Steering noise redux (a bit long)

From : jmc

Q: no i wrote to ask you to trim excess text from your posts. -- christopher a. young you cant shout down a troll. you have to starve them. .. what ever! wtf is he taliking about what did i miss i think at least from what i gathered from the long winded netnannyish type post that he is bothered by the fact that i top posted the btw comments about my step daughter and cousin. stormin mormon cayoung61-&spamblock*-@hotmail.com wrote in message when someone types an email message the information is turned into electronic code. the smallest unit of information is a byte. a thousand bytes is a kilobyte like a thousand grams is a kilogram. and a million bytes is a mb and a billion bytes is a gigabyte or gb. when an emailer leaves the old text on the bottom the message takes up more. more what well .

Replies:

From : jmc

its 40 years old perhaps it needs to be rewired. my 1967 dodge d100 pick-up has been plagued with electrical problems since last summer. it started with a strange smell i found out later was the amp meter burning that would last for about 10 minutes every other day 2 or 3 weeks before the electrical system completely shut down without warning usually while sitting at a light. after letting it sit for a while maybe 10 min. to 2 hours it would start up and run for 5 minutes to 5 hours. if i started it in the morning and ran to 7-11 it will not start for at least 10 minutes and maybe 1 hour. when i turn the key absolutely nothing happens. no accessories work including lights and bypassing the starter relay will allow the starter to turn over but no spark to run the engine. while it is running it charges the battery. i change the starter relay voltage regulator & resister block but nothing changes. after noticing the amp meter is on fire one day i tear it out and seems to fix the problem but it starts dieing again the next day. i change the ignition switch and notice that when i play with the head light switch and turn the key in the ignition at the same time something catches and it starts up. i drive it like this for a week and then change the headlight switch and put in a new amp meter. this fixes most of the problem the truck no longer dies and the alternator charges the battery. the dash lights had never worked since i bought the truck and now they work but blinkers horn & heater do not work. it runs like that for about 2 weeks until one day all the accessories shut down including all gauges the things working are the head and tail lights break lights and the low break warning light on the dash. and the battery drains while running with lights on. by charging the battery at night it can be driven during daylight hours. i change the alternator that shucks says is bad but does not fix anything and try another battery. then one day it would not start at all and the battery would drain even when just sitting overnight. i noticed that when i pulled the headlight switch the parking lights blinkers not blinking would come on in the first position but in second position would go out when headlights came on. i changed out the headlight switch again and charged up the battery and it started right up. i drove it 2 miles and turned it off. it would not start again and i bought a new battery. when i turn the key the engine starts running but dies as soon as i let the key go back and disengage the starter. bypassing the starter relay makes the starter turn but no spark starts the engine. i changed the ignition switch but still will not run. i have a wiring diagram and have started replacing some wires with no luck. still runs only while key is turned all the way to start position. all accessories and gauges do work now when the key is turned one notch or backwards. it is a slant 6 automatic with no radio or cigarette lighter. i have changed the battery battery cables starter relay amp meter ignition switch voltage regulator resister block alternator headlight switch wire from alternator to voltage regulator and all fuses. does anyone have any ideas or should i put a bullet through the engine block .

From : stormin mormon

if its like other vehicles ive had you might try cleaning the contacts on both the instrument panel and the bulb socket. a standard pencil eraser does a good job. also adjust i.e. bend the tabs on the socket to ensure a good contact with the instrument panel printed circuit. my 4x4 light never lights up on the lamp test. then it is not the switch but an open in the wiring somewhere you will have to troubleshoot. or it could be the connecter where the bulb plugs into trent wrote my 92 ram 150 4x4 light does not work. took out the bulb and put in back in and it worked just fine. after i got everything back on the dash the light dont work. took the bulb out again and replaced it with a new one and still nothen. is there somekind of a switch that triggers the light to come on or what can be wrong when you first turn the vehicle on there is a lamp test and all the dash indicator lights come on. thanks .

From : mike simmons

the first thing came to mind since its a 4 x 4 the front differential may be dry. look for a fill plug some where on the front differential. my non-dodge truck takes 80 w90 gear oil. one auto parts place had a gear oil container with a pump so i could pump the fluid up from under the truck. worth a try. i know i had to top off my front differential twice a year on my last truck. to reach this you have to jack up the front end and lay on your back. on my non-dodge the plug was towards the rear of the vehicle. it had a gasket to seal so it was obviously a plug not a mounting bolt. you didnt mention trouble with the power steering and it may well be manual steering. but on a 4 x 4 its probably power steering. check the fluid while youre under the hood bonnet for uk speakers. i cant remember if manual steering gear boxes have fluid but id expect so. its been a long long time since i worked on anything manual steering. this would only be a problem during turning id think. -- christopher a. young you cant shout down a troll. you have to starve them. .. yes ive mentioned this before but ive gathered a more complete view of the symptoms and wanted to see if they add up to something specific. its a bit of a pain to take vehicles in here - theyll keep the vehicle for a day or two to start just to sort out whats wrong then ask you to bring it back to get the thing fixed. thats just too long to be without wheels and ac in this climate; oz auto shops dont do loaner cars. riding a bicycle sucks in this weather. and as will become clear in a minute it wouldnt do me any good to wait until cooler weather to have them look at it. so thats why im hoping yall can help. youve accurately diagnosed my trucks problems before well at least someone usually hits on the right answer read all the way to the bottom cause theres what i expect is an important clue down there... 2001 dakota 4x4 standard 5-speed. was in the uk for 3 years so its got more underbody rust than it should. now its in the australian outback subject to rather extreme hot and dry temperatures. no adjustments were done to compensate for the climate- dont know if something should have been done... the noise is sort of but not quite a cross between a clunk and a grind depending on what else is going on... it is heard and felt in the steering column/wheel - my impression is that its under the dash. ok so the symptoms are sometimes a noise or two when turning that as the air temperature increases becomes more like a grinding - same noise just more of em. also today i noticed that shifting while turning at low speed will cause a single iteration of the noise as i shift that i may be able to feel in the stick pretty faint tho could be my imagination. since when im turning im also shifting and braking its been a bit difficult to try to narrow down exactly whats happening when but when i came home today the noise was clearly happening as i shifted and turned. normally theres nothing abnormal about how the trucks shifting sounds. the steering also makes the noise but more like a rattle when going over bumps and such. i first noticed this when going down washboard roads. it sounds like somethings loose under the dash but i can grab the steering column under there and theres no play. theres also no play in my steering wheel. it doesnt seem to particularly want to track along road irregularities or such. heres the clincher during a stint of cold weather for here & now i discovered that the symptoms *disappear completely* when the temperature dropped into the 70s. no noise no feel just normal driving. so it seems that my initial impression that it was getting worse wasnt correct except that the problem gets worse as the temperature increases. since the trucks been in the uk the last three years even if there was a problem there was no symptoms cause it was too cold. seems to be temps over about 80f that starts to show symptoms. lately its been around 100f every day for weeks now... it occurs to me that perhaps the temperatures are simply exceeding the daks design spec and theres nothing actually wrong just metal expansion in the heat creating movement where there was none before. possible if thats not the case what should i look to to help narrow down what the problem is - if any thanks guys for your help! jmc check yer email mike .