'90 W250--'89/91/92 Ramcharger

[Tacoclaw]

If I ever make it home at a decent hour I'll bust out the MS Paint and show you what was up. I welded it and it's working fine now.

[Tacoclaw]

Didn't make it home in time last night, because I started a new conquest against all the rattles in my cab. The poly mounts I installed throughout the drivetrain show no mercy in the noise department.

I pulled apart my driver's side door, since it was closest to me and I could hear it the most, and found that I had only put in my new speaker with 3 bolts. A 4th one and fresh loctite on them all cured it right up.

I proceeded to pound and wiggle more peices of the door looking for rattles and found this bad boy. The bottom rivet had corroded out and was letting it flop around when the window was off of it.

I drilled out all the rivets, blasted it, and gave it a nice coat of Cummins Beige before putting it back in place with more loctited machine screws.

I siliconed my kick panel vent closed since all it did was rattle, leak water, and let in cold air even when closed. I even took some Velcro tape and went around all the interior panels I was too lazy to put all the screws back into.

Now I am able to hear the next level of rattles. My main offenders at this point are the covers for the seatbelt spools and the A-pillar plastic is squeaking on the dashboard. Then every other piece of plastic or metal in there.

[Mark Nixon]

...I siliconed my kick panel vent closed since all it did was rattle, leak water, and let in cold air even when closed...

No, no,no, Dammit NO!!!
Your trouble with leakage is very likely MUCH deeper than simply the kick panel leaking water!
The bottom of the the cowl near the kick panel is actually designed with drain SLOTS, huge ones, so that the water DOESN'T come into the cab at the cowl covers (kick panels).

Pull the wiper cowl screen off and look down in there for the cowl CRACK that's causing your leakage, then either weld it up, or use a non-acidic sealer and temporarily seal the crack.
If you can't see the crack through the screen, pull the kick panel back off and investigate for the leak from that angle.

If all of THAT fails, look VERY closely at your outer roof area for pinholes and up under the dash for signs that water has run from the roof down the pillar and into the cab that way.

It's almost NEVER a "simple leak" on these things.

QUIT CHASING NOISES AND CHASE LEAKS!
Or try women instead.

Mark.

[Tacoclaw]

I just mentioned the water since I could, I don't know that's where it's coming in at. I really just closed it up since it had the handle broken off and I had to pull the panel to slide it back and forth. Water in the cab doesn't really worry me that much anymore since I bedlined the whole floor and replaced any fabric with tar/aluminum sound deadener.

Moral of the story, kids, if you've got a water leak. Do as Mark says not as I do.

[Mark Nixon]

Moral of the story, kids, if you've got a water leak. Do as Mark says not as I do.

All I was saying is there's a reason for water in the cab, this is usually why these trucks which seem to rarely (around here) have rusted out floorboards, then I come across ones that do.

Water is sneaky, it'll run down the firewall and rust the floor under the carpet.
You'll think it was from salt and snow while getting in and out of the truck, all the while the little tyrant, water, has been sneaking in from the firewall, running down under the carpet, oxidizing the steel under the paint on the floor under the carpet, maybe evaporating, then sneaking back in during the next rainstorm.

Sorry, I just did a tirade on C/L pointing out how buyers should be more civil and I'm still in descriptive mode.

Mark.

[BC847]

The poly mounts I installed throughout the drivetrain show no mercy in the noise department.

Been there, doin that!

I had to alter the idle to get it out of "That Note" (harmonic) that lit-up everything.

[Tacoclaw]

Here's the middlecooler explanation pic for you girls. Orange is flange sealing surface and red is the edge of the core. The little dots of Pete's favorite color are somewhat covering up the sidewalk concrete you can see through that gaping hole.

[Mark Nixon]

I have one of those coolers.
It's on a 4bt.

Mark.

[Tacoclaw]

didn't see your post, BC.

I can drop mine to just below the interior-rattling frequency, but then my mirrors start going buck wild. Then every time I bump the throttle I get a super loud rattle as everything in there gets run through it's frequency all at once. I could bump it above the idle speed, but it already idles too high IMO. The price we pay, eh?

[PToombs]

Well, that makes sense that it's a leak to the outside, I just couldn't see that in the original pic. I even went back and looked at it again and to me it looks like some white spots on it. I'm just glad you got it fixed so we can go back to the regular non truck nonsense we talk about.

[Tacoclaw]

I'm just glad you got it fixed so we can go back to the regular non truck nonsense we talk about.

Indeed. Speaking of non-truck discussion, what's the Midget been up to lately? I can't say I've seen anything about your ride on here lately.

[Tacoclaw]

I don't remember where, but sometime or another I promise someone a picture of the fusebox I pulled out of an RD Mack truck. Probably a mid '90's model. Here it is:

[PToombs]

Parked for the winter. I drove it right up to a couple weeks ago, then topped off the fuel. Last weekend it was 70* here, and the fuel expanded and was pushing out the vent, so I had to burn a little off. The tires.
I've gotten the hang of flashing the clutch as I go around a corner and then drifting for a ways until I straighten it out. My 6 year old thought this was great fun as well as the huge cloud of smoke that resulted from it. If I keep this up I'm going to need new tires again soon. And the 3rd gear synchro was working perfectly too, never missed a shift all afternoon. Go figure.

[Tacoclaw]

I've always said that sometimes you gotta abuse your truck(vehicle) a bit to let it know who's boss. Nothing let's that transmission know it better start behaving than a taste of what might happen if it grinds around on the wrong day and you just snap and try t finish it off right there.

I'm kind of at a standstill with my rattles, turns out the seatbelt covers were rattling, but they weren't alone. The little weights that swing around and let the belt know you've been in a horrible accident are also vibrating around pretty good. I siliconed them to the bottom of their little arm, but even I'm not dumb enough to silicone the whole deal up over a couple rattles. Totally blows, I dunno if I'll ever get the damn things to shut up. I'm probably gonna try to wedge something in between the seatbelt bracket and the outer cab wall. If it shuts them up I'll fab something up and put it in there with some nasty tape or silicone or something.

I'm also starting to sniff out what I'm going to do for wiring on this pig while I've got time this winter. I pulled out all the connectors on those stupid Delphi ends and ordered up two, twelve pin Deutsch connectors to use instead. I'll post some updates on that when they get here.

[PToombs]

Have fun wiring those SOB in there!