2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Electro-coat vs. wax coat frame?

[SRath]

My dodge manual is big on giving separate torque values for the same year and model truck depending upon whether it has an e-coat or wax-coat frame. Apparently, in 1996 anyway, all trucks made in mexico had wax coat frames and all trucks made in Missouri, like mine, had e-coat frames.



This leads me to wonder how these different treatments might affect corrosion. I know the names should be self-explanatory, but I would like to know more about both processes.



I have NEVER had a vehicle who's body and frame were so resistant to rust while at the same time, anything bolted on to it disintegrates with alarming speed.



My powder-coated snowplow mount. My powder and POR-15 coated Class V+ hitch. My fuel filler neck. The brake and fuel lines. The rear drop bumper.



ALL of these things are total crust! I have 3/8 and 1/2 inch thick plate steel brackets that are delaminating and can be split apart by hand!! My fuel lines, neck, and brake lines look like barnacle-encrusted barge bottoms.



It is almost like anything NOT a permanent, original part of the body or frame is doomed to be a sacrificial anode.



Has anyone else noticed this? Galvanizing, POR-15, powdercoating, paints and primers, undercoatings and rustproofings have NO effect at stopping this.



I have a CounterAct electronic rustproofing system not yet installed that I hope might help. My brake and fuel lines are downright scary-looking. My trailer hitch brackets are delaminating to their cores like plywood left to rot for years. And Inline Tube doesn't offer any prebent stainless steel replacements for these trucks like they do for my Camaros.



Yet, except for the driver's door bottom (lousy drain hole placement), and the passenger front fender (crud clogged on the inside for years behind the front wheel apparently), the truck body and frame refuse to hardly rust at all.



What's going on here?

 

[Threlkeld]

I have a 96 3500 from Missouri and it also it a freakin mess. It lived in Ohio most of its live and the frame is flaking something terrible. Brake lines were replaced. I just did the fuel lines. It's sad.

 

[WilsonF]

I live in Wa. state so I have not the problem with corrosion, but do wonder about the different torque values.

Floyd

 

[bmoeller]

My '97 was built in Mexico. Not sure where the '99 was built. Never looked.

They is or was a place that made/makes SS lines for our trucks. Just don't recall who it is.

 

[SRath]

I have found vendors for stainless flex hoses, but no luck on SS hard lines yet.

 

[bmoeller]

Ah, OK. Wonder what it would cost to have them made up.

I had to replace the brake line that runs between the fuel tank and frame on both trucks. The last one I got, went on the '99. The local store had poly coated brake lines, and I put it together with 3 pieces. Didn't have a 150" long piece.

Dumb thing with the '99, the steel fuel lines had just been replaced when I bought the truck. The brake line should've been done when they dropped the tank the first time. It broke in 4 pieces when I yanked it out. I had been pulling gravity flow wagons the 2 days prior, and blew with only 60 bu on the last one before I parked it. Crazy. Just glad no one got hurt.

 

[wlowe]

I have found vendors for stainless flex hoses, but no luck on SS hard lines yet.

EGR sells OEM pre-bent hard brake lines for our Dodges in mild or stainless steel. Here is the link.



EGR Performance Brakes, brakes for Dodge, Ford, Chevy, GMC, Tahoe, Yukon, Excursion, Dakota, Durango or whatever you drive.

 

[SRath]

Thanks for the link!!

I wonder, given the popularity of upgrading to larger Chevy rear wheel cylinders, how much improvement in rear braking there might be if the size of the hard brakeline was increased, too? That is a very tiny line!

 

[SMorneau]

A few years back when my shop was incomplete with a dirt floor I parked my truck in it for several months. This was made worse by the fact that I had previously dumped thousands of gallons of water on the dirt floor to help the sand compact. Well I ended up with some really compact sand and a very rusty flaking pitting corroding undercarriage. The metal on the components bolted to the frame were delaminating and looked like they were doomed. The frame, MO built truck, looked and remains to this day very rust free for a MN truck.

Fast forward. Shop has a floor and a lift was installed. My first project was to put the truck on the lift and strip it to the frame starting at the bottom. I removed the axles, springs, tank straps, 4 links, virtually everything. I took them to a guy who blasted and painted them with a black urethane for about $400. I went online to mopar-4-less and purchased new tank straps, dust shields, and new bolts and hardware for virtually everything that needed to be resinstalled; cost me less than $300.

I also replaced the rotors bearings, CAD actuator, and brakes on the front. New brake lines front to back, a new sending unit, new fuel lines, new aftermarket 4-links ,etc, etc. The truck looks like a new truck underneath. I went from a ugly piece of junk to "WOW". Total dollar outlay to de-rust the undercarrigage about a $1000.

Anyway my point is, the truck was built in MO and the frame which has never been touched is still in very very good condition and would have far outlasted the rest of the running gear.

I don't think a larger brake line will make any difference. The larger wheel cylinders will.

BTW, Mopar-4-Less did an excellent job of sending me all of the correct hardware and I continue to use them to this day when time allows.

SRath, do you have 4 wheel ABS? If so do you want to buy any spare ABS brake system components?

Scott

 

[bmoeller]

Replace your brake fluid. You'd be surprised how much of a difference it will make in braking power. Was the difference as night and day in both of my trucks. Bought a $35 hand operated vac pump kit and bled it all out by myself.

Something like this kit, but no fancy case.

Mityvac Automotive Testing and Brake Bleeding Kit | Brake Repair | Northern Tool + Equipment

 

[SRath]

Many uses for the MityVac

I have a MityVac! And a son because of one.



My wife and son did not believe me when I told them it was the EXACT tool the doc used when he, my 1st born, got in such a big damned hurry from his first moment entering this world (and nothing has changed in the 16 years since), that he got stuck inside with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck killing him. She (the doctor) put a suction cup on the end of the hose and stuck it on the kid's head, pumped the air out until it sucked half the kids head into the cup, braced herself against the table, and PULLED!



It left a shifter-knob mass on the baby's head at the time... the doc saw the look on my face from that and assured me the knob would go away. It did. Lucky for her... And once the bright blue color subsided after the kid could breathe, he started to look almost human. "I go through all this for nine months and you give me a bright blue conehead?!!" :-laf



It even said MityVac on it, but I'll bet because it was sold to a hospital, it cost $1000 while mine cost $40. Even at the time, I told the doc I had one of those same EXACT tools at home in my shop; which gained me a dubious look. (You know how it is; even in the most exciting moment of my first-born's difficult birth, talking tools just came naturally (unlike the kid... )! )



So if you ever find yourself having to play midwife, go get your MityVac!!

 

[bmoeller]

:-laf :-laf

My dad, the doc and both nurses were talking about Harvestore silos when I was being born. My mom was pi$$ed, and I was stuck. :-laf

 

[SRath]

and a few months later, they want to do it again...

Has the world ever known a woman in the throes of labor that didn't get pi$$ed at her hubby? #@$%!



"What did I do?"