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Junkyard rescue of an '87 Dodge Power Ram 50



Those harbor freight ratcheting wrenches are worth every penny. I picked up a set a couple years ago and wish I'd had them since day 1. Was taking off a header nut yesterday and know it would have taken me an hour with a regular wrench. Still took like 5 minutes of going one click at a time lol. Yeah, they didn't invent them, but I would never have bought a set of they were like 80 bucks through another store.
 
cheatah faheatah said:
Post # 143, 3rd sentence ?
Click to expand...

You got me, I had completely forgotten about that.

But it was only 5 feet and slightly downhill, so I don't think that's what destroyed it. It certainly didn't help the situation, but according to the old guys on the truck forum, that nylon gear takes a while to wear down like that, at least 2-3 years of using the gear reduction starter on a manual trans.

The ratcheting stubby wrenches are even more glorious, especially for stuff like starter bolts.
 
So I got the new starter in, it turns over quite a bit slower but the first start up was much easier. It's acting like the battery is dying, but it's still got a full 12.5 volts. The starter is most definitely pulling more amps than the last one, but it's also the original 32 year old battery cables, the original 45 amp alternator, and a 650 CCA battery that I'm taking over to get tested to make sure it still has all of those 650 CCA...

If the battery tests good, I'm going to put a heavier gauge battery cable going to the starter solenoid.
 
The new starter ended up being junk, one of the brushes was cracked along it's entire length and actually split in half... Parts fell out. The starter has other issues, like the housing that had two helicoils in it, the solenoid spring was too small, and the drive gear was too tight of a fit with the flywheel and didn't want to engage or disengage smoothly.

I'm going to the junkyard tomorrow to try and find another "new" starter, or at least a decent core that I can cannibalize for parts. I'm also going to look for a useable distributor, and some other miscellaneous parts, hopefully I'll be able to find what I need.
 


I found one starter, a couple of center caps for the rear wheels, a tailgate handle and a blue tailgate panel.

There was only 4 Ram 50s in that yard this time, only two still had an engine, and there was only one distributor that was rusted and completely seized.

But the starter works perfectly, truck is running again and I'm calling it ready for long distance driving.
 
Should work now. Maybe not animated

Hope this works but it's how I imagine you driving down the road in your truck

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Unfortunately, not for a while. It blew up this morning.

It lost oil pressure on the highway, sparkles and flakes of bearing material on the dipstick.

I'm gonna have to pull the engine and do the autopsy, but now I've got the opportunity to do what I've been thinking about since I got the truck...

TURBO!!!!

:th_thumbsup-wink:
 
I'm only going to swap if the block or crank is destroyed and I can't find another...

Besides, my first two choices for a swap are turbo diesel or small block Mopar.

Third is 3800.
 


The turbo diesel I would swap in is a Mitsubishi 4D55T, because it'll bolt directly to the stock 5 speed. Every other swap would require swapping the transmission and transfer case, and I'm not trying to re-engineer the entire drivetrain.
 
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