New here. Utterly inspired by Tonys "Power Laggin". That thread was a gift from above! My uncle left me his truck when he passed. 4spd 318. In need of some TLC. Been tryin. These Mopars are a bit different than the GM stuff I've owned in the past. New TStat (that's a diff process than gm!) tank filler neck hose, all new inst cluster, choke stove. Currently workin on why it likes to overheat. In progress. 
That's a nice handmedown! What's over in the passenger fenderwell area? Is that the overflow tank above the rad? Man, mopars are weird.
Way cool. Excited to see more.
In reply to iansane :
I think it's emissions junk, evap canister I belive it's called. Yup. Overflow tank. Can confirm mopars odd.
Love these trucks! Make mine come with a 12v though...
Yeah, very cool to see another one here.
Thanks for sharing with the rest of the class.
Welcome! When does it overheat - idling, freeway speed, etc?
Very Nice! I'm a big fan of that particular iteration of grille. Also, Four speeds are good.
In reply to MadScientistMatt : Well, it is behaving has if the thermostat is not opening. Gauge reads "egg cooker" and I have cold hoses. Swapped the 185 stat for the 195, pulled the rad and flushed, new hoses all around, filled,run and burped. Still not playing nice. No water in the oil, no seepeage or noise from the pump. New gauges and temp sensor. Runnin low on ideas.
Contemplating a good ritualistic "bonehead dance" to see if that purges the bad juju.
Thanks! Sounds like there's some dang handy wrench twirlers here, I got tired of askin the dog!
Nice truck. Do you know if the water pump was replaced?
New water pump 2kmi/ 10years ago. Those hoses get hot, the rad hose stay cool. Thanks!
And you are sure it burped properly? I like the aspirin trick in my thermostat to ensure that.
In reply to Mr_Asa : I'd thought so, but expound on this aspirin trick if ya don't mind?
In reply to Johntcarney :
You boil the thermostat till it opens, pull it from the water, put a tablet of aspirin between the metal surfaces as it cools so it can't close all the way.
Leaves a water path so you guarantee it flows through the t-stat, aspirin dissolves, all is good.
Personally I drill a 1/8" hole in the surface that doesn't move, put that at 12 o'clock. But I dont usually recommend that
In reply to Mr_Asa :
Fascinating. And turns out there was a CarTalk episode about just this issue! Ahha! We shall see.
Now, to boil a thermostat without makin' the wife think we've lost it!
Thanks for the trick.
I have been doing the aspirin trick for about 30 years. Never boiled a thermostat. Just push it open with your fingers and inset the pills. I can't imagine why a fellow would want to fumble with a scalding hot thermostat to do it.
Also, check to be sure you don't have a wiring fault. With the key on and engine off, disconnect the sensor. The gauge should read full cold with the sensor unplugged, full hot with the wire shorted to ground. You can do more detailed testing with resistors; the gauge should be 10 ohms full hot and 73 ohms full cold.
So I thinks to myself, "That advil trick is cool, but lord have mercy I don't want to pull that tstat again, let's just run it till the bubbles stop." 4 days of fn around later I can concede that the advil trick is superior and my hardheaded ways have led me astray once again. Thank ya'll for leadin' a horse to water. Next we're on to windshield wipers that only wipe on the Captains side
Glad to see another one here, and also glad to see my thread did someone good for once! 
I've had major issues with the temp gauge in my truck since I dragged it home nearly 6 years ago (wow, that went fast). I've tried multiple sending units and a few different gauges. I eventually lost interest in trying to figure that out once I swapped in the EFI and the screen gives me a more accurate temp reading than the gauge would. If you are having issues with the gauge, start with the sender and work your way back from there.
On the wiper stuff, these trucks are notorious for having bad wiper transmission bushings. Luckily, they can be had cheap in the "Help!" section of most parts stores. Take everything apart, boil the bushings (this softens them up so they are more pliable), and install them where they are missing/damaged. It's not that bad of a fix.
In reply to Tony Sestito :
Thank you! Windshield wipers back in action!
I must admit, I took it to a shop to have the instrument cluster replaced, they also did the temp sensor. Multimeters are not a strong suite of mine. Perhaps owning an old Dodge is reason enough to get better at that.
water pump hoses and upper hose get hot, lower hose not hot. That is how it should be, yes?
I love these phantom issues that spawn from nowheres. There's the dump run that was happening when overheating entered my life.
the saga continues!
I didn't realize that:
a) The truck is a short bed! Cool!
b) That it's the color my own Power Wagon is supposed to be.
Very cool.
On the overheating, some notes:
- It could be a whole host of things, but it might be worth it to get the system flushed. I would also confirm that the gauge is accurate. Again, I know from experience that they are finicky; mine still doesn't work and I've changed both the gauges and senders a couple times. Might be worth it to see what a temp gun says on the hoses at the very least.
- If you end up needing a radiator, I highly recommend the Champion Cooling aluminum ones you can find on Ebay. Dodge built them with two different core sizes: a 22" and a 26", so if you do buy one, just make sure you measure what you have first. My truck never goes above 195 with that thing, even in heavy summer traffic.
- How is the water pump? It might be possible there's a blockage in there or with the cooling passages in the vicinity. Again, I'd do a coolant system flush to see if that knocks some crud out.
Also saw the comment on wiring. Someone once told me that owning an old Mopar will make you a competent automotive electrician. They were not wrong.
I was terrible at wiring before owning my truck, but mine was hacked up so bad that I forced myself out of necessity to learn how to fix it. I still have some janky wiring under there, like the entire plow harness that is still partially hooked up, but I at least know what most of it does now. There are a lot of sub-harnesses that can be deleted and/or may "self-delete" if they feel like it. I had part of the EGR Timer harness catch fire on me due to previous owner wiring shenanigans, so I would keep an eye on things like that. It also looks like you have the factory Voltmeter, which is nice, but if the original Ammeter is still hooked up, you may want to wire around that, as the bulkhead connector wiring for the Ammeter is notorious for melting down. Check my thread for how to do that.
Keep at it!
Every dodge truck needs wiper bushings; welcome to the club!
My dad had a '79 Power Wagon stepside when I was little. I loved that thing. This is a cool truck.
In reply to Tony Sestito :
Thanks man!
appreciate the radiator sourcing lead. Been burned twice on ebay "guaranteed to fit". The only flushing option I've seen is some janky prestone kit you hack into the heater hose. I'm not inclined to cut more fail spots into this system, but that could be the paranoia talking. Is there a better option I'm unaware of?
water pump is "new" p/o's say it went in 2015/2k miles ago. No noise, no seeping. If the pump is bad, it's super sneaky.
Wouldn't be any fun if it was easy.
Thanks!
Johntcarney said:water pump is "new" p/o's say it went in 2015/2k miles ago. No noise, no seeping.
only 2k miles in nearly 10 years since install. I'd be willing to bet the impeller is corroded to the point of not moving enough coolant to, you know, cool. Been there, albeit SBC not MoPar.
You'll need to log in to post.
