Hello all

[Bonesaparte]

I'm Bonesaparte. Almost 25, halfway through my enlistment on Joint Base Lewis McChord as a diesel mechanic and the proud owner of a Ram 50. I honestly had no idea these trucks existed until I saw the one I would eventually end up buying on Craigslist.

I have a 1989 Power Ram 50. 5 speed manual, 4x4, G54B, standard cab. She has her quirks and quite a few dings, but no rust. She'll do this thing where if I brake a little harder than usual, the engine will start to stall. She also has a bit of an erratic idle in the mornings. Used to get a good 20 mpg up until about 3 months ago. I only get about 10-11, now. Not quite sure why. The previous owner did a lot of jerry rigging and made several mods of his own. The first thing you see when you pop the hood is the wires. They're everywhere. Most go to the aftermarket stereo system, subs, and bass he put in behind the bench seat, and the rest I can only assume go to the light bar he screwed into the front bumper and the electric radiator fan. They'll be a nightmare to re-do and re-organize when I eventually decide to. I may end up removing the electric fan and re-installing the one driven off the belt. The second thing you don't see is the vacuum lines, most of which he "deleted", and not very well. Long story short, she's going to require a lot of TLC and maintenance to get her back to looking like new, but I'm up to the task. I'm going to start by replacing/repairing the exterior and a nice paint job. After that it'll be either a diesel or V8 swap, followed by the interior.

I look forward to interacting with you guys. I am a diesel mechanic, albeit not a very good one and definitely not by choice, but I hope to still be able to make small contributions to the community in whatever way I can.

That's all from me - see y'all in the other forums!

Bones

[FMS88]

Welcome to the forum. Does the truck have the original Mikuni carburetor or does it have a Weber? Also, how long have you had the truck? "Deleting" most vacuum lines shouldn't affect a Weber, but it will cause poor performance and mileage if you've got the original carb. Looks like you've got a project on your hands and a lot of fun in store.

[MrPaco]

I honestly had no idea these trucks existed until I saw the one I would eventually end up buying on Craigslist.

^^^That makes two of us!

I just recently joined as well, and I gotta tell you that the crew here has been great, they've already taught me a bunch and helped me work through some issues.

I'm probably not going to be very helpful in the technical department in general, but I'll just through this out there because it just happened to me:
After some trial and error, with the help of this group, we figured out that I had a bad thermostat, it was stuck open. The reason I mention it is because two of the symptoms, which by the way I didn't realized they were being caused by the bad thermostat until after the fact, were erratic idle when cold in the morning, and lousy gas mileage.
I'm sure you probably already thought of that, but since that's about the only mechanical advice I can give at this point, I thought I'd take a shot!

Good luck with it, and post some pictures!

[geezer101]

Hi and welcome to mightyram. The motoring journalists in the US didn't seem all that impressed with Mitsubishis' offerings but when you pit them head to head against other small trucks you can see they mean business. If you can swap the Weber in (unless it's already been done) it will make working on the Ram easier. Advice - keep the electric thermo fan. They are far more efficient at cooling, declutter the engine bay, takes a load off the water pump bearings and improve throttle response. Yeah, undoing ghetto fixes goes with the territory when buying a Gen1 or 2 truck. Wiring and carb tampering is standard issue sabotage. If you are having weird electrical glitches, go through all the ground leads first and clean the mounting bolts and terminals (next to bad mods, the #1 cause of electrical problems). As with all noobs - get a thread up and going, post pics and ask questions

[xboxrox]

Hello to the forum Bonesaparte, JBLM let me camp at American Lake then gave me a free C-5 ride to JBPHH for retirement... For your truck look here: http://www.mightyram50.net/vbulletin...and-do-it-ASAP

PicknPull in Arlington & Lynnwood might have some parts for your truck... We all hope to see photos of your ride & wish you a warm welcome here...

Did the base get much snow today..?

[Bonesaparte]

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We did get a lot of snow and it isn't letting up yet. Here are a few pictures.

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She does have a Weber carb and not the original Mikuni. I haven't looked at the thermostat but I'll be sure to check it out at some point, thanks for the suggestions and advice!

[xboxrox]

Wow, snow..! Good thing your truck is 4WD

Beale AFB has a MWR guy who painted my truck; my photo albums show his work...

[MrPaco]

Bones, what size tires you have on? Offset?