87 Ram 50 4x4 "junkyard" rescue,

[WarStryker13]

Finally got a little bit of work done on the truck, slowly but surely chipping away at it.

Replaced the PCV valve, put a filter on the breather nipple, put the fuel filler neck on, did a little bit more wiring, and replaced the shifter bushing and both shift boots. I drained the trans and pulled the pan off, little bit of material on the magnetic plug and plenty of sparkles on the inside of the pan.

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I'm not super concerned about the amount of sparkles, because it really isn't that much and there are no big chunks. The fluid looked relatively clean, so I have a feeling that it's been changed in the past 10k miles... But I'm changing it myself anyways, because I never trust old fluids.

I'm going to have to drop the fuel tank to get to the busted brake line, unfortunately. It's literally just that one small section that rusted through, the rest of the brake lines throughout the truck are fine.

And I pressure washed the carpet finally, got a lot of crap out of it but there's still plenty of stains... The carpet is almost bare over the trans tunnel, I might look into figuring out a way to cover that area later.. It's gonna sit out on the balcony for a few days, try and dry it out as much as possible. I might go back over it with a carpet shampooer later, see if I can get the stains out.

Oh, and I "patched" the floor...

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My only regret is that I didn't have a street sign to use as a patch.

[geezer101]

...plenty of street signs to choose from lol.

[WarStryker13]

But none that were readily available... Oh well.

[WarStryker13]

Got the carpet as clean as it's ever going to be.

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That's after pressure washing, vacuuming, spraying down with upholstery cleaner, scrubbing with a stiff bristle brush, and finally using a carpet shampooer...

I'm calling it good enough. I'm tired. Lol

[geezer101]

Buy a couple of cans of vinyl colour spray and go over it a few times. Works pretty good and you've done all the prep anyway lol

[WarStryker13]

The problem is that the carpet over the trans tunnel is worn really thin, so eventually I would want to replace the carpet...

But that can wait until I have a rust free cab, so it'll be fine. Lol

[WarStryker13]

Carpet is in the cab, the HVAC housings have been cleaned, the only thing left is to replace the rubber hose on the heater valve and I can put the dash back in.

[WarStryker13]

Got stuff done today.

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New tires showed up. Nexxen Roadian Mud Terrain, 235/75R15. They have really good reviews and were the cheapest mud terrain tires I could find. lol

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I fixed the leak at the heater valve, it was just corrosion built up between the rubber hose and the brass tubes... Probably because the heater core had been bypassed and the exposure to air caused it to start corroding. I pulled the little rubber hose off, cleaned the metal and put a new chunk of rubber hose on. It looks squeezed because the new hose was much softer than the old hose, and I loosened it a little after this picture. but it doesn't leak and I'm calling it good.

interior1.jpg

Got the dash back in, got everything plugged back in and re-attached, but I think I blew a fuse somewhere because the stereo didn't power on. Everything else seems to work, including the turn signals. Turns out the hazard switch had dirt and dust built up inside of it and wasn't passing voltage to the turn signals. Now I don't need the flasher, but it works with LED bulbs and I'm planning on switching over to LEDs eventually.

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Another shot of the cab, I still need to actually bolt it in and there's still a bit more to be done with the interior. But it's clean and it's functional.

Tomorrow I will try to get the stereo working, get the bench seat clean, get it and the rest of the trim put back in, and start working on the last few problems. The last few things to fix are the blown brake line, the broken bolts, and block off the fuel pump hole.

Then all that's left is to make noise and go.

[MrPaco]

What are those 3 knob-looking things under the ashtray?

[WarStryker13]

That's an old 3 port 12v outlet thingy that I've had for a while. I have no idea where I got it, but it's old enough to be "period correct" lol

[geezer101]

Mmmm, inside of your cab is looking sharp. Amazing what a big clean can do

[WarStryker13]

I'm hoping there's a few people on here that have gone through the manual trans, might be able to tell me if there's any obvious wear that could result in issues down the road.

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Finally got all of the RTV off the bottom of the transmission, got the pan back on and filled it back up. No leaks, cork gasket FTW!

[geezer101]

Synchros appear to have relatively good sharp edges on them, no signs of unusual wear on the gear clusters in the pics. There looks like a few metal frags around the place though (guaranteed there will be a chipped gear tooth or 2 but that isn't abnormal...) Won't ever tell what the bearings are like from a pic but everything seems better than average

[WarStryker13]

There really wasn't much on the drain plug, but it did catch a few tiny flakes of steel.

I figured the synchros would have more wear on them considering the amount of brass in the pan, but they've still got sharp edges. Lol

[claych]

The amount of brass in the pan is probably from
the cone grooves, worn from an 30 year old? trans (lol).

Can't see the 1'st gear ring, Can't see the 4'th gear ring
(as the pics are taken with the trans in 4'th)
Can't see the 5'th gear anything (duh) .
However, a couple of things do stand out...
1) Wear patterns on the main case gears (read counter and mainshaft)
2) lubricant oxidation deposits = lack of service+ brief high load .
Semi Helical gears develop VERY specific wear patterns .

I just roll with geezer, Bonne Chance

[WarStryker13]

I'm fixing the lack of service part, at least. Lol

I got quite a bit done today.

Dropped the fuel tank to fix the blown out brake line, might have to bleed the master cylinder but at least the brake fluid isn't spraying onto the ground. While the fuel tank was down I got the fuel pump mounted to the underside of the bed, grounded it to the frame and ran the positive lead up to the engine compartment. I got the tailgate back on the bed, I'm gonna have to do some massaging to get it lined up properly, it's a little bent...

Got the bench seat vacuumed and back in the truck, it's gonna need a deep cleaning but eventually I want to get it professionally reupholstered, it's one of the most comfortable bench seats I have ever sat on.

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It feels good to finally be able to sit in the cab without wanting to take a shower in bleach afterwards.

[Giovanni89]

With all that dirt gone, your wife might actually want to go for a ride in it now . Looking great! My brake line blew out in the same spot during a panic stop where someone pulled out across my lane and then stopped. I used CuNiFe line and replaced them all

[WarStryker13]

It's gonna take more than a cleaning to get her in the truck... She's uncomfortable with the lack of safety features. I got her to agree to ride in the truck, but I have to put a roll cage and four point harnesses in it first. lol

I plan on replacing the brake lines, but later. Driving it is more important.

[geezer101]

Ask her if she's ok with you using some Takana air bags - there's plenty of them around cheapMost new cars will splatter against a Gen 1 or 2 in a collision. You are unlikely to get your legs pinned in a crash and these are made out of real steel panels. Biggest risk is in a roll over so a bar on the rear bed is a good idea (a roll cage is a better insurance policy but there isn't a huge amount of room to work with in the cab) They could do with seats with improved bolstering + headrests and have the belt buckle harnesses integrated to the seat (I pilfered the seats out of a Peugeot 306xsi and took the matching belt retractors with them - a lot nicer than the old ones anchored to the trans tunnel in the Gen 1's)

[WarStryker13]

She did say today that she's feeling better about me driving the truck after all of the work I've done to it so far... It'll take a little while once I'm driving it regularly, but I did get her to admit that a full roll cage and harnesses are in fact safer than crumple zones and airbags.

I'm totally fine with giving up a little bit of interior elbow room for a full roll cage, and it'll give me some extra mounting points for cupholders. No race truck should be without extra cupholders.

I would go for an exo-cage, but I figure it'd look better once this truck is much higher and on much bigger tires and axles.

[WarStryker13]

I checked all the fuses, none of them look blown but I'm not getting switched +12v to the radio harness or the cigarette lighter, and the ashtray bulb went out.

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I tapped into the constant +12v for testing purposes, and I was mildly surprised that even with just the dash speakers it sounds decent.

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And I did commit a sin and put the cheapest, lowest quality sub behind the bench... Because I had to have a bigger sub than my wife's car. I'm going to run it until it dies, and just use the box for a decent sub later. I did turn it down to where it's just noticeable, I have no desire for any more bass than that.

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What are those 3 knob-looking things under the ashtray?

Here's a better picture of the 3 port 12v outlet block in it's rightful place, looking very 80's truck. And that cupholder is there temporarily, because it doesn't really fit as well as I hoped it would.

Little bit closer every day.

[geezer101]

The fuses can be misleading. You really need to go over the fuse block with a multimeter to check for power going in and out. Even removing them and reinstalling might be enough to clean contact surfaces.

[WarStryker13]

Yeah... Turns out I misplaced my multimeter during the last move. I'm claiming it as a total loss, because I've unpacked three times. Lol

I finally gave up today and bought a new one, so I'll be checking things later.

[WarStryker13]

Junkyard run! Finally. Lol

[WarStryker13]

Junkyard diving was successful. I got the gauge cluster hood, center dash panel, cargo light, passenger side door sill trim, rear view mirror, and the clips for the sun visors. I did find a few other things there that I will be going back for, like a full drop-in bedliner and a set of diamond plate running boards. Might look for a grill guard too, if I can find one.

I got everything installed, replaced the blown radio fuse again (I have a feeling the second fuse was blown before I installed it), installed the block off plate for the fuel pump, got the electric fuel pump relay mostly wired up, and fixed two coolant leaks. One was the lower heater hose in the engine bay, the second was the hose on top of the heater valve.

Only two things left to do: figure out which wire to tap into for the fuel pump relay and where to tap into it, and finally tackle the passenger side front shock. Tomorrow I will be starting the truck, and posting a video of the first start.

It's getting really close, and I'm excited.