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

Today was not one of my better days wrenching on the Power Wagon.

I decided to try and swap speedometers, since I was convinced the speedo head on the one in the truck was bad. Here's how that went:

This is the 4th or 5th time this cluster has been out, so I'm getting pretty good at this now. Got everything disassembled quick.

Here's the problem: the clock spring was stretched and messed up big time. The plan: swap the odo CAREFULLY onto my spare speedo with a good clock spring.

This is the other speedo. You can see that the spring is flat and coiled correctly. So far, so good.

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While pulling the odometer, this happened to the original. Ugh.

And when swapping the odo onto the new one, the needle on the other one snapped! WTF!!! I glued it back together, slapped the odo in the best I could (the clip that holds it in broke and I had to cobble together a new one out of a terminal connector) and tossed it back in the truck.

After I got it back together, the odo only turns two of the cylinders and the needle only goes up and never comes back down until full stop. Not great. So, now it's broken, but in a different way. Yes, the cable has been lubed a number of times (see previous posts), so that's not it.  I think the odometer is a little off, and the stops are in the wrong spots, which I can fix, but I'm not sure why the needle just goes up.

Anyone have a 1972-80 Dodge Truck speedo kicking around that they want to sell?

 

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Send a PM to Cooter. He might be able to help you out...

This is getting frustrating! Saw your post on Facebook too. Hope you get this figured out. I'll keep my eyes peeled for anything

Microscopic update:

I pulled the instrument cluster... again... and took another look at the speedo situation. I was able to fix the odometer, but the stupid speedo does nothing. I know it's not the cable, because the odometer works, so I'll definitely have to source another one.

Also, it's been confirmed that my truck had a 1972-78 speedometer in there. Someone swapped it in there at some point. 1979-80 had an 85mph speedo instead of the 100mph one in the truck. I have Cooter on the lookout for one.

Wow, time flies when you're wrenching on old trucks! A year ago yesterday, I trekked up into central Maine to snag this truck. Since then, I've done a lot to the truck to save it from a "plow lot truck" demise and got it back on the road. Some of the big repairs/upgrades include:
 

-Fixing A LOT of risky, dangerous wiring, thanks to the Wire Nut Bandit

-Ditched the mangled aluminum side steps and plow frame

-Welding in a new P/S seatbelt mount

-Getting the transfer case shifter working

-Making all of the exterior lights work all the time (still working on the interior ones)

-Replacing most of the various rubber lines aroiund the truck

-Front brakes and wheel bearings (took nearly a month to do!)

-Shocks front and rear

-Figuring out why the fuel gauge didn't work and replacing the fuel sending unit (bed had to come off for that)

-Fixing the roof rust (temporarily)

-Fixing the exhaust

-Stopping it from leaking all the fluids from everywhere

-Making it actually run right (tune-up and timing reset)

-Getting the carb to behave in all weather

-Putting a radio in it from this century (that I may be replacing at some point soon)

-Adding an oil pressure gauge

-Adding dog dishes and much smaller side steps

Man, I did a lot of work to this thing! But, it's in pretty good shape now mechanically, and I trust it to get me to where I need to go AND actually get me home now. I still have a lot to do, but with most of the big stuff out of the way, I can turn my attention to other projects I've been neglecting for years. I plan on fixing a few more of the major issues later this year (floor pans, speedometer, voltmeter conversion, new oil pan, and replacing the front leaf springs) but I will be spending more time doing "truck stuff" than wrenching.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

The only Mopar he ever owned was a 1987 Dakota, and it was admittedly an epic turd.

I learned to drive in my dad's 96 (last year of updated original design) and later bought a nice 87 (first year). The drivetrain in the 87 was so blah that if I'd run into those trucks in reverse order I would never have known how great those things could be. The Magnum engines must have been like a 2nd life for that design. I sold the 87... 

As far as why the speedo goes up but not down, the only thing making it go down is the very weak pressure from that spring, which may be weaker than the force that drives it up. So, if there is an amount of friction in the shaft bushing/bearing thing that is weaker than the 'up' force but stronger than the 'down' force, it will just go up and get stuck. So I'm still betting on 'bushing friction'. 

In reply to Tony Sestito :

that's a really cool truck and you've done a great job with it in just a year!

also, i haven't seen Vigo be wrong about anything technical that he's posted on this forum, so he's probably right about the speedo as well.

Thanks for the praise! Looking back, I can't believe how much I've done to it and how far it has come. It's probably the 1st project vehicle I've ever owned that's actually successful in any way!

On the speedo...

The spring seemed fine when I had it apart; much tighter than the one that was in the truck previously. I'm thinking that somehow a drop of glue from when I was repairing the broken needle may have ended up on the shaft or gears. I will pull it apart and inspect/lube the shaft and gears soon. I'm just happy the odometer works again for now.
 

Now that the truck is doing truck things and mostly working (I'm looking at you, speedometer!) I can tackle some of the "nice to haves" I wanted to do to the truck. As a "gotcha day" present, I decided to further upgrade the truck's audio department with another stereo that will look a little better in the dash.


This JVC-X360BTS has variable colors, so I can make it match the rest of the dash lighting. The blue of the Kenwood deck was distracting at night. It also has a few more features than that Kenwood deck I installed a few months ago, and I like that it still has a knob to match the 40+ year old aesthetic of the truck. I waited for one to go on sale locally, and I found one at Best Buy last night for even less than I paid for the Kenwood. I'm selling the Kenwood to offset the purchase; there's nothing really wrong with it other than me not liking the lighting.



Since the box was busted open, they gave me an extra 10% off, and it was already $30 off the normal price. Score! I'll be installing that really soon.

The other part of the equation is finding some new front speakers. Like many old 70's-earlier vehicles, this had a single 4x10 dash speaker, and that's it. Mine was blown, and rather flatulent to be honest. Like I did on my Trans Am, I plan on gutting the speaker chassis and using it to mount two 3.5" speakers for true stereo sound. Some of these trucks did come with 6.5" speakers in the doors, but mine did not. The doors on the truck are pristine, so I'm not going to hack them up to install speakers. With the 3.5's up front and the 6x9's behind the seat, I should be able to finally hear music while driving the truck, I hope!

In reply to Tony Sestito :

You could also do kick panel enclosures . Ebay has universal ones

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

That is true. There isn't much there for kick panels in the truck (not sure it even has them to be honest!) so I'd have to get some from an 80's truck and modify them.

Look at this on eBay https://www.ebay.com/itm/392620455223

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Interesting.They might be a possibility, maybe in addition to the 3.5's at some point. Very cool that they make those!

In reply to Tony Sestito :

I forgot what i used them for, but was pleasantly surprised by their quality 

Spent a little time fixing and changing up a few things this weekend.

First up, I replaced a coolant hose that goes to the heater control valve. No pics, but it's no longer leaking. Yay!

Next, I swapped out the radio.

I like it. This is my 1st JVC ever, and it's nice. I like the button layout more than the Kenwood, and since you can change the colors of the buttons to whatever you want, it matches the dash much better.

And another quick fix:

This piece of trim has bothered me since bringing the truck home. It's supposed to be woodgrain, but the insert is missing. The rest of the trim looks like this:

Since someone paid good money for the Adventurer package when this truck was new to live the luxurious faux woodgrain life, I needed to fix that. Enter this stuff:

I was out shopping with the wife earlier, and stumbled upon shelf liner. They had this RICH WOODGRAIN contact paper that was pretty damn close to what Mother Mopar slathered on that trim 40+ years ago.



5 minutes and a couple slices of a razorblade later, and we have this:

Much better. I still need to clean up the other trim to brighten it up, but yeah, that's the stuff.

One other weird thing... Twice this weekend, the carb flooded on me. I had to clear it up by holding open the choke plate while cranking it. This is the 3rd time it's happened in the past year. Not sure why this keeps happening, other than the fact that it's a 40 year old carbureted truck. Carb is 2 years old, and the choke thermostat is new, so maybe it needs some tuning (or an EFI conversion). At least I can fix the non-start condition with a screwdriver jammed into the carb.

Might be the float valve not sealing up. Do you have a sight glass on that carb? If it started doing it at the same time the choke thermostat was replaced it might just be set up a little too tight. 

In reply to Vigo :

It did it once before I replaced it. It also might be user error.

On cold starts, I pump the gas twice and fire it up to get it into high idle. When it warms up a little, I kick it down and go. Every time this has happened, it's because it stalls during that warm-up cycle for whatever reason. I may have given it another pump after it stalled, which probably flooded it. This is the 1st carbed vehicle I've regularly driven in about 15 years, so sometimes I forget how to operate one. 

Today, I decided to tackle the front speaker install. I drove the truck to work yesterday, and since it was extremely windy, I couldn't hear the radio at all, even with it cranked! Figured having front speakers would probably help with that.

First, I had to pull that 41 year old thrashed OEM dash speaker. To get to it, I had to pull the glove box out as well as remove the dash bezel and radio. After a bit of cursing and contorting, I got it out.

Uhh, yeah... that's not great!



"DELUXE", huh? Also, part of the driver (a metal collar that holds the cone in there) had fallen off and was rattling around. This thing was thoroughly smoked.

Here's what's going in there instead. The bracket was a $6 adapter for GM Squarebody trucks, but I figured that this thing was "square" enough and with some slight modification, it would work. The speakers are Kicker CS-Series 3.5's. I've had really good luck with Kicker stuff lately, so I figured I'd give these a try.

They mounted to the adapter perfectly. The outer screws were cut down and covered with some tape right after I took this pic so I didn't cut up my hands on the install. I also elongated the mounting bolt holes to mimic the old speaker.

This proved to be a smart decision.

And there they are! After more cursing and contorting, they went into their new home. I can now hear the radio much better! What was unexpected was how much bass these little guys put out. A pleasant surprise! One thing I did notice while I was in the dash was that the passenger side defroster duct was full of holes, so I'll have to source something to replace that. It looks like a smaller diameter dryer vent tube, so hopefully I'll be able to find something similar.

Next up: some carb tuning, I think. It seems like it runs really rich, and it actually stalled on me earlier today at low speed while pulling into a parking lot. For a Carter BBD, I can't really complain. I haven't turned a screw on the thing since I brought it home!

I need to do something about the side dash speakers in the TJ, they're so anemic and horrible sounding that I've gotta do something about it; I just find myself unmotivated to do so.

It's always nice to freshen up the audio, as it can make a huge difference in your driving experience if you enjoy music while you drive. I'll have to keep those little kickers in mind for other vehicles since you mention they actually produce some bass. I'm not a fan of stuffing an amp and a sub that takes up valuable space.

I bought these Kenwood Excelon speakers a few years back to put into the Durango, and they produce a nice, full sound, with a decent amount of bass. Sadly, can't seem to find them anymore.

In reply to Azryael :

I know it isn't as flashy as an engine swap, but improving car audio can go a long way on a project vehicle. I will work on quieting down the wind noise and making it more habitable in the cab down the road, but for now, I can crank some tunes while doing "truck stuff".

That's what it's all about!

I've made no progress on any projects of my own simply because time doesn't allow. I barely have time to keep up with maintenance these days.

I wish get a double-din unit into my truck, but that requires some work on the dash itself as there's no room for it, so I just keep putting it off.

Made another small "improve the driving experience" mod to the truck today: a new rearview mirror.

One of the things that was annoying about driving this thing since day one was the rearview mirror. Not only was it positioned in the wrong part of the windshield (the sun visor hit it when you put it down), there was no "night" driving switch on it. So, I took a morning stroll through the junkyard and picked a winner. It came out of a early 2000's Chevy conversion van, and was a little wider than the stock one. I picked up a mirror glue kit, moved the mount over an inch or two, and all is good now. Stupid stuff like this can make a huge difference in driving comfort.

My go-to has been from late '80s Chrysler LeBaron convertibles.     Fits most MoPar windshield mounts (typically, I swap these onto Jeeps and First Gen Dodge trucks)  and have internal map lights to help with the horrible interior lighting of most trucks, rad era MoPars, and Jeeps. 




(Sorry, a file photo will have to sufice)
 

In reply to Cooter :

I have a GM mirror from a 90's Blazer that I was saving for my Trans Am. Same deal; has the map lights and all that. In my truck, getting power to it would be interesting, since there's no wiring nearby. Also, the dome light isn't working, which is on my list of "comfort" fixes. A Hammer Store free LED light has been my "dome light" since I bought it, since it just sticks to the metal roof. That's getting old, though. 

Tony Sestito said:

In reply to Cooter :

I have a GM mirror from a 90's Blazer that I was saving for my Trans Am. Same deal; has the map lights and all that. In my truck, getting power to it would be interesting, since there's no wiring nearby. Also, the dome light isn't working, which is on my list of "comfort" fixes. A Hammer Store free LED light has been my "dome light" since I bought it, since it just sticks to the metal roof. That's getting old, though. 

I just put one of the free hammer store free LED lights on roof of blue Omni for the same reason.