m-o-p-a-r

Wellp, I am sitting her bored out of my mind watching a machine run. And don't really feel like tinkering with the truck. So, what the heck, why not start a little build thread. After all the next best thing to working on your truck is talking about it, right.

So, here we go:

Early last year, I was getting really tired of driving the wife's gas-guzzling 2004 Floored effin' 150. And I had the itch to build another old Dodge. This time (to help in getting her approval) I asked for her input. One day we were driving down the road, and she saw a square body Blazer. And said: "I like Blazers, build a Blazer". She did not have a clue what a Ramcharger was, but you can bet I filled her in right quick!!!

So, I had approval, and the hunt was on! I started scoping craigslist daily. It didn't take long before a super-clean, low mile 2wd 89' caught my eye. I was kinda thinking 2wd anyways as the suspensions are so much softer, the bodys are usually in MUCH better shape. And as I expected, that was true in this case. I figured it would be much easier to swap the tranny-tunnel (that gets covered up anyways), than have to deal with cowl-cracks, or worn out mody mounts, or any of that usual fun stuff. The rig in question only had 50,000 original miles on it. It really was the proverbial "old lady's car". I didn't even haggle with her! I paid the $1500 she was asking, and drove it 40 miles home.

Here is a picture I took in her driveway:



pretty freakin' clean! The paint on the hood/roof is oxidized bad. The paint on the drivers-side is oxidized kinda bad. And the passenger side is gorgeous LOL.

Here it is in my driveway an hour later:



You can see the effin' 150 gas-guzzler behind it. So, the plan was:
1. Cummins
2. 4x4
3. automatic
4. keep it very stock so that it is a pleasure to drive as it WILL be my daily driver. This approach will also maximize fuel mileage as I wont be trying to push a tall rig on big tires around.

I had piles of parts already. Engines, trannys, axles, pretty much everything to do the swap except a frame. Had plenty to do before that was a big concern. Started by gutting the anemic 318, and lock-up/overdrive 904. I don't even know what that tranny was ever called. never saw one till I pulled this one. Sold the combo to a guy building a 50's pickup with his kid. He came drove it before I yanked it. And gave me $750 for it. Half the purchase price of the truck! I was in tall-cotton that day! I left everything attached to the engine that was possible to leave attached. Just cut the harness 6" from the bulk-head, and right where the front-end lighting came out from the main harness. Ready to come out:



And out!



Then I proceeded to give the engine compartment a good scrubbing:



I was soooo happy with how well it cleaned up I just kept on going. Gutted the interior and scrubbed out the tub:

m-o-p-a-r

About half-way through that cleaning session it hit me! "hey! Thats a 4x4 tranny tunnel!!!!! WOO-FREAKIN-HOO!" That was a most excellent day all around. I had a bare clean canvas, that needed zero sheetmetal work. I could not have been happier.

This is the entire extent of rust on the whole truck:



Seriously, that's it. Yea, I was jazzed.

Then life got kinda hectic, and the project got pushed in the corner back behind the RV gate for quite a while. By this time though it had a name. I always name my trucks. Not sure why. Think I got it from my dad. One cool winter night the wife and I were out back sitting on the bench. Full moon, and the whole sky had a blue sheen to it. It reminded me of the color of the truck. And that is how it became "moonshine". Anyways, life was busy, working 100hr weeks. Had not thought about moonshine much in months. Then one night at about 10pm I get a text from another Dodge/Cummins loving buddy of mine. It is a craigslist add for an 89' 4x4 with a Cummins and a 5-sp. 157,000 miles. For $1800!!!! HOLY-****, I couldnt dial that guys number fast enough. I woke him up, and said "where are you? I am on my way with cash right now!" He was like "whoa, slow down boy. I can meet you at such-and-such bank so we can do the title tomorrow morning". I said "okay, consider it sold! go ahead and pull the add so your phone doesn't ring all night". He chuckled and said see you in the morning. When I got there, I simply asked him to start it up. He did. It sounded great, so I handed him the money. He just looked at me really weird and said: "don't you want to drive it"? I said: "does it shift well"? He said "yea". I said "does it ever jump out of 3rd gear"? He said "no". I said: "nope, I'm good. wheres the title"? To which he replied: "what is it with this truck?! My phone rang all night. I had a guy tell me this morning after I told him it was sold, that he wanted to fly in from Oregon, and he would double your money". I just said: "these are good old trucks. wheres that title". He just shook his head and handed me the title. I matched the vins, and said Thank-you. And here it is an hour later back in front of the shop:



So, now I had Moonshine sitting behind the gate. And a complete, very driveable donor of the same year! This was good! As I was cleaning the glove-box out I found the reciept for the brand-new 10ply Michelins! They had a whopping 5,000 miles on them. Sold those right quick! Then sold the utility bed also right quick! I gave the cab to a guy in PA restoring his old Dodge (I think he is on here). And by the time it was all said and done I had about the same $750 into this:



As I had into Moonshine. This project has been like a dream come true!

mknittle

AWWW man now you did it

That thing is so nice it should be illegal!
There is only one way it could be nicer and that is comming!

m-o-p-a-r

LOL, I didn't figure I would get the second post in before somebody commented on all that rust! LOL

I am in AZ. Don't worry, we pay the price for that all summer long!

m-o-p-a-r

Ohh, it gets much worse before it gets better! LOL, you will see.

mknittle

"I am sitting her bored out of my mind watching a machine run."

Sounds like a CNC?

mknittle

yeah but at least yours has the right floor

m-o-p-a-r

So, I did not have room for both trucks at home. The donor had to live at the shop. Where I proceeded to rip and tear. Here is the cab headed for the mopar nats. in Carlisle to be picked up by its new owner:



I have not talked to him. But what I know is his cab had a bad case of roof-rot top-dead-center of the windshield. I was glad to give it to him to help save a great old truck! And slowly but surely:



I kept on pulling a few parts here, and a few parts there:



Until I finally ended up with only what I needed tucked into the corner of the shop:

m-o-p-a-r

Yessir. 9pm on Friday night. I have been here since 6am. And I will probly pull an all-nighter.

mknittle

I used to program Mazak mills in the 80s. Back then we used a calculator ,a yellow legal pad and your index finger to program. Then CAM came along and took the fun out of it

m-o-p-a-r

So far project is still on-track with original plans, except:
1. I don't have to use any of my parts stash because I now have a donor of the same year, so the swap is EASY!
2. I am going to rock the 5-sp, instead of an auto. Again, donor, EASY! (and much cheaper!)

Just as the 4x4 tranny tunnel was a pleasant surprise, so was this:



Unmolested under-hood harness! Not one wire has been cut. All factory fuseable links are intact. This might be the first one I have ever seen that has not been modified in any way. Dash harness was the same story. Here are both dash harnesses laid out to compare:



Only a few minor differences. Direct swap!

So, since The goodies were now tucked in the corner, and the bay-door was open again. It was time to drag moonshine to the shop. My buddy that sent me the text about the donor did the hauling:



Leaving the house. Now I finally have everything in one spot! At this point I have most everything I need to get the project about 80%, except time! LOL

m-o-p-a-r

My buddy also gave me this to help out the 4x4 conversion:



Mighty awesome of him! Originally the plan was to use everything you see there except the frame-rails to do the conversion. I did not really want to lift the truck, so I would run the stock diesel springs instead from the donor, and stash the lift springs in the parts pile for a rainy day. Now, I have performed major frame surgery while frames were still under trucks before. As much of a pain as it was going to be to get the frame out from under the ramcharger, the plan from day one has been to do just that when the time came. And, it was time! Unfortunately with my limited resources, it was just as much of a pain as I thought it would be!



I had exactly 1 floor jack. 4 jackstands. 2 4x4's. And, a bunch of random chunks of aluminum to use for cribbing, or to stack on the jack for extra height. I was by myself. And it was 115' outside! Not one of the funner days of this project! Especially after I got to that point and realized that the frame was still taller than the bottom of the 4x4's. I had to pull the rear axle before I could drag it out. Oh what fun that was. Eventually it came out. So there I sat in a pool of sweat. Looking at a 2wd Ramcharger frame. Half a 4x4 W250 frame. And a pile of parts from the frame section my buddy gave me (the eng. crossmember, front crossmember, front spring hanger, and shackle hangers). As I was just sitting there planning, I realized that the 2wd Ramcharger frame did not have ANY of the holes for the 4x4 stuff. I have seen lots of old dodge 2wd frames that had the holes for the 4x4 eng. crossmember, and shackle hangers. This one did not. Hmmmmm, well that stinks! I grabbed a notebook, and tape measure, and started taking measurements, and taking notes. I was not enjoying that at all. And as I dreaded fighting all those rivets. AND! worried about not getting my needed holes drilled in exactly the right spots. Not to mention having to pretty much mock the engine/tranny in there to figure out where the crossmember goes, it hit me like a ton of billet aluminum blanks!!! Remember when I said it gets worse before it gets better? Now would be when it gets worse! CHOP!! LOL:



I decided to graft the rear of the Ramcharger frame to the front of the W250 frame. And it would prove to be the smartest decision I have made during this whole project! It was easy! What would have taken me several weekends of crappy work, only took one long weekend! Here it is all mocked up:



Measured about 100 times. (I have factory sevice manuals for both trucks) My initial cuts put me perfectly square, but about 3/16" too long. So I tore it all back down, and trimmed. Somehow ended up with an 1/8" gap on the rear vertical seam on the pass-side? But, it fit up perfectly square again. Was a cake walk to get level. Measured corner-corner in several different spots. all easily within 1/16". Checked length one last time. And welded it up!



And the splice:



After the initial welding was done my argon bottle was down to 100lbs, so I called it a day. Still needed to cut and weld the fish-plates. It would have to wait till next weekend (which ended up being about a month away LOL). And, that was worlds easier than swapping the 4x4 stuff to the 2x4 frame. It really was not hard at all. Very glad I decided to attack it this way.

m-o-p-a-r

After the frame was in one piece it was time to pull the drivetrain out of it. I pulled the motor/tranny together, and split them on the floor. I plan to crack the tranny open and go through it real quick. Getrags are soo dang easy to work on, and the parts are cheap. It wont hurt to freshen it up. After the drivetran was out, I eventually got around to those fish-plates:



Sorry, thats a crappy picture. But its the only one I have. Then I went and had a set of U-bolts made to bolt the rear axle up under the stock Ramcharger rear springs. Then bolted the body back down on the frame on top of brand new body-mount bushings. And eventually pushed it outside for a profile shot of what is now a 3/4-ton 4x4 Ramcharger. with the frame to back it up. not just the axles:



And that pretty much brings this project current. There is a bunch of other small stuff that's not very glamorous so it doesn't get mentioned much. Like swapping the diesel sending unit into the Ramcharger tank. And re-installing all the hard fuel lines, and tank, with all new rubber lines, and clamps, including the fill, and vent hoses (no pics of any of that). And getting the diesel harness all snaked into the dash:



I hate that job! Glad its over. I also completely rebuilt the manual steering column out of the donor. It got NOS mopar turn-signal switch, NOS mopar delay wiper switch (which is actually the turn signal stalk in this column), new lock-cylinder, ignition and high beam switches. Completely disassembled, cleaned, repacked bearings, and meticulously reassembled. pretty much a brand new column right here:



And I think that's about it. I bought a set of pedal pivot bushings off "mysteryman", but he is taking his good old time shipping them (not entirely his fault. paypal didn't send him the payment notification I guess). As soon as they show up I will get the pedals in. Then the column. Then fab up a mounting bracket for the hydro-boost unit. Obviously converting to hydro-boost brakes. Yada-yada-yada. I will try to keep this thread updated. Like I said, I am shooting for a near stock truck for reliability, and economy. But I have a few tricks up my sleeve I will share when the time comes. And I have some neat parts I make for these old beasts. Right now, its time to start napping an hour at a time. I work too much LOL.

thrashingcows

Great thread...thanks for posting up all the info and pics!! Super cool project, and your Ramcharger, and donor truck were in amazing shape! And the price you paid....simply unreal deals!!

I'm currently doing the 2wd to 4wd conversion on my 84 crewcab. None of the 4wd drive holes were present on my 84 frame...and the 93 donor truck frame was garbage so couldn't even consider doing it like you did....which I would have.

I spent all day today measuring, measuring and more measuring....trying to get everything lined up properly and in position.

dB Zac

That is the cleanest ram charger I have seen