REAL MAN TRUCKWORKS & SURVIVAL
VEHICLES, CAMPERS, and BOATS => Build Threads => Topic started by: Dfarm01 on March 03, 2018, 07:20:00 PM
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Some of you fine folks have seen my other thread about this.http://real-man-truckworks-and-survival.com/index.php?topic=2610.0 (http://real-man-truckworks-and-survival.com/index.php?topic=2610.0)
I figured I'd start one in here, because I'm getting work done, plus I'm hoping that posting here helps me stay motivated.
My goal is to have this thing driving by June. I'm sick of it being in my garage, and having to rent a trailer when I need something moved.
I've reached a point where I don't know what to do so I'm putting it back together. This will probably bite me at some point, but I need to be making some kind of progress.
I'm sorry my first post in the build thread is a question, and I don't have many pics. I'll try to get better about taking pics as I work.
I'm getting ready to set the body back down on the frame, but I'm using new body mounts from prothane. The directions that came with the kit are either wrong or terrible, so I'm not really sure what goes where.
I'm hoping someone here is familiar with these and can point out where each one goes.
I'm thinking the tapered ones are for the cab and the thin ones go under the frame on those. I have no idea where the other 4 go. Any help is appreciated.
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I think the four tapered ones are for the cab.
That's where I placed my tapered ones
Suggestion: Get some of that poly grease made for these bushings and coat the snot out of them. Before you snug everything down. it allows some wiggle room to move the cab around before permanizing it. Secondly, poly squeaks. This grease prevents that from happening a couple years down the road.
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Thanks. Did you just put grease on the sleeves, or between the bushings and washers/cab/frame?
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Thanks. Did you just put grease on the sleeves, or between the bushings and washers/cab/frame?
Bushing, both sides of the big flat washers, and I put red grease on the bolt threads and on the underside of the bolt head
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I have never used Poly Bushings on any of my builds. But the OEM rubber bushings under the cab are two pieces. The tapered side is under the mount, the flatter is between the cab/body. If it wasn't a blizzard here I could snap some pics. But we should figure this out... my present project is going to need a set soon.
As for motivation... I will race yah, mines just a bare frame ATM lol And it needs to be running by June also.
Whats worse my wife has two of her projects taking up space in my shop...and she just bought a third one.
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I have never used Poly Bushings on any of my builds. But the OEM rubber bushings under the cab are two pieces. The tapered side is under the mount, the flatter is between the cab/body. If it wasn't a blizzard here I could snap some pics. But we should figure this out... my present project is going to need a set soon.
As for motivation... I will race yah, mines just a bare frame ATM lol And it needs to be running by June also.
Whats worse my wife has two of her projects taking up space in my shop...and she just bought a third one.
Hell, for all I know, I have the wrong bushings in mine, or don't have enough, or they are upside down!
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So for many of the dodges it seems there is a limited offering for “off the shelf” poly bushings. I bought a set for our 74, that could also have been used on the 92 parts truck.
I could look at the factory stuff on the 74 parts truck when I get back to the house and take some pictures.
I was just gonna make it work, cause I didn’t know what went where either and the sheet of paper in the box didn’t help much.
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Any pics would help. The factory ones looked like over grilled hamburger patties. Lol
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Here ya go.... OEM Dodge
(https://i.imgur.com/etrrlNl.jpg)
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Thanks for the pic, but I don't think that'll help much. The poly ones look much different. Maybe they were mis packaged.
I'm going to re read the directions and see if I can make sense of them again.
ETA: after looking at the pieces again, I think I have the right parts, and the directions are definitely wrong. The thick and thinner cylindrical pieces I believe go on the frame/under the cab.(thin in front, thick in rear) the tapered ones go under the frame. I have no idea where the little ones go, and the metal sleeves don't fit over the bolts.
I'm going to call prothane tomorrow. Lol
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I called prothane today, and their office is only open Monday through Thursday :angry:
I'm not sure what to do at this point. I don't want to waste a weekend.
Maybe I'll start wiring the steering column?
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I just got done talking to prothane on the phone. All they have for directions is a generic set, no detailed instructions are available.
I guess I'll have to wing it. What's the worst that could happen?lol
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I just got done talking to prothane on the phone. All they have for directions is a generic set, no detailed instructions are available.
I guess I'll have to wing it. What's the worst that could happen?lol
Tac topper & SQ D both come to mind...... :tongue:
& yeah guaranteed if I’m not currently fired I will be shortly
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I just went ahead and bolted the cab back on the frame. I stuck the thinner mounts under the front of the cab, thicker ones under the rear. I put the tapered bushings under the frame brackets and bolted everything down. Plenty of grease anywhere stuff may rub.
I started looking at wiring the steering column, but my book doesn't have the wiring diagram for the steering column on the later trucks, so I'll probably just wait until I have the battery in and everything else hooked up to figure out the wiring on the column.
I feel like I'm making a little progress. I'm trying to finish something, no matter how small each time I work on it.
One thing I've overlooked at this point is all of the vacuum switches and junk for the 4x4 that I won't be using, and the vacuum actuator for the front axle.(can I just jam the collar in "locked" and put manual hubs one?)
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what are you running for a front axle? dana 44 or dana 60? there's a company called posi-lok that makes a cable actuated system that eliminates the vacuum version, or if it's a mid nineties dana 60, I have a CAD delete that replaces the 3 piece axle system w/ a single solid shaft, blocks off the vacuum motor area and then you could convert to manual hubs.
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It's a 44 in the front. I'll take a look at the posi lock.
Thanks!
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What year is your steering column? I’ve got a digital service manual for 92 and another for 93.
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I believe it's an 86 or 87. I'd appreciate a look at the diagram, just in case it's the same as what I've got.
I'm thinking about seeing if I can just swap the whole harness.
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I got my column wiring figured out. I was going to swap the harnesses, but after I had the old one out I found the turn signal switch was broken.
Since I ended up with both harnesses out, it was easy to figure out what wire needed to go where. I just soldered the old plug onto the new harness.
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I didn't forget about this!
Shortly after figuring out my wiring harness for the steering column I had to go to Poland for work for a couple of months. That gave the project much needed break and financial injection.
After I got back in July I hit it pretty hard. I didn't really have any hickups in getting stuff back together. I've been finding stuff that needs to be repaired or replaced along the way, but overall I think I'm doing well. I just got it licensed and insured yesterday, so today I'm going to take it on it's first trip out of the neighborhood in 4 years. Lol.
I need to get a new distributor before I take it too far, because tge vacuum diaphragm is bad in both of the ones I have. I also found the heater core and the control valve are leaking, so I'll have to get those fixed sooner rather than later as well. It also still has a rather large hole in the floor from cutting it to clear the manual transmission, but I want to take it to a friend's house who is mych more familiar with that kind of thing than I am. Conveniently, the donor truck is at his house as well. I was also disappointed to find that in the set of tires I planned on using one has a plug in the inside sidewall, so I'll have to get tires soon as well.
I also still have to service the axles, t-case and transmission. This works out, because both axles decided to start leaking from the covers since I've been moving it around a bit.
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Sweet! Progress!
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I was successful in taking the truck up to get fuel on Saturday. I had it up to 55mph. There weren't any vibrations or pulling or anything, I was surprised by that to be honest. I do think I'm going to be wishing for more gears, or different axle gears before too long. The first gear in the 4 speed is basically useless, and second gear is about how a first gear should be.
I'm pretty happy with how it's going so far though.
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Taller tires will fix that gear issue.....
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Taller tires would help, but I don't want to make the truck any taller. When it was a 2wd I could step on to the tailgate with a round of firewood in my arms and stack it in the back, and the tailgate was the right height to roll the rounds onto my splitter. I just got sick of dragging the hitch all the time, and there was the one time I got stuck in the back yard. Lol
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I was thinking a 3” larger diameter tire so maybe 1.5” taller, no lift and if you need fender clearance there is always a sawzall! :facepalm:
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I actually used the truck today. I had a bin full of glass to take up to the recycle collection point.(no curbside pickup for glass here). About 3 miles round-trip.
I'm planning on a dump run tomorrow. That'll be about 30 miles round-trip. I'm a little scared to take it that far. Lol
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The old Dodge makes a comeback!
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Well, the trip to the dump is done. The truck made it ok, but there are a few things that came up that need to be addressed.
I think I'm going to order a 12 circuit fuse panel that uses blade fuses. The panel thats in there is an awesome combination of melted and rusted that's causing all kinds of intermittent electrical problems. I was kind of hoping to find a whole new harness with an updated fuse panel, but I haven't had luck finding one.(admittedly, I haven't expended a ton of energy on looking). I also need to get the floor done. It was raining, so I got splashed by a few puddles. Lol. I'm also hoping that getting the floor closed up will quiet the cab down a bit, as it's pretty loud. I also need to get some of the hoses for the heating ducts, because mine are pretty torn up.
Overall, the trip went well for a shake down run.
Has anyone tried one of the distributors that use a GM hei cap and coil? I saw one on Amazon for under $100 and I'm thinking about giving it a try to simply the ignition system.
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I got started on figuring out the floor today. I'm not sure what the best course of action is at this point, as I've never replaced floors before. There's also a bit of an issue with the shape of the transmission tunnel on the donor part vs the one in my truck. The donor is from a standard cab that's also about 12 years newer.
I took the truck on a trip that was about 150 miles, round trip. It's got a bit of a vibration at around 55-60 MPH, but other than that and the brakes being a bit touchy, it's working well. I guess that's not entirely true, the heater control valve and the heater core decided to start leaking. I took the whole climate box out of the 86. I'm hoping that I can adapt it to work with the older dash that my truck has.
I'm also thinking that a 5 or 6 speed transmission would be much nicer than the 4 speed that I put in there. I haven't done any research about what transmission would be a good swap yet though.
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If your original trans tunnel isn't destroyed just replace from the tunnel towards the doors with replacement floor pieces. Stick shift 2x4 and 4x4 are the same....Auto 2x4 are diff floors than 4x4. Then there is the mid 80's floor change as well....it gets complicated lol
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If your original trans tunnel isn't destroyed just replace from the tunnel towards the doors with replacement floor pieces. Stick shift 2x4 and 4x4 are the same....Auto 2x4 are diff floors than 4x4. Then there is the mid 80's floor change as well....it gets complicated lol
Are the pictures not showing up?
My tunnel has a hole the size of the top of my transmission + rust damage.
My truck started life as a 2x4 with a 727, now it's a 4x4 with a 4 speed. My truck is a 74, the donor truck for the running gear and the chunk of floor/tunnel that I have is an 86.
Some of the ribs in the floor pans line up, so I'm thinking I'll use those to locate the repair panel.
Is it better to butt weld the floor pans together, or make a flange and lap them together?
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Hard to see pics on this old laptop....But it looks like ya should be able to cut the trans tunnel out of your donor being it was a stick and graft it in yes. I always flange the panels with a flange tool, spot weld the patch in.... then stitch weld it, seem seal/paint the underneath, and call it done.
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I've made it so much worse. Lol
I am already thinking that "saving" money by butt welding the tunnel in vs buying a flanging tool was a mistake. It turns out that laying the patch panel over the existing floor and tracing it can cause some inconsistencies when it's sitting in the floor vs on the floor.
As my friend said, it's a good thing it's going to be covered by sound deadening and carpet. Lol. I'm going to have to make several smallish pie shaped pieces along the seam.
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I've made it so much worse. Lol
I am already thinking that "saving" money by butt welding the tunnel in vs buying a flanging tool was a mistake. It turns out that laying the patch panel over the existing floor and tracing it can cause some inconsistencies when it's sitting in the floor vs on the floor.
As my friend said, it's a good thing it's going to be covered by sound deadening and carpet. Lol. I'm going to have to make several smallish pie shaped pieces along the seam.
So what your saying is.... use a flange tool! Noted, Im currently pulling the floor out of our 74 crewcab.
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Mine was weird being that the floor was from a much newer truck and manual &4x4 vs the auto/2wd one that my truck had. It probably wouldn't have been so bad if I'd have taken the side cuts all the way up to the pinch weld on the firewall.
I think the flange tool would give you a bit more wiggle room when you fit the new piece.
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I'm pretty much done with the rough fitting.
I didn't want to spend the money on cleko fasteners and plates, so I used scraps and self tapping screws to hold the panel in place.
There's definitely some spots where I was wondering who cut it out. Lol. Some spots need some love with a hammer, and some will need filler pieces made.
Next step is sanding the metal clean for a couple of inches on either side of the seam so I can start welding it in. This would have been much easier if the transmission and transfer case weren't installed.
I'm not sure if I'm going to get to start welding this weekend or not. More ac Delco parts to be replaced (again) in the burb. The radiator decided to start leaking. It's only about 3 years old. I noticed the leak when i had it in the garage last week replacing the 3 year old hydroboost (also an AC Delco part). (Side note, I also found the windshield that i had installed over the summer leaking while i was under the dash. That got taken care of by the glass place pretty painlessly) I bought duralast parts this time. Might as well get the lifetime warranty if I'm going to be replacing them again. Lol. I'm beginning to get frustrated with that rig.
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I just finished getting the patch welded in today. I also welded up all of the holes from the avex rivets that the PO used to hold the galvanized sheet metal on.
I found a lot of rust damage that I hadn't noticed before, so it was fun chasing the rust holes around with the welder. To be done right this thing needs a new floor. I just don't have the means to do it any time soon, so the goal is to keep me from falling through the floor and stopping the rust. I think I'm going to have to pull the engine and transmission back out to clean up and seal the bottom of the seam around the patch panel, but I think I'm going to wait until the firewood cutting is done for the year.
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I just finished getting the patch welded in today. I also welded up all of the holes from the avex rivets that the PO used to hold the galvanized sheet metal on.
I found a lot of rust damage that I hadn't noticed before, so it was fun chasing the rust holes around with the welder. To be done right this thing needs a new floor. I just don't have the means to do it any time soon, so the goal is to keep me from falling through the floor and stopping the rust. I think I'm going to have to pull the engine and transmission back out to clean up and seal the bottom of the seam around the patch panel, but I think I'm going to wait until the firewood cutting is done for the year.
Month back I finished up replacing my 74 crew cab floor.... PM sent
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Month back I finished up replacing my 74 crew cab floor.... PM sent
Cool! Can you post pics in here or make a thread about the project? I'm sure I'm not the only one who would find it interesting.
I'm thinking I should have done the whole floor, and I might still do that. Lol
Here's a pic of the truck in it's natural habitat from earlier today.
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I went and got "a yard" of dirt for the garden. I used quotes around a yard because they used a huge loader and just dumped until the bed was pretty much full. Lol
The only bad is that I noticed rain water on the passenger floor when I got in it in the morning. I need to figure out where it's getting in before I get the insulation and rubber mat installed.
I'm still not happy with the gearing. Does anyone know if there's a 5 or 6 speed transmission that will pretty much bolt in place of the 4 speed?
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I went and got "a yard" of dirt for the garden. I used quotes around a yard because they used a huge loader and just dumped until the bed was pretty much full. Lol
The only bad is that I noticed rain water on the passenger floor when I got in it in the morning. I need to figure out where it's getting in before I get the insulation and rubber mat installed.
I'm still not happy with the gearing. Does anyone know if there's a 5 or 6 speed transmission that will pretty much bolt in place of the 4 speed?
What engine?
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It's a 360.
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It's a 360.
I hope somebody sees this and corrects me if I’m wrong, but I believe any of the late 80s 5spds behind a 360 will bolt up with out any change. Possibly the 318s as well, maybe need a different bell housing but I not certain. Will look at the FSM and see what transmissions were options.
So the hard copy FSM I have is from 92, but it offers two manual transmissions, the G360 and the NV4500.
I’m not sure either of those were available, but I do know there was a 5 spd behind a 360 in 1989, my brother owns one right now.
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Awesome. Thank you. I'll have to look into this. Hopefully the holes for the shifters line up. I'd be mad if I end up cutting the tunnel out again. Lol
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I've been away from here for a bit but the ol Dodge is still putting in work.
I upgraded the headlights today. LED technology finally got cheap enough that it didn't make sense to not use them anymore. These were ~$70 on Amazon. I'm excited to take a drive at night now. The sealed beams that were in there were pretty anemic. These are DOT approved and rated at 3200lm low beam and 4500lm high beam.
I'm considering some auxiliary lighting as well. I've even found some ir LED lights for "blackout" driving under nvgs. Lol
Next up is replacing the heater core and installing a rubber floor/carpet kit. I'm hoping that covering the floor quiets it down a lot.
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Like those lights
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Thanks. I can post a link, if you want it.
I'm actually going to take it for a spin tonight just to try them out. Lol
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Not for me. I don’t have anything that takes them, but someone else might
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Here's a picture before I got them adjusted last night. They were pointed pretty high in this pic. Definitely a huge improvement over the sealed beams. They might even be better than the factory headlights in my suburban, which has the best factory headlights that any of my vehicles has had.
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We put something similar to those in our 74.
Put down fat mat, then some kind of foam and then a layer of mass loaded vinyl, good bit of work, you could go one step further and put an fitted vinyl or carpet piece on top of the first three layers. But our truck is quiet, holds temp well, keeps out the vibration of the cummins!
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The throttle in the truck had become quite sticky, which lead to it being parked until I got it figured out.
Turns out that the cable was trying to saw its way through the sheath. I used the opportunity to finally swap the floor mounted pedal to the hanging pedal from the donor truck as well.
For the new cable, I ordered one from Amazon that said that it would fit the truck, and maybe it did at o e point, but not anymore. I found a kit for building cables for motorcycles that ended up working out great. (after building one bracket and a plug for the big hole in the firewall that the old cable used.
All is better now. As an added bonus, the secondaries on the carburetor actually open now. Lol
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More adventures in old Mopar land !
I recently started having a semi intermittent ignition problem. It would start fine when it was cold but after it got hot it was hit or miss if it'd start again. I started by getting it warm so it'd fail and then following the troubleshooting in my Haynes manual. This led me to believe that the ECM was bad. I replaced it and all was well. Until I drove it to the store the first time. It didn't want to start when I got back in to go home, but it eventually fired up and got me home. Repeat this story a couple of times and I started getting frustrated and that got me to do some deeper looking without following the manual. I was able to get the ignition coil to spark if I bypassed the pickup coil in the distributor, so I plugged the harness into(kind of) the "start" pickup coil on the distributor and I now had spark, just 180° out. I put the distributor that was in the 318 that came in the truck and it's running pretty well again. I think I need to take some timing out though as I'm getting some pinging.(I'm at about 38° total).
In the middle of the ignition headache I went to drive to the store and the right rear brake decided to lock up. I pulled the brakes apart and found the hub seals had been leaking pretty good along with the wheel cylinders and the p/o had installed the brake shoes backwards, with the long shoe on the front. That was relatively painless, and brakes are cheap for the old stuff. I was just at $100 for everything.
Today, with some motivation from my neighbor mentioning how loud the truck is, I put a flowmaster 50 series on it after the thrush muffler that I had originally put on. I was also able to get the exhaust leak that I had at the right collector fixed while I was under there. It's much more pleasant to drive now. I also found and fixed a bunch of nuts and bolts that had rattled loose (or I forgot to actually tighten when I put the sheet metal together on the front).
I still need to get tires, get a heater core, reseal enough of the cab that I can get the floor covered, and get a new center support for the rear drive shaft.
I'm also starting to think that I found another "gotcha" from the taller frame vs the donor truck. The thing steers like a boat. Really sluggish response and the turning radius is huge. I had a similar result on my old xj when I accidentally adjusted the upper control arms too short when I installed the lift. I think that there's too much positive caster, caused by the rear of the front springs effectively being mounted about an inch lower than the axle was designed for. I'm not sure what the fix for this is going to be yet. Cutting the front spring mounts loose and sticking a 1" spacer in between the frame and the mount seems like a reasonable solution. I'd like to see if I could find some measurements on the front mounts from a factory 4x4 crew cab to see if they're taller to deal with the taller frame.
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Sounds like progress!
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I sent you a message with my phone number. Will try to help with your measurments if I can.