As much as I've enjoyed my 97 Ram, and use now as a work truck on a daily basis, sometimes working on it can be a bit of a pain.
Changed the waterpump yesterday.
First lesson I learned was that the fan shroud does not come off first. You must remove clutch fan assembly then pull the shroud and fan out at same time. A lousy 1/2" difference in shroud width and this would not be the case. As for the clutch fan..what a fricken pain in the ass. Using special tools, .... an adjustable wrench and crow bar, I successfully removed it allowing access to pump. Pump came off easily and replacement was quick, cept for one little glitch. The heater hose going to pump secures to a tube that is pressed into pump. This tube does not come with new pump and attempting to reuse the old one didnt work since it did not come out in one piece from old pump. Just glad advance auto was open till eleven last night.
I just have to question some of the engineering that goes into designing the layout of the truck ....ie last project was changing distributor cap and rotor (by feel) since it is placed in a spot that had to be intentionally designed to make it inaccessable, or at least as aggrevating as possible.
with 100k on vehicle, I took opportunity to change belt and thermostat at same time, along with hoses. Now I am wondering if I should have also done timing chain since I spent a fricken day doing a lousy water pump, i do not even want to think about getting in there again anytime soon.