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Old post brought from another forum, will date each post until current. 3/14/14 Not sure if this is a build thread or what but here's what we've got. 1991 dodge W150 ex-cab 318/727 44-8FD front Spicer 70 rear It's a beater, the guy talked himself down when I went to look at it to the point I couldn't leave it; although I had meant to. Radiator blew on the 20 mile drive to my shop. First order of business was: battery radiator, hoses, water pump, thermostat, timing set, tune up(plugs, wires, oil, filters, cap, rotor), two tires. All done. That's where we are now, I have $1000 in it. 4wd doesn't engage, have a new accuator that came with it but may swap manual lockers in. Steering is incredibly vague, have a rebuild kit and will order a new borgeson steering shaft Monday. Need to do VC gaskets, and replace the other two tires. Oh, did I mention rust? 3/21/14 Ran out of excuses to not tinker with it, 58 degrees will do that for you. Today I decided to check out the steering, found the box is leaking but is pretty good. The vagueness was actually from the steering shaft coupler. The internals were completely worn out, so I disassembled that and rebuilt and greased it. Much more better! It was still light; this won't fit in my paved garage, so I pulled the four wheel drive accuator apart. There's my problem. The drive motor was actually rusted out! Replaced all of that and boom I have four wheel drive. However, I now have no speedometer. Good times, may tinker a bit tomorrow but I need two parts that I haven't found yet. 3/24/14 Got the speedometer working, changed trans fluid, front and rear diff fluid and transfer case fluid. At this point I've been through it enough that I don't think it will kill me so I loaded it up for a scrap run. First load was 2800#, second load was 3200#. Not bad for a half ton truck. Did about 240 miles (I mentioned the odometer doesn't work right?) and topped it off with 21 gallons of fuel. Not to bad. Edit: the scrap almost covered what I'm in it so far... 4/15/14 So... My brother came over so we could lift the bed off and change the fuel pump from the top; quite a few of the bolts broke off and two of them ripped the floor channel out when I hit them with the impact. Berkeley. We each grabbed a side to slide the bed off the back onto some saw horses and my brothers side of the bed collapsed. Ended up just dumping the leftover parts of the bed on the floor in the barn. Changed the pump (oe) and the filter (oe) and it runs like a top. I noticed the fuel lines were a bit rusty and by the time we got back from a shake down run it was actually leaking. No one makes prebent for this truck so I made the one that leaks and that was good. About this time my left rear brake line started leaking and then the abs modulator started leaking. So I stripped the back half to the frame. A couple parts were sent out for sandblasting ill flapper the rest. Lots of new parts have been ordered. Since this is a big wall of text and to illustrate why michigan trucks are the devil this picture shows what is left of the original receiver. Enjoy! Not towing with that!
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8/29/14 Thank you, my wife came out this evening and said "go buy a new truck". I just can't, I ordered my last dodge in 2002 just how I wanted it and although I did 90k miles in seven years I almost never drove it. I'd rather spend $6-8k making this right for me and not need to use it than spend $30-40k on what the manufacturer thinks is right and then feel like I need to drive it. Tonight I dropped the fuel tank(what do you do with 36 gallons of gas?) siphoned off into every car I have (and the tractors) and still had some left. Fuel lines out tomorrow before it gets hot; Classic in Columbus said they can make the fuel line bundle for $100 and add it to their catalog if I bring these to them so I'm going to do that this coming week. I didn't want to grind any more rivets out untill the tank was gone so after the lines are out I will start in with removing the small bracketry and figuring out what is still useable and what needs rebuilt/replaced. The axle and springs are going to come out tomorrow also hopefully, I have everything to do the rear brakes here and make the new brake lines so I will get that all cleaned, painted and reassembled. Still looking for a good bed but up here there aren't any rust free beds for less than $1k and I'm morally opposed to that. 8/30/14 Got most of what I wanted to do done, little squal came up so I cut it short. Front shackle hangers still need to come out but they are calling for rain so not sure what I'll get done this week. 9/5/14 Chassis was cleaned all the way to bare frame to the cab; used a flapper to strip it to mostly metal and coated everything in rustoleum rusty metal primer. Coated over in satin black. New rear hangers are installed brake lines are bent and ready to go back in; fuel lines are STiLL not done, they have a flex line at the end that no one seems able to duplicate. Not sure what to do on that. Drive shaft is painted, ujoints go in tomorrow. 9/12/14 My hardware will be in today to put it all back together, the sandblaster will be done with all the parts today so paint and assembly over the weekend hopefully. Found a shop that says they can build the fuel lines but I spent a couple hours looking at aero quip and the cheaper version from jegs and that may work for me also. 9/19/14 While I was cleaning the rearend and rebending the brake lines I managed to break the diff vent/union bolt. None of the usual suspects stock it but my brother suggested calling the dealer; I don't usually think of that... $2.75 later I will pick it up tonight. I think by weekend-end I will be ready to put the crossmembers back in and hopefully the rear end. I have ignored the fuel lines a little longer but I'm almost to the point where I HaVE to do something! We will see.
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10/7/14 So after lots of little BS it is reassembled! Yah! I do need to do the fuel lines still but summit is showing my boxes are out for delivery. The hard lines will terminate into flex lines to snake up the firewall just like the factory version did. I might have $1500 in the whole truck at this point so I'm still in good shape there; finding a bed has been a nightmare and I think the worst is over. I'm running to Portland Indiana tomorrow to check out (and hopefully buy) a cream bed. Truck was parked in 1997 and while it has some rust holes over the wheel wells the floor is solid. I'm willing to repair the fenders but a bed floor is not going to happen. 10/8/14 Parts didn't come last night and I wrenched my back so nothing is going to happen today. Daddy/Daughter days tonight and tomorrow afternoon also so it will be Friday before I touch it again probably. Doh! 5/16/15 So I drove it today for the first time since who knows when. The new battery had died, the new fuel pump had died. Replaced those made some tweaks to the new fuel lines and installed the drive shaft. Only had a gallon of gas in it and I had filled the rider so drove it a bit and put it away. Glad to clean the garage afterwards. 11/7/15 (morning) Woohoo, my cheapskate-ness paid off. If you consider waiting a year to get something cheap rather than just getting what you need a good thing. 11/7/15 (afternoon) Those of you who are astute picture looker-ers will see that yes I did mount that bed with two angled engine hoists by myself. It looks great but of course my gas filler neck broke so I need to find one of those stat! 11/8/15 For some reason the tailight wiring is different so I needed to run down and snag my old taillights off the old bed to work on the harness. Maybe this afternoon I will get on that. While in the other barn I saw this: My wife's family farm bought this new and my father inlaw restored it twenty years ago. It is incredible! My bed is on the gooseneck the left. I need to pull the trim off my old bed because it is slightly different, low model to high model I suppose. All this stuff is NLA from dodge.
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11/10/15 So, wiring is all taken care of. Drove it a bit. The "new" bumper that came with the bed had the hitch area torched out so I cut The rivets out of my old one and started cleaning it up, I will combine the two to make one complete and decent bumper. I also managed to break the plastic filler piece where the gas tank filler tube meets the fender, I visited two yards and neither had one in good shape. Mother Mopar has one for $166 ( that's right) so I will glue mine back together possibly haha. On my test drive I had a decent vibration in the front end which wasn't there before so I'll have to start looking up there. Woot... 10/30/16 A year ago I noted that I had a wicked vibration in the front end. I drove it that way til September (by drive we are talking 500 miles total probably). I found a broken disconnect axle; while it was apart it got everything new on the front end. Back on the road now. And there was great rejoicing....yay!!! 11/19/16 My brother called me on Monday and said "there is a free Highline VR6 in Cleveland, you want to Go get it?", so I pulled out the free tow dolly that I've never used and got it in shape (wheel bearings) and what not and made sure the straps worked then put my harbor freight magnetic lights on it. So, old beater truck, free tow dolly on our way 200 miles to get an unknown free car; nothing can go wrong here. Actually nothing did; I found that I really need to put an exhaust on the truck and I should put lights on the dolly but otherwise all went well untill we picked Up the car that was a "highline" (once) and was on four flat tires sunk into the ground. No worries, we brought a compressor! Oh, the battery is dead. So we jerked it out of the ground and I backed the dolly under it then we drove twelve miles looking for a place to air it up. Sorry, no pics of the whole rig since I really needed to use the restroom and so we loaded it and went. It's a complete rotbox but it was free and will sacrifice patch panels, interior and wiring harness. No drama, oddly there were lots of thumbs up from people around us on the interstate as we came home at 75mph. 11/22/16 My brother decided since that golf was free he may as well use it so he found a "freshly rebuilt" VR6 and 6spd which he traded his Floval Flyer and $20 for. I put "freshly rebuilt" in quotation marks because; well, what engine found behind a shed under tarps isn't "freshly rebuilt". Last night we went and got that then he took the truck home, he lives 55 miles away from me. Cool thing is he left me his SRT8 300c while he has the truck....ooooo. His shop is next to an exhaust shop so he is going to take it over and get a price on a cheapy pipe. That will be nice! In other news I sold my Ramcharger, so after paying a stack or three on the house I have a bit left over to play with on the truck. Bye! 12/2/16 curse word! Came Out of work to a clean fresh afternoon; but, no fuel. Fuel pump is not working, replaced last year. It has a lifetime warranty but of course I filled the tank this morning. So the bed will come back off, maybe I will undercoat it and fix the one rust spot while it is off. 12/8/16 Freaking cold day but I had to blow some vacation days and today was one of them. Quickly disassembled the fasteners; 6 bolts, 2 plugs and four screws in the fuel neck filler panel. Threw together a 2x4 lifting rig and with a bit of help from my wife had the bed off onto sawhorses. Installed the new pump and it cranked once then fired right up. Good deal! But; the gas gauge went from full to empty and no amount of putzing with the sender would get it to work. Another new pump coming tomorrow so I try again. Supposed to get over 30 tomorrow and no wind so I've got that going for me. While it was off I also replaced all the rubber around the filler neck, I thought I did this last time but it was very deteriorated. The plastic neck filler panel was broken when I took it apart again, it was a bear to find last time so I think I'll glue it for now. AND that's current, it is sitting in the driveway while we wait for the 2-9" of snow that they say is on its was. I'll be snowblowing around it I guess since we were out of town for a Christmas party when the replacement fuel pump came in.
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Interesting stuff. I love these trucks.
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Paul Y
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,948
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Love a proper working truck. Please continue. P.
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Bookmarked.
Why? Because truck. Because large American truck, Because I'd love one. Because...
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Dec 11, 2016 13:07:36 GMT
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Thanks gentlemen, I'm horrible at build threads since I forget they are there and hate stopping to take pictures! Went out this morning to this: 2-4" more coming by noon so I think I'll clean in the barn instead.
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dazcapri
North East
Enter your message here...
Posts: 1,056
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Dec 11, 2016 14:06:13 GMT
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Bookmarked all looks good so far
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Mk3 Capri LS
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Dec 11, 2016 18:44:10 GMT
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I love these old Dodge trucks. Nearly picked up a D250, but it was sold before I could get it!
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'85 Euro 190E 2.3-16 '84 Euro 500SE ~100k miles '51 Euro 170S M117 Swap Project?! '97 Jeep Wrangler Sport ~42k miles '09 E350 ~51k miles '98 Dodge Durango SLT+ 5.9L Magnum V8 ~Josh
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ZXRob
Europe
Posts: 1,193
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Super cool truck and 4x4 will be very useful in that weather!
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Dec 12, 2016 17:01:06 GMT
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Fabulous, I love these late eighties/early nineties trucks... Please go on.
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Dec 12, 2016 17:43:29 GMT
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My dream truck is W250 Crew Cab with 5.9 Cummins and 5-speed manual, but I'm not even sure those were ever built that way.
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'85 Euro 190E 2.3-16 '84 Euro 500SE ~100k miles '51 Euro 170S M117 Swap Project?! '97 Jeep Wrangler Sport ~42k miles '09 E350 ~51k miles '98 Dodge Durango SLT+ 5.9L Magnum V8 ~Josh
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Dec 12, 2016 21:58:40 GMT
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The Cummins was never available from the factory in a Crew Cab; it was in the extended cab from 90-93. The Crew Cab wasn't available during 90-93 but there are lots of guys who have put the two together!
I have a Chevy 2500hd for when I need "more truck" but I'll probably sell that come spring.
I ended up not touching the truck yesterday and my offspring have a Christmas pageant tonight so probably a loss today as well.
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Well, I'd even settle for a gasser with a manual until I source a 12 valve Cummins to toss in! Oh, and a long bed, of course!
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'85 Euro 190E 2.3-16 '84 Euro 500SE ~100k miles '51 Euro 170S M117 Swap Project?! '97 Jeep Wrangler Sport ~42k miles '09 E350 ~51k miles '98 Dodge Durango SLT+ 5.9L Magnum V8 ~Josh
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Dec 14, 2016 23:42:53 GMT
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Got the new pump in last night; it was 17degrees out But today was forecast at a high of 9 and windy. Blech! Happily the gauge works and the pump works so we came up aces. Dropped the bed back on and put it in the barn, when I get a nice day (something above 30) I'll finish installing the bed and lighting, till then it can sit and hopefully I don't need it. In other news I put the chains on my lawn tractor snow blower and set it up. It doesn't really snow when it is this cold but it's best to be ready!
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I need to pull this back out of the barn. I bought ditchdiggers Triumph 2000 and it was $250 cheaper to ship it to my shop which is 60 miles from my house. I'll need to bolt the bed back on, reconnect the filler neck, charge or replace the battery and rewire the rear half. Then I can use It to haul the Triumph back home. It was picked up 2400 miles from my house this afternoon and the fellow said it would be here (at the shop) Saturday or Sunday.
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great job so far on the dodge....
I'm in the process of rebuilding my Dakota, which I bought new and agree that I would rather put time into it than buy an new one....for now....
Great find on that bed too.....
JP
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I know its spelled Norman Luxury Yacht, but its pronounced Throat Wobbler Mangrove!
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I read through your thread, didn't realize you were stateside. Dodges are by far the worse rusting trucks, all of my dakotas have succumbed to rust and even my last full size was rusting when it was 8 years 92,000 miles. I owned it from new and washed it religiously but to no avail. The red paint makes your eyes miss it but the bedsides, cab corners and fenders were shot by the time I sold it.
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If I knew then what I know now!.....I would have cavity waxed the whole truck when new and once a year from then on....its in all the same places...inside the fender lips where the pinch welds are (its all open to the elements up there), cab corners, rockers, firewall right behind the wheels, bed rails, bumpers....wait, the list is getting too long!
JP
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I know its spelled Norman Luxury Yacht, but its pronounced Throat Wobbler Mangrove!
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