1989 Dodge D350, don't expect anything exciting here.

It's probably way to early for this thread and major updates probably won't happen for a while. But at the very least this will allow me to keep all my stupid questions about this thing in one thread. Anyway here goes.

It's a 1989 Dodge D350, regular cab long bed, 2wd, 727 auto trans, Spicer 70 axle with a 3.00 ratio open diff.

List of things I can remember doing to it so far:

• stock D150 front sway bar, because this truck didn't have a sway bar at all and I had it laying around for some reason

• Removed the ugly chrome tip'd exhaust and ran it as a straight pipe dumping under the cab for a year or so before finally getting tired of it and ran the exhaust back to the axle with a Magnaflow muffler.

• other tiny things that I'm not going to bother listing because I just realized I don't have any before pics so it's pretty pointless in this environment.

Something that resembles a vague plan:

• Undo the years of questionable wiring repairs done by multiple people including myself. (I'm playing the younger and stupider card here)

• Do something about the suspension that probably consists mostly of 27 year old parts.

• Make the brakes work at least good as they are supposed to, hopefully better

• Overdrive trans of some sort. Still trying to decide between a 47RH and an NV4500.

• Limited slip diff.

• More power, not a whole lot, just a bit more than 160hp

• Maybe after everything else is done, de-uglifying it a bit.

Well, that's all I've got for now. I'll probably get more pics soon.

Sweet! Long time first gen owner, since I was 13 actually. Have fun.

My brother had a half ton first gen and loved it til it became too much for our meager mechanical skills at the time.

Well when he started looking for an HD truck as a work beater, I recommended he look for a first gen since the newer stuff was out of his price range and he didnt want to buy and immediately have to repair/refresh. I was shocked at how much clean 250s and 350s were going for. Most of the ones we looked at were more than what he paid for a decent 03 hemi 2500 4x4, and diesels were almost double.

Biggest NLA part on those I've run into is the steering column flexible coupling that goes into the steering box. IIRC there's a mod to use the steering column from a K car to eliminate the NLA stock dodge truck piece. This eliminates the ~1/8 turn of slop from the steering linkage, too.

In reply to volvoclearinghouse:

TIL it's mildly difficult to find pictures of a K-car steering shaft on google.

Below are a couple links i use when needing info/parts on my 1st gen.

http://www.dieseltruckresource.com/forums/1st-gen-ram-all-topics-93/ http://www.genosgarage.com

The thing with the rubber isolator lead to take a look at my steering column, turns out I have one with the top of the isolator welded to the column.

Anyway here's some more pictures to look at.

Wiring is pretty high on my list of priorities because most of it looks like that and most of my lights don't work.

My dad ripped the carpet up in the process of moving the seat back by drilling new holes roughly 2" further back. After I bought the truck from him one of the first things I did was put the stock steering wheel back on and move the seat back up. The carpet never quite fit right and was already ripped, so I did away with it.

There's no headliner either, so I started putting stickers up here because it felt like a good place to put them. Also the horn button is off because I got it signed by David Frieburger and Mike Finnegan and never got around to putting it back on. I may not put that one back on and just look for another wheel.

And finally, 5.9 liters of oily non-intercooled Cummins.

Very Nice!

So the electrical issue has officially gotten to the point where I don't feel comfortable pretending it's ok anymore. Anybody have any thoughts on replacing the whole harness with something like this?

I figure the wirng is close to 30 years old, the fuse box is partially melted, lots of loose wires are hanging out under the dash including one that is somehow completely naked... I'm clearly not an expert but I feel like the best fix is start over in this situation.

My belief is that the farther you can get from the tomfoolery the factory saddled your truck with, the better. I'm talking manual fuel shut off, internal voltage regulator, replace gauges as necessary. While you are at it, I'd recommend killing the vacuum HVAC controls. I'd link my Cummins "build", but I'm lame with the interwebs. Have you checked out FilthyRich?

I've actually seen your thread before, and by FilthyRich do you mean the Deboss Garage guy?

EDIT: I realized shortly after this post that that is literally is name on here.

In reply to Chadeux:

Yess, I couldn't remember DeBoss. He is most entertaining. The Taho he swapped the 4BT into is way cool.

Well, E36 M3.

Does this mean I have to shave the rest of that trim off now?

For comparison and such

These trucks are so cool. There's a minty one in town with a Cummins, but I saw some kids driving it the other day, so I fear that it will end up with a giant 6" diameter bed stack soon.

Dang, that white truck looks good. Sure, go ahead and remove the rest of the trim, much cleaner look.

I started out my afternoon planning on removing what was left of the interior from the firebird that's currently sitting in front of the truck, but then I remembered that I'm to the point where I need to remove the wet seats(I'll probably have to explain that later) and unload all the various items sitting on top of the carpet before I can take the carpet out and get a good look at what a swiss cheese floor pan looks like from the top. So I did this instead.

Apparently both of my marker lights had one of the studs broken off of the back like this.

But for some reason the fenders of that D150 I got the sway bar from were still sitting in the back of the garage, and one of them had the marker light in it with both studs on it. So I guess I only have to find one of these now, which is nice.

I believe that light is the same as 70's Mopar cars. So they are available from the dealer or restoration parts places. Part here: http://www.moparonlineperformance.com/product-p/3587436.htm

Well now I've removed the cruise control wiring and somehow made my cab lights flash with the turn signals.

Chadeux wrote: Well now I've removed the cruise control wiring and somehow made my cab lights flash with the turn signals.

Sounds like the turn signals are seeking a grouns through your cab light circuit. Maybe the CC and turn signals shared a ground point? Either way, run a ground (or two, or four) for the turn signals and you'll be good.

During my freeform wire deciphering odyssey, I somehow replaced a dented tailgate with a dented tailgate that's the wrong color, but I think I like this one more so it might end up getting spray bombed.

Now I'm going to go look for where we hid our soldering stuff.

So I remembered hearing a clunk in the rear end. I think I found it.

Wow, that was a grenade waiting to go off. Good catch. Now you have a reason to get a good limited slip diff for the truck.

So I guess now I need to start reading up on Dana 70 axles to figure out which ones I can use parts from.

Yep, that's part of the fun. One thing, the GM Dana 70s had a 4.5" hub while Dodge and Ford had 4.75" or so hubs. Found that out when looking for a spare wheel for the 79 GMC Dually I had. Couldn't use Dodge and Ford wheels. I mentioned this just in case you decided to swap the axle out.

Some good info here on 70s: http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/chevy/522333-dana-70-thread.html

Because of low RPM related issues, the 6BT/727 combo means I probably have to stay with a 3.07 gear, and according to the guy I talked to today, the 3.07 axles have a different carrier and the housing is even slightly different. He did tell me he can apparently get me a new empty carrier for $254 though. Now I'm pretty sure that NV4500 swap would fix this problem and allow me to use a 3.54, but I'm sort of on a retail employed college student budget right now.