I forgot about the automotive forum 😱

[highup]

Yep, started with the brakes then decided to investigate the ball joint which turned out to be a spindle problem. Doing the brakes and regreasing the bearings aren't that big of a deal. Never did a ball joint before and that's a totally new experience I don't want to do it again. In the process I discovered that my ball joint was fine and the spindle where it connects to the ball joint had wallowed out the cast iron into an oval...... that was my issue. I think someone had replaced the ball joint and never tighten the nut tightly enough to the cast iron spindle.
It got worse from there I noticed the upper control arm bushings were totally shot almost no rubber left on one side.
I thought that the ball joint replacement was difficult......
But I discovered that removing the upper control arm and replacing those bushings much more difficult. The only bright side was that O'Reilly's automotive rents out tools for free you just have to pay a deposit. I had to pay $145 deposit on a press to put in the ball joints and the bushing. The press is a super heavy duty C clamp with some extra parts.
I have the upper control arm back in place and tomorrow I plan to finish the brakes on the driver side and hopefully a spindle from a wrecking yard will arrive on Wednesday so I can finish the passenger side. The difficult stuff is done.
Seem silly putting $400 into a $500 pickup.

 

[C.J.]

Seem silly putting $400 into a $500 pickup.

Not to me. Debt is slavery. I don’t have payments on anything and life is good. Economic freedom is good. Just think about how much more you would have to work if you took on payments. You might have to show up at a real start time

 

[highup]

Not to me. Debt is slavery. I don’t have payments on anything and life is good. Economic freedom is good. Just think about how much more you would have to work if you took on payments. You might have to show up at a real start time

That's never going to happen.
If I bought another rig of course would be used and then I'd have to start discovering things that need fixing on that one. I already know the rig that I have, so I know what's good and I know what needs attention.
The bushings will never need replacing again so that's a good thing.
It needs motor mounts too but not at this moment in time.

 

[highup]

 

[C.J.]

That's never going to happen.
If I bought another rig of course would be used and then I'd have to start discovering things that need fixing on that one. I already know the rig that I have, so I know what's good and I know what needs attention.
The bushings will never need replacing again so that's a good thing.
It needs motor mounts too but not at this moment in time.

That’s the same reason I’m still driving my van. I told my buddy if I won the lottery I still wouldn’t buy a new van. I would put a Cummins 5.9 in what I got though.

 

[highup]

That’s the same reason I’m still driving my van. I told my buddy if I won the lottery I still wouldn’t buy a new van. I would put a Cummins 5.9 in what I got though.

The infamous 12 valve?
You can skip ahead to the 9 minute mark. The whole thing is only about 11 minutes long.

 

[C.J.]

I’ve seen that guys projects. There are places out there that do Fummins conversions. It’s definitely a lot easier to do with a truck but doing it in a van ain’t nothin that money can’t overcome. And if I win the lottery money won’t be a problem.

 

[highup]

Have you seen the one that Matt is doing? He has the demolition ranch channel and the off the ranch channel. He's paying some guy a buttload of money to build a one of a kind Cuda.
The guy doing the body work does fantastic sheet metal work. He builds custom cars and specializes in the ones they call wide body. The wide bodies are like a regular car but he widens them out a few inches to give them a totally different look.
The car body is on an actual Dodge truck frame. They extended the front end of the car by lengthening it by about 6 in, they also built a floor pan and firewall from scratch. Like I said the guy is just amazing.

 

[Steve079]

I had the headlight switch on my Gen2 Dodge Ram go wonky as I towed my boat to the lake at dark thirty, was able to wiggle it and manage to get down there ok. Dang switch was almost 100 bucks, so I figured as long as I was bleeding cash, I'd tackle the plug's in that 488ci V10. Youtube got me thru the headlight switch, and I've changed enough plugs to likely have the sockets and extensions I needed. Went well, got the first 8 done, with new wires, and called it a day so I could BBQ some chicken. Next morning, I tackled the las t 2 on the drivers side. Couldn't see them at all, tried going thru the fender well, but the steel inner fender proved to be a no go. Couldn't reach high enough from underneath, so I grabbed a partial sheet of 3/8 plywood, layed it on top of the motor, laid on my belly and got them done. That was a first, and a last. God help me, I love that truck, lol.
No pics of the engine, but here's the chicken.

 

[Mark Brown]

I miss hating you and all your delicious looking BBQ steve.

 

[Steve079]

I miss hating you and all your delicious looking BBQ steve.

totally fine with that lol. had 21 of our kids, grandkids over that 4th of July Sunday to help eat it. Gotta have big BBQ to feed that many, oh, and the old man down the street, I tell him to come over anytime he smells the barrel going, lol.

 

[highup]

Front spindle arrived via UPS yesterday. The box seem pretty heavy. Got home only to realize they had shipped me not just the spindle but the front brake rotor that I didn't need. After work to remove the rotor and spend an hour getting the spindle cleaned up. And now I have the spindle back in place, then let's torqued down so after work tonight taking grease up the new spindle, install the new bearings and inner seal.
Maybe on Sunday I'll be able to install the new calipers pads and brake line and finally get my pickup usable once again. The driver side is ready to have the wheel put back on so I'm finally getting there. I think I doubled the value of my pickup. It's now worth $1,000.