terrawombat

What is this 4.0L dent that you speak of? The off-center indent on the firewall?

Can do when I return home from the holiday. Post a reply to this thread to remind me if you don't hear anything by next week.

I've got an 86 and 89 sitting side by side so I could verify this. Although my 86 has the 2.1L diesel, not the 2.8L.

Congrats on the new position - I hope it's what you're looking for. If it doesn't work out, there's always something else out there...

Looks like the main PCM in front of the battery. Probably 1 of 6 computers that control this beast.

Don't be alarmed when I drive you to the noodie bar via UConnect

I just watched that scene. At first I saw the 97+ XJ Classic smashed and burned up and let out a whimper...then I saw the MJ and nearly lost it....

Is it fiberglass? Where in NJ?

No. I asked about those massive online discounts and he explained that in order to obtain those you basically need to qualify for every single discount they have available. So in order to get those I need to be a disabled war veteran that is currently enrolled in a qualifying College or University that is trading in a competitors vehicle....or something like that. Those discounts really only seem to be there to attract you to the dealership where they can tell you all of the discounts you don't qualify for....but at least they got you to the dealership. I've been talking with a my local dealer and once I give him the options I'm looking for he said he can find me one and we can talk price then.

Yep. Stopped by for about an hour and looked over everything they had. Got a good idea of the options I want. Salesman tried his best to sell me a 2015 on the spot but I wanted to make it home for dinner tonight so I'm at the airport now about to board my flight home.

As long as the transmission is not made by Chrysler then I'm on board. Replaced/rebuilt too much of their junk in my lifetime. They simply cannot build a reliable transmission behind an engine pushing more than 250HP.

I took a look at the used Ram 1500 diesel market in my area and it's bone dry. Only found a few 2015/2016 1500's on dealer lots with the diesel option and they were all in the $50-55K range because of the trim packages. That's a pretty big leap in price for not a whole lot more truck. The towing capacity of the Ram 1500 4x4 Quad Cab w/diesel is rated at 7,650lb for the trim package I was looking at - that's only 50 pounds more than the Colorado/Canyon. The one draw towards the Ram 1500 diesel is that 8-speed transmission. I have heard nothing but great things about it from two co-workers who have 2015 Ram 1500's with the 5.7L Hemi. Another huge benefit of that transmission is it's NOT made my Chrysler. Edit: Just realized that I'm going to be about 1 hour from the dealership that you linked to in Kernersville, NC tonight and tomorrow. Maybe I'll just cancel my return flight home on Friday and drive one of those trucks back....

I have an 02 MK4 Golf TDI that gets daily driven by either myself or someone else in the household. Love the fuel economy but that's about where my love for the vehicle begins and ends. My other daily driver is an 04 Dodge Ram 2500 with the 5.9L Cummins. Great truck that has done everything I've asked if it. She's approaching 225K miles but I foresee a second trans rebuild in the near future. It will also need another front end rebuild as well after only 30K miles on the supposed "best" ball joints on the market. The other main issue is the truck is mainly used for daily driver duties and its simply too much truck for that purpose. I may take a look at the Dodge ecodiesels. I was a bit skeptical on that engine and transmission combo but it seems to be holding up pretty well. I wouldn't be opposed to that engine/truck so I may take a peek at the local Ram dealer and see what they have lying around.

Let me clarify - active, daily driving fleet :)

Yea I could care less about the gas engines in these trucks. In fact I could gas less about gas engines in general...long term efficiency on a gasoline engine just isn't there. Been converting my fleet over to diesel for a few years now.

I do agree that the price sucks and I feel as though when I start getting down into the financials and looking at monthly payments I will likely walk away...however...I have owned "real" trucks for over a decade. They're great for when you need the kind of utility that they provide, but I have found that I use them to their full potential about once every five years - the rest of the time I drive them they just suck down fuel and cost me a fortune any time I want to replace simple components such as tires ($1200+ for a full set), ball joints (over $125 per ball joint), tie rod ends ($100 each), etc. If I ever find myelf in a situation where I need to haul 12,000lb worth of stuff, I can borrow my Dad's 2500 Silverado.

I think the Z71 looks pretty slick although I doubt I would go for that model. I'm kind of partial to the styling of the GMC Canyon over the Chevy but they're also a little bit more money, too.

GM confirmed that it's automatic only. Fine by me - towing with a manual has never been on my fun list.

The price is going to be a real sticking point for me. I'm going to trade my 2004 Ram Cummins and I also have $1K in GM discounts, but I only expect that to knock off $6-7K off the sale price. I think if you option the truck with the mid-range trim level you should be able to get it in at or below $40K. My goal is with trade-in, discount and some negotiation I can walk away with it for $30K....a guy can dream, right?

All of the Jeep pickup concepts and teasers I have seen look like glorified Wranglers. I'm not real confident they're going to bring something to the market that actually has good utility features in terms of payload and towing capacity. The one common item that the Chevy 2.8L Duramax and the Chryco 3.0L Ecodiesel share is their manufacturer - both are made by VM Motori out of Italy. Chryco also used VM Motori to power the Liberty CRD and WK2 Grand Cherokee CRD. These engines appear to all be very reliable, but if they do break down the parts are not easy on the wallet. Sir Sam can attest to that with the Liberty CRD he picked up that needed valve train work.

New vehicles rarely peak my interest, but when I started reading further into the new 2016 Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon with the 2.8L Duramax turbodiesel I became increasingly interested. The advertised specs are 181HP/369ft-lb with the EPA estimated fuel economy supposedly better than their 2.5L counterpart, which is 27mpg on the highway. The 4wd model, which I would be looking at has a 7,600lb towing capacity with integrated exhaust braking and it apparently does pretty well with a decent sized load behind it: The only thing that would hold me back is the sticker price. The Duramax diesel can only be had on the mid and high level trim packages, which will easily command a $40K+ MSRP....yikes! I'm going to head over to the Chevy dealer this weekend and putz around in their gas models. Unfortunately, the only two they have on the lot are a base model work truck and fully decked out premium truck with leather, sound system, rear/front/side/top/bottom/underskirt cameras and exterior sensing devices. I'd really like to see what the mid-level trim package looks like... It will certainly be odd for me to even fathom purchasing a brand new vehicle...

That's a good point - I didn't think to check on that. The master cylinder was said to be brand new when I bought the truck so I never really messed around with it and always assumed it was good and built for the truck. I'll definitely be replacing all components this go around so I hopefully never have to drop the transmission for this reason again...

I'll be dropping my AX-15 for the third time in about a year to replace yet ANOTHER internal slave cylinder. The issue is the slave cylinder works for about 2-3K miles and then starts to leak very slowly as it gets progressively worse to the point where I can't even get enough pressure to disengage the clutch. The simple answer is to simply go with the external clutch slave bell housing, but I'm not really in the mood to go junkyard diving in hopes to find all of the parts I need. Of the people who are selling these parts, they know the pains I'm going through in order to replace such a simple component so they price their parts as such. A couple of thoughts I have had as so why this is happening: The master cylinder is somehow defective and is producing TOO much pressure that is causing premature wear on the slave cylinder The stainless steel braided line that I installed from the master to slave cylinder has a smaller ID than the stock tube, which is causing my pressures to be higher I am installing the slave cylinder incorrectly I somehow managed to purchase two defective clutch slave cylinders I am thinking that bullet points 1 and 2 are related and may be the root cause of my issue. Anyone have any other thoughts?

Roughly this time last year I was offered a promotion by my supervisor. I took a month to think on it and ultimately accepted the position as the engineering manager. So far the position has opened my eyes to the fact that I would like to pursue another career.

I use kerosene