2005 Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins 2wd

[rjtx667]

Well I got ahold of Martin at M Saine Performance today, I told him about the oil test and that I wanted the new converter and valve body.

He mentioned a slight issue, apparently its hard to come by 48RE valve bodies to tweak, and get all the parts you need. He said best thing was for me to pull it out and send mine in for  a modification.

A slightly bigger issue, after next Friday he is gone for a month   

He said if I could get it to him ASAP he could probably get it all done and shipped back out before he leaves.

Well right now I am fighting the beginnings of a sinus infection and its about 35* outside... maybe warmer in my garage.

I am a determined fellow... I got it out planning to ship it out tomorrow AM for Sat delivery. I poked around at fedex, they are open till 8, its 7:45. I haul ass there. Walk in at 7:59 "I need to ship this out tonight" response "sorry can't its 8"
me: " no its 7:59"

needless to say after we finished arguing it was past 8 

they did tell me another location (actually closer to my house) would ship till 8:30. I fly over there like there is no tomorrow (not bad for a 12 year old 200k mile durango) and have 10 minutes to spare.

It was not cheap, but the valve body will be there by 3pm tomorrow. So hopefully here in about a week or a little more I have a good box from Cali. 

The flex plate comes in tomorrow, and I had a 20% coupon at harbor freight I used on a transmission jack.

I would not have had to do that if Noah would move closer to me   

I think I am about done for now, just wait till the parts get here then try and take it apart and put it back together in a weekend.

[taz_man440]

Wow..  What an ordeal...  At work we have twin 06 2500's.  Both have been severely abused and I often thought if they got ready to auction them I might throw an offer... But I really don't see that happening...

[ProjectPW]

Well I got ahold of Martin at M Saine Performance today, I told him about the oil test and that I wanted the new converter and valve body.

He mentioned a slight issue, apparently its hard to come by 48RE valve bodies to tweak, and get all the parts you need. He said best thing was for me to pull it out and send mine in for  a modification.

A slightly bigger issue, after next Friday he is gone for a month   

He said if I could get it to him ASAP he could probably get it all done and shipped back out before he leaves.

Well right now I am fighting the beginnings of a sinus infection and its about 35* outside... maybe warmer in my garage.

I am a determined fellow... I got it out planning to ship it out tomorrow AM for Sat delivery. I poked around at fedex, they are open till 8, its 7:45. I haul ass there. Walk in at 7:59 "I need to ship this out tonight" response "sorry can't its 8"
me: " no its 7:59"

needless to say after we finished arguing it was past 8 

they did tell me another location (actually closer to my house) would ship till 8:30. I fly over there like there is no tomorrow (not bad for a 12 year old 200k mile durango) and have 10 minutes to spare.

It was not cheap, but the valve body will be there by 3pm tomorrow. So hopefully here in about a week or a little more I have a good box from Cali. 

The flex plate comes in tomorrow, and I had a 20% coupon at harbor freight I used on a transmission jack.

I would not have had to do that if Noah would move closer to me   

I think I am about done for now, just wait till the parts get here then try and take it apart and put it back together in a weekend.

So what if the flexplate is not cracked/damaged? 

[rjtx667]

always asking the hard questions I don't want to think about huh?

if it's not broken then I guess that means I did extra upgrades but with the transmission off I can verify that and move forward. Which would mean I would be back to a bearing issue... I find it highly improbable that it has a piston issue at this point, the oil would have shown something. but I can see the realm of possibility that a bearing is still messed up and just not ran enough to get metal in the oil?

let's not think about all that lol

[ProjectPW]

always asking the hard questions I don't want to think about huh?

if it's not broken then I guess that means I did extra upgrades but with the transmission off I can verify that and move forward. Which would mean I would be back to a bearing issue... I find it highly improbable that it has a piston issue at this point, the oil would have shown something. but I can see the realm of possibility that a bearing is still messed up and just not ran enough to get metal in the oil?

let's not think about all that lol

Its all good... you will be properly prepared for your new hotrod cummins motor

[SixGun]

That sucks about FedEx. The way I see it, if I can walk in the front door, you are open. 

[rjtx667]

well fedex was still open, and was willing to ship it, just not willing to put it on the truck that was parked out front. it was a pita but I got it done.

as for a hotrod cummins, it comes down to that the truck will be sitting for a year or so while I save for it

[rjtx667]

after all that work there was a "disruption" in CA and it was not delivered on friday 

It is getting delivered today, and once its delivered I can call and request a refund because it did not arrive on time.

Martin said he can still get it done this week, fingers are crossed.

Flex plate comes in today, delayed because of the snow and ice. If its nice enough this weekend maybe I can drop the tranny and at least swap flex plates out. Then I could start it and verify the noise is gone. Thats the big ugly unknown right now.

[rjtx667]

Well Martin has the valve body now, and he is working on getting everything done. Hopefully he can get it done and shipped back out this week.

The new flex plate came in, and dang its heavy... this is one of the aftermarket upgraded versions that is heavier than stock. Hopefully it not only fixes the knock but avoids any future issues with the flex plate.

I was thinking about it some... and he told me he hydrolocked the engine at least once.... and I know that was the #6 cylinder from the bad injector. I also know from the craigslist posting that he liked to haul heavy loads.... so what if he was hauling a heavy load with a bad injector that started dumping fuel to cause the hydrolock? The engine would be fighting itself and fighting to pull the load. I Wonder if that would put enough stress on a flex plate to crack it?   

thats about the only theory I have... its that or he just pulled too much shit and it was more than the flex plate could handle.

at any rate hopefully I get parts back in next week and I can start working on putting it back together the week after. Spring break next week and I have the kids... I don't think I will get much time for wrenching. 

[SixGun]

Good detective work. Hope you're right.

[rjtx667]

torque converter shipped today, valve body ships Monday 

Sunday I am dropping the tranny and swapping the flex plate, maybe in a week or two if can be road worthy again, but hopefully by late Sunday I know If the problem is fixed.

[rjtx667]

I am getting ready for tomorrow and the tranny dropping party.

I have :

the pan back on
the electrical connectors disconnected
cooling lines disconnected
driveshaft disconnected

so now I need to :

support engine
support transmission
remove brace and transmission mount
unbolt transmission


unbolt flexplate
swap flexplate

test engine


Interestingly, I took a few pics of the driveshaft

you can see it compared to the rear driveshaft out of the 93.

[ProjectM880]

Awesome 

Keep up the progress!

[rjtx667]

So busy rainy day yesterday.

I have to say its amazing how much easier the right tool makes a job  ... transmission jack is so nice, even if I have to be on the ground to use it.

Had the transmission removed in probably less than an hour yesterday.

Can't see any huge obvious cracks in the flex plate, but you can see area's where it looks like things were not seating right?

Found some metal shavings but nothing huge. Adapter plate and Starter all looked good.

I have the new flex plate mounted and torqued down as per the FSM. I do have to say the new flex plate is like 2x as heavy as the factory one. Its crazy.

The Torque converter shipped out friday, I am guessing it will get here tomorrow or wed. The Valve body ships out today, so prob get here thursday.

I thought I would be cleaver and start the truck with the transmission dropped to see if the issue was fixed. Well went to try, and no power. I mean nada. I have had the batteries unplugged for a while while working on it. Tried charging one for an hour or so, no go. Took them out, yeah they are Auto Zone specials with 5 year warranty. 3 year free replacement 2 year pro rated. Bought 12/12.    I take them down to auto zone and give them the PO number. They need to charge them before they can test... will take an hour. The fact I just charged them for over an hour apparently does not matter 

Go back in an hour, yeah both are bad.... but I got 2 new ones replaced under warranty. 

Go back home and hook them up. Won't even try to start. Stinking park/ neutral switch. I connected the switch back up (not in the transmission). I got it to show 1st gear. pushed the piston in and it showed nothing. I can get R, D, 2, 1 but not park or neutral?

I finally pulled out the FSM and apparently it somehow completes a ground signal circuit for P and N and the starter relay?

I am going to play with it a  bit more and see if I can get it to go. I just want a quick start and rev to 1200 rpms with my fingers crossed.

[rjtx667]

Before I headed to bed last night I pulled out the old flex plate again under better light.


I could be wrong, but it looks like there might be a small crack in the picture?   


we are going out of town thursday, which means I probably won't get the chance to put it all back together before we head out of town. but maybe if the torque converter gets back in time I can at least have the transmission connected back up.