In reply to Stefan :
OK, good- I've found conflicting answers in trying to search the turbo dodge/mopar forums regarding this and wasn't sure if the in-line pump would work or if I needed to get the in-tank pump assembly from a turbo LeBaron (which doesn't seem to have a return line on it? does it go in elsewhere?).
Yeah, the return lines can be different depending on the tank.
a 1990 Omni TBI tank would probably fit and provide a location for an EFI pump in the tank, but an inline pump is fine, it's just not usually done in the TD world since all the factory EFI cars came with internal pumps.
I ran a Walbro externally on my 924 with EFI conversion and it worked fine. It replaced the stock pierberg pump that died, it was also mounted externally.
In reply to Stefan :
Did you have to mount it under the car near the tank, or was it in the engine bay?
On the 924, I re-used the stock mount in the rear, near the exit to the fuel tank. The tank outlet is at the bottom and the pump mounts at a slight upward angle.
On my old Rampage, I mounted an electric pump (still carb'd) to the underside of the body where the cubby mounts. Other than being a rattly POS (cheap pump, I was poor) it worked fine. The carb didn't, but that's because the carbs were all junk.
I would think you could do something similar with a pair of soft mounts to mount it to the body and run the fuel lines.
Another option, that's a bit more fiddly, but ultimately could be beneficial: Use a cheap lifter pump to dump fuel into a surge tank mounted in the engine bay where the high pressure pump would sit. You could put it where the stock battery sits (relocate that heavy damned thing somewhere else that makes more sense). Not something I think you'd have time to come up with, but an idea perhaps for later, especially if you want to add alcohol injection for even more power, etc.
If you got that pump from me, its a Holley Blue, and I think only good for 14 psi, so its carbs and TBI only for it.
Went ahead and ordered an inline pump from Amazon- should be here tomorrow, though I doubt I'm going to be at the point of needing it for a bit yet...
Finally got the LeBaron harness out of the car and started on going through the wiring on both harnesses. Started with the Rampage's harness, and made it maybe a 1/4 to 1/3 of the way through the bulkhead connectors. The plan will be to keep the lighting, horn, and climate control wiring in place from the Rampage and all of the rest (everything for the engine) will be from the LeBaron. There won't be a lot of connections between the two, and not a lot of commonality in runs (I think only the Rampage wiring will run across the bulkhead and forward along the pass. fender, both will run along the driver's fender and the LeBaron will run across the front of the engine.
Question on the ECM/SMEC- does the intake air need to be routed through it? It certainly looks to be designed for that, but I've not been able to find any good images showing it installed to confirm it...
It was designed that way to keep the SMEC/SBEC cool... But I have never had an issue not running the intake air through the module. I also though on any of the cars I have skipped it worked pretty hard(for other reasons) to keep underhood temps down with venting and baffling. Some people add a little 12volt fan.
I'm boycotting this thread until more/better pictures happen.
Crackers said:I'm boycotting this thread until more/better pictures happen.
Heh, sorry- better pics aren't likely to happen until I've got the truck (car? never sure what to call it...) mobile and out of the garage- my garage just isn't conducive to taking pictures of anything. Well, other than pictures of wiring and parts and such (intended to take pictures of the two fans to see which I should be using...).
And I'm not sure that the Rampage is going to look much better in pictures anytime soon either unless I get really lucky with getting it to run- appearance isn't likely going to be much of a focus for me at the Challenge (will almost certainly be passing on concours judging). It will be the last thing I worry about after safety, power, and handling. I would like to have it looking nice- but with everything else I don't know if that will happen before the Challenge.
If only you were closer:
https://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/cto/d/85-dodge-charger-shelby-free/6271445906.html
In reply to Stefan :
Nice!
I've been doing some reading and it looks like (as I thought it might be) it's possible to lower the rear by moving the axle to the top of the leaf springs. The shocks won't be quite right, but apparently the air shocks (made for an older Aspen) will fit nicely and give me the adjustability on the rear height.
I've also seen that you can use first-gen neon struts (I wonder if I know anyone who might have some lying around... 
) and coil-overs (of which I have two left over from the Caddy-500 Fiero I took to the Challenge the last time I went) to lower the front.
I've looked over the bushings and sway bars at polybushings. There's not much I can do myself in the way of the bushings so I'd obviously have to purchase those, which will likely be a $200+ hit to do all of them. I'm going to have to look and see if there's a way to fabricate my own rear sway bar so I don't have to spend the $200 or so for the custom-made one.
It's looking like I'll be getting a set of 14" R-comps delivered at the Challenge that will go on the wheels on the Rampage now, so I'll be looking to track down a decent set of street wheels/tires that won't go into the budget- there's a decent selection of cars that use the lug pattern in the junkyards, so once it's mobile I can take it to one and find some new wheels & tires.
(yes, getting it running is my first order of business- but I can't do anything with the electrical when I'm at work as I already have most of what I need at home and just need the time with the harnesses themselves...)
Isnt the rear a solid axle? If so, check out an s10 blazer, explorer, suburban, or camaro rear bar at the junkyard. Should be easy to mount and add links to the body.
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
Yup, it's a solid rear axle on leaf springs. I can check those, but I imagine they're likely going to be too wide given how small the Rampage is.
I would caution you on the polyurethane bushings for the control arms, specifically the rearward ones.
If you look at how the stock bushings work, the rearward bushings are in tension when the arm moves up and down, so adding polyurethane adds spring rate and binds the suspension up further. On the flip side, its an important bushing with wheelhop issues. Ideally, one would replace that bushing with a spherical joint, but that's a decent amount of fabwork to pull off.
Personally, I'd do polymotor mounts and inspect the other bushings and only replace them if they are truly shot to save time/budget.
Yeah, the rear is as simple as flipping the axle (though that lowers it a ton, so a set of longer shackles might be needed to keep the ride height reasonable) and I second the S-10 rear bar (though I never had trouble with the rear end at the autocrosses I took it to, its really, light and stiff out of the box).
A buddy of mine modified his front sway bar to use proper end links and reduce the inherent bind in the front suspension. He welded tabs to the ends and bolted the end links to the tabs and then to the control arms. Worked better than it ever did.
In reply to Stefan :
Well, if I don't have to replace many bushings it will certainly be good for my budget.
On the front sway bar- I thought it was a bad idea to weld sway bars because it messes with the temper of the bar and the stiffness of it.
In reply to Ashyukun :
The ends of the bars don't move much so as long as you don't heat the entire bar to cherry red, you'll be fine.
If you are thinking of doing the motor mounts, you may want to see about the cost of just getting new stock ones and filling them with urethane from McMaster Carr or somewhere vs. getting poly mounts.
In reply to eastsidemav :
That would definitely be cheaper...
So, had more time to go through the wiring last night and have pretty much got the Rampage's harness sorted out and labeled. The only thing that is going to be interesting IMO is figuring out the AC... but at the same time, I don't plan on using the AC initially or even having any of it in the car, but I don't want to be cutting anything out that would prevent me from using it or that would send the wrong signals to the computer and impact the performance.
As I have the day off today I hope to make some good progress with the LeBaron harness. It's a bit easier in that I know clearly I'll be pulling all of the lighting-related wiring out which will clean it up a lot in a hurry.
The fuel pump should show up today as well, so if I want a change I can see about figuring out where to put that.
Hopefully I'll also be able to get the vehicle inspector from the Sheriff's office here today as well to verify the VIN so I can submit the application for the KY title and get the Rampage properly transferred over.
I've gotten some pretty stiff mounts using 3M WindoWeld. It's not as nice as the liquid urethane, but it is a bit cheaper and more readily available. It's pretty strong, too: I think we held most of the CRX together with that stuff for a few years.
Another option, maybe, is Energy Suspension makes a DIY kit that includes the liquid urethane to make your own inserts in multiple different hardnesses.
Ashyukun said:In reply to Stefan:
I thought it was a bad idea to weld sway bars because it messes with the temper of the bar and the stiffness of it.
...what Stefan said.
I don't get why more people don't mod sway bars. They're basically a giant spring and comparatively, no one seems to care about heating/cutting springs, aside from the potential to mismatch rates, which is moot for a sway bar. (Or apparently even welding them directly onto the chassis like on Ferdinand.)
Just make sure to pre/post heat so it doesn't heat or cool too fast.
Although, for a sway bar, you can always just cut the end off and clamp a sleeve over the end with eyes to accept a link.
An enterprising individual could even have multiple positions to make the bar adjustable.
In reply to wae :
It looks like it's essentially the same price to get liquid urethane from McMC as it is to get WindoWeld from Amazon- the WW would be quicker (single stage, no mixing and likely little cure time) vs. the urethane flowing are easily and filling the space a bit better.
In reply to Crackers :
One curiosity (that I can answer for myself later when I go out to work on the wiring...) I have is how the bars currently attach- do they have threaded ends? If so, I wonder if there's something threaded that could go onto that to mount them better.
Annoyingly, it seems there's a considerable backlog for vehicle inspections- so I have NO idea when they'll be out to inspect it so I can legally transfer it. Had hoped to get more done this afternoon, but moved up a dentist appt. to earlier so I can have more uninterrupted time out working this evening once I get back from that until SWMBO gets back from teaching this evening.
The front bar is really a poorly designed solution, created for ease of packaging and assembly, but really it just "slides" on big square bushings in the middle of the control arms.
New bushings and lubrication really helps things work better.
One thought; if you take the big square bushings off at the control arms and rotate the bar down, you can use some split collar clamps and some rod ends of the proper ID, threaded rod, nuts/washers and sway bar end link bushings to create slightly better working end links at the expense of some ground clearance.
I was able to get a tube of 3M Window Weld at my FLAPS and used a caulking gun to fill the torn mount on my wife's Highlander. You have to fill it a bit at a time to ensure you don't have a lot of air bubbles, but it works pretty well. Worth a look if you have to be out and about.
BTW, on the passenger side mount? There should be two 1/4 spacers under the mounting bolts. Those are important on the Turbo cars, it helps with torque steer, so if they are missing, try to find a pair (The Polybushings mount eliminates these with a relocated mounting hole).
I have often thought about drilling and tapping the end of the sway bar to bolt a rod end directly to it. That may be the solution in this case however I don't know how feasible it really is
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