out for planing, its not something I want to tackle myself. Last time I pulled the engine it took about 3 hours or so to get it out, that was about 10 years ago, it'll be longer this time as the parts are more worn and fragile so "friendly persuasion" doesn't work as well  :bg

Of course I won't get a full week to work on it til late August so its got to wait until then, for now I'll just do the bypass hose and hopefully it'll solve the only really pressing issue.

[Bill Cravener]

I apologise for laughing Edgar. I do my own car work when its something I can handle. Can't tell you how many water pumps I've changed thru my life.

Yesterday I hit a pothole going up to the drive-thru to get some beers. Looked to me like it was at least 6 to 8 inches deep. Heard this snap sound, got her home and here hitting that pothole snapped the strap that wraps around the muffler where it attaches to a big rubber hanger. I strapped it up with a couple wire cloths hangers until I can buy a new strap for her.

Its my old 2000 Chevy Cavalier round-about city car. Things in great shape considering the salt they lay on the winter roads here in the northeast. Loved them old Dodge Dakotas and I still see them around theses parts, they're a bit rusty looking though. :bg




Edit: corrected confused morning spelling.

[Bill Cravener]

What the hell! More and more we are being told to buy American Made Products when we can, American made what products? We make very little of anything other then wars.

I could not find that muffler strap locally anywhere without ordering it. Best price, Chevy dealership said it would be American made about $30 bucks. Well I went looking on the net and an American made muffler strap does cost up to $28.95 (for a steel strap and a bolt??). Anyway I found the same damn thing made in China for $8.95 plus because of gas prices here in the states it cost me $8 more bucks to have it shipped FedEx. Still, $17 is much cheaper then $29! Hell with the money I saved I bought me a jug of American Made Wine.  :bg

[hutch--]

 :bg

Wine ? A line from Dracula "I don't dreenk (pause) vine".

You should be far enough inland to hook some decent "white lightning", a REAL American drink.  :P

[Bill Cravener]

You can still find moonshine down in the West Virginia hills Steve but I'm not much into hard liquors. I'll have a shot of Vodka now and then but I like a few small glasses of red wine with supper. You know its been scientifically proven to be good for your health. :bg

I know it makes me sleep real good but mostly I drink beer on hot weekends and that's usually up at the family camp.

[Bill Cravener]

A guy walks into a bar in West Virginia and orders a white wine.

All the hillbillies sitting around the bar look up, expecting to see some pitiful Yankee from the north.

The bartender says, "You ain't from around here, are ya?"

The guy says, "No, I'm from Canada ."

The bartender says, "What do you do in Canada ?"

The guy says, "I'm a taxidermist."

The bartender says, "A taxidermist? What in tarnation is a taxidermist? Do you drive a taxi?"

"No", says the Canadian "A taxidermist doesn't drive a taxi, I mount animals."

The bartender grins and hollers, "It's okay boys. He's one of us."

[hutch--]

 :bg

[donkey]

Well, I did get the truck fixed, did it myself and it took roughly 7 hours to do the job. I did get out for the weekend then spent a week in the mountains after that. Home for the weekend then off to the Kootenays for a while, hope to get in some white water rafting while I'm there.

http://www.hellobc.com/en-CA/SightsActivitiesEvents/NaturalSightsParksWildlife/Parks/KootenayRockies.htm

[hutch--]

> hope to get in some white water rafting while I'm there.

Now I know your nuts, I have seen video of guys riding class 5 rapids in Patagonia and they needed their head read. make sure you enjoy yourself.  :U

[dedndave]

a lot to see there, Edgar - very nice
we are on a trip, too   :P
in Michigan for a couple weeks to do a little work on sis' house
the other day, we had a few sprinkles and a nice rainbow popped up



now i know where that pot of gold is   :bg

saw a bunch of wild turkeys running around over by the park
may have to do a little out-of-season hunting