Little truck, big possibilities

Who says a project has to have a specific plan?  This one is not likely to get tons of regular updates, as it'll get worked on when I feel like it, with no final goal in mind.  Also, it's outside, and it's cold in the midwest right now.  

A quick background - A few months back, I bought a Dodge Ram 50 from the same person I bought my challenge S10 from.  It was more solid than the S10, but had not been running since at least 2006.  I think it was pulled off the road due to a bad gas tank, but it could have been any number of reasons.  If I remember the story correctly, it was the PO's father's daily driver until whatever problem befell it.  I thought they were one of the better looking compact trucks of the 80s, especially the models with the paint-matched grill.  This one isn't one of those, but it is an extended cab, with the 2.6 and a 5 speed.  No AC, no PS, RWD, nice and simple.

It had 18 years of built up grunge:

A thorough car wash improved it immensely.  Still needs a lot of interior cleaning, but for now, a bug bomb and some damp rid will have to do.

It sat for a while until I tried to get it to start.  Found out the engine was locked up.  From the spark plugs, it appears moisture got into the number 2 cylinder.  A little over a week ago, I decide I needed to do something about it, and filled the cylinders with marvel mystery oil, and let it sit.  This past weekend, I pulled the cover back off it, and attacked it with a breaker bar and a 22mm socket.  It took a long while, but the engine is now freed up.  The plan for the next session is to get some adapters to throw one of my spare side post batteries in it (I think the top post battery I used before is now truly dead), use the starter to kick out most of the remaining MMO, reinstall the spark plugs, hit it with some starting fluid, and see what happens.  If it runs, change the oil, and try to get it to run off some gas poured in the carb.

Then what?  Well that's the fun part.  If the engine seems viable, or able to be made so, I guess I'll try to get it running well enough to be street driven.  After that, who knows?  It's not nice enough to be worth restoring, but it is way nicer than the few other 36 year old trucks around here, and mechanical parts are still pretty cheap and easy to come by.  I could build a cheap lowrider, it could be the next rallycrosser if events return to the area, it could get a Miata front and rear suspension and go carve corners, it could get turned into a drag and drive beast.  Or I could get bored or frustrated with it and sell it.  Who knows?  The journey is going to be half the fun.

Wow, that wash made a big difference.

Virtually none of my projects start with any plan either. I'm excited to see how yours plays out! 

If it were mine I'd be hoping for a viable stock drive train and the cheap lowrider option. But all options you've laid out sound like fun. 

Macro Cab! Excited to see what you do with the truck and what other options it has.  The macrocabs often came with some sought after options like the sliding back window you have, dash clock, bucket seats and a tachometer.

RacetruckRon said:

Macro Cab! Excited to see what you do with the truck and what other options it has.  The macrocabs often came with some sought after options like the sliding back window you have, dash clock, bucket seats and a tachometer.

Cool!  I've been slowly working my way through your build thread.  Don't think I'm going to do anything as wild  or awesome as what you've done so far.

Also excited to see what you do with this. I also recently picked up an '89 Ram 50 in similar condition and am working through it to get it up do DD status hopefully.

In reply to PerniciousLies :

Neat!  Is 89 fuel injected, or still carbureted like mine?

Weather was nice, so I took an hour or so to fiddle with the truck.  Had to shim a battery terminal with a cut out piece of soda can, since it would not tighten enough.  I think I have some spares laying around somewhere I can grab.  Ground in general was sketchy, too, so I may make some improvements.  Anyway, I was able to get the starter to turn over fine, so reinstalled the plugs.  With them in, it was working much harder, so I must have compression in at least some of the cylinders.  Unfortunately, it would not fire off starting fluid, and I am pretty certain the coil is not getting enough (or possibly any) power.  Which leads me to the first oddity, that I am just learning about on this truck.

It has a ballast resistor, even though it should have electronic ignition.  However, Rock Auto does list a points to electronic conversion kit for my year, so who knows.  On the battery side of the ballast resistor, I was down 1 volt from battery voltage, so grounds should definitely be revisited.  I wasn't thinking about it while working on it, either, but that means I should have someone else running the multimeter while I crank the engine, to see if the coil is getting anything while the resistor is bypassed.  If I am reading a writeup on the internet correctly, I should also be able to delete the ballast resistor anyway.  Also, whatever radio noise suppression method is being used, it doesn't work, as I'm hearing buzzing in the cab with the ignition on.  Somewhere I have a repair manual, so I'll check it and do a little more internet sleuthing before the next work session.  That may be a while, though, as weather is taking a turn for the worse.

Oh yeah, Ron, no tachometer, no clock, but there is a spot in the dash with a wire hanging out that may have housed one before.  Bucket seats are present, but not in the best of shape.  It does have a rather vintage aftermarket radio, and a CB radio, though!

That is a great little find. I like those little things. RWD 4g63T it and have some fun. It's a pretty well documented swap. 

https://www.projectzerog.com/archives/ZeroGversion2/index.shtml has a bunch of info. 

In reply to bmw88rider :

If it was 20 years ago, that'd be a slam dunk swap.  I am still keeping an eye out for deals, but 4G63T stuff is harder to find cheap than it used to be.  I guess enough of them have been blown up that the remaining ones are worth more.

I couldn't resist running outside for a few minutes today to check the ballast resistor and coil before weather turns worse.  Took some sandpaper to various contacts in an attempt to get a better quality reading.

Results were not exactly good:

Ballast resistor should be 1.25 Ω, it was 1.8-1.9Ω

+ to - on the coil should also be 1.25 Ω, it was 1.6-1.8Ω

+ to coil output is supposed to be 11kΩ, it was 25.8kΩ

As much as I want to load up the parts cannon, and grab all the tuneup, brake and fuel system stuff I know it'll need, the first parts order will probably be just these two, or just a coil, if I can get more confirmation that the ballast resistor can be dropped if you buy the right coil.  Once I have those, the next work session will be installing them, redoing the battery ground, and probably improving the grounding on the truck overall, since that seems to be a 1980s Japanese vehicle weakness in general.

I am also amazed at how few vacuum lines a late 80's carb'd vehicle can have.  So much room.

For potential future reference, I took a few rough measurements, too:

Firewall to back of radiator ~29"

Firewall to core support ~31.5"

Distance between inner fenders ~ 30"

Distance between frame rails ~23.5"

Man this is cool!! Love to see these older extended cab trucks. Keep me in mind if you go to sell at any point. 

In reply to classicJackets (FS) :

If it goes up for sale, I will almost definitely post it here first

A little searching, and I found a link to a coil and resistor on a mounting bracket that looks suspiciously like the one already in the truck.  It should be here Dec 26th as a belated Christmas present to myself. 

As the challenge S10 devolves, there's a chance the little Ram could be a stand in, but I think that'll only have a chance of happening if the engine is hurt more than I want to deal with.  I really like the idea of this as a low intensity, no time crunch build.

eastsideTim said:

For potential future reference, I took a few rough measurements, too:

Firewall to back of radiator ~29"

Firewall to core support ~31.5"

Distance between inner fenders ~ 30"

Distance between frame rails ~23.5"

I say this about once a month on one of the Mighty Max/Ram50 FB pages.  These trucks suck to stick a V8 in. The narrow frame rails make exhaust routing very difficult and the factory steering makes running a rear sump oil pan and low engine mounting almost impossible.  These trucks are light enough that a 300hp turbo 4 banger would be a hoot.  I've often thought an ecoboost mustang drivetrain would be perfect in one of these trucks.

In reply to eastsideTim :

Or it's all in the hands of people like me that horde old Mitsubishi stuff.

But yeah it doesn't always click that these things are 30+ years old now and the newest 4g63 is almost 20. 

In reply to RacetruckRon :

If I was starting mine again (and I think about it frequently) and not doing LS, I would be thinking LTG or maybe LFX for integrated exh manifold. I regret picking the older 2.3T for sure. 

Inline 4 does seem the best fit in general.  Not too mention, the length of the engine bay is also a little short to comfortably fit a V8.  I seem to recall a 4.3 is supposed to fit in okay, but I didn't have space to stash the one I had for a possible future use.  I would assume a 60 degree V6 would fit well, too.  Even a 3.4/T5 from a 4th gen f-body would be a major increase in power.

I'm still hoping the stock engine can be resurrected enough to be driven at least locally without too much fear of failure.  Even if it is slow, it'll still be faster than the Beetle.

3900 vvt like robs rx8 would be my vote

K24?

Had a little time this afternoon, and weather was gorgeous today, so the little truck got some attention.  I pulled the ground bolt, cleaned the contacts on all the wires to it, and added another negative battery cable from my stash to it. Oh yeah, I also replaced the bolt with one that wasn't just a threaded pile of rust.  Still had a significant voltage drop, but before changing out the coil, I decided to give it another try.

With some starting fluid, it actually fired for a second or two this time.  Heartened, I filled the carb bowl with gas, and tried again.  It still only ran for a second or two.  Did some thinking, and I suspect the ballast resistor was doing its job a little too well.  Just temporarily, I switched the ignition voltage straight to the coil.  Don't want to do it for long, but I needed to know.

It runs:

It was able to free rev.  Tried to put it in reverse, the clutch works, and it moved!  After I let off, it rolled forward, and almost into the house.  My wheel chock had buried itself since the last time I was working on it.  I backed up a bit more, past the concrete pavers it had been sitting on, and let them keep it from rolling forward.  Will need to lift and move them back under the tires at some point to keep it from sinking, but that's a problem for future me.  Not sure, but it may have been running long enough to pull gas from the tank.

I need to do some more research on ignition.  The coil in the truck has a positive wire going directly into it from the ballast resistor, and a single post, whereas the replacement has two posts, and no labeling that I can find:

The wiring pigtails on it also don't seem to match the truck perfectly, so I'm uncertain of exactly how I should deal with it.  My first impulse is to just reuse the wires from the truck, but that will require figuring out which post is which, which has proven surprisingly difficult.  The one photo I found on the Ram50/Mighty Max forum appears to indicate the lower post is the positive one, which is not what I was expecting.  I'll do some more digging, just in case.  It would be nice to see if the new ballast resistor/coil solves the problem.  Interestingly enough, the spec for the coil in the Haynes manual is different that the internet is telling me, and it is close enough that I'd assume it is good.  I should dig around the wiring more, and see if I can find and solve the voltage issue.  Maybe the positive cable needs to be replaced, too.

I was running out of light, so drained the oil, pulled the old Fram filter, put on a new STP filter, and gave it 3.5 quarts of wally world's finest 15W-40. 

I'll be making a brake parts order soon.  There are remanned calipers in the cab, and I am going to hope they are still okay.  There are also some rubber lines, but I am not going to trust them, and will order all the rubber hoses the truck needs, along with wheel cylinders, and a master cylinder or a rebuild kit for it.

Bonus pic of the late 80s/early 90s stereo and CB radio:

No real update, just that all the brake parts I've ordered have arrived, and are sitting in my basement.  The truck is under over a foot of snow, and more is coming down.  Really want to get another chance to mess with it.