My Project

[MoparFreak69]

Thanks for the comments.

I got the wiper assembly pretty much whipped, took a little bit of fabbing but not really too bad to get everything to sit and work together. Only thing left to figure out is electrical. On this particular motor uses a very short ground pulse to tell the wiper module where park position is. Problem I am running into is that I cant use that pulse to trigger a relay because it is too short, the motor coasts past it and kicks it back off. I am trying to use the pulse to break the park power contact in the relay, thereby stopping the motor at the park position. I think I may have to open the gearbox and see what I can do about making the park contact a bit longer to compensate for the wiper train coasting action. I am sure with the wipers rubbing across the glass there wont be too much coasting, but I would rather make things work like butter in mock up and not rely on hopes and prayers.


Started modding and fitting up the heater/AC box from the donor truck (same 97 Ram). It is quite bulky but I think it is going to fit under the dash how I want and not be terribly obtrusive. I am going to lose about half of the glove box space, really no way around it without sacrificing foot space (which would not look right anyway). I have already decided that AC is a must in the truck so there really isnt much option other than to make it fit and work. I had to cut almost a foot out of the ducting/flow direction housing. I already decided I do not want to cut big ol holes in the dash for vents so I chose to go the route of permanent defroster/floor air flow which should serve my needs quite well, I dont like air blasting across my face unless its coming through a window anyway so no need for dash vents.

[Ron in Indiana]

So are going for power windows after you sort those out? Hope it all works like you planned. You're taking more pics right?

[MoparFreak69]

Ron,

No power windows here, wouldnt fit the original look I am going for, plus they just arent needed. I was going to delete the vent wing windows but I think they have to stay, also to keep the original look. Other than seats and gauges I want it to look like it could have come from the factory that way. Even when you open the hood I want you to really have to look to see that it is fuel injected (HEY, gives me a great idea, MPFI with an oil bath air filter sitting on top of it!). That might help to blend it in a bit. Pictures are to come but unfortunately progress has slowed quite a bit due to some medical things I am dealing with. Hoping to have the new frame down here this weekend, REALLY hoping to be rid of the old frame not long after that (Matt???).

[MoparFreak69]

Very small but very important update;
Title will be here in a couple weeks. Just waiting on it being printed and mailed to me. That was the major milestone I was concerned about. Now I just need to get these small little pain in the butt projects out of the way so I can get back working on my '59!

[MoparFreak69]

Got the heater box sitting in place, not really sure if I like how much it hangs below the dash, but I dont think I can get anything smaller to fit up in the dash without taking all of my glove box space.




Here is a quick shot of all the microscopic room I have between my 2 speed wiper motor and the cowl vent lever. I will clearance the arm a bit if I notice any movement out of anything and they start trying to occupy the same space at the same time.



Almost have all the cab mount cracks welded up.
Progress. Slow, but its progress.

[Ron in Indiana]

Looks good and remember any progress is good progress.

[Jason Mills]

Looks good and remember any progress is good progress.

That is a mantra I will staple over the garage door.. it can get hard to celebrate the countless little things when the big picture seems to move sooooh slowly.

[MoparFreak69]

Some more baby steps of progress.

Got the title in the mail yesterday.

Got the passenger side seat mount half modified to give me a comfortable seating position with good visibility. Really all I ended up needing to do to it was cut an inch out of the right front mount position to bring it up level with the rear two. I will have to drop the left front mount down that same inch to make it nice and level. I think I will take some pretty healthy angle stock and make a frame to weld under the floor to give it a bit more support, as there really doesnt seem to be a whole lot under there. I guess with the bench its not really necessary, but with bucket seats, and with the mounts also handling seat belt duties its better to be safe than sorry in that aspect.

I'll post up some before/after pics after I get one seat mount finished so you can see what it takes to fit the '94-'01 Ram quad cab seats onto the flat floors our trucks have.

[MoparFreak69]

They seem to fit pretty well. I need to adjust the height a bit, I may end up fabbing my own mount brackets up. I guess I will see when I get then modified a bit more and see if I can get them looking decent.

[Ron in Indiana]

Ben you're right about reinforcing the floor it's pretty flimsy for mounting anything other than stock seats. Looks like it's going to come out nice hope the steering wheel position is good with the seat. Glad to hear you got a title I need to get one transfered on a truck.

[jakenok]

Nice build thread, it's going to be a cool rig. Not sure if you sold the dash panel with the tach drive; but, if not, I'm interested.

[MoparFreak69]

Guess I missed that update, Ron has claim to the gauge cluster. If for some reason he doesnt need/want them I will make sure to contact you about them Jakenok. By the way, just saw your Townie thread, pretty cool looking rig you got there. Will be fun.


Another small update, picked up my donor frame yesterday. Its sitting on a trailer in front of the house for now. I pulled all the wiring off to sort through, and to keep prying fingers away from hijacking stuff I may need. I am going to use all of the donor engine wiring so that I can keep the MPFI setup working properly. I will have to integrate a few interior things like OD off switch and I definately want to put an OBD-II port somewhere easily accessible for diagnostic purposes. Didnt get that done with my Jeep swap and am regretting it with a driveability problem I am chasing down.
As soon as I get it down off the trailer I will post up some pics.
Prelim measurements tell me the front cab mounts are almost the exact same between the 2 trucks, WHODA THUNK THAT?! I will have to remove the rear ones from the original frame mostly because my old man needed the ones off the donor frame for the extended cab from it he is putting on his regular cab/chassis frame, which is how I came about the frame in the first place. It looks like I will end up taking about 20" out of the donor frame to make the wheelbase the same as the original (donor was a '97 3/4 ton extended cab short bed). Frame width is definately wider, but I dont think that is a big deal at all. Only major thing I have to think of a workaround for is the fuel filler neck. I want to use the original passenger side rear neck but the donor has the typical drivers side in front of axle location. I may end up going with a custom tank behind the rear axle since I wont be keeping the spare in that location anyway. The spare will go where it belongs on a Utiline bed, in front of the drivers side fender in the cutout.

[Ron in Indiana]

Ben I forgot about that gauge cluster you had, refresh my memory in an email please. I know what you mean about some things fitting old to new. I put a Reese hitch from a late model Dodge on my 64 Townwagon and I didn't have to drill any holes. Now if it had a hitch before I don't know but I doubt it.

You say you have shorten the frame but how is the track width between the two trucks? I've never measured that to compare. Glad you understand all the electrical because that is one of my short comings, wiring. With transfering everything over you will be far ahead of the game.

Jake has a good base to work with and will have a great time with his truck like we all do.

[Gordon Maney]

Guess I missed that update, Ron has claim to the gauge cluster. If for some reason he doesnt need/want them I will make sure to contact you about them Jakenok. By the way, just saw your Townie thread, pretty cool looking rig you got there. Will be fun.


Another small update, picked up my donor frame yesterday. Its sitting on a trailer in front of the house for now. I pulled all the wiring off to sort through, and to keep prying fingers away from hijacking stuff I may need. I am going to use all of the donor engine wiring so that I can keep the MPFI setup working properly. I will have to integrate a few interior things like OD off switch and I definately want to put an OBD-II port somewhere easily accessible for diagnostic purposes. Didnt get that done with my Jeep swap and am regretting it with a driveability problem I am chasing down.
As soon as I get it down off the trailer I will post up some pics.
Prelim measurements tell me the front cab mounts are almost the exact same between the 2 trucks, WHODA THUNK THAT?! I will have to remove the rear ones from the original frame mostly because my old man needed the ones off the donor frame for the extended cab from it he is putting on his regular cab/chassis frame, which is how I came about the frame in the first place. It looks like I will end up taking about 20" out of the donor frame to make the wheelbase the same as the original (donor was a '97 3/4 ton extended cab short bed). Frame width is definately wider, but I dont think that is a big deal at all. Only major thing I have to think of a workaround for is the fuel filler neck. I want to use the original passenger side rear neck but the donor has the typical drivers side in front of axle location. I may end up going with a custom tank behind the rear axle since I wont be keeping the spare in that location anyway. The spare will go where it belongs on a Utiline bed, in front of the drivers side fender in the cutout.

How about doing an article or several for the magazine, Power Wagon Advertiser? Ron may choose to comment on that, too!

[Ron in Indiana]

Now why would he want to write an article about his project? To share and help inspire others with their project or dream truck? To have his name in print as author in an international magazine like the PWA? To have people he knows or doesn't know say "Hey didn't you write that great story in the Advertiser? I really liked that thanks" To help Gordon fill the pages of his wonderful magazine? Or all of the above? Ben you are well on your way with what you have posted so far. The problem is that there are a lot of readers of the PWA who do not have internet access. There are probably a lot of forum readers who are not following along but they will read a story in the magazine. You can do a progress story up to where you are now and later write a wrap up on how the truck turned out. Go ahead it's painless. This was unsolicited, I just like to see others stories in print.