2001 Sport Grill
From : ken
Q: i have a 98 dakota 5.2 l v8 and recently installed a flowmaster exhaust cat back system. now my mileage dropped about 25%. what gives i thought these high flow *increased* fuel economy comments are welcomed .
Replies:
From : terra
apology accepted. i wasnt trying to set you off it was a warning. the reason for my recommendation if i may repeat it for the group was because the smaller cylinder diameter will require a longer pedal travel to compensate for pad and shoe wear and fluid use. this removes some if not all of your reserve pedal travel. iow a potentially dangerous situation if you haul loads drive fast or travel in mountains. as for the rear drum diameters being small you had better look at the drums on some of the domestic foreign cars . . .my 52 cushman motor scooter has as big if not bigger drum than they do 7 x 1 and it only weighs 300 lbs. my 64 1/2 and 65 barracudas 65 dart and 64 and 65 valiants had 9 drums which were nearly as big as the brakes on the famous 64-67 pontiac gtos 9.5. iow dumb brake sizes arent just a mopar problem. fyi when the 68 road runner was announced it came with 11 x 3 front drum 11 x 2 1/2 rear drum brakes...the biggest standard drums offered by any manufacturer but a disk brake was optional. dick wrote sorry if i offended you bud no offence meant & thanks for the help! and it was your comment remember i did not recommend a smaller cylinder. that got me started. i do recomended a smaller mastercylinder & a dual diaphram booster the brakes now work better than ever. next mod if i keep it that long will be 11 rear drums asy. & balance valves from a junk yard truck via http//www.car-part.com/ dick i used the booster & mc off the same vehicle a 2000 durango. didnt think i could go wrong with that combo. i assumed with so many people complaning about high pedal preasure that chrysler engineers had screwed up on the 97-98. they changed the design in 99 to something that works good. they could have kept the bolt pattern the same on the booster so that the newer model would easily interchange. rear brake drums of 9 dia is a design flaw on a pickup 10 was optional then 11 in 2000 & now rear disc. cant blame dc for the 97 it was chrysler then. my 88 dakota had 9 also changed the axle on that when it failed to a 10 posi setup with heavyer springs off doner truck wish i had it back. chrysler removed the front axle disconnect on new series so now the front end parts wear out. my front c/v are worn out too as a result. ball joints on old 88 had 150k on them & were still tight. this 97 is ready for its 3rd. set no grease fittings on orginal equip i bought moog with grease fittings & lifetime warrany this time. i had complete pedal travel to the floor when bleeding so travel is not an issue. damiler chrysler is not god they screw up more than most auto manufactures. there designs do not take into account that these vehicles will have to be serviced economicaly. having to remove the fender liner to remove the mastercylinder is not resonable nor is removing the dashboard to replace the heater or ac componets. i have read reports of owerers of 2001 durango having to replace the heater core 3-5 times allready at $800 a pop. probably not a future dc customer! and i am a former employee of chrysler. dick you went with a smaller size master cylinder iirc which give you a mechanical advantage which lowers pedal pressure but requires more pedal travel to do the job. you may have reduced your reserve pedal to a less than safe amount by doing so. remember i did not recommend a smaller cylinder.. .
From : ken
ken wrote will a regular ram grill bolt up to a sport hood i cant believe dc would have changed the hood design for a sport. thanks ken but they changed the bumper. the sport grill is bowed downward to fit the curve of the sport bumper. the regular grill is flat across the bottom to fit with the straight bumper. .