I Have The POWER! 1979 Dodge W150 Power Wagon Build/Maintenance Thread

Truck is looking absolutely fantastic! Great work on the cluster

Still blows my mind yoj guys have to inspect something that old. Or at all really. Crazy!

No inspections here, just OBD2 testing in Chicago and St. Louis Metros.

In reply to Georges1991 :

They do safety inspections of anything 20 years or older here. Since older stuff loves to rot here in New England, they basically look for obvious body and frame rust. They also check the headlights, taillights, horn, E-brake, and the front suspension. Depending on how strict the inspector is, they will eyeball for emissions equipment as well. They also take pictures of the vehicle and send it to the RMV now, showing the external condition of the vehicle. Anything newer gets all of that plus OBD2 testing. 

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Wow, interesting! Yeah nothing here in Illinois, you should see the piles we have running around lol

In reply to Georges1991 :

Some older lady in a neighboring state (Vermont?) had a place pass her rusty car, and the brake lines failed and caused her to crash fatally. The family went after the inspection station and the inspector got charged with manslaughter. https://www.mynbc5.com/article/inspection-mechanic-convicted-after-passing-car-involved-in-fatal-crash/3327435#
 

MA doesn't mess around, so they check all that stuff to cover themselves. At least, they are supposed to. Some of the shadier places don't check everything, and some check every nut and bolt.

I've been thinking more and more about my "carb thing" issue. For a refresher, this is what happens: I start the truck in high idle mode, let it warm up, and tap the throttle to kick in the normal idle cam. Everything works great, and then I start driving. Intermittently, I'll pull up to a stop and the truck will be barely idling; it will sometimes even stall. Under driving conditions, tip-in almost disappears, but it will still go down the road ok. If I stop, turn it off, and start it up, it goes back to normal most of the time.

At first, I thought it was a stuck float. It's possible, but this carb was rebuilt just three years ago. I mentioned in an earlier post that it could have something to do with the EGR/emissions system, so I started to look into that.

The air pump is long gone, and so is most of the other emissions stuff (It was gone when I got the truck), but the EGR and vacuum amplifier remain. I did a little research, and found others with 1970's Mopars complaining about the same exact issues I've been having. One of the things they pointed to was that vacuum amplifier, as they are prone to fail over time. An Allpar.com forum member said this:

"They basically take a small vacuum signal and 'modulate' a larger (intake manifold) vacuum source to operate the EGR.
With no vacuum signal, there should be no vacuum to the EGR. I have had them fail and supply full vacuum to the EGR all the time. This will cause rough idle and stalling."

Rough idle and stalling you say? That sounds familiar.

For reference, here's a vacuum line diagram:




Note the routing of the lines for the EGR.

Here's the bird's nest on the truck:

For the record, this is the vacuum amplifier:



So, the first thing I noticed is that the EGR is hooked up to an intake manifold tee and not to the tee it was hooked up to from the factory that was somehow on the radiator of all places. That "CCEGR" tee/solenoid/thingy is gone. In fact, there are two of those in the diagram and they are both missing. Since emissions parts are only half there, and things are not routed the way they should be, I think the logical thing to do is to remove the rest of it to eliminate any possibility of it being the culprit. Thankfully, this is easy, although I'll have to come up with a solution for the EGR valve. I'll have to make a block-off plate for it.

Another thing: the intake manifold gasket is getting worse and seeping oil a bit more these days. I still can't find a 4BBL intake around here, so I may have to "run what I brung" and pull this one off to replace the gaskets sooner than later.

Vacuum problems suck... truck is looking good, though!

My 77 and 78 LA 318's in the truck and Van have none if that stuff.

I guess in 79 trucks began to get the federal emissions content.

Just pull / clean / paint and chisel out all of the carbon from the exhaust crossovers and head put it all back together and call it good.

Greg

I think the easiest way to do this is to pull the intake and start from scratch. I ordered up an EGR blockoff plate as well as some carb gaskets (I already have two sets of intake gaskets). I'll pull the intake, clean it up, clean out the crossover passages, reinstall it, re-route all the vacuum lines, and reset timing to accommodate for the changes. The intake is leaking anyway, so I'm sure there will be more than a few vacuum and oil leaks fixed by doing this. I mean, it's only been on there for 41 years....

In reply to Tony Sestito :

good plan.

Post the before and after pics of the carbon deposits!

In reply to slantsix :

Oh, you know I will!

Neat Sno-Commander at LKQ!

In reply to Georges1991 :

ooh.. does it have the plaid cloth seats?

Greg

In reply to slantsix :

Seats were gone unfortunately.

I haven't done much to the Power Wagon besides driving it in the past few weeks. Since my Mazda is laid up until I do a trans fluid change, I have been driving the truck more. One thing that has been driving me nuts lately is the exhaust. 



When I bought the truck, the existing muffler was rotted out and the completely wrong size, so I ran down to the local parts store and cobbled together this. It's a cheap turbo mini muffler and an angle pipe that dumps out the side. While it did the job, it was really loud in the cab. Fun for a race car or when you are 16 and want to annoy the neighborhood, but annoying when you are older and want to be able to hear yourself think (or hear the radio) when you're driving. With the Mazda potentially laid up, and the prospect of daily driving this thing looming, I needed to do something. That mid-pipe you see on the ground was something I bought last year as part of the solution, but I needed an extension pipe to make it work. 









That's better. The pipe even exits in the stock location, although I may get another tailpipe extension to vent it better. And it sounds better too! 

 

Still has the throaty sound it had before, but it's deeper due to the extra pipes so it sounds even better. And most importantly, it's MUCH quieter inside the cab. This is a simple fix I should have done long ago!

I had to run to the town dump over the weekend, and had not driven the truck for about a couple weeks. While it fired right up, during the return trip, I started hearing a grinding sound behind the dash. Yup, the speedo cable... again. Speedo was bouncing like crazy like it used to 2 speedometers ago. Great.

Pulled the cluster apart, lubed the cable again (this time with WD40) and it quieted down with no more binding/grinding. Still bouncy, but not as much as it was before. Cable itself seems fine with no damage, but I may have to find a better lube/grease. Tried a dry lube (same stuff you use for lock mechanisms) but that doesn't seem to help.

Another thing: I've noticed lately that when I go to stop, it feels like right before full stop, something up front is shifting. It feels almost like either the axle or the drivetrain itself is shifting around and it makes a "thud" sound/feel. I noticed this after I set the idle a little higher to compensate for the times when it wants to stall, and it seems to be getting worse. I do have some new engine mounts for the truck, so I may start there.

Wow, it's October 1st today! That means winter is right around the corner, and I need to square up the ol' Power Wagon with any repairs I need to get done before it's so cold that it hurts to be outside. Number one on that list is revisiting a repair I did about 11 months ago: the oil pan.

About a year back, I decided to pull the pan and replace the leaky gasket. Soon after I did that, I noticed that the pan itself had developed pin holes and was leaking. I think I cleaned it too much when I had the pan off.



So I went to the parts store, got their finest epoxy goop, and plopped it on.



While that temporary goop repair is still holding, the front pan seal has started leaking again, because old Mopars can't help themselves from leaking even when you ask them nicely not to. Since I have to drop the pan again, I'll be replacing it with a new one. Maybe I'll even paint it Chrysler Corporate Blue.

Also on the list for pre-winter repairs:

-Fluid changes. This truck still has whatever fluid it came with in the transfer case and axles, and I'm sure it's very old.

-Replace front springs and rear shackles. I have to have the u-bolts up front made by a local shop.

-Finish deleting the EGR and replace the intake manifold gasket.

-Make the dome light work. It's never worked since I bought the truck. Replaced headlight switch and bulb, but still nothing. Not sure what's up with that.

 

My 77 truck's pan had a bolt jammed in it from the factory.. or so it seemed - I never knew it was there and it didn't  leak.. Cleaned it all up and mig'd up the bolt hole, painted it blue and fired it back on there.  Good as new.

Thankfully you can pull the pans on the LA / Truck combo unlike some other chassis config's.

I think there is a specfic speedo cable lube. 

Discussion on the topic here...

I don't know how well or long wd-40 will last as it's meant to displace water better than lubricate.

Greg

In reply to slantsix :

Yeah, WD40 isn't the best speedo cable lube. I tried graphite lock lube after reading a thread on another forum, but obviously that didn't work. Maybe some sort of grease, like lithium grease, might do the trick. I'm just worried a grease like that may cake and dry up over time, which is why I haven't used that yet.

In reply to Tony Sestito :

I've used a clear lubricant thats made for some time of pipe fitting application for YEARS. Get it from my dad. 

Let me ask him. Always worked great, never dries out either. If I can scrounge up a bottle I'll send you some.

I have also taken the entire cable out of the sheath ( I am not sure if you can do that easily on the '79 Plastic sheath) soaked the inner cable in a bowl of motor oil for a while, then reinstalled.  That also worked for me.

Here is the bolt in the oil pan writeup.

Greg

In reply to slantsix :

I can take the cable out of the sheath; mine's been "modified" (aka one of the ends broke) so I can do that. Might be a good idea to soak it.

Georges1991 said:

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Wow, interesting! Yeah nothing here in Illinois, you should see the piles we have running around lol

Back up to 1978 or 1979 (??) all trucks in Illinois needed the safety lane so guys would register on RV plates and run a cap with a small bed in the back.  Then Illinois got rid of the lighter trucks safety lane.  

I went with our crap work trucks and the first thing they do is scrape off your sticker then do the safety test - you had that month to fix it.  Cops looked for the expired color sticker the first few days of the month and gave out tickets.  

The joke in the late 70's was that you are supposed to leave a $20 bill on the drivers seat when you get out - and you passed!

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

Wow talk about a memory lane trip. I remember my uncles truck always having RV plates for this reason, long after the mandate stopped. I asked him why and he said the same thing, it saved me a tip at the inspection! Lol

Still see some old timers cars with the old Air Team stickers on the windshield still too.

I had a few minutes today to attempt two repairs on the truck: lubing the speedo cable (for what seems to be the 164th time) and see if I can get the dome light working. Let's see how that went .


First, I found this stuff at NAPA. Guys there said it works well for speedo cables. It's close to white lithium grease, but a little more viscous. I also took the cable out of the sheath and gave it an oil bath:

Did that change anything? Not really. It bounces slightly less between 30-40mph, but it's still bouncy and wanders quite a bit. I have no idea what else to do. A new cable would have to be custom made, since none of the aftermarket ones have the correct end on the transfer case side. I did price the custom ones out and they are well over $100. Eh, I'll just run this for now. 

Ok, onto the dome light. The speedo cable took more time than I wanted, so I didn't have much time to really dig into it. A while back, I bought some new door jamb switches: 



Figured they were cheap and maybe they would make things work. Of course they didn't! 

I tested voltage at the dome light itself, and nope, no voltage. I didn't think to check voltage at the switch, but no voltage = no lights. There's some "berkery" going on with the light wiring thanks to a half-uninstalled plow light harness, but the last time I messed with that, it took hours to get the lights working. 

I also ordered some Chrysler Corporate Blue paint for the oil pan and intake/valve covers. Gonna make it look a little nicer under the hood. 

Oh, and the only thing that went right today: 






This is Frank. Frank likes to hang out in the Power Wagon in October to scare people. Frank is kind of a jerk, but he means well. 

Next up: replacing the oil pan, chasing down that dome light issue, and then suspension stuff. I should probably pull the intake and delete the EGR before it's so cold it hurts to be outside. 

I wish I knew you were looking for that chain lube, as I bought a can to lube the cable in my 74 REPU. You could have borrowed the remainder of the can if you wanted. In the case of my truck it worked perfectly.