March 4th 2012
Well the new Ramcharger showed up thursday night, but we were not able to get it off the car hauler trailer because it had a broken hydraulic hose. After the driver worked at fixing it for about an hour we gave up and he went looking for a new hose. Friday morning he called and had it fixed. We meet up and got it unloaded. Buying sight unseen is quite an experience, and I can't say it was all that good lol.
The body is in pretty good shape, a dent in the driver front fender and everything else looks ok. There is also a broken tail light, which from my first quick search it seems that they might be specific to the ramcharger as I can't see any other vehicles that use that specific design.
The inside is where things get interesting. its like it has lots of "little" issues and maybe 1 not so little issue. I found out quickly that the ODB II port was dead, looking at the dash I could not find the cig lighter adapter to test for power. Into the dash I got... but wait the dash cover, once removed, shows there is no dash!!!!! its in pieces and the larger portion of it is just gone. Fine, I start ripping out the broken parts trying to get to what I want to look for, the missing cig lighter.
Well I got the whole dash and sub dash assembly out, and it was in very poor shape. The photo the seller used was far enough away to hide this fact, got to love it.
I noticed there were lots of little electrical things that seemed to be having issues, the brake lights and turn signals worked . Dome light, chime, etc did not. Started looked and found at this "base" ramcharger with no power locks or windows had been "rigged" up with some cheap aftermarket alarm and keyless entry module. Well who ever installed this was not very good at their job. They had cut and spliced wires and broke circuits. So I started the process of removing all the "trash" that had been installed, wires all over the place for stereo or alarm etc. Once it was all out and the bare wires covered back up I found that a lot of the fuses were either broke or missing. I filled in the fuses and the dome and ODB II started working. I got chime and all that fun stuff.
I then went under the hood to do some basic tune up stuff, I noticed some wires hanging, starting tracing and the hood light had been pulled off and fallen down into the driver lower control arm, moved it back into place. I then noticed that the battery tray was missing and the battery was just sitting down below where it should be. pulled battery and found more wires, they went to the washer fluid for front and back along with washer fluid level sensor. On the passenger side I found more wires, did not figure it out right away... but later when I was testing the horn and only heard a relay I figured out those go to the horns that are missing.
Finally made it to the tune up, the spark plugs are not original, as they are "Autolite Plat" plugs, but it looks like its been a long time since they were changed. The wires were Mopar wires, and I am 99% sure they were original. The cap and rotor had so much corrosion I can't believe it ran (and it idled pretty good at that). After getting it all changed out and cleaned up it idles good and revs real good too.
Took it on a test drive, and it did "OK" but not great, the transmission is having shifting issues and according to my MT2500 not wanting to shift between 2 and 3 and 3 and 4th. After some google'ing I found this is most likely the governor sensor and solenoid. I wanted to change the tranny fluid any way so I am going to hold off on that until I get the parts ordered. I did use the SeaFoam "TransTune" in it, and that did seem to help a little, I have used it before with good results. I also put some SeaFoam in the oil to run through it before I change the oil out.
I also ended up making a few runs to the junk yard and parts store. After a lot of searching I found a dash out of a 2000 dodge ram 1500 that was in good shape (apparently they break and crack a lot), its not the same color... a little darker but I think it will be ok. The yard is going to pull it tomorrow and we will see about getting it installed.
The title paper work is going slow, I have to get a few more forms from the seller but they are on their way. I don't know, but assume, I need the dash back in (along with a horn) to pass inspection. And I have to get the inspection before I can complete the tittle.
While I am in the dash working around and its off I decided to play with "upgrades" I bought new door panels, power window assembly, power locks, door wire harness (already had plugs to connect door harness too). It also did not have cruise and some quick research suggested it would be easy to add, get the part and cable for under the hood, the clock spring and buttons. I got all those at the junk yard, but then after I got it in found out that the wires to the clock spring are not there :-(
Another interesting thing I found out, is that while airbags were offered (driver and passenger) they appeared to be optional on the base model and standard on the SLT and SLT plus. So I am also looking to try and find out how hard this may or may not be to add.
so now I am trying to figure out how big of a pain all of this is going to be to fix, and how to go about fixing it. I am tempted to hold off on putting the dash back in until I can figure out the cruise. It also does not have tilt steering, so almost tempted to fixed that but I don't know how hard that is.
I wanted this to quickly become my daily driver, but it looks like it will take some time to get it there. Sorry for the bad picks, they were taken quickly with my phone. Once I get some more time I will try to get some better ones. (maybe after I get the dash in, whenever that may be).
Well the new Ramcharger showed up thursday night, but we were not able to get it off the car hauler trailer because it had a broken hydraulic hose. After the driver worked at fixing it for about an hour we gave up and he went looking for a new hose. Friday morning he called and had it fixed. We meet up and got it unloaded. Buying sight unseen is quite an experience, and I can't say it was all that good lol.
The body is in pretty good shape, a dent in the driver front fender and everything else looks ok. There is also a broken tail light, which from my first quick search it seems that they might be specific to the ramcharger as I can't see any other vehicles that use that specific design.
The inside is where things get interesting. its like it has lots of "little" issues and maybe 1 not so little issue. I found out quickly that the ODB II port was dead, looking at the dash I could not find the cig lighter adapter to test for power. Into the dash I got... but wait the dash cover, once removed, shows there is no dash!!!!! its in pieces and the larger portion of it is just gone. Fine, I start ripping out the broken parts trying to get to what I want to look for, the missing cig lighter.
Well I got the whole dash and sub dash assembly out, and it was in very poor shape. The photo the seller used was far enough away to hide this fact, got to love it.
I noticed there were lots of little electrical things that seemed to be having issues, the brake lights and turn signals worked . Dome light, chime, etc did not. Started looked and found at this "base" ramcharger with no power locks or windows had been "rigged" up with some cheap aftermarket alarm and keyless entry module. Well who ever installed this was not very good at their job. They had cut and spliced wires and broke circuits. So I started the process of removing all the "trash" that had been installed, wires all over the place for stereo or alarm etc. Once it was all out and the bare wires covered back up I found that a lot of the fuses were either broke or missing. I filled in the fuses and the dome and ODB II started working. I got chime and all that fun stuff.
I then went under the hood to do some basic tune up stuff, I noticed some wires hanging, starting tracing and the hood light had been pulled off and fallen down into the driver lower control arm, moved it back into place. I then noticed that the battery tray was missing and the battery was just sitting down below where it should be. pulled battery and found more wires, they went to the washer fluid for front and back along with washer fluid level sensor. On the passenger side I found more wires, did not figure it out right away... but later when I was testing the horn and only heard a relay I figured out those go to the horns that are missing.
Finally made it to the tune up, the spark plugs are not original, as they are "Autolite Plat" plugs, but it looks like its been a long time since they were changed. The wires were Mopar wires, and I am 99% sure they were original. The cap and rotor had so much corrosion I can't believe it ran (and it idled pretty good at that). After getting it all changed out and cleaned up it idles good and revs real good too.
Took it on a test drive, and it did "OK" but not great, the transmission is having shifting issues and according to my MT2500 not wanting to shift between 2 and 3 and 3 and 4th. After some google'ing I found this is most likely the governor sensor and solenoid. I wanted to change the tranny fluid any way so I am going to hold off on that until I get the parts ordered. I did use the SeaFoam "TransTune" in it, and that did seem to help a little, I have used it before with good results. I also put some SeaFoam in the oil to run through it before I change the oil out.
I also ended up making a few runs to the junk yard and parts store. After a lot of searching I found a dash out of a 2000 dodge ram 1500 that was in good shape (apparently they break and crack a lot), its not the same color... a little darker but I think it will be ok. The yard is going to pull it tomorrow and we will see about getting it installed.
The title paper work is going slow, I have to get a few more forms from the seller but they are on their way. I don't know, but assume, I need the dash back in (along with a horn) to pass inspection. And I have to get the inspection before I can complete the tittle.
While I am in the dash working around and its off I decided to play with "upgrades" I bought new door panels, power window assembly, power locks, door wire harness (already had plugs to connect door harness too). It also did not have cruise and some quick research suggested it would be easy to add, get the part and cable for under the hood, the clock spring and buttons. I got all those at the junk yard, but then after I got it in found out that the wires to the clock spring are not there :-(
Another interesting thing I found out, is that while airbags were offered (driver and passenger) they appeared to be optional on the base model and standard on the SLT and SLT plus. So I am also looking to try and find out how hard this may or may not be to add.
so now I am trying to figure out how big of a pain all of this is going to be to fix, and how to go about fixing it. I am tempted to hold off on putting the dash back in until I can figure out the cruise. It also does not have tilt steering, so almost tempted to fixed that but I don't know how hard that is.
I wanted this to quickly become my daily driver, but it looks like it will take some time to get it there. Sorry for the bad picks, they were taken quickly with my phone. Once I get some more time I will try to get some better ones. (maybe after I get the dash in, whenever that may be).
