'63 w300

[kultar]

Hey Folks,

Well, I finally did it. I ended up acquiring a '63 w300.

I wish it was under better circumstances.. however, I ended up picking this up from the owners son after his dad passed away. I definitely didn't get a 'great' deal for it, but considering the finances were going towards supporting his mother I had no qualms about it.

There's a few things I want to do in the next few months, but for now.. it's in great shape and i'm enjoying every day with it.

I'm located in Northern New Jersey, so if folks are local.. i'd love to pick some brains!

[W_A_Watson_II]

WOW, It looks real nice! Oh and welcome to the Forum and Dodge Power Wagon Family.

[Pismopowerwagon]

O love your W it is amazing

[kultar]

Thanks guys!

It's sadly not the original engine but is sporting a mopar 360 w/ a summit 4bbl carb.

I will probably need to do a full frame off rust repair and respray at some point. There are a few parts that just are starting to show their age and it'd probably be smart of me to sort that out before it gets too bad... after all.. I plan on keeping this for decades to come.

Now I've got to figure out how the pto winch works (I'm very new to the whole truck scene... good thing there are great posts on here).

Cheers
K

[Frank Irons]

Great looking truck! I wish there were more like that around my area.

Frank

[Hobcobble]

Great looking Utiline! Great repair panels can be bought
from:


Is your winch PTO driven from the tranny or transfer case?
John

[kultar]

Hey John, sadly I do not know. I'm very much a novice when it comes to this. The previous owner's son did state I need to put it in first then shift two levers. However, he wasn't very confident about it. I'm currently in an airport headed to Texas for this weekends F1 GP, when I get back on Tuesday I'll climb under and see how it's all connected.

Cheers
K

[kultar]

Sorry for the delay in response... it was a bit of a hectic day when I returned.. i'll get into that shortly.

As for the PTO winch. Looks like it's a braden pto winch that is driven through the transfer case.


As for the hectic day.. I ended up getting the w300 detailed just so I had a good starting point for what could be considered "good" condition (I wish I had taken pictures but my focus shifted immediately).

I ended up turning on the truck, and I have a feeling the guys didn't listen to my instruction when I told them to turn off the fuel pump when the engine wasn't running.... turns out the fuel pressure regulator blew a seal and was leaking gas at quite a rate!... it was definitely in no shape to drive anywhere so I immediately parked it.

A little bit about this truck.. the previous owner wasn't happy with the original engine and decided to swap in a '77/'78 mopar 360 and convert it from EFI to Carbureted. He had a Mr Gasket fuel pressure regulator tuned to 4psi and I wasn't ready to just put something else in as I rushed to get it back to running safely so I could move it into the garage.

I was lucky that the local auto parts store had the exact unit that failed.. so I was able to put that on. Now i'm in the process of trying to figure out what's the best next step forward. I do not think that this unit (Mr Gasket) is what would be ideal.. however, I do not have a fuel return from this unit to the tank.

Any suggestions on how I should go about replacing/upgrading the fuel pressure regulator? It seems 4psi is just right enough that i'm not running too lean, or too rich. I have zero experience with fuel systems and would rather not blow myself up. Should I just leave it as is and when I get more comfortable look into giving the fuel system an overhaul? I am also concerned about the fuel pressure regulator and tank not having a return (The tank is not original either).


Cheers
K

[W_A_Watson_II]

Holley builds fuel pressure regulators with return lines. they look to go down to 4.5 psi.

Why isn't the fuel pump connected to the ignition switch so it only runs with the key in the run position?

What's the fuel pump (I assume located in the non-stock tabk) pressure?

An upgrade could be to step up to a TBI Fuel Injection system and eliminate the seperate regulator and carburator. They do use a return line with built in 15 psi regulator.

[kultar]

Good Morning!

Pardon the delay in response.. Having switched to a new job.. the last few weeks leave me little time to get forum time in.

I suspect, the previous owner thought it would be "cool" to have multiple switches to press on startup... I took a quick peek under the dash last night and it looks like I can easily take care of two birds with one stone. I was wanting to replace the ignition switch anyway as it's somewhat.. beat up on its facade. Looks like my new plan, to start that is... will be to rewire the fuel pump switch to the ignition switch so that (as you suggested) the pump is only running when the ignition is in the run position.

As for the lack of a fuel return line.. I feel that I need to sort this out as I look into redoing the fuel lines.

I didn't have the time to take a look at the fuel pump last night as I got home really late and the wife doesn't want me "wasting" all my time in the evenings working on the truck .. hah.

Looks like my list of things to address are starting to pile up...

- Fuel pump rewired to ignition switch
- New braided-stainless Fuel lines (existing ones aren't looking so great and are wired through the frame in a not-so-pleasant way)
- Figure out how to have a fuel return line sorted out.
- New Ignition switch
- Replace lock cylinders on doors (They don't function anymore :( )
- Shoulder seat-belts (My wife wants to have seat belts and doesn't want me to go from bucket seats to the bench seat)

Part of me wants to just rip out the existing fuel cell and just do it all from scratch so that I know everything from the cell to the carb is not going to fail on me.

Well, priority fixes first! I can't have my wife driving the truck and worrying about it.

Thanks for the help and knowledge.. your questions are also helping me figure out how to go about the problems i'm encountering.


Cheers
K

[Jeremiah]

That is a very cool W300. I'd be happy to daily drive it! Nice score and thank you for sharing! A company called Exline makes floor pans, rocker panels and other sheet metal replacement parts when you get that far. For now, enjoy it and get to know one another (aka put some miles on it).

[kultar]

I spent some time over the weekend and dislodged a 40ft widowmaker! That was quite fun since it's not something I get to do every day.

A recent storm split a 100ft-ish tree in half, the top half ended up wedging itself between multiple trees 20ft in the air. I figured, this would be a good/fun chance to put the winch to work and yank it down.

After some 'figuring out' ... I got the winch working, and it worked beautifully. I'm very much an amateur with this stuff but i'm catching on quick