GETTING RAMMED IN THE WALLET

My Ram Cummins has an oil leak from a failed seal between the vacuum and steering pump drive adapter. This is a very common fail point. The shop fixing my truck phoned to say he had been quoted Ram Dealer parts $1765 CAD for the repair parts which is the vacuum pump only. No seals are available for this situation, they said. I asked for 15 minutes to try and remedy this situation and this is what I discovered.
Cummins part number 4089742 $45 retail, wholesale $27
West Can Auto Parts, Dorman part number is 904335 and the price is just a little less than Cummins.
The Ram Truck dealer parts quoted: $1765
Several years ago I had to replace the fan pulley and the four metric machine screws on this truck. Cummins said the pulley was likely vehicle specific and I should go to the dealer. Pulley was just over $300 and I was charged $9 for each machine screw. A local fastener shop charges 11 cents each for the same screws. When I got the dealer only pulley, it had a Cummins part number sticker on it. The dealer had put their parts sticker over the Cummins part number. I called Cummins for a price quote and their price was just under half that of the dealer. caveat emptor

My son came home with an over-made-up sales person and a dealer demonstrator Ram 1500 Diesel. This truck had about 3000 kilometres showing. They quoted him close to $60,000 out the door. He has endured weeks of pressure to make the purchase because, as she said, " these trucks are selling like hotcakes. " Yah, right. Very suddenly and without warning the sales person called me for help with getting my son to buy the "selling-like-hotcakes" pickup. I offered $35,000 and the phone went dead. Cold pancakes toasted with PB&J are not too bad.

For Comfort and ride, I will take a GMC over a Dodge. For Work, as in heavy Pulling, I will take a Dodge over GMC, but the GMC will give the Dodge a run for it's money and will walk away from the Dodge for comfort. I am basing my current ratings on 2012 vehicle models, as that is about the newest we transport/drive. Fords are a Hit or Miss and I have always liked Fords. I hope he finds a good vehicle that does him well!

Interstate Mcbee sell just about every part for the 855 Cummins, I know they have some for the 'B" just not sure how many. Their prices are a lot easyer to handle and they use the same Cummins part number with a "M" prefix. Makes looking up parts easy. If you have the Cummins part number try a goggle search with that number and see what comes up.

My son has a Jeep Wrangler that we bought for $2500 about 10 years ago. It starts and runs and is reliable. He has been offered more than double the price I paid. His vehicle plans are to drive his L110 Shorty, 4X4 with Cummins 4bta power. When he needs a truck in the interim he always takes my 2500. The kid is too cheap to buy a new truck with the high cost of new vehicle depreciation.
Dorman Auto Parts http://www.dormanproducts.com/ are am American company with warehousing in Canada. their replacement parts appear to be very high quality. It is very common for auto repair shops to substitute Doman parts at a lower cost to themselves and then charge out the customer at the much higher Ram Dealer parts price.
I found the Cummins seal kit number I wanted on You Tube https://youtu.be/H7n4gVLnCWU From this I was able to get the Dorman number. CanWest Auto Parts sell Dorman. Cummins was able to deliver in an hour, so Cummins it was.

The "wallass"?

Just got a Dorman switch pack for the MIL's M/B, it was made in China, the OEM M/B part was made in Mexico, so not sure what the quality difference is. Since she has passed and the kids just wanted it fixed to run thru an auction, I didn't care that much.
I've been happy for the most part, with Interstate McBee parts. Used a lot of them on my 855's

Getting mechanical work done is very expensive. My wife guessed $1900 and I was conservative with my guess at $1700.
The total was $1875. I'm okay so the price because I understand what it costs to keep a shop open and pay employees.
So far so good.

I wanted to know how long and how far I could run the Ram/Cummins airfilter before it started to fail the Daimler Chrysler Service manual specification. This is what the filter looked like after well over 250,000 kilometers. The negative pressure manometer test was a pass but I did replace it with an NAPA Gold Filter out of guilt.

I wanted to drive to Merritt, BC early this morning, but my freshly resealed vacuum pump was not getting the vacuum to and around the vacuum motors in the HVAC and the vacuum operated front axle engagement was not working. It was all working when it went into the shop, what did they do to cause this situation? I was told to be at the shop by 08:00h and they would make it right. The apprentice let me drive my Dodge into the shop at 08:30h where it stayed for the next two and one half hours. I had an hour nap and then popped the hood for a look. How difficult can a simple vacuum system be? I did a visual trace of the vacuum line from the vacuum pump while I was waiting for someone to show up. The problem was at the second connection. . The plastic tube that goes from the rubber elbow to the distribution centre on the firewall was shoved in too far and against the back of the rubber elbow. NO VACUUM GETTING THROUGH THE BLOCKAGE. I tested my findings and the problem was solved.
Still no one for the next hour, but I waited. When the owner and his mechanic showed up I did not say anything about what I found, I let them suffer the full embarrassment of failure for the next 15 minutes. They had the hoses off and on several times and the "situation" remained the same, for them. Enough with the "fun", it was time to show them what the problem was. I was given a set of BOSCH windshield wipers.
The Ram works as it should, now.

I try an talk to the shop Mgr when I find mistakes. Not to make a big deal, but if it is not reported, it never happened. No one can learn from a mistake not reported.
I recently had a pinion seal replaced on the road. within 2 months it was leaking again, slowly. It turn out they had displaced the "garter spring" on the seal, when installing. It was done by using the wrong practice. The yoke shouldn't be "rattled" on with a impact, rather torqued on by hand. I could have taken it back to them, and got into an argument over if it was still covered, I just replaced it, because it is more important not to have a leak, than wait until I got back to Salt Lake City.