97 Dodge 1500 maintenance

Joined
Sep 25, 2008
Messages
742
Location
central ga
I bought this truck(v6,5spd) a while back and posted a little bit about the trip to get it.After the purchase I had a tune up and oil change done(traveller 10w40) .At the time of the last posting I complained that this was one of the noisiest trucks I have ever owned.

3 weeks ago I decided to do a service on the truck .I had ordered some filters from Rock Auto and picked up some fluids locally and a suction gun .I got up early on a Saturday and started the service......which did not go as smooth as planned.I pulled the truck up on ramps and slid the catch pan under it and grabbed the filter and twisted.Nothing,no movement.Slid out from under the truck and went in search of one of my filter wrenches.No luck.I have 4 of them.Drove into town and picked one up at Advance and came back home.Slid under the truck and applied wrench....no movement.Reset my grip and twisted,hard.The oil filter started collapsing.Jeez did they air wrench this thing on at the shop.I reseated the wrench and my grip and did the back and forth twist to hopefully break it loose(and broke one of the rivets and warped the handle somewhat on the wrench.) and it worked!Finally got it off and let the oil drain as I grabbed the suction gun and sucked out about 12 oz of power steering fluid and replacing it with new fluid.I then got my grease gun and lubed up the front end, 3-5 pumps in each fitting.
I oiled up the new filter seal and put it on hand tight and then gave it a quarter turn.The filter was a ultra-power from Rock Auto.My research had shown this to be a wix or Baldwin product.However when it arrived it is made by an outfit called SureFilter and the box was a different company logo with an UltraPower sticker slapped on it.Oh well I'll give 'em a shot.I filled the truck with 3 qts of Smitty's Super-Flo 10w30 and 1 qt of Smitty's high mileage 10w30.I cranked up the truck and checked for leaks-none.

I then backed off the ramps and repositioned them behind the truck and backed up on them.I slid under the truck and popped out the rubber plug and sucked out the old differential lube.I do mean old...this stuff was dark brownish-black with a reddish tinge to it.I then put 2 qts of Lucas synthetic 75w90 and a pint of Hyper-lube additive into the rear differential.I then backed off the ramps and let the truck idle and added a bottle of Prestone water pump lube and topped off the radiator.

I then took a drive down the road with no issues as a thunder storm moved in.

Results:The oil pressure with Traveller 10w40 stayed around 43-44 on the gauge with the new oil and filter the pressure stays around the same except while sitting at a red light in hot weather ,then it will drop to 40.So I'm happy.On my drive I went down some side roads and did some zig zag steering to work the new grease in.Now the truck steers like butter.As I mentioned earlier this truck is loud as in lots of road noise in the cab.Well apparently a good bit of noise was differential noise.With the new lube it is a good bit quieter.

A week later I had my mechanic change out the lube in the 5 speed with 2 qts of Traveller 75w90 and the other pint of Hyper-Lube .This quietened the interior noise a bit more and there is less felt vibration thru the shifter.

I'm kind of curious as to how old the rear lube was with the funky color and what it consisted of?Any one care to hazard a guess?It stunk pretty bad,kind of sulphurey.
 
Nice long story. To finally answer your question, gear lube was likely original.
 
I'm kind of curious as to how old the rear lube was with the funky color and what it consisted of?Any one care to hazard a guess?It stunk pretty bad,kind of sulphurey.

Here's my 96...

 
Back
Top