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afterburn 549 afterburn 549 is online now
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: cross roads
Posts: 14,172
2 Gen Dodge Ram congenital electrical problems and fender flares

For history's sake-
Sometimes projects just become, not planned.
I have owned this thing now for about 20 years, and know most of the prefabricated nuances.
From the plastic piston coolers popping out, steering like a possessed entity occupied it.
Light switches going bad, fuel pump problems, computer problems, random codes etc etc
About two years ago it started the No Bus crap, no communication stuff, all the buzzers, ringers chimes randomly going off.
Instrument panels not showing anything, oil pressure dropping to zero, on and on. You know the nightmare of horror stories and the reputation of these things with VP 44 and all.
This brought the truck to the point of not having it on the road. It would start and run.
SOooooo after searching the net about replacing ECM, PCM, this that, and the other stuff, i decided it just might not be, or can not be a computer problem as it all was just too intermittent.
I started by removing the batteries and installing them in front of the rear bumper.
I replace almost every ground under the hood with marine tinned wire, and tinned ends
Crimped and soldered!
All quite a bit of cash
And lot of work!
But now I can say I think it has been fixed as it plowed the driveway all last Winter with zero problems!
Now I am trying to make it a bit more pretty with fender flares and all!
The batteries in the rear and all the freed-up real estate under the hood are a real plus!
I got a used box and painted it, new fenders etc etc. I still need to put the doors on.
Lesson?
Never, No never drive a Dodge in a salted road environment.
They rot out and in from all directions.








This was ground under the left battery tray after wire wheel off !
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Old 08-26-2023, 05:30 PM
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