Top 5 Problems Dodge Ram Truck 2nd Generation 1994-2002

Time for another Top Problems. Let's get into it. So, we made it inside the studio because I wanted to go over some of the top problems that I found with this gen two Dodge Ram. Let's get started. Okay, friends. So you know me. One of the first things that I always like to talk about in these videos is a safety issue. On this vehicle, there is one that's a main concern for me and it involves a steering death wander. Sounds a little scary and it can be a little scary. Generally speaking, it's really not that bad until, of course, you're going around a corner and maybe you hit a bump at the same time. What happens with this though or the symptoms that you may notice is when you're driving down the road and you especially seem to notice it when you're going straight, as the road starts to tilt because of the road crown, you seemingly have to turn the steering wheel to make up for that tilt and if you're trying to just stay in the middle, you have to constantly do this just to keep the truck seeming going straight. Now a fix for this, of course, would be check your front end. Make sure that it's good to go. Check that stabilizer shock. Make sure that that's in good working condition as well. It needs to be very stiff. You check the pressure from your power steering system and that's good as well. Like I said before, we're trying to figure out why it's still wandering.

It's an annoyance and it especially happens if you have oversized tires or maybe if you have, like, wheel spacers or something. The way that they've come to cure this problem is with an aftermarket part. It's basically a bracket that goes across from one side to the other and it mounts exactly where the sway bar brackets are on to the frame. It's gonna go straight across and it's gonna hold that frame nice and rigid across the front. At the same time it has another area that's actually gonna connect to your steering box at the sector shaft. It's gonna have a little bearing and that's gonna add extra support for your steering box/sector shaft. So that way there, as you're turning, you don't get any frame sway and you also won't have any movement from that box. Right? It's gonna discontinue all the sway that you're getting from that which is, of course, gonna help with the steering ability on this. It's gonna make it so it doesn't wander all over the place like a maniac and of course, it's also gonna help keep you safe for in case you happen to be going around a long corner and maybe you happen to hit a bump in the road. When that happens, usually, it almost feels like it might jolt you right off the road and that can be very scary. Now the next thing I wanna talk about is located underneath the vehicle right here. Inside of your transmission you have a transmission regulator valve. They go bad.

Let's talk about it. Now, the symptom that you're probably gonna notice for this is when you're in reverse and you go to backup, whether it's slow or fast, you hear that little whining/ whirring sound. It's coming from inside the transmission and it's coming from that transmission regulator valve as noted. The transmission regulator valve, the casing on it actually resonates noise. So, what they did was they made an updated version with a casing that doesn't actually resonate that noise. So when you put it in reverse and it doesn't matter if you're going slow or fast, it's not gonna make that super annoying noise. Something that's important to remember though is it's not the easiest thing to replace. It's not something you just crawl underneath your vehicle and do on your own. Another thing that I would mention, if you're hearing that noise, it's a great idea to go ahead and check that transmission fluid. Check the level, make sure it's right up to temp and it's up to where it's supposed to be. Also, you wanna check the condition because if the level or the condition is poor, you're probably gonna have this same noise. Now the next thing I wanna talk about these vehicles is located inside and it's right up front, the front dash. If you have an older vehicle like this one or at least a gen two Dodge Ram which is probably the reason why you're watching this video, you probably have the same issue.

The dash is just cheap plastic. It gets dry. It gets brittle and for some reason they just didn't put any reinforcement underneath it. So I could take my finger and press pretty much anywhere and this is just gonna wobble around. If this dash was dry and brittle from being in the sun as it almost always is and then driving the truck over some bumps or rough roads, I'm gonna be rocking and swaying. This is all gonna be shifting and it's, of course, gonna crack and then potentially over time get bigger and larger holes along the way. I've seen these dashes that have big holes along here, cracks going all the way across and just super poor condition. This one's in practically mint condition. If I cleaned it up, it'll probably be mint. So, if you need one, I've got one right here. A couple thousand bucks, I'll sell it to you but otherwise, we do also offer them at 1aauto.com and what it would do is it would actually kinda go over this one right here. It's made out of a different type of plastic than this. It's actually much more durable and it won't end up cracking on you down the line. Now the next thing I wanna talk about on these vehicles is a severe grind noise coming from the transfer case. Now, this noise can be super scary and it might even make you think that it's a transmission problem.

Let's say you're driving in your vehicle, maybe you're in two-wheel drive, you go ahead and you step on that gas and for some reason, the vehicle doesn't move as fast as the accelerator's saying to go and you hear this horrible grind every time you step on the gas. You'll also probably notice that this doesn't happen as much in four-wheel-drive. Let's talk about reasons why. Okay. So now, if you were to safely get underneath your vehicle, drop that rear driveshaft and take down the transfer case tail shaft housing, look up inside there, you're gonna see the transfer case output shaft that leads to the rear. You should also happen to see a little snap ring that goes on that shaft. If you don't see that snap ring on there, go ahead and dump out that transfer case tail shaft housing and you're probably gonna see it fall out onto the ground at that point. What happens is, is under strain or load or basically just maybe a little bit of off-roading where the wheels get loose a little bit, it puts a lot of pressure on that rear driveshaft right out the transfer case. The little snap ring, it's just a tiny piece of metal. It's not super strong. What that snap ring does is it prevents the output shaft from going in and out on the transfer case. If the snap ring is gone, the shaft can move in and out and then the gears inside aren't copacetic anymore.

So, as that moves apart, the gears are just barely touching instead of, you know, meshing in like they should. They're just barely touching. You step on the gas, the gears are just rubbing right across each other. They're not in. Obviously, this is very bad when this happens. If you start hearing a grinding noise when you're driving, it's super important that you pull over, you get off the side of the road and you get your vehicle towed either to your house if you wanna fix it by yourself which I do recommend because I'll show you how to do it on a separate video or you know, to a reputable shop. It's a fairly simple fix. At the same time as replacing this snap ring, I would also do a transfer case service. Take a look at that fluid, maybe catch some in a cup. If it looks like it's full of metal deposits or if it's gray in any way, that transfer case fluid is shot. More than likely if it's gray, that's because of metal inside there. Why is there metal? Well, because those gears, they weren't copacetic. You could have gear damage inside your transfer case. I would just go ahead and replace that, snap ring like I said. I would do a transfer case service also with the manufacturer specified fluid which is just plain old ATF. So, you're welcome for that but anyway and then, of course, put it all back together, torque it to manufacturer specifications and then take it for a road test.

At that point, if you hear any noise continuing, you know you need to either rebuild or replace your transfer case. Now the next thing I wanna talk to you about on these vehicles is the front axle disconnector. It's located right on the front differential and I wanna talk to you about it. On this front differential axle disconnector, it's gonna have two vacuum lines that go to it. If the vehicle is not producing the vacuum that gets down to that actuator, it's not gonna function right. It could be involved with the intake. Maybe you have a leak around there. Maybe you have a leak someplace along those lines that lead to it. Maybe it's even the connection point right where the lines connect to the actual disconnector. More than likely, when you experience this issue is gonna be when you try to ship from two to four wheel drive. You might notice as you drive forward, the vehicle just doesn't seem like it shifted into four-wheel drive, and you might even notice on the dash. It doesn't, you know, light up saying four-wheel drive. That could be an issue. Other things that you may or may not notice is maybe you're in four-wheel drive and you're trying to shift out of four-wheel drive and it won't. That's also an issue. Other than that, you're probably not really gonna notice too much more unless, of course, you're on a slippery surface and you're realizing, "Wow! Not all four of my tires are turning like they're supposed to be." But that's who's leaning out the window.

So the probable cause for this is actually a vacuum leak. Generally speaking, the vehicle is gonna produce vacuum inside the intake as you're driving. When that happens, it's gonna send that vacuum right on down the line as needed when you go to shift into four-wheel drive or out of four-wheel drive and it's gonna apply the vacuum down at the actuator down on the axle. If it doesn't have vacuum down there, it's not gonna be able to shift the collar that's inside there properly. It's gonna be too weak and it just won't shift it. So when you have your two axles upfront and you're driving, they're supposed to rotate, there should be a little collar that's gonna slide over that fourth axle right there and that's actually gonna kick it right into four-wheel drive. If you don't have enough vacuum, it's not gonna make its way over to lock in that axle. Overall, using vacuum to move a mechanical part like this, especially something that's under load, probably wasn't the best idea. It's time to talk about fixes and when it comes down to that, we're gonna talk about the vacuum part of this. You need to test for vacuum coming from those two lines. One of the lines is gonna have vacuum when you go to shift from two to four and then the other line should have vacuum when you go to from four to two.

That's gonna apply the pressure as needed to the little collar that's inside the front differential area to shift it into locking in those axles like I was saying before. You're only gonna find vacuum on one line at a time though. So, pay attention to that. If you check one of those lines that's plugged into there and you're like, "Well, it doesn't have any vacuum. I guess I found the problem." Go check the other one because maybe that's the one that has vacuum for the application you're going, whether it's from 2 to 4 or 4 to 2. Now if you don't have vacuum, obviously, you're gonna have to work your way further up that line and make sure that it's connected and up towards the intake area. If you find that vacuum is actually the issue, they have an upgrade that you can do that actually makes this mechanism work with a cable. Highly recommended, google it. But we'll assume that you do have vacuum and we're gonna move back down to that little actuator on the front differential. Now we're gonna check where those hoses connect into the actual box. Take a peek inside there. On the one that I worked on, I happened to notice it was full of rust and debris. So, of course, that's gonna be eliminating the amount of flow or vacuum that's gonna be going to that actuator.

So, I had an issue when I would try to shift from two to four-wheel drive, it would engage the front drive shaft from the transfer case and then it would start turning, I believe it was my left front wheel but I'm not a hundred percent sure, but it would start turning a wheel. The problem was that I wasn't getting vacuumed down to that front differential that was actually sending the collar over to lock in all four wheels. So I was kinda like a three-wheel drive truck while I'm trying to drive my plow around. Right? 1A Auto offers a kit that's gonna make it so you can take this apart and you can rebuild it. While you're in there, just take a peek. Make sure everything's nice and clean. Lubricate everything as needed. Torque it down. While you're in there you can also take a look at those axles. If the splines look like they're kind of pinned over, maybe because it was struggling to shift in between and you were still driving so the axles just kinda caught it but didn't, that could have caused damage. That's gonna be a major issue. If you have something like that, obviously you could do some sort of rebuild, maybe replace your axles. Make sure that there isn't any major damage there that's gonna cause that coupler to not go over both axles, and if you need to know how to do this, check out my video. The next thing I wanna talk to you about, it's a seat right in here.

Let's say you got a nice tall vehicle like this one, every time I get inside this thing, I rub my butt across it and it's getting all ripped up. Super common on most tall vehicles. Anything that has a little bit of ground clearance, you're gonna have to jump up inside unless, of course, you had some running boards. You know what? Speaking of running boards, let's talk about rocker panels on this thing. If you look right down here you have your rocker panels. They always look like this. Unbelievable. Now if we're talking about the seat, what I would do is go ahead and fill it in with some sort of foam and then put a nice cover over it. Easy-peasy. Or, of course, you could replace it if you got the cash. Why not? And if we're talking about that rot, the next thing I would do is go on to 1aauto.com and I would find the panel that's available for it because there is one available by the way and then of course, you would get down there some gloves, eye protection and get to work. All right. So I had a lot of fun making this video as always. Hopefully you learned a little something along the way. If you did, why don't you tell me about it down in the comment section? While you're at it, click on the like button if you saw something you liked, subscribe and ring the bell. That way, there, every time I'm making one of these videos, you can check it out. Don't forget to check out Andy's videos too and smash on that like button. Andy's the man. See ya.

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