Mid 80's Dodge Trucks Any Major Pitfalls?

So I have been driving by one for sale for months now. It's a clean body with no rust on it. I haven't heard it run yet. It's a D150 so I'm assuming it's a 318. I've got a complete 340 in my dad's garage that I can use if I want too.

My thought with the truck is a clean and lowered city truck to tow as needed and haul occasionally. The wife likes the look of the truck.

I had one back in the day that I pulled out of a field for free. It didn't have a straight body panel on it. This one is much cleaner.

So It's been a while. What should I look out for? Is there something that I should know? I think I can bring it home for under $1K.

Do it.

What year is it exactly?

ALL the Dodge pickups (oops, I mean the half ton pickups) are D150 or above, just like Ford used to have an F 100 but dropped it in the late '70s.

I've never owned one of these but have driven several off and on, so I have to admit I have no direct, long-term knowledge. But, these do drive like any other pickup and you don't have those Twin I-Beam front ends like the Ford to contend with. If you find this one has a 6 cylinder, try to avoid the V6 (not sure when they changed over) you might find it's decent for light errands...at least in the short term. If it has a V8, the 318 is probably what's in there. Rust? Usually on the trailing edge of the rear wheelwells. At least these don't rust like Chevy/GMCs of the same vintage do. It should be cheaper than an equivalent Ford or Chevy, but in todays market I'm not sure a running / licenseable(?) vehicle can be had for $1,000.

The chassis was used from 73-93. The body stayed similar through the years, but there are a few facelifts and a couple of body line changes. Early 80s seems to be the changeover point for body stuff. Carb trucks are fairly simple electrically. They went to FI in 89, the early EFI is a TBI unit and it can be cantankerous sometimes.

The feed back carb and egr system sucks on these trucks. If you happen to live in a state where you don't have to smog it, toss an Edelbrock performer intake and a 4bbl carb on it. I had a 1984 W150 (4wd) with a 318 and it was gutless. Simple truck other than the feedback carb system. Only real issue I has was a deteriorated front cover which sprung a water leak and required replacing. It was a tad expensive, but it gave me a chance to swap out the timing chain and water pump. Also had to do valve cover gaskets.

Do the borgeson steering shaft. It's a huge upgrade in steering feel gets rid of the sloppy stock steering shaft and connector.

Overall I enjoyed the truck, just too bad CA emission prevented me from modifying the engine for more power.

check over the wiring.. Dodge wiring from that vintage isn't exactly the best.. i had an 80 Dodge pickup that had a dash that would decide that it wanted to belch out a bunch of smoke every once in a while, followed by the dash lights not working.. i had a similar problem on my first car- a 78 Cordoba- except with out the smoke.. a few friends have had similar issues with their 70/s and 80's Dodge products, too..

moparman76_69 wrote: The chassis was used from 73-93. The body stayed similar through the years, but there are a few facelifts and a couple of body line changes. Early 80s seems to be the changeover point for body stuff. Carb trucks are fairly simple electrically. They went to FI in 89, the early EFI is a TBI unit and it can be cantankerous sometimes.

I had an 88 D150 with a 5-speed, and a throttle body fuel injected 3.9 litre V6.

It's an 85.

It's a Texas truck so rust is not an issue. I've looked it over and it's clean there.

Moparman, I like the stance of that truck a lot. I read the article on that already. That was the plan that I was going to use for lowering the truck down.

WhiteLX.,

Thank god they don't do emissions testing on anything over 25 years old. I remember that carb on my dad's 85 ram charger back in the day. We could never get that right. It would all go bye bye in favor of an edelbrock air gap and a a new carb.

Does anyone know if you can put the 73-79 grill and lights on the newer 80's front end? I think the 70's version looks better.

I had an 89 with a 318. The main things I had issues with were the crappy steering (the Borgenson shaft is a nice upgrade as mentoned above) and the crappy wiring. The wiring was so brittle on the rear chassis harness I ended up just making a new one. The underhood stuff was mostly ok. Mine was TBI and it was relatively trouble free. I had to replce the injectors but that was easy and cheap. The first few years of overdrives were weak. I think mine was only rated for towing 3500 lbs. For its vintage it was a good truck. Easy to work on. Cheap parts. Comfy bench seat. Both am AND fm on the radio.

The 70's stuff is not interchangeable with the 80's stuff when it comes to the body. I always liked the 92/93 front facia the best. Ive owned quite a few dodge trucks from that time period including two Warlocks and a 'Lil Red Express Truck and the best thing about them is their legoness! Easy and Cheap to work on with great junkyard parts availability.

Personally, i dont see any reason why one would favor the old slant six over a 3.9. It might be MARGINALLY easier to work on, maybe... but other than that i dont know that it has any advantages.

Mazdax605 wrote: I had an 88 D150 with a 5-speed, and a throttle body fuel injected 3.9 litre V6.

The v8 didn't go FI until 89. 88 was the first year for FI on the v6. I have a 90 club cab with the 5.2 and A518/46RH.

OP: Go manual if possible. The gearing in a 3 speed will make for horrible highway manners/economy and the 4 early non-electronic 4 speeds had issues. My 90 has had the trans rebuilt twice and it is acting up again. It's been rode pretty hard though.

I had an '89 D150, 318 with TBI and the A-833OD manual. A B-Body Pistol grip shifter bolts right in and works fine with the bench seat. You can defeat the speed limiter by keeping it in 3rd gear past 90 then drop it into 4th.....mine topped out at about 120 .

They need serious help in the handling department, but it's doable (or so I've heard) I don't remember my MPG numbers but it was pretty good IIRC.

Vigo wrote: Personally, i dont see any reason why one would favor the old slant six over a 3.9. It might be MARGINALLY easier to work on, maybe... but other than that i dont know that it has any advantages.

Agreed. If anything the 3.9 would be easier to swap over to a 318/360.

Everything else in the thread has the truck pretty well covered. The Performer & 4bbl combo is really nice on a 318. Swapping over to a regular electronic ignition will be needed as well. You can go with a couple options there. For stock parts store stuff there's the Mopar module & ballast resistor, or you can use a HEI module.

Here's a diagram I drew for a buddy's book back in the late '90's. It's been whored out over the internet, but this is the real deal: Wiring a 4-Pin Mopar ignition module

In your case the "Original Wire" would be a 12v key on source that has power when cranking. The diagram was intended for people converting from points distributors.

I haven't drawn a diagram for the HEI module wiring, but they are out there. I might draw one up based off my other drawings and add it to my site later.

Either combo will need an earlier Mopar electronic ignition distributor. At the parts store something like one for a '74 D100 with a 318.

The Mopar Performance distributor used to be a production based distributor with really light springs in it. A few years ago they had to switch suppliers. The current ones use Mallory guts and are easier to recurve.

1st gen Ram, still my favorite truck of all time.

Pretty sure that isn't the first gen.

I think this is the first generation Dodge Brother's pickup:

The '32 Dodge was the first to use the Ram hood ornament, so I'd say that's the first gen Ram.

The CTD guys usually refer to the late '80's Ram as the first generation CTD Dodge. But the pickups were around long before that.