Thread: Junkyard rescue of an '87 Dodge Power Ram 50

This little truck does have power steering, which I'm pretty thankful for. Lol

And the plugs might wait for a bit, but 100k is longer than I'm willing to go, even if they're designed to last that long. I'd rather do it and realize later that I didn't necessarily need to, than not do it and end up hurting something much more expensive than plugs.

You might be out of touch with modern cars.

It's kind of ironic, being one of the youngest people on this forum and being "out of touch" with newer cars...

Meh. I've always liked old muscle better anyways.

SUCCESS!!!!

Took it on it's first true maiden voyage, and holy crap this thing is fun as hell. The throttle is hair trigger, the brakes are non-existent, and it diesels after shut off... but damn does this little truck haul ass.

It'll chirp the tires in every gear, but with the brakes being sketchy at best I'm going to try and get those functioning better before driving too much more.

But I did take a pic before taking off:

2019-06-18_11-25-08 by Ben Stryker, on Flickr

I'm pretty happy with it, considering this is the first time it's been on public roads in over 10 years.

It's more fun to drive a slow car fast than it is to drive a fast car slow. Or truck in this case. Congratulations man. You put in a lot of work.

Thanks!

It's definitely not a "fast" truck, but with the 3.909 rear gears and barely 2,500 pounds that this thing weighs, the 100-150 horsepower makes this thing move out like a boss. I just need to get it to stop reliably. lol

Right now I'm just trying to get the stock brakes working, I'll worry about upgrades later. lol

isnt the parking brake used for sketchy brakes?

Originally Posted by tomsteve

isnt the parking brake used for sketchy brakes?

It is, unless the parking brake itself is sketchy... lol

Tried starting the truck today, turned the key and got nothing. Battery was at 4.65v.

Had the battery tested at Autozone, after an hour and a half of charging it still tested bad. So since I don't have the extra cash for a new battery, the truck is going to be sitting for another few weeks.

Which prompted me to take a look at the front brakes... And aside from the hundred or so dead spiders, the driver's side seems to be good. As of right now I haven't torn into the passenger side... But it's not all good news.

After pulling the caliper off I noticed a little bit of play in the hub. After getting the auto locking hub off, I found out that the lock nut that holds the actual hub onto the spindle was loose. It's got a locking ring that's keyed to the spindle, and that lock nut is also what sets the preload on the wheel bearings.

And the inner hub seal is completely shredded. And the grease is almost completely black, when it used to be green. There's still plenty of grease in there, but I'm going to re-pack the bearings with new grease because I've got to wait on new hub seals now.

I've got a new-found respect for this truck, because it kept breaking and preventing me from driving it any real distance when the front hubs could have potentially come apart and the wheels fall off going down the highway.

The success was short lived, but I'm not upset like I thought I would be, more just motivated. This truck deserves improvement.

Oh and the touchy throttle? I realized today that I only had 50% throttle because of the way the linkage is set up.... This truck has so much more potential than I thought.

Took the passenger side apart, the caliper pins were bone dry and the little rubber boots completely fell apart. The hub was just as loose as the driver's side, but the inner seal wasn't nearly as bad as the driver's side. I'm replacing it anyways...

All in all, I'm pretty happy with it. I'll know better once I get everything cleaned up, but the bearings all feel fine and the spindles don't show any excessive wear. The brakes are an easy fix, the caliper pins were just stuck and the calipers themselves are fine. If all I need to buy is a couple of seals and more grease for the hubs, and a hardware kit for the calipers... I'm not going to complain.

I'm also going to work on the wiring...again. I want to put two power distribution blocks in, one for battery +12v, and one for keyed +12v. I'm also going to fix the grounds for the relays, and once I'm happy with the wiring I'll be using the multimeter to find any parasitic draw on the battery with the key off. And then I'm going to fix the A/C wiring, because since the ECU is removed, it should only need one wire to engage the compressor clutch.

I've got some stuff I need to sell...

Bought a new battery, new caliper slide pins and boots, new inner hub seals, and the socket I need to set the preload on the front wheel bearings. And some other stuff.

New battery is a dual terminal group 75, and I'm going to be running a power distribution block (maybe two) to clean up the wiring a little more.

I've got quite a bit to do this weekend... cleaning, repacking the bearings, driving in the new seals, reassembly, setting the preload and hub axial end play, putting the calipers back together, wheels back on the truck... Then I get to roll it out of the garage, start it, decarbonize, SeaFoam, set the idle mixture, set the idle speed, set the timing, and then (finally) take it for another test drive.

If I don't find any major issues throughout this entire process, I'll take the truck over to the on post shop and mount the new tires. Then it's just a matter of driving it everywhere until my clutch pedal skills are flawless. It could take a while.

I'm still excited about this truck, regardless of how much work it's giving me.

Got everything cleaned, found two problems...

First problem: one of the wheel bearings has a bent cage and it has a click once it's installed.

Second problem: one of the hubs has been beaten with a sledgehammer at some point and is no longer round enough for the brand new seal to actually be installed.

So now I'm looking for a good set of hubs, and waiting on at least one new wheel bearing. And I'm gonna need another set of seals...

One step forward, twelve steps backwards.

There is a reason things belong in the trash.

That might be your opinion, but I really don't give a f*ck.

I didn't drag this truck out of the "trash" for your enjoyment, I did it because I wanted to. I like working on it, and it's taught me a few things I didn't know about working on older vehicles.

The fact that this truck upsets you enough to comment on this thread brings me a little bit of joy, and I thank you for that. It helps motivate me.

Your mad at the pos not at me I forgive you.

I doesnt upset me, what I dont understand is you let the gp go to the trash and penny pinched it, but took something from the trash, dumping tons of pennies into it and it still isnt worthy. All I can say is "kids" and shrug.

I haven't dumped nearly as much into the truck as I dumped into the GP, and I had too high of hopes for the GP.

I had a vision of what I wanted the GP to be. I wanted it to be perfect, which means I was never actually going to build it because I wanted to do it "right".

With this truck, it's going to be loud and dirty and trashy and it will never be worthy. The amount I put into this truck hasn't even reached the amount that I got from the GP. Both working on it and modding it is way easier and cheaper.

The best part? I had low expectations from the beginning, so everything after getting it to run and drive is just cherry on top for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to get angry at it... But I will never resent the truck, because it has already exceeded expectations. I resented the GP, because no matter what I went through with it and did to it, it still never met my expectations.

Does that help you understand a little bit better? I wanted more from the GP than it could ever give me, and this truck has so much more potential for fun for me than the GP ever did... It might not make sense to you, but I'd rather have fun in a vehicle that I built, than drive something that is worth more but that I can't have as much fun in.

Your right I do not follow.