The War Pig (formerly: "School me on 1st Gen Rams")

[Scott L]

Thanks for the help

Thank you. I will have to look for the connector by the fuse block. I have been told that my 91 does not have one and that I would need to install a crank sensor. I will be putting up some pics up soon, the camper frame work is almost done. Being a welder by trade it is all square tube and angle so far.

 

[TheAlmightySam]

Oh yeah, I forgot the '91 and older trucks don't have a provision for a tachometer. Yes, you will need to install a sensor. Both ISSPRO and Autometer offer sensor kits that attach to the alternator, and people seem to be happy with them. You will additionally need to beg/borrow/steal an optical tachometer to calibrate the gauge, if I recall correctly.

 

[TheAlmightySam]

Just in time for Halloween, it's a Fun Size update! All of the flavor of a real update, just less of it!

First, with the advent of the rainy season and the cold temperatures it brings, my battery finally gave up the ghost. A trip to Sears solved that problem, where I scrounged up a DieHard Platinum group 31. As discussed elsewhere on the site, these are identical to the Odyssey 31M-PC2150. $300 isn't cheap, but based on its specs, it's a hell of a battery. The truck seems much happier about its new power source.


This is a heavy pig of a battery. It took some wrangling to get it up in the engine bay.

On to more interesting things. On our return from our trip in September, we noticed a couple of issues we wanted to take care of. First, I noticed the OBA system had taken a pounding mounted on the frame rail like that. Rocks, kicked up by the front tires, had taken much of the finish off the tank, and my kludged-together air manifold was busy trying to loosen.

Second, we found that wrangling our water can was challenging. Full, it weighs something like 50 lbs, so it's plenty heavy, and it has to be unstrapped and unwedged from its home every time you want some water. Lame. I figured, while I was working on the OBA system, why not use that air for another purpose and have it pump our water for us?

I elected to remount the OBA in my toolbox to protect it from the elements, but, as I'm planning on installing a canopy eventually, the crossover-style toolbox that came with the truck wouldn't work. Luckily, the local Baxter Auto Parts had a sale on scratch-and-dent UWS toolboxes a while back, and the one under-the-rails box they had wasn't too very beat up. I snagged it for $150, banged out the dents, and attached the lid hinge with nuts and bolts instead of the extremely cheesy rivets the factory used. Other than the questionable method of attaching the lid, it appears to be a very well-made toolbox.


It's not quite as big as the old toolbox, but it should do fine.

My idea required a water can that could hold a little bit of pressure, and my cheesy Blitz water can was not up to the task. From LCI I ordered a pair of MWCs in desert tan (I would have preferred light blue, but they only carry tan and green. Green will absorb too much heat in the sun, so tan it is.), as well as a spare cap for me to modify.


Woot woot!

On the spare cap, I drilled out the vent and punched a hole though the little cap, adding a added a male and female quick connect, respectively. To the female quick disconnect, on the inside of the cap, I added a length of clear vinyl tubing, which runs to the bottom of the can courtesy of a bunch of random fittings stuck together for weight.






I have since cleaned up all the sticky stuff off the fittings.

Back to the OBA system. Here, I needed to regulate the pressure from the tank down to what would be useful for the pump system (I've found about 10 PSI works well), but I also wanted high pressure air for running tools or filling tires, as well as a second high pressure line to run the air horns. I also wanted the ability to monitor both high and low side pressure, adjust low side pressure, and turn the compressor on and off, all from a control panel. Finally, I decided as well to add a water manifold so I can run water to the rear of the truck for an eventual camp kitchen.

All of this added up to an enormous number of hoses and fittings crammed under there, but it all works and can come back apart easily enough should I need to perform maintenance on it. It does kind of look like a mess, though.



It's actually a lot more straightforward than it looks, believe it or not. To help illustrate how it works, I put together this little diagram:



With the cover panel installed, it looks a whole hell of a lot better.



In case you're still confused (I would be), I put together a little video of how it works:


That's all for now!

 

[TheAlmightySam]

woot, Craigslist score!

Picked up a very old but very functional Lincoln buzz box from a dude cleaning out his storage unit. Came with a box of rods and a POS welding helmet that will promptly be replaced with an auto-dark of some flavor. The best part: the price. $30.



This weekend's project is to take the case off, clean up the internals, maybe get the worst of the rust off the case itself, and spend some time learning to stick weld.

 

[TheAlmightySam]

Time for another mini-update! I finally had a bit of time this week to knock out a couple of projects I'd been meaning to do.

First, I gave the old bastard an oil change, taking the moment to install a Fumoto valve in the process. For those unfamiliar, the Fumoto valve is a ball valve that replaces your oil drain plug, allowing easier oil changes. A nipple on the end of the valve accepts a length of hose, allowing you to forgo the messy drain pan completely, and drain directly into the storage container of your choice. The valve itself is protected from accidental opening by a spring-loaded handle, which, when closed, is captured by a catch on the valve body. On the Cummins, the fact that the drain plug is behind the axle will serve to protect it even further.



The first-gen Cummins takes the F-104 or F-104N valve, the difference being whether or not it has the aforementioned hose nipple. They're available from Geno's and elsewhere for cheap.

The bigger project of the week was to do something to address the wimpy lighting on the truck. While my Autopal H4 conversion is miles better than the factory sealed beams, it's still less lighting than I'd like. The Hella 500s do little in their stock form to rectify the issue, unfortunately. Presented with a limited budget, I decided to try to rectify the Hellas with an HID conversion to try and get by for another year or so.

Before I begin with the writeup, I want to make it abundantly clear to anyone reading that this modification is absolutely and completely for off-road use only. Lenses designed for halogen bulbs will scatter light in undesirable and unpredictable directions with an HID kit, and if you use these on the street, you WILL blind oncoming drivers. Don't be a ************** - leave the lights off until you're off the pavement.

There, I said it.

DDM Tuning offers cheap Chinese HID kits at reasonable prices, and many people on Pirate and elsewhere have given them good reviews. I ordered the 55W H3 kit at 5000K.

I removed and disassembled the lights, pulling the bulbs, brass bulb clips, and removing all the wiring from the housings. Some earlier 500s use a different kind of bulb clip than these - the earlier clip will work fine with the HIDs, but this style will not, so out it comes.



With no clip to retain the HID bulbs, I siliconed them into place. It's not the cleanest solution, but should a bulb fail, the silicone will pop right out.



The HID bulbs are deeper than their halogen counterparts, and the slim housing needs to be clearanced for them. Some cut big holes in the back and goop them up with more silicone, but following on a YouTube video I found, I heated the housing and created a pocket with the back of a screwdriver. Be a little more gentle with the heat and yours will turn out a little prettier.




Next, I stripped the HID wires out of their grommets and cut the ends off, leaving enough wire to reassemble later. I then passed the wires through the Hella 500s' grommets and reassembled the housings. I then reattached the connectors with heat-shrinked splices.



Back on the truck, I wanted to reuse the driving light wiring that was already in place, so I elected to mount the ballasts near where the lamps mount. There's actually a surprising amount of space behind the grille, and I found a perfect spot next to the turn signals on either side. I pulled the grille and mounted the ballasts, wiring them to the original driving lamp wiring for power and giving them a chassis ground nearby. I reinstalled the grille, running the HID wiring through, and reinstalled the Hellas.



By now it was dark, so I migrated over to a nearby industrial park to test them out. Below are the results. Each was taken with an iPhone 4S with the same settings - ISO 800, f2.4, 1/15s exposure, and the resulting image only cropped. No other manipulation has been performed. By my measure, the wall in the photos is approximately 110 feet away and level with the truck. I do not have any photos of the stock Hella 500 beam, but it was dim enough that with my high beams on, I couldn't tell they were illuminated.

Low beams:


High beams:


(Questionably-aimed) HIDs alone:


HIDs + high beams:


With the driving light lens of the Hellas, the result is a tight beam with little side spread. Some hotspots are clearly visible around the periphery, but all-in-all, it's a lot of bang for the buck. Is it a Cibie or LightForce? Hardly, but being that I already had the Hellas, the conversion was far more wallet-friendly than either. So, while I'm sure it will win few awards for performance compared to more expensive options, I'm very pleased with the results. I obviously need to get them aimed better, but they should serve nicely and will be a drastic improvement over what I had before. Not bad for $60!

 

[DoMiNiC1]

Man, this thread makes me want an old school dodge.... Love the truck.

 

[TheAlmightySam]

So, I have a mystery for you all, relating to my Viair 275c air compressor.

I've made a video to illustrate the problem:


Consider that I'm well within the 275c's 25% duty cycle, I'm starting with a full air tank, and the compressor should be pumping out something like 1.0 CFM @ 50 PSI.

Any thoughts?

 

[fasteddy47]

Thoughts...... Massive tire....compressor heat and weight of the truck pushing the air back. Jack the tire off the ground and try it. Been there
with my 315/75/16 Coopers... Twin MV50's and a 5 gallon tank...20 to 45 psi.... 7 minutes.
Once jacked weight off 4 minutes.
Cheers
Eddy

 

[TheAlmightySam]

Thanks for the input! Next time it's sunny, I may go out and lift the truck and see how it performs. Having to raise the rig to air up is far from an acceptable solution, though, at least in my mind.

Spoke with a rep from Viair over on CumminsForum, and they seem to think a check valve may have failed. I'm going to pull the head off and see what's what. I'm a little scared of what I might find, though - this is an old, abused compressor :sombrero:

 

[Denny T]

Ive seen a lot of 1st gens in my day....by far one of the cleanest. It didnt need much work but what youve done is spot on.

 

[Revco]

Ive seen a lot of 1st gens in my day....by far one of the cleanest. It didnt need much work but what youve done is spot on.

Wow, it's Denny T! I had one of your fuel pins in my old first gen years ago, added 28hp on the dyno at one of the Diesel Dyno Days we had in Waco back then. Welcome to ExPo!

 

[TheAlmightySam]

Ive seen a lot of 1st gens in my day....by far one of the cleanest. It didnt need much work but what youve done is spot on.

Hey, it's none other than "the" Denny T, ladies and gentlemen!

Thanks for the kind words, that means a lot coming from an institution such as yourself. BTW: your stage 2 fuel pin rocks!

 

[TheAlmightySam]

What? Updates?

And you thought this thread was dead!

First, a teaser pic of what's to come:



Obviously, it's a camper shell. As you can see, I have come one step further in my relentless quest to shamelessly copy Metcalf and Istzephyr. But, as with everything in my life, the path to the solution I settled upon was… let's say, circuitous.

As usual, my requirements were highly specific and my budget nonexistent. As most of you are aware, during the 80s and 90s, the big three switched to tapered truck beds for the sake of fuel economy. This means that I needed a shell from a pre-88 Chevy, pre-94 Dodge, or pre-98 Ford. As you can imagine, these trucks are getting scarce these days. In addition, up here in the city, long bed trucks are rare as hens' teeth.

Adding to my difficulty was the fact that I wanted a high-rise shell. Not many people around here rock those, either, since they make getting into parking garages near impossible. Nor was I about to pay full price for a new one - even a cheapie fiberglass shell is a zillion dollars.

After much searching on Craigslist, I found the holy grail. It was old, covered in moss, and not particularly pretty, but it had a certain old-school charm. Best of all, it was $40.

I figured, with a coat of paint and some resealing, it would serve well enough. I began removing the passenger side window in order to get it ready for paint. What I found, however, was disturbing.


Uh oh…

Yeah, turns out the window was basically holding the shell together. I stripped some more of the siding to see how far the rot went.



At this point, it became apparent this was a lost cause. I endeavored to strip the windows out of it and scrap the rest. As I was removing the last window, however, the shell began to give way, and the bolts holding it to the bed ripped out of the rotted frame.



I climbed into the bed and placed my girlfriend down below to help stabilize the shell. We tried to push the damaged carcass back up onto the truck, but with how much wet rotted wood remained in the frame, it was just too heavy. We then tried to push it backwards off the tail of the truck. In order to do so, I had to unbolt the other side. The moment I did, I felt the weight of the shell shift. I screamed at my girlfriend to get out of the way, and despite me pushing back as hard as possible, the shell slid sideways, did a barrel roll just grazing my head, and slammed upside down onto the ground.


Well… ****.

We grabbed powertools, sledgehammers, and crowbars, and, like a bunch of methheads, began tearing the shell apart. We loaded the wreckage into the back of the truck and off we went to the dump.



To be continued...

 

[TheAlmightySam]

Camper Shell II - Electric Boogaloo

After the catastrophe of the $40 camper shell, I had some cool old camper windows on my hands, and not much else to show for the effort. I considered, for a while, building a new wood frame a la the SawTooth XL, or building one out of steel. I even went as far as to mock up a couple designs in SketchUp.

I couldn't shake the feeling I was throwing good money after bad, though. Even a wooden build wouldn't be inexpensive, and my experience demolishing the camper shell made me nervous about the long-term durability of wood. A steel frame would be indestructable, but it would be absurdly heavy (not a big deal), expensive (this is a big deal), and, let's face it, I'm not an awesome welder.

Back to Craigslist.

A couple days ago, after much searching, I found a listing for a high-rise shell off an '87 Chevy. Perfect! It'd fit and it looked like it was in good shape, but the question was: was the price right?



Yes, yes it was. I ran out to Beaverton to pick it up. Unfortunately, it was stashed in the very back of a detail shop, and the seller and I got to pick the heavy bastard up, carry it over two brand-new cars, and out to my truck.



It fit like a glove. I quickly handed the gentleman his filthy lucre and ran back home. Inside, it's impeccably clean, and it very clearly has been well cared-for during its life.



It does, however, need a tiny bit of work. Around the passenger's side window, two small cracks have formed which will need patching. Once I figure out what the hell this shell is made of (I have a sneaking suspicion it's ABS plastic rather than fiberglass, but I'm not sure), I'll patch 'em up.




I also need to paint it. Faded brick red is hideous. Color matching may pose a problem, as color-matched spray paint is NOT cheap, and I don't have the facilities to spray via HVLP. I mocked up the shell in a couple of colors, just to try to make a decision:


Color-matched in Bonzai Blue


Color-matched in Dark Silver Metallic


Expo white

Obviously, with the white shell, I can just grab random paint from the hardware store. With the other two, I'd have to have to have the paint mixed, which costs quite a bit. Decisions, decisions.

That's all for now! I'll have some more updates in a few days as I get to work on the camper shell.

 

[homebody]

Since your truck is in near mint condition, I'd go with the blue top.