let us know if that is where it came from - that is something I could find around here. It would make sense that it fits so well, the shapes of the 2 are very close in that area under the bumper.
let us know if that is where it came from - that is something I could find around here. It would make sense that it fits so well, the shapes of the 2 are very close in that area under the bumper.
Pennyman1
The best Dodge that Dodge never made
Living the D-50 lifestyle since 1980
CONFIRMED. Yes it is definitely the front air dam from a Volvo. If the guy took the time to fit it properly it would damn near look like it rolled from the factory as a sports option. He was rough with trimming the mounting lip back and if he had used the 2 small captive nuts on either end of the front bumper it would've pulled it up into shape and tucked in with the bumper ends nicely. I'll relocate one of the mounting bolt holes so it's not distorted and then drill 2 small pilot holes to clamp it all into shape. I may actually look for a replacement air dam as this one is a bit beat up and I wasn't happy with how it was executed in the first place.
Hmm, ran into a situation with the 34 DATA carb I will be using sometime in the near future. It uses a water choke in exactly the same configuration as the Mikuni carb but it doesn't have a coolant barb to redirect coolant back into the plenum base of the inlet manifold, so I talked to a local machine shop about tapping a coolant barb into the side of the manifold (no biggie). As the conversation unfolded, another customer added his 2 cents worth - "why are you bothering with a water choke? They are the main issue you want to steer away from when swapping a carbie over". So I explained the deal with my carb being a water choked 34 DATA from a Lancia Beta and there not being a lot of resource info on them. "Use the electric choke from a 6 cylinder Ford carbie, it's a straight swap. And use the heater barb from a Ford too on the manifold so you can clean it all up..."
I gained some useful info, saved some cash and watched the guy behind the counter lose a customer
Oh, and here is the front air dam if anyone didn't see it from another post -
IMG_0878.jpg
I got it fitting reasonably well now after the trimming and bolting the ends up under the bumper. It is a little distorted in the first vent hole but I'm not sure if it's due to the air dam being a touch wider than the bumper or from the way it was mounted in the first place. I took a heat gun to it to 'sweat' the urethane back into looking fresher and shape it to fit a little better. The side wings still stick out all the way to the wheel arch lips but I can live with that.
Well, I grew to hate the seats out of the wreck. They are grey (does not look right in my all black sports themed interior) and, although an improvement over the factory bucket seats, were pedestrian at best. So I scrounged around a U-pull-it and found some funky seats I liked the look and feel of. Unfortunately the seat skins are stitched directly to the bolstering which after years of butts sliding in and out of them has ripped (I'm gonna have a go at sorting this issue out)
P1010001.jpg
...and now it doesn't want to rotate image. But anyway these are seats from a Peugeot 306 Xsi. Picked up the pair for $99 AU and collected the seat belts with them so I could delete the floor mounted buckles. They are a little wider than the other seats but they are pretty comfy and have decent side bolstering. I am also considering installing a seatbelt warning light into the centre console. A bit of monkeying around to bolt the rails down but no worse than the first donor seats.
those look like it would be hard to see out the window with them sitting like that...LOL
Pennyman1
The best Dodge that Dodge never made
Living the D-50 lifestyle since 1980
I have the truck zip tied to the side of one of North Koreas failed missiles (I'm chasing an extra 10 HP if I can't get my Weber to work), thus the bad camera angle. They do have the range to reach Australian shores but they take a few months to wash up on the beaches...Originally Posted by pennyman1
So not a lot of ground has been made on the truck of late. I completely disassembled the front end so I could find out what I'm in for - and the only parts I can salvage are the lower control arms and one caster strut rod. The sway bar is bent on the drivers side, along with the caster rod (which is bent in 2 places) and every other serviceable part is toast. This isn't really a big surprise but in retrospect this truck was still being driven like this until the engine siezed up. It must've been horrid on the road. The puzzle pieces are forming now. The truck has a bunch of scarring over the hood and the front apron is a bit beat up so I am taking a guess that the truck left the road one time in a hurry, hit something on the right side from underneath and went through a fence. That aside, I have been trickling cash into it and sourcing the parts I need or didn't realise I could use on the shoestring budget.
First and what initially was the most important - those brakes. They were past their serviceable life and I have been wanting a good brake upgrade so I did a field trip to the U-Pull-It north of me to do a nut and bolt research and scrounge the necessary parts. Found 2 Gen 2 2WD trucks, one of which had the front partially stripped down. One was missing a brake caliper but it was faster to get the steering hubs off it, in the process of taking the hubs off I mashed a caliper slide pin with a hammer (nice work, you monkey...) In between the Gen 2's was a wrecked Gen 3 which gave me a chance to compare the front end assemblies. Gen 3's have a taller steering hub and the calipers are 'out-board' compared to the Gen 2's which face towards the truck cab. Anyhoo I took a look around the yard for the cherry - twin piston calipers off a Monty (Pajero). Nada. I was ready to pack up my tools and leave but decided to take one last look for those elusive calipers and then I spotted a Mitsubishi Challenger 4WD. I doubted I could use them but it wouldn't take long to pull them off and check. They bolted up - damn near perfect. I had to take a solid brake line from a single piston caliper as the left set was missing the solid line off the back but it all went together*
Last edited by geezer101; 03-12-2019 at 12:06 AM.
So my findings with the Gen 1 to Gen 2 brake swap. Use the whole steering hub and brake rotor assembly from the Gen 2 - it is a nut and bolt swap. The steering hubs have the same external dimensions and mount identically (for those who need to know dimensions and what-not...http://www.mightyram50.net/vbulletin...ll=1#post58180)
*Now those calipers. They appear to be designed for a 276mm brake rotor - the Gen 2 rotors are 258mm. I can't find a rotor that will allow a bolt in swap but I don't think it is going to make that much difference. The pads overhang the edge of the rotor by 7-8mm and they are further away from the inside face of the rotor but I have seen new cars that are like this from factory. The hoses I had were fragged and I am not a fan of used hoses so I got a pair of braided stainless steel teflon sleeved hoses made up locally. So far my brake upgrade has cost me $268 and Ive gone from a solid rotor, single piston set up to vented twins with race quality hoses. I had to make a cut or 2 in the brake backing plate on the Gen 2 hubs to accommodate the ends of the twin piston calipers and bend it out slightly.
More research and scrounging. My front sway bar was garbage. Not only was it bent, suffering from metal fatigue and rusted like hell, it is a bit inadequate for my liking so off to U-Pull-It again. Armed with my crusty Gen 1 sway bar I start sizing up possible donors (I was intending to pick up a pair of used gas sports shocks from a Gen 2 I noticed on my last visit with heavy duty springs but it was cannibalised by the time came back). Hmm, the Gen 1 and Gen 2 bars line up and have the same bend path, but the Gen 2 bar is thicker by a few mm. After a brief fight with it, I got the Gen 2 sway bar out and left the dying Gen 1 bar under the wrecked Gen 2. $23 later - mine! The bushes were garbage and I want all the bushes upgraded to urethane anyway. The original Gen 1 sway bar looks like it was 22mm thick while the Gen 2 is 25mm. Not a big increase but 10%ish is still an improvement.
Ordered new upper and lower ball joints. They've cost me about $80 (AUD) but I'll need all the bushes. The stabiliser 'D' bushes need to be upgraded to 25mm and the link kits are NLA with all the hardware - 'D' bushes aren't a problem and the factory link kits were $51 each genuine so I think I can do better than that. I wasn't going to buy anything that didn't fix the truck but I spotted new repro 'L200' badges cheap. I have a feeling I won't be seeing them again and $9 delivered is trivial. I'm also scouting for front shocks. I'm hoping I can get away with a pair of foam cell, heavy duty gas shocks off ebay cheap as these things can be big ticket items.
Something like these - https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Front-Foa...9aDKZA&vxp=mtr
They have a slightly shorter stroke which won't be affected when I install my new lowered front springs that came with my donor truck. 40mm gas bore with the added protection from heat with the foam cell and a dust boot thrown in. I think I have to install it with the lower control arm in one hit as the body of the shock absorber looks pretty thick and I'll run into issues feeding it through the control arm.
More research. Seeming I have taken the leap for a decent brake upgrade I am looking at a brake master cylinder and booster swap. Just as a comparison I found a Cordia turbo BMC/booster and looked at the differences to that and the Gen 1 BMC/booster. The actuator rods are centred the same and the mounting stud pattern has the same spread but the bottom studs are a different distance from the top studs. I figured out that I can re-drill the bottom stud holes without causing any issues (at least in this case) so there's a good chance I can source a newer assembly with a bigger master bore. The booster doesn't look like it will foul anywhere either so this looks like it could be do-able...
starquest master will work with the truck booster, and gives you a master with 1 inch bore vs a 7/8 bore of the truck
Pennyman1
The best Dodge that Dodge never made
Living the D-50 lifestyle since 1980
Good to know but I am aiming for something a lot newer and the equivalent here in Oz is the Starion which is on the endangered list (might only see one or 2 a year). I have access to Mitsubishis built post 2000 and would prefer to use an entire assembly over the tired 30+ year old booster.
Ordered new front shocks today. I wasn't going to take the plunge straight up but I received a discount code for 10% off when my ball joints came in and it expires by December. $119 all up with freight - it was a pretty sweet deal (their RRP on them was $171), just hope they are decent quality. I can't expect too much seeming the really cheap nitro gas shocks were $80ish and the premiums are over $330. Been burning some coin lately! Still nowhere near key-turn ready...
My collection of 30 year old scrap metal...
P1010016.jpg
Mmmm, that radius rod look good don't it?
...and the new shock, spring and lower arm urethane bushes and ball joint fitted -
P1010017.jpg
(Grrr, still uploading sideways)
I'm gonna have grief with these shocks as the top mount fouls line of sight with a pivot mounting bolt. I'll cross that bridge when the upper wishbone is ready to be installed...
So I've been hammering the electrics lately. Literally all of the connectors have perished so I bought a bulk kit of 30 harness plugs plus 3 rolls of electrical tape and started unwrapping the harness in the engine bay, cutting off the bad connectors and fixing the horrid efforts of owners gone by. I've needed a couple of oddball connectors like 6 and 8 pin connectors and had to buy them separately. The biggest change is the addition of a relay and fuse block next to the battery - and new headlight assemblies! I've modified the A/C wiring by locating the compressor and thermo fan relays into the relay block and converting the old glass style fuse to a regular ATO plastic blade fuse, and retrofitting a new ceramic socket headlight harness into the relay block as well (the good thing with the new headlight harness is all I needed to do was free all of the spade terminals and clip them into the relay block body). I'm installing an electric thermo fan for the radiator so that has it's own relay and fuse circuit which leaves me with one slot for a 4 pin relay. I'm relocating the glass fuse that's bridged into the ignition relay (well, I think that's what it is
A work in progress -
P1010003.jpgP1010005.jpgP1010009.jpgP1010001.jpg
Forgot to mention the headlights weren't a straight forward swap as the rear housings on the new H4 assemblies wouldn't pass through the headlight buckets and the locator 'feet' in the corners of the headlights were too tall and needed to be ground down a touch to make them fit. The washer bottle was not much more than a pile of crumbling cheese so I found a suitable replacement for cheaps from the magical land of ebay. The new headlight harness was supposed to be a 4 ceramic socket kit but it turned out to be only a 2 socket kit. This actually solved a problem for me as I wanted full function of all the headlights instead of the inners running high beam only. I'll have a second headlight switch controlling the inner headlights from another headlight harness which I can run from the factory harness wiring where I've cut off the redundant headlight plugs. I can add a fuse to the relay block and run power through it straight from the battery. Admittedly this whole process has made the wiring appear more complicated but it should take a load off the factory headlight circuit and make it more efficient. The added bonus is once I have it rigged up, I can undo one or 2 plugs and remove nearly all of the front harness with it's own relays and fuses in one hit - headlights, thermo fans, A/C and some of the engine wiring as well without having to remove the whole harness from the truck.
Not an upgrade but NAPA in USA sells new (not rebuilt) replacement brake master cylinders for these trucks (not sure the brand name) I needed one to replace the leaking original part... Too bad I didn't notice the leak before all the inner fender paint got destroyed by the brake fluid, sad... Now it's rust city, sad... But the brakes work good again and no leaks...
It all comes down to the freight. I don't have a problem with overhauling a BMC and I am opting for a newer assembly due to the sketchy split reservoir stock set up. They went to a single integrated reservoir for safety reasons. Iif you had a system leak, it would completely drain that circuit until it failed - with a single shared reserve it would need to drain all of the fluid before you were in trouble and there's more fluid in them. Not as lethal as old VW brakes (single circuit all round) but not far off it. It'll be easier to fix an updated set up as well. Gen 1 stuff is on the endangered list and rebuilding the rear brakes are gonna be a pain, so an LSD rear not only improves traction but gives me better braking and I'll have way more luck replacing components.
geezer, pennyman & a few others here; you really know Mopar/Mistubishi stuff & what parts interchangeability works with these trucks... I am very impressed by the knowledge of you guys... This truck of mine is the 1st Dodge (1st Chrysler product) I ever owned & 1st truck I ever owned... I am also impressed that it still runs good enough for public roads; thank you Japan...
there is a divider in the 1st gen master cylinder so that you don't totally run out in case of fluid loss, as least Geronimo is like that...
Pennyman1
The best Dodge that Dodge never made
Living the D-50 lifestyle since 1980
I encourage everyone to ignore some of the stuff I do due to the madness in my method)
Haven't really updated this thread of late so I thought I'd add a pic...(it's probably in a link from my PB account but I'm done with photobucket holding my property to ransom)
L200 Express 356.jpg
I've been getting my bargain hound on and hitting ebay for replacement harness sockets, headlight wiring harness upgrades, gas hood struts, a 5" monitor with dual cameras and a 6 switch induction panel. So far the main focus of my work has been on the truck wiring. It had a dealership A/C fitted but all of the harness sockets had perished and the relays themselves were originally anchored to the engine bay frame channel and had broken apart. I've bundled them into an aftermarket relay block with an accessory headlight harness and the engine cooling thermofan so all of the systems are protected in one case.
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