'91 W150 All-Purpose Beater

Not sure if this is a build thread or what but here's what we've got.

1991 dodge W150 ex-cab 318/727 44-8FD front Spicer 70 rear

It's a beater, the guy talked himself down when I went to look at it to the point I couldn't leave it; although I had meant to. Radiator blew on the 20 mile drive to my shop. First order of business was: battery radiator, hoses, water pump, thermostat, timing set, tune up(plugs, wires, oil, filters, cap, rotor), two tires. All done.

That's where we are now, I have $1000 in it.

4wd doesn't engage, have a new accuator that came with it but may swap manual lockers in. Steering is incredibly vague, have a rebuild kit and will order a new borgeson steering shaft Monday. Need to do VC gaskets, and replace the other two tires.

Oh, did I mention rust?

Looks like a good trail/winter beater! Keep us posted!

Ran out of excuses to not tinker with it, 58 degrees will do that for you. Today I decided to check out the steering, found the box is leaking but is pretty good. The vagueness was actually from the steering shaft coupler. The internals were completely worn out, so I disassembled that and rebuilt and greased it. Much more better!

It was still light; this won't fit in my paved garage, so I pulled the four wheel drive accuator apart. There's my problem. The drive motor was actually rusted out!

Replaced all of that and boom I have four wheel drive. However, I now have no speedometer. Good times, may tinker a bit tomorrow but I need two parts that I haven't found yet.

Got the speedometer working, changed trans fluid, front and rear diff fluid and transfer case fluid. At this point I've been through it enough that I don't think it will kill me so I loaded it up for a scrap run.

First load was 2800#, second load was 3200#. Not bad for a half ton truck. Did about 240 miles (I mentioned the odometer doesn't work right?) and topped it off with 12 gallons of fuel. Not to bad.

Edit: the scrap almost covered what I'm in it so far...

Canoe bump, the fuel pump died a couple weeks ago and I haven't had the time to swap it out. I hope to get to it this weekend though. She just plugs along. Which is why I wanted a pre-computer style truck. It is fuel injected but it's pretty bare bones.

So... My brother came over so we could lift the bed off and change the fuel pump from the top; quite a few of the bolts broke off and two of them ripped the floor channel out when I hit them with the impact. Berkeley.

We each grabbed a side to slide the bed off the back onto some saw horses and my brothers side of the bed collapsed. Ended up just dumping the leftover parts of the bed on the floor in the barn. Changed the pump (oe) and the filter (oe) and it runs like a top. I noticed the fuel lines were a bit rusty and by the time we got back from a shake down run it was actually leaking. No one makes prebent for this truck so I made the one that leaks and that was good. About this time my left rear brake line started leaking and then the abs modulator started leaking.

So I stripped the back half to the frame. A couple parts were sent out for sandblasting ill flapper the rest. Lots of new parts have been ordered. Since this is a big wall of text and to illustrate why michigan trucks are the devil this picture shows what is left of the original receiver. Enjoy!

What a mess, but it'll be worth the work if you get some years of service out of it.

Powar wrote: What a mess, but it'll be worth the work if you get some years of service out of it.

Thank you, my wife came out this evening and said "go buy a new truck". I just can't, I ordered my last dodge in 2002 just how I wanted it and although I did 90k miles in seven years I almost never drove it. I'd rather spend $6-8k making this right for me and not need to use it than spend $30-40k on what the manufacturer thinks is right and then feel like I need to drive it.

Tonight I dropped the fuel tank(what do you do with 36 gallons of gas?) siphoned off into every car I have (and the tractors) and still had some left. Fuel lines out tomorrow before it gets hot; Classic in Columbus said they can make the fuel line bundle for $100 and add it to their catalog if I bring these to them so I'm going to do that this coming week. I didn't want to grind any more rivets out untill the tank was gone so after the lines are out I will start in with removing the small bracketry and figuring out what is still useable and what needs rebuilt/replaced. The axle and springs are going to come out tomorrow also hopefully, I have everything to do the rear brakes here and make the new brake lines so I will get that all cleaned, painted and reassembled.

Still looking for a good bed but up here there aren't any rust free beds for less than $1k and I'm morally opposed to that.

Got most of what I wanted to do done, little squal came up so I cut it short. Front shackle hangers still need to come out but they are calling for rain so not sure what I'll get done this week.

Chassis was cleaned all the way to bare frame to the cab; used a flapper to strip it to mostly metal and coated everything in rustoleum rusty metal primer. Coated over in satin black. New rear hangers are installed brake lines are bent and ready to go back in; fuel lines are STiLL not done, they have a flex line at the end that no one seems able to duplicate. Not sure what to do on that. Drive shaft is painted, ujoints go in tomorrow.

Nice work! Should be pretty solid once you're done!

sethmeister4 wrote: Nice work! Should be pretty solid once you're done!

The back half anyway...lol.

My hardware will be in today to put it all back together, the sandblaster will be done with all the parts today so paint and assembly over the weekend hopefully. Found a shop that says they can build the fuel lines but I spent a couple hours looking at aero quip and the cheaper version from jegs and that may work for me also.

chandlerGTi wrote: Chassis was cleaned all the way to bare frame to the cab; used a flapper to strip it to mostly metal and coated everything in rustoleum rusty metal primer. Coated over in satin black. New rear hangers are installed brake lines are bent and ready to go back in; fuel lines are STiLL not done, they have a flex line at the end that no one seems able to duplicate. Not sure what to do on that. Drive shaft is painted, ujoints go in tomorrow.

Could you not terminate in an AN fitting and then add a short section of braided stainless flex line? There are places that make braided stainless fuel lines.

That's what we have been looking at, I'm hopeful we can do exactly that.

its funny, that photo of it in front of your garage looks like a photoshop, LOL

-J0N

jmthunderbirdturbo wrote: its funny, that photo of it in front of your garage looks like a photoshop, LOL -J0N

If not for me seeing that every day driving down the driveway I would think the same thing! It's a funny picture.

While I was cleaning the rearend and rebending the brake lines I managed to break the diff vent/union bolt. None of the usual suspects stock it but my brother suggested calling the dealer; I don't usually think of that... $2.75 later I will pick it up tonight.

I think by weekend-end I will be ready to put the crossmembers back in and hopefully the rear end. I have ignored the fuel lines a little longer but I'm almost to the point where I HaVE to do something!

We will see.

Thanks!

So after lots of little BS it is reassembled! Yah!

I do need to do the fuel lines still but summit is showing my boxes are out for delivery. The hard lines will terminate into flex lines to snake up the firewall just like the factory version did.

I might have $1800 in the whole truck at this point so I'm still in good shape there; finding a bed has been a nightmare and I think the worst is over. I'm running to Portland Indiana tomorrow to check out (and hopefully buy) a cream bed. Truck was parked in 1997 and while it has some rust holes over the wheel wells the floor is solid. I'm willing to repair the fenders but a bed floor is not going to happen.

Wheel is up so I can spin the yoke to match the driveshaft.

Parts didn't come last night and I wrenched my back so nothing is going to happen today. Daddy/Daughter days tonight and tomorrow afternoon also so it will be Friday before I touch it again probably. Doh!

great progress thus far!

So I drove it today for the first time since who knows when. The new battery had died, the new fuel pump had died. Replaced those made some tweaks to the new fuel lines and installed the drive shaft. Only had a gallon of gas in it and I had filled the rider so drove it a bit and put it away. Glad to clean the garage afterwards.

Finally, 18 months of looking and being a cheapskate brought me this.

Yesss

Nice! Looks like you are going all in sorting out the new beast. Amazed at how nice the frame looks after your time with it,

Those of you who are astute picture looker-ers will see that yes I did mount that bed with two angled engine hoists by myself. It looks great but of course my gas filler neck broke so I need to find one of those stat!