Reserved - Getting the truck road worthy and short term projects.
So the truck has been sitting idle in my buddy’s yard for around 11 years. It hadn’t been started in that time. I didn’t get a picture of it(dammit), but there was a small fig tree growing up between the cab and the bed. He wasn’t aware of any issues when it was abandoned, so I figured, why not give it some love? It’d be a shame to let a first gen Cummins rot away.
First step: front axle swap. The truck has a 3 speed auto and Dodge compensated with a Dana 61 in the front and Dana 71 in the rear. They have a slightly larger center section to accommodate 3.07 gears instead of the 4.10 in 60/70 axles. The previous owner swapped a Dana60(4.10 gears) onto the front for some reason and the original axle is MIA.
The picture in the post above is swapping a donor Dana 61 from the truck on the left to my truck on the right. Yeah... he has a couple of Dodges laying around that he’s generous enough to let me buy parts from. That will come in handy later.
I checked the coolant. It was empty - must be a leak somewhere. Topped it off with hose water to get the truck started to see where this was going to go and what needs to be replaced. Threw in a new battery and began to turn it over. It sputtered a bit and threw a ton of white smoke. A bit more cranking and the old Cummins rumbled to life! I was so excited! After idling for a little and lots of blue/white smoke later, we noticed coolant leaking and power steering fluid dripping. Both were shot. Back to the donor truck. Swapped both parts in as well as stock front and rear bumpers and the truck was ready to roll to the DMV.
Basically our deal was that if there were not massive back fees, I’d buy the truck from him. I was nervous for sure. After putting some time into the truck and driving it around, I was pretty attached to getting it. In the end, registration went well, the title was in my name, and the cash in his hand!
I get home and the donor radiator is leaking a little also. I found an aluminum rad on eBay for a good price, but it’s for an intercooled truck. From ‘89-91.5 these trucks were non intercooled(future project). Anyways, after a bit of work with the cut off wheel, I made room for the new aluminum rad to fit.
Over the next week or so I tracked down smaller problems such as a bad voltage regulator that was screwing up charging. I found a parasitic drain to be somewhere in the tape deck. Dammit. I just picked up an old Ford branded mix tape with old hits on it. It was a cool nostalgic feeling riding around in the old truck listening to cassette tapes. Pulled the fuse for now so I don’t kill my battery.
Other small stuff done:
- valve lash readjusted
- new diff fluid in the rear
- got the front drive shaft extended so it fit
- new fluid in the transfer case
- new transmission fluid
- made trans pan drain plug
- rebuild the turbo
- new front brake rotors, pads, and bearings(remember this one for later).
When I pulled the intake off for a new air filter, I noticed soot all over the compressor of the turbo. The bearings were bad and this was oil blow by. I’m new to diesels and fearing the risk of the engine running away on oil blow by from the turbo this became a high priority.
That 11 year old diesel fuel in the tanks had grown a science project. If you’re not aware of this, diesel fuel is susceptible to microbial growth. That’s not a mixed drink. That’s the fuel that was in the fuel filter.... new filter, added an unhealthy amount of biocide to the tank, and ran it for a few tanks. Repeat process. It’s been clean now, so I haven’t pulled the tank to scrub. Pretty amazing the truck could even run with this crap fuel, but then again people run these engines on everything from veggie oil to automatic transmission fluid.
Quick shot of the transmission pan plug I made. No idea why Chrysler didn’t put a plug in. It’s a mess to drain without one, so I welded, drilled, and taped a plate for an old plug I had laying around.
Somewhere in there I helped my brother swap the transmission in his Ford. Reverse was slipping on him, so he got a nice built model. The Grandby in the picture is my future rig. It’s somewhere from a 1994-1996. The label plate is worn off, but I later found Jan 1994 written on the water tank during another project.
More to come!
