1998 Ram - Making a Florida truck at Home in New England

In April my oldest son and I did a fly and drive to Florida for a 1998 Ram. 

The truck had been my fathers household and used as daily driver and tow vehicle for approx 15 years. He replaced it with a new 2021 Ram 1500 quad cab in January, so the 98 is moving to Mass. 

It's been a Florida truck it's whole life, so very little rust anywhere. It's got 176k miles  on the 5.2 and 46RE (I still need to crawl under and confirm the model). Everything works and it still has the factory exhaust (although I did replace the last 20" since the factory tips rusted out).

Plans are to address some current issues and do some work to get it ready for a life in New England. The goal is to address some leaks and do some preventative maintenance to make it last as long as possible. 

Current list of projects:

- Fixing the power locks: the gears in the lock mechanism are stripped so the latch assemblies will be replaced. I'll also get a fob so the keyless entry will work. 

- Rear main seal: it looks like there is a small leak in the rear main, but I need to do some more investigation to determine if it's oil or trans fluid before ordering parts. If I drop the pan I'll probably replace the oil pump and take a look at a couple bearings. 

- Transmission input seal: If I find the leak is transmission fluid I'll pull the trans and replace the input seal and replace as much fluid as possible since I'll be separating the torque converter from the trans. 

- Transmission modifications: I'm considering installing a Transgo shift improver kit and possibly a 3.8 ratio band engagement lever (recommended in the Transgo tech notes). I'm not looking for any real performance increases, just looking to make it last as long as possible by reducing the potential for slippage. 

- Steering box: it has a Napa reman box in it that was installed last year, but it's leaking by the steering shaft so it need to be replaced. While I'm not looking to mod it now, I may consider converting to a 3rd gen rack in the future to replace the steering box/idler arm setup. 

More info to follow, but here's a pic:

Nice. It looks very Florida. Are you keeping the Radwood-era graphics? 

The plan is to keep the radwood graphics. I need to repaint the hood to address some peeling, but otherwise the paint is in good shape. 

I'll be having it treated for rust prevention using NHOU products after I do the repairs, and hopefully I'll be able to keep rust at bay. 

That's a little more Y2K than Radwood IMO. Not enough secondary and tertiary colors in the graphics. Whatever, it's just pedantry on my part. Hot on Radwood's heels comes Millennium Fest for all those late '90s-2000s cars! Wait 'til you see all those silver head units with ovalized buttons and .MP3 burnt CD capability! iMac integration!

Man that thing is a true time capsule!   What a fantastic driver for your son.

In reply to Loweguy5 (Forum Supporter) :

It's definitely a time capsule, and the modifications are period correct (at least look it) or hidden.

It has a set of airbags in rear for towing and the limited slip rear diff was completely rebuilt 2 years ago (<10k miles).

The interior includes an Alpine stereo with a removable face and blue buttons, blue led display, and large silver volume knob, but also has BT  and hands free calling. The dash also has the velour protective cover. 

I think I'll end up driving it more than my son. He prefers the SX4 hatch (awd with 5spd) we had picked up last summer for him, so we'll downsize by getting rid of my Elantra. Then we'll just switch up whenever he needs or wants to drive the truck.

A few more photos from today:

The semi traditional Alpine with BT:

Some shots of the undercarriage while checking the shape of the pan to confirm trans model:

looks like there was a stoweaway on the drive home:

This week is shop week for my son so he brought the truck in today. 

They put it up on the lift and figured out the trans is leaking from the front seal and one of the tires has a slight bubble in the tread that goes about 1/3 of the way around the circumference. 

Today I placed orders for the following

- rear main seal

- Oil pump and pickup

- Oil pan gasket

- trans input shaft seal and repair sleeve

- Trans filter, gasket, and 10 qts of fluid

- Transgo TFOD-Diesel kit 

- Door latch mechanism with power lock

- Cap, Rotor, plugs, wires, PCV, and crankcase breather. 

The warranty steering box from Napa should be in this week. 

So this weekend will be spend getting projects finished up on the house and back yard.

Next weekend the boy will get to see parts of an engine and transmission he has only seen in books or on YouTube, and hopefully we will end up with no leaks when this is all done. 
 

Since I live in Michigan the underside photos of this thing are exquisite. I need a fly-n-drive for my next car.

In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :

The big challenge now that it's in  MA will be to keep it that way. 

I live in CT and suggest you have the truck fluid filmed.  This is my 2005 which has been treated a few times and has been well protected. 

In reply to Loweguy5 (Forum Supporter) :

Your truck looks in great shape even if it wasn't in CT. I would never guess it was from New England based on the photo. 

I have been doing some research and I'm going back and forth between fluid film and a oil/wax type treatment (Photos from NHOU application)

I'll have the door panels off so I can easily treat the inside of the doors with a fluid type treatment while fixing the locks, but the under side, frame and crevices are where I'm trying to decide between the different types. 

Today was delivery day for a lot of the parts

More deliveries today:

now to finish the house project so I can start installing all these parts. Hopefully this will be finished this weekend:

I have been doing some research and I'm going back and forth between fluid film and a oil/wax type treatment

May i suggest a little of both? After all my research I decided on fluid film in the frame rails, rockers, stuff that is in protected areas. The undercarriage and high wear areas get wax (cosmoline in my case), and then possibly a top layer of fluid film prior to the winter. Not sure on that last step but in theory it will creep to areas the cosmoline may miss. 

It's been a while since this was updated, but then again it's been a slow process getting things back together. 

So I did the NHOU fluid film type treatment last year, and I'm happy with how that turned out. 

I also did complete the install of the Transgo kit, replaced I put seal, oil pan gasket, and did the  tune-up.

My son blew the engine in his Suzuki SX4 and we sharing the truck and this happened:

Obviously the accident was during the winter and the truck sat in a portable tent since February with work being performed occasionally, but there was a big push to finish reassembly using parts from the donor truck. 


 

Finally it is back on the road and the grill is in a box ready for installation. 

My son managed to total the truck, and then he was able to reassemble it mostly on his own with some help and guidance to keep him on track. 

While the nose was off, he replaced the power steering pump and lines (pump was leaking), installed a new belt/idler/tensioner, and replaced valve cover gaskets. 

Glad to see that it's back on the road!

As much as you hate to see such a nice truck sustain damage like that, my bet is he appreciates it so much more after investing so much effort to bring it back from the dead.  It looks good!

He definitely seems to appreciate it more.  Now it's the little things he's fixing, like the dash bezel and the 2nd 12v power outlet. He also is going to move the steering wheel for the parts truck to his, since the original one is peeling from the FL sun.

I haven't driven it since he put it back together, but I realize I miss driving something with a healthy exhaust tone. I'll have to borrow it one day to take care things to the recycling center.

The truck is at 221k miles now. 

It's been a hard 45k miles since it came up from Florida. Bumpers have been replaced more frequently than anything else on the truck. 

Bumpers:  the new maintenance item haha.

Glad to hear it's still on the road!

Great to hear it's still on the road after saving it.  I was in a minor accident in my Mustang, and after going back and forth on it, I did a junkyard repair and was thrilled to get a few more years out of it (and hit the 300k mark) before I passed it along.