SHIFT TOWER
My old truck was running great and the stereo sounded phenomenal, so obviously something was waiting to go wrong. In December 2025, it started becoming difficult to put in gear. Eventually it became borderline undriveable. The transmission oil was still fairly new, so I knew that wasn’t the problem. I was worried that either a clutch or a tranny rebuild would be required. More from hope than from any certainty, I decided to replace the shift tower. I ordered a new one from Torque King and once it showed up, I got to work. I took off the center console and the boot over the shift tower. Then it was only 4 bolts and the shift tower came off. It was extremely floppy and the rubber was torn. I said, “That might not be THE problem, but it is definitely A problem.” The new one could not be moved by hand so I bolted it in and went for a drive.
Wore out, probably original
Without the boot over the tower, it was LOUD, but I could shift. It was a little difficult because I had to be a lot more precise with the shifter than I was used to. A couple minutes later, it became difficult again, so I pulled over. The bolts had come loose and the tower was rocking on top of the transmission. I tightened them(I was smart enough to have my truck toolkit with me), limped home, and cleaned the bolts. Then I put blue Loctite on them, reinstalled, and let it sit overnight. The next day she drove fine, for the most part. I still have a little trouble putting it into gear, but I hope it’s my fault. If it continues I will look at a new clutch or a tranny rebuild, I won’t know which until I pull the transmission, so I hope it doesn’t come to that.
When I put the center console back on I had a genius moment: I had it bolted in with the shift boots in place without the shifter. I was able to finagle it up the side from underneath and get put on, but I could only tighten it by hand with no Loctite and I knew that would vibrate loose, so it had to come apart again.
I love doing this so much I do it twice.
Took the boot for the transfer case off and unbolted the center console(again). Put some Loctite on the shifter and wrenched it tight.
Also, notice my leather shift boots from Stronghold Shift Boots. I believe I mentioned them in an earlier installment, but had no pictures. I think they look much cooler than the stock rubber ones.
Also also, my cubby where I put my phone cracked where it screws into the truck, so I bought a used one from Ebay. In the above picture, I am waiting for it to show up.
Early January 2026, I took the truck to the shop because the pinion seal was leaking. I wanted to do it myself, but a lot of people on Cummins forum said the spacing and tightness of the bolt was critical, so I chickened out.
While they were in there, they informed me the carrier bearing was pretty bad and needed replaced. He said that would be an additional $900, but I knew that was a job I could handle.
Once I got the truck back, I had a few things to do, so I moved my tractor and riding mower out of the way and parked the truck in the garage longways for more room to work on her. I figured it would be a couple weekends worth of work.
Makes me sad
PASSENGER WINDOW
3 months before this, my passenger window would not roll down and a couple weeks later neither would the driver’s side. This was embarrassing every time we went on base and I had to open my door, but not enough to get me to fix it for a long time. I bought 2 window regulators from Rock Auto and figured now was a good time to throw them in. It is a fairly straight forward process, remove the door card, cut through the vapor barrier, remove the old one and put the new one in. I went a little overboard with the vapor barrier, so I decided to replace it with a heavy duty trash bag and window sealing tape.
Might be ugly, but it works
After I replaced the passenger one, the driver side worked, so I didn’t have to replace both sides. I will keep the other one I purchased and as long as I have it, the old one should never fail.
AIR FILTER
I had replaced my stock filter with a Donaldson, but since it was just laying in the engine bay, it was a hot air intake. I decided to replace this with a S&B filter set up. This was easy, pull the old hose off of the turbo, assemble the new filter, and bolt it down.
Before
As part of the installation, you have to remove the passenger side battery tray. I noticed the 2 nuts holding the battery tray down were rusted and I had to use a smaller size socket that I hammered on to remove them. I checked the driver side and they were the same way, so I figured out the size and pitch with my handy dandy thread checker. Then I went to Tractor Supply (or Tractor Surprise as my wife says) and bought 4 new ones.
Weird, my truck doesn’t have rust
Side note, the magnetic mat from Harbor Freight is amazing.
And it looks nicer
It has an opening that aligns with a hole in the fender to pull air from outside. I can’t say 100%, but the butt dyno feels like it has a little better power now.
EXHAUST BOLTS
My exhaust bolts have been a continuous issue since I installed a high flow 3-piece manifold from Power Driven Diesel. Maybe I put too much anti-seize, but the rear ones on cylinder 5 & 6 kept working themselves loose. This had already caused me to rebuild my turbo for no reason, and now every 2 or 3 months it would start rattling and lose a little power, so I was tired of them. I purchased locking bolts and put them on. Once they were tight enough, I locked them in place. They have a piece that rests against the manifold and a locking tab to keep them on. It was a little painful to get the lock on some of the bolts, but I shouldn’t have to re-tighten them again.
Locking Bolts
I really need to repaint the valve cover. I had off and stripped when my mom died 2 years ago, but had to put it back on to go home for her funeral and haven’t bothered with it since.
CARRIER BEARING
This model of Ram has a 2-piece drive shaft that is supported by a carrier bearing and mine was shot, as the shop had told me.
Tore Rubber
I bought a new one from TorqueKing, they are the best place for truck drivetrain parts. I was reminded of why I like to do my own work when I went to pull the old one off. There is a rubber boot that covers the joint of the shafts and it should be secured by 2 crimped clamps. The boot was there, but when they put in the new pinion bearing, they did not put the clamps on. Minor detail, I know, but still aggravating.
I saw on the new carrier bearing instructions there was a warning the bearing could swing down and cause injury. I wondered what that was about and climbed under the truck. I took the 4 bolts that hold the bracket to the frame and almost got knocked out when the bracket freely swung down because it is top heavy. Luckily it missed my head and almost grazed my chin. THAT’S WHAT THE WARNING WAS FOR! Oh well, no harm done. Then I supported the rear shaft with a jack stand and pulled the front of the shaft and bearing from the truck.
I removed the 2 bolts holding the bearing to the bracket, now I had to get the bearing pressed off of the shaft. I had watched a YouTube video where a guy was replacing it and he did it with a hammer, but this was the second time he had to do it an 3 months. A lot of the comments said that it failed so soon because he beat the other one on with a hammer, so I took mine to a shop. They charged me $50 to press the old one off and the new one on. Then it was a simple matter to bolt the bracket to the bearing and then CAREFULLY hold it so it doesn’t swing while I put the shaft back together. Then 4 bolts for the bracket to the frame.
Shiny, and the clamps are there
Headlights
2001 Dodge Ram headlights are horrible. There have been times where I forgot to turn off my high beams and nobody flashes me. When I bought her in July 2014 the lights were dim, so I had put brand new stock replacements on in December of 2015.
The day I got her home after a 3 1/2 drive with no A/C
The new ones were better, but never good. I decided to buy some better lights. There were 3 I looked at. There was a cheap set from Amazon, with a LED stripe, or a medium set from SpyderCo, that had a LED ring, or an expensive set from Alpha Rex, with 2 bulbs and a LED strip top and bottom. While I liked the Alpha Rex ones the best, I couldn’t justify $675 plus shipping for headlights. I did not like the cheapest set, so I went with the Spyder ones. I thought having the ring for day time driving lights would look good.
What I was replacing
When they arrived, they looked cool.
Nice
When I pulled the black plastic cover off the top of the bumper to have access to the headlight bolts, the clips disintegrated. Dodge plastic strikes again. RockAuto had one for $70 but the cheapest shipping was $140. I called the local Dodge dealership and they said it was $180 and I could pick it up, so there was no shipping.
Headlight install on these trucks is simple, there are 3 bolts holding them in and I had to cut and solder the wires for the new lights.
Unfortunately the ring doesn’t show during the day, but it looks good at dusk before it’s dark enough for the headlights.
I did have to adjust them, there is a screw at the bottom for vertical and a bolt on the inside behind the grill for horizontal. I parked 25 feet from my garage door and put my laser level even with the top of the lights. Once I was happy with the height, I put the level on the bumper in front of each light pointing straight ahead. I wish I had thought to take before pictures of the light output, but these are MUCH brighter.
Low Beams
High Beams
During all of this, my knee decided to swell up a few times and I had dizzy issues from vertigo once. Combining this with recurring sinus headaches and what I had planned to be a few weeks took 7 months. I finally got the truck out of the garage and down to North Carolina for its inspection August 8th. On the bright side, there are no issues except for sometimes I can’t get into gear easily when I am stopped. Might need a clutch, might need a transmission rebuild, we shall see.
There was a discussion this morning about Lionfish.
They are a very destructive invasive species in the Atlantic tropics. With no native predators, they upend the reef ecosystem.
There are organized efforts to use human hunting to limit their numbers. Several guys have youtube chanels.
https://youtube.com/shorts/1SIw9XJrH4E
We fought Asian grass carp in the US rivers for decades, spending billions to create barriers to keep them out of the great lakes. Finally we found a way to reduce their numbers. We paid a bounty to local fishermen.
There is currently no such subsidy for Lionfish in the US. But support via YouTube seems to be serving the purpose
The Lionfish have spread remarkably quickly. A couple of decades ago there were a few stories of people spotting them off of the florida keys. Now these guys shoot YouTube videos taking hundreds of them off of the coast of Broward and Palm Beach counties, hundreds of miles away.
The Yonabaru Soba on Okinawa had one in a huge aquarium and when the dropped a bunch of goldfish in to feed it, it was something to see.
https://en.ecob.okinawa/yonabaru-soba/
Third time to Japan, after Tokyo by myself, then with then-gf Prianka, the two of us went to Kyoto and Osaka. One of my favorite bits was the aquarium where they’ve got a whale shark.
“The whale sharks in Osaka are housed at the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan, one of the largest and most famous aquariums in the world. The massive Pacific Ocean centerpiece tank holds 5,400 tons of water and provides a multi-level view of the whale sharks as visitors spiral down the building.”
That was remarkably special. I think there and one in Atlanta(?) are the only two in the world to have them in public aquariums. The two(?) had plenty of space and seemed content. Having food and not being in any danger will do that for ya.
The Dodge of Theseus
Genius
Probably 90% is still original, but she is 25 years old, that’s like 80 in truck years.
Love the article, BTW. Color me jealous. I dont have a garage, so even simple jobs are a challenge. Plus, the wife sold my floor jack and jack stands.
Not having a space for a workshop is rough.
I have a small shop in my unfinished and flood prone basement. I don’t know what I do without it.
I am of an age that the “entertainment” on Saturdays after cartoons were over was the paid promotion show for the Shop Smith Mark 5.
Oh, man, did I want one of those. Transformed into every shop tool, including a wood lathe. Now, I doubt i would ever need a wood lathe. But it was cool enough that it started making sense. I mean, you never know when you would need to turn a new chair leg. Or a baluster for the stairs.
I too have a small shop in my basement, which is not very flood prone, thank God. But, I have it stuffed with a metal lathe, mill, drill press, grinder, metal shaper, and several tool box stacks.
It makes for very tight quarters.
Shopsmiths turn up from time to time at the local pawn shop and on CL/Marketplace. They are pretty well built. For a small space they are probably a decent tool.
Also… I love the timeline slip. The famous “30 minute project” that ends up taking all weekend and 3 trips to Home Depot.
I am currently finishing a desk for my daughter. She wanted a dark walnut finish. After spending hours preparing the surface, I expected perfect results. Wiping the stain off revealed a crosshatch of dark scratches. Must have been caused in the milling and transport process, crushing fibers deep into the wood.
So I went to get my half sheet sander that hasn’t been used in years and dates back to the early 80s.
It had given up the ghost.
So had the pad on the Bosch palm sander. Nobody had a replacement, but Harbor Freight had a 1/4 sheet sander for 20 bucks, which is about the price of the replacement part.
So I attacked the desk with 80 grit to take off the damaged surface and start over. But I must have started too soon, because the finish just gummed up the sandpaper.
$8 later, I was out of sandpaper and the stain still showed. Dang.
I tried cleaning the gunk from the sandpaper. Minimal success.
Another trip.
They dont have the cheap stuff. Only the 3M brand, and only in half sheet size.
More expensiveness. More delay.
I budgeted an afternoon.
We are on day 4.
And honestly, it looked great with the scratches. It was *exactly* the distressed look you paid extra for 20 years ago. I didnt mind the daughter who had never seen that fad hating it…. but the wife was the one who egged it on, and she tried to make me buy a whole room of that stuff at the time.
Bonus, we had rain so the mosquitos ate me alive as I fought that gummy finish late into the night. So now Amazon thinks I am weird because I ordered a 5 pack of hydrocortisone ointment.
Gotta love “quick” projects.
Yeah, projects have a way of needing more and more of your time and space.
I am not this handy at all. Not a car guy. I am going to Pittsburgh this Sunday to pick up this bad boy for my cousin who lives in Arizona.
That is nice!
Are you driving it to Arizona?
He is. I’m driving it to Ohio. They are visiting in a few weeks.
He collects Dodge Power Wagons, Ramchargers, and Power Rams. He has 8 or 9 now. Worked for Mazda for years and years and recently retired. No kids, although they tried. They also have 2 horses, 2 cows and dogs and cats.
Cool, I love the 2 tone on that one.
One of the downfalls of the 2ng gen is that 2 tone paint does not look near as nice as it does on the older ones.
Looks like my old 93 in a different color.
Hope you back isn’t bad. Those seats and suspension are hard as a rock.
I’ve replaced one window regulator in my automotive repair career. It was an Audi A4. It was riveted into the door. Plus the knuckle busting fishing it out of the door.
Not a fun job.
I sold my 3 series BMW when the windows mechanisms started failing.
$450 in labor per window. All because they used a cheap plastic pulley that was guaranteed to fail.
That, plus the fact that you have to remove the front half of the engine to get to the spark plugs for the back side, making a simple tune-up cost over a grand.
Nope.
Best car I have ever had.
But nope.
Same issue. Plastic pulley cracked. OEM was Brose – they do lots of German cars.
I found this great Chrome plug-in that greys out crappy third-world brands from Amazon in favor of more trusted ones and helps you find US manufacturers.
New headlights are a good way to improve the looks of an old truck. Nice article.
That’s a great-looking truck – particularly given the age!
Thanks
Several things: 1. That’s impressive and I’d be jealous if I had any hands-on skills outside drumming or juggling. Love seeing inside work.
2. You have a really big garage.
3. Scrolled for a bit to see your “shift boots,” curious what a man dressed up in to work on his truck. *point flies over head*
4. Is that the parking brake between the wheel and the gear shift? Huh? Seems intrusive.
Sigh. Tranny rebuild, eh? Replacing the “shift tower,” huh? Torque it off and it comes off easy, huh? Afterwards, it was extremely floppy, eh? After the blood loss, I’m sure it’ll shrivel up. These euphemisms would work for the Pro Child Genital Mutilation Party. Gotta make it seem pro-active!
The Hurst shifter is for the 4-wheel drive transfer case — I think.
Not a Hurst shifter, just a shift handle with an International Harvester logo on it.
Whoops. My bad. I had a Hurst in my CJ7. I saw the H shape and made and ass out of u and me.
The shift boots are the leather covers on the bottom of the 2 shifters.
In between the wheel and the gear shift is the transfer case selector for switching from 2 to 4 wheel drive.
Luckily, no trannies were harmed in the making of this article.
“The shift boots are the leather covers on the bottom of the 2 shifters.”
Yes, I eventually figured that out. For a sec I thought you had fancy work boots. And yes, you’re loathe to harm a tranny yourself, or with help. So much money, so much work, much complaining, assuredly.
(Speaking of, it seems I rarely hear about successful tranny stories. To be fair, if one really wants to go that route, “passing” and appearing ‘normal’ is kinda the point, so I would kinda doubt they’d be loud about it. Tho the tranny I worked with, who didn’t even attempt to pass in any way, was pretty open about it and being troubled in a variety of other ways.)
“Speaking of, it seems I rarely hear about successful tranny stories”
———
Christina Kahrl (the baseball writer) seems to be happy.
Blair White?
Wendy Carlos
Renée Richards is successful ophthalmic surgeon in NYC. Wound up (successfully) operating on our neighbor’s little boy. Neighbor had no idea until she met the surgeon and put 2 +2 together.
I think the rule of thumb is pre-Y2K transitions are basically okay. Post 20, they’re bug-fuck crazy.
Obviously, some outliers in both divisions, and Y2K to 2010 are the wildcard years.
Speaking of, it seems I rarely hear about successful tranny stories.
I had the transmission in an old Town Car rebuilt. It worked fine.
transmission rebuilt.
I was thinking of Blair White, but she’s also quite against The Current Thing, IIRC, and I think does her best to stop foolish people from doing it as well. I could be very, very mistaken. Didn’t know the others. I’m very much in the (I think?) common camp here: ‘I don’t give a fuck if you’re an adult and you pay for it yourself. Cool. Be well and prosper.’
@DEG: You’re the one I was speaking to. 😉
Japan to MADD. Hold my, err, “juice”.
According to the National Police Agency, there were 125 drunken driving deaths in 2025, fewer than a tenth of the 2000 figure… Driving after the consumption of any amount of alcohol is against the law in Japan, but it is only a punishable offense when a certain set of criteria is fulfilled.
In a population of 122m. So you know what’s going to make people with a drinking problem stop driving? Tougher laws!!!!
Japan continues work to end drunken driving 20 years after tragedy
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/08/25/japan/society/drunk-driving-20-years/
My good buddy was driving home with his wife (both Okinawans) after a night out and got pulled over in Okinawa.
The cop said he was too drunk to drive, so he had his wife drive.
A little while later she got pulled over and the cop made him drive.
They made it home, but there was a different attitude about drunk driving in the 1990’s.
Speaking of – Tell the family to batten down the hatches!
Hundreds of flights canceled as typhoon bears down on Okinawa
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/08/25/japan/typhoon-saudel-bears-down-on-okinawa/
The only way you will get rid of drunk driving is to completely get rid of driving, as in no cars anywhere, or completely get rid of drinking, as in no booze anywhere.
Nothing else will work.
They tried no booze in the 1920s.
It didn’t work.
You can most certainly reduce it, but you will get to a point of no marginal return. And Japan is already there in my opinion. Normal law abiding folk don’t drink and drive there – full stop. There are services in more urban areas that will come pick you and your car up and drive both home.
At this point it’s only addicts and they won’t stop.
That is what I am implying.
I worked for a startup, Driver On Tap, that tried to do the “we’ll send a driver and get you and your car home safely and legally.” For a variety of reasons, it never really took off, and left a smoldering pile of rubble behind.
You are a lot more fastidious in your upkeep than I ever was.
I plan to keep her until I can no longer drive a stick.
That and the fact she is the weekend and vacation vehicle gives me the ability to pull her off the road for projects.
NV 4500 I assume.
Great transmissions from what I’ve been told. I’ve got an earlier Getrag/gen one Dodge 5 speed in my pile. I don’t think the NV 4500 had the fifth gear but problem that the Getrags had.
Does the GenII have the weird plastic door interior panel that the later ones have or is it part of the metal door carcass like the Gen I?
My gen one door was all cracked out from the power windows. The 80 and later square body Chevies would do that from power windows too.
NV 4500 has the fifth gear issue, but either this one was fixed before I got it or I’m lucky so far.
Not sure what you mean, the door card is plastic, but behind the vapor barrier is all metal.
Yeah, for some reason I thought your truck was an auto, not a stick. My brother had a 2500 with auto, but he had that lifted to the gills and used it as a tow vehicle for dirt bike racing. My neighbor has a 3500 with six speed, but that is one of about 6+ he has stashed around the property and it doesn’t get much use.
For some reason I thought that was a getrag problem and not the 4500.
On the newer dodges the entirety of the inside of the door panel is a plastic part. It’s sketch.
The story of car maintenance rhymes with pretty much any project.
I set out to do a simple task. I ignore the nagging voice in my head that said “verify that detail first”. I act based upon the assumption and the little voice was right. It doesn’t work. I gotta undo it and start over. The process to undo it requires giving accurate information to a third party. To collect the information, I need to get on a test machine. Now I’ve found an issue with the test machine that I need to address before I can collect the information to give to the third party to reset my error so I can start over…
I’m waiting on the fourth party to address the first of the problems in the test machine.
You can get a one piece rear driveline for them that’ll take the carrier bearing and a bit of vibration out of the Gen II.
Buddy of mine had a 98 12V NV4500, ‘four’ door he did that too. 6” lift and turned up. He said it was a big improvement over the two piece driveline. It was long though. I think it was pushing 78-79”.
I looked at those, but didn’t want to spend that much.
Dolly Parton, Country Music Legend, Dies at 80
Oh no
I bet the parks go downhill. Fast.
😢 By all accounts I ever saw or heard, she was a kind, wonderful person.
Agree. Wonderful person, but I can’t stand her voice.
Jolene is one hell of a song though.
Delightful person, 80 is a good run.
My brother was a camera man at Ann Richards Inaugural Gala in 1990, where Dolly Parton performed. He wrote a “Brief and to the Point” memoir, finished it about a month before he died. This is in his story.
“Dolly Parton performed. She was amazing. When she pranced across the stage towards my camera, I was hot. When she went the other way I was clear, but I didn’t relax and wait for her next turn; I maintained my shot and zoomed in on her booty, showing off my ability to roll focus while providing a thrill for the boys in the control room. (Sorry, but TV control rooms are notorious bastions of sexism and testosterone.) When the booth punched up my booty shot live on the big screen I was shocked and surprised but Dolly took it in stride, giving her ass a slap and a wiggle for effect. What a pro!”
Throwback To When Dolly Parton Dropped Into An Irish Pub & Performed “Coat Of Many Colors”
https://www.whiskeyriff.com/2024/10/19/throwback-to-when-dolly-parton-dropped-into-an-irish-pub-to-sing-coat-of-many-colors/
Christina Kahrl (the baseball writer) seems to be happy.
Wasn’t there an economist who switched sides?
Deirdre McCloskey of the Cato Institute.
Dolly was only 80? No offense, but-
She went downhill after her husband passed.
Like losing half of yourself.
Johnny Cash bid adieu not long after June Carter.
Some parts were newer.
Deiredre McCloskey
I hit 25k today in the Jeep.
*shrug*
2026 model year?
Or do you drive like a city-dweller cyclist?
2022 model year, purchased as a left over in 2023 (got to use my haggling skills).
It’s a second vehicle.
I know, most people don’t keep things like I do.
Would be nice not to have to worry about oil changes and everything else I take care of, but it impresses the wife, so I have that going for me, which is nice.
It’s better to be handy than handsome.
Both boats left without me, 3Door.
I’ve never owned a boat FoorScore but I’ve heard the two best days of a boat owners life are bringing one home and watching the south side of his boat head north hitched to someone else’s rig.
And they don’t get any cheaper, either.
You’re a way better man than I am, Ron. I was never a handy guy with cars, minor things like change light bulbs.
I used to be able to change a tire, now I’m a Robby Soave impersonator., except I know how but can’t handle the physical parts.
OTOH if you needed your shop wired I’d be the guy to call.
Your truck looks good, my ’04 has a 120 Kmiles and only one parking lot dent. Now a little MN salt damage though.
OMG, Dolly let me down! I’d been waiting a long, long time. RIP, Dolly.
Thinking outside the bottle
ubbed “µBites” (pronounced “microbites”), the cookies are made using yeasts that have been programmed to turn plastic into edible protein. Sandhya Jayasekara, a Southern Illinois University Carbondale graduate research assistant, presented the project during the American Chemical Society’s Fall 2026 meeting on Monday.
Commonly used to make disposable water bottles, PET plastic has low impurities, and is composed of approximately 60 percent carbon, 30 percent oxygen, and four percent hydrogen. Meanwhile, protein is formed from amino acids, which consist of a central carbon atom bonded to four other groups.
“We were trying to develop technologies for plastic upcycling to make more valuable products,” associate professor Lahiru Jayakody said in a statement. “We thought, why not focus on making food? Because plastic is carbon and food is carbon.”
And, of course, you feed this to people instead of chickens or pigs.
Here comes the semi conductor plague.
I’ve looked at the Stage 8 stuff for years. Never bought any.
Good to hear a report from an actual user.
I dig the harbor freight magnetic mat too. I’ll be getting a couple of those when I’m ambulatory again. Looks slick as hell.
Hey 3door, I saw you asked about my recovery yesterday in a dead thread. I am doing pretty good almost 3 weeks out from the surgery. Working from home last and this week, hope to be back in the office next week. Stopped the heavy duty pain killers last weekend and now I’m just on Tylenol. Most of the pain is from where they put holes in me for the robot to do it’s thing, breathing is mostly pain free.
My oncologist changed his mind and now wants me to do chemotherapy. I’m not happy about that, but leaning towards yes. He tells me that someone who had this cancer and surgery has a 30% chance of metastasis in 5 years, but with my history, family history, and a genetic mutation, he thinks it’s closer to 50%. He believe he can reduce it back to 30% with chemo. Four rounds of cisplatin and docetaxel, not a fun poison to take, full alopecia, all the chemo side effects, no guarantee… ugh.
Good and bad.
Crap.
I hope everything works out for you well. I’ve become so skeptical on the percentages that docs throw around as it seems that I’m always the guy that falls into the “only 20-30% have this happen again” category.
You’ll no longer have to shave your balls!
/always look on the bright side of life
LMAO. Not something I’ve ever struggled with. Not sure the eight year old boy with way to saggy balls is a good look.
Awesome as usual Ron. By chance, my 2006 Ram 1500 had the transmission go out yesterday. It’s got the 545RFE 5 speed auto in it. 261,000 miles and change on it. I’m getting quotes on re-mans today – most are around $2,500 + 800 core + 250 shipping. Not looking forward to it since those guys are heavy and I don’t have a lift.
Harbor Freight tranny jacks are supposed to be pretty good. Alternatively, a local rental place might have one.
That’s supposed to be a pretty good transmission. If it’s anything like the early ones it’s likely just the OD that went out. But $2500 for a reman isn’t bad.
Ditto what Zwak said.
Check pawn shops too.
I have a trans jack head for one of my floor jacks but the dedicated tranny jacks have a wider stance to keep them from falling over and usually castors on all four corners.
I don’t think I would trust a jack adapter, but the 1500 transmissions are probably lighter.
The 6 speed is a physically large transmission compared to the NV 4500.
Personally I’m a fan of the dedicated trans jack. I bought one after renting one to do the trans in my 97 international and thankfully I’ve not had to use it in the 6 or 7 years I’ve owned it.
The auto is long too.
Gets tippy. It’s nice to have the chain to keep them on the jack and the leveling head too.
Off topic rant: my high school senior is taking a film appreciation class. He’s thinking it should be a piece of cake, and he’s probably right. The school just sent out a syllabus listing the films to be appreciated and a place for the parents to sign if they’re OK. I’m not OK with the list. It’s generally, Gay, Gay, Gay, Trans, Marx, CCP, Drag, and more Gay. None of the films seem to have any redeeming value. I was expecting classics like 2001 A Space Odyssey, Lawrence of Arabia, Schindler’s List, The Matrix, or even crap like Napoleon Dynamite.
Gross.
Add that to the long list of reasons to homeschool.
We toured the local golden palace for sports ball and government Union members this summer that’s disguised as a high school and of course found these.
Nope. Our kids will not be turned into gay race communists.
https://ibb.co/x8d0S2z1
https://ibb.co/zTyhRk56
YOU SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTH!
heh, I thought that would work
Someone should make a movie called “The Long March Through the Institutions”
This one MM?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d_Rv4qBIACI&ra=m
It would be instructive to see how the “Long March” was pulled off by the Left. Did we get run over or just abdicate?
Us five good buddies from the Goldwater campaign in 1964: three went into teaching, one into law, and one (me) into corporate world. Two acquaintances from that campaign went into government work: one became Sec. Navy and another Asst. Deputy Sec. Army. So, conservatives weren’t twiddling thumbs while the Left undermined everything, were they?
They started with the colleges, specifically the Education departments. Once you control the state-mandated education system, the fix is in.
Is one of the gays at least Cabaret? Or Victor Victoria?
No, and I don’t have a problem with gay characters or subplots. The Crying Game was brilliant for example. This just seems like indoctrination and a bunch “reaction” videos about “the issues”.
I’m going to guess the original (non-musical) La Cage aux Folles.
Here would be a good movie list falling under these categories
Gay – The Birdcage
Gay – The Handmaiden
Gay – Gods and Monsters
Trans – Dog Day Afternoon
CCP – Stalker, Come and See, The Battleship Potemkin (I would even accept Good Bye Lenin)
Drag – To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything — Julie Newmar
Gay – Mulholland Drive
That actually sounds pretty good and I was going to mention The Birdcage. The stuff they want him to watch for example is Ru Paul’s Drag Show Season 12 where he gets into trouble with the trans people and has to apologize accompanied by several “reaction” videos from critics I’ve never heard of.
I would audit that class!
That’s by no stretch “film appreciation.” 🙄
I am guessing “To Wong Foo…” is on the list?
Nothing with any actual entertainment value is on the list.
Last Tuesday would have been Patrick Swayze*’s birthday.
*the best worst actor in my memory. Nic Cage is 2nd.
Side note, the magnetic mat from Harbor Freight is amazing.
I’d be worried of bumping something and damaging the paint.
I hate fixing paint.
Fender mats are supposed to help protect the paint. These do double duty.
Granted after I had my new worktruck painted o certainly don’t want to pay for body and paint ever again. That crap is crazy expensive.