Mike's 1993 Dodge Cummins Truck Blog

Jackie and I saw wasps flying into the vents of the truck. So I found that the vent grille could be removed. Once I got it off and used a mirror, it was very clear there was a large wasp’s nest up under there. I bent up a piece of music wire and began scrapping the inside of the cowl area for the nest. Of course we were dive bombed by wasps during this sortie. I gave Jackie a spray bottle to fend off the wasps with. It worked great!!! Here is what I dug out of the cowl. My sunglasses are there for scale.

Today I showed up at dmv at 7am thinking I was an hour early. Turned out they opened at 9am on Wednesday’s. So I waited for 2 hours. The fees were $200 total. The truck was now mine!!!! No smog required!!

I had searched for weeks for a Cummins Dodge truck to replace my van, due to the poor gas mileage while towing the 19 foot cargo trailer. I found one out in Oakdale, CA, a 1.5 hour drive. The kid was slow to answer questions but the truck looked like it might be worth it. He said it needed a transmission. So after I got the license plate number from him I checked DMV. They said the truck really was on non-op and had no extra fees due. So I drove out there at about 3pm in the afternoon.

He told me the truck started instantly if it could get a new starter. I brought a new one with me. It cranked nicely after we borrowed a battery from a tractor. But it still didn’t start. Him and his friend kept trying to bleed the air from the injectors. But after many tries it was becoming clear to me that there was a fuel problem. We pulled the fuel filter. It had about 15% water in it and a bunch of coffee ground type stuff as well. We went to the parts store and bought a new fuel filter. The guys added a couple more gallons of diesel to the tank as it was very low. Then the engine started and ran fine after all of that work. That took 6 hours. Our agreement ahead of time was that he would reduce the price of the truck by $100 to offset me having to bring a new starter. So I paid him $1900.

The truck has an engine brake from BD installed on it. It’s about $1000 with tax. The toggle switch is not connected. I’ll have to get that running some time.

At around 9pm I called AAA to tow the truck home for me. The guy could only tow it the next day. So around noon it showed up and the project got underway.