lassy

I wanted to update everyone on my progress with the Dirty Diesel. I took some time off over the holiday and my Dad and I knocked out a laundry list of items that needed attention.

My goal for this three day work session was to go through the front and rear axles and replace wheels bearings and axle seals. The three day work session turned into a two week session and we were able to knock out so many other things that needed to be done. Years of neglect meant hours of tedious and nasty repairs. I'm so lucky to have my Dad there to help me and teach me some basics of automotive maintenance and repair.

Here's how it all went:

We began by tearing down the rear hubs and brakes to get to the axle seals that were leaking. What we found was quite disturbing. The parking brake cables weren't attached to the linkage arm on either the driver or passenger side (which would explain why the parking brake didn't work ) The passenger side brake assembly looked as though someone had taken a fresh scoop of mud and grass and packed it inside the drum. It took me a while to remove all of the gunk to a point where we could actually determine what needed to be replaced and what could be salvaged. What we decided to do was replace the brake shoes, the self adjusting cable/spring assembly, brake shoe cylinder and we had to fabricate an attachment point for the parking brake cable and linkage. We welded a U-shaped flange to the linkage plate, which appears to be the way the newer brakes were designed.

lassy

The whole point of tearing into the rear axle was to replace the axle seals and inspect the bearings. I guess I forgot to snap pictures of that but we did replace both axle seals and replaced one set of bearings on the rear axle. The other bearings were in fine shape so we left them alone. I spent the extra money and bought the bearing and seal tool from Quad4x4. It was nice to have a high quality tool and my lead mechanic (my dad) appreciated the time it saved as well as the reassurance it gave us that the job was done right. Give Roy a call at Quad4x4 and he'll help you get what you need.
http://quad4x4.com/dodge70rear1984-1993.html

We finished up the rear end by installing the brake drum plugs, removing the old gear oil, cleaning and resealing the diff cover, adding fresh 90W gear oil and bleeding the brake lines.

lassy

With the rear axle complete, we moved on towards the front. The rear output seal of my NP 205 was leaking so we went ahead and replaced it as well. No pictures of that process, but it went fairly smooth. The hardest thing was finding the dang seal at the parts store. The lady helping us at O'Reilly's must've been having an off day because she searched for 20 minutes without successfully finding the right seal on the shelves and in the computer. I knew we were in trouble when she asked me "is the truck four wheel drive?" hahahahah to which my Dad kindly reminded her that we wouldn't be searching for a transfer case seal if it wasn't a 4wd. There was another worker on duty and as soon as he was finished with his customer, asked me the specs on the truck and the first box he brought to me off the shelf was a perfect fit! I didn't ask any questions about what the lady had been doing for the past 20 minutes.

lassy

After a couple days, we were ready to move on to the front axle. We started tearing into the hubs and quickly saw we were going to be in for a ride. The manual locking hubs were full of dried up gunk, with signs of rust and corrosion from water damage. When we got to the point of removing the driver's side hub, we ran into a problem, the hub wouldn't come off the spindle. We had to get creative and fabbed up some extenders for a borrowed puller we got a hold of. With a little finesse, it came right off and so did the pesky bearing that caused the trouble in the first place. A good cleaning removed all of the gunk to a point where we could inspect the components to determine I'd need to replace the internals of the locking Warn hubs. I was able to find a pair of hubs on ebay and ordered them to be installed at a later time. We ended up replacing some of the bearings and the seals which I didn't snap pictures of.

lassy

We worked our way further into the front axles. We disassembled the steering knuckles and removed the axles, and then removed the differential assembly, bearings and inner axle seals (which were leaking). Along the way, before installing the new seals, my Dad recommended we clean the inside of the axle tube itself before installing fresh seals and fluid. He made a scraper, which resembled a garden hoe, so we could scrape out all the gunk that had accumulated in the bottom of the axle tubes. With the axle tubes clean and free of major gunk, we installed the new axle seals with the help of Quad4x4's adjustable seal kit with tool. http://quad4x4.com/qk4656.html


We checked the front U-joints and discovered they were badly worn out, so we found the replacement parts at Napa and had them install them for a small fee and only 20 minutes of our time. We did remove the old U-joints so they wouldn't have to spend time on that.

We cleaned out the front differential housing, cleaned and reinstalled the diff cover with a fresh bead of Silicone and then pumped almost a gallon of fresh 90W gear oil back in the differential.

We also installed new brake pads and inspected the rotors which were in fine shape.

lassy

The replacement locking hubs can be seen here and will go on soon.

We put everything back together, repacked the soon to be replaced hubs with grease (just in case I had to use 4x4 in an emergency) and called the front complete.

I'd planned on replacing the King Pin assemblies too, but once we inspected them, they appeared to be in fine shape. The bushings were in good condition and the spring length was the same as the replacements. So we left them alone.

lassy

I began working on my interior about 10 months ago, and hadn't made a ton of progress. I'd ordered a POR 15 floorboard/trunk repair system and decided to go ahead and tackle the floorboards in the cab. I followed the steps in the instructions and I was impressed with the results. In a few rusty spots, I added the reinforcing mesh provided in the kit, and after a few coats of the POR 15 rust killer paint and a couple days of drying, the floors were hard as rock.

We also cut out reinforcement plates for the floorboard, where the seat brackets mount. We patched over the old seat bracket mounting holes so no moisture could sneak into the cab and into the fresh carpet.

Here's how it all went down.

lassy

With the floor of the cab complete, we moved on to the doors, windows, weather stripping, etc.

I must say the window regulators were the biggest test of our patience. Swapping out regulators and weatherstripping took us a while, but the results were excellent. The Dodge repair manual for once provided us with some useful information on how the regulators should go in. I removed the regulators from a truck at the junk yard, and it appears they started making them out of galvanized steel in the early 90s. My doors are from a 80s model truck I think, so it was a nice upgrade, but time-consuming.

I also scored door inserts from the same truck, and we were able to install them on the older style doors with the use of a couple extra sheet metal screws.

New door weatherstripping was installed too and now the doors seal up like a vault.

lassy

We'd already installed bucket seats from a Dodge Intrepid, which involved fabbing up some custom seat brackets. We hadn't made brackets for the center console yet, so we knocked those out and then began installing the new carpet.

I forget where I bought the carpet from, but I swear it was supposed to be molded. Once we unboxed it, we saw otherwise. I decided to go ahead and install the carpet with hopes it would relax and fit a little better after some time. I scored a cab panel for behind the seat out of a newer Ram and we cut it to fit behind the seat with a storage tray too.

We cut a foam gasket for around the 4x4 shift boot so moisture couldn't come up through the carpet and ruin what we were spending so much time on.

lassy

I fixed the odometer a while back but I'll include a few pictures here too. I also repainted the needles and cleaned out the gauge cluster.

lassy

Here's a link to how my gauge cluster turned out with the green LED lights installed:
https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...hlight=LEd+diy

lassy

I forgot a couple more things we did. I cleaned out the vent box in the passenger floorboard and removed a pile of debris that had accumulated over the years. I patched the vent opening in the driver's side floor and used the sliding vent to cover the hole I cut in the vent box. I will get a picture of that and add it later.

We installed a license plate tag mount that was on an old Range Rover I had when I was 17 and wired up an LED light my Dad had laying around, so I'd be legal here in GA with my tag.

I installed the side marker lights for the front too, which is a subtle finishing touch to a rough looking truck

The cigarette lighter had stopped working so we did some trouble-shooting to determine the fuse had a bad connection in the fuse box.

We also rewired the top running lights on the cap so that they are on the circuit with the rest of the running lights, instead of the interior lights that someone had previously wired them into.

The tail gate had was missing the hinges on the side, so I scored some of a junker at the grave yard. The linkage for the tail gate latch was also not working so we tore into the handle mechanism and replaced the faulty clips that let the linkage arm pop out of the hole.

I have to install the replacement 4x4 hubs I got off ebay and once that's complete, I'll be done for a while (I HOPE!)

I'm sure I left out some stuff, but I'll add it when I find the list of repair we wrote out last week.

I have also called this truck my "labor of love" and I'm sure you all can see why.

enafzige

Lookin good Lassy!!! It's a good feeling going through things, and making sure they're right! It sounds like you've got a great dad.

When you were doing the rear end, did you notice why the axle seal had leaked so badly? Did you check to see if the spindle was slightly grooved? I recently did very similar maintenance on my truck, and had to install speedi-sleaves to prevent the leaking.

Looks like you've got a great truck!

--Eric

mhuppertz

Lassy, you are a breath of fresh air and show the true spirit of our hobby/obsession! Keep us posted on your progress!

lassy

enafzige-I don't remember seeing any grooves on the spindle surface, but honestly I was so overwhelmed at everything else that needed repair I could've overlooked something small like a shallow groove. Hopefully it's fine and it will last another 180K miles

mhuppertz-thanks for the encouragement!