Ok, After seeing my lackluster dyno numbers last weekend and having the
entire DML tell me that I was about 15-17 HP shy of what I should have been
making I decided it was time to do some work on the truck.
Well, I started off by going to my friendly dodge dealer and picking up some
parts...a nice trans pan gasket, filter screen, and the new fuel cap that
I've needed since St. Patty's day... I then went to the auto parts store
and picked up some of that B&M synthetic trick shift fluid and some carb
cleaner.
I pulled the pan off after some careful preperation and I put the truck on
some drive on ramps so that I could get under it. Once I got the bolts
loosened the fluid just POURED all over the place..more so than I expected.
So, when it was all said and done and I got to empty the pan completely, I
found no debris at all, but OMG is that pan deep and boy does it hold a lot
of fluid. So, I changed the screen and put it back together. When I poured
the fluid from the drain pan into some bottles so that I could throw it
away, there was almost 2 gallons that had come out of my trans!!! Now, I
hadn't added any since they rebuilt it in August, so I'm betting that they
got a little overzealous with the fluid at fill time. I put it back
together and poured in the new fluid according to the instructions in the
service manual (should have only taken 4 qts) and adjusted the bands. Wow
did it make a difference! I filled er' up just right, but it took just
about 5 qts as opposed to the 4 qts that the service book said though.
Now, I moved to my TB... I took it off the motor and cleaned the livin
daylights out of it and the sensors, it was nasty. I also took the time to
look at the bottom of the intake and am proud to report that the belly pan
gasket is holding up nice and tight! It was clean and dry down there. Put
the TB back on and that made a pretty big difference as well! No more rough
idle at all, smooth as glass, throttle response is up and everything.
So, all said and done, I cleared the codes from the PCM with my friend's
scanner and so far nothing has shown up again!
Doing all of this work to the truck made me a little curious as well, so I
made a trip to the hardware store and got a plug for my manifold and
re-located the IAT sensor into the air hat, and looked at setting the TPS
voltage at the recommended .7v, but could not for the life of me figure out
how to do it! Can someone give me a hand? How about some guidelines or
procedures to help me along?
Anyway, on with the story. I took it out for a nice test "rip" and wow,
what a difference! It feels like a whole new truck! Throttle response is
up, it picks up quicker, and has been shifting much nicer now.
-- - Josh Lowered 2000 Dakota CC 3.9L
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Feb 06 2004 - 11:46:19 EST