I have a 76 Dodge Power Wagon CC 4X4. Body and exterior excellent - redone recently. Drivetrain is solid but my plan is to graft the exterior (and some interior) onto a newer platform with a cummins drivetrain. I know that the 91-93 Dodge 250 could be a direct drop on but was hoping that someone in the know could identify any pitfalls that I would experience using a 91-93 (preferably 93) truck as a donor.

In addition, I would like to know if the 94-98 chassis would work, and if so, how much modification would be needed.

Also, if I were to use the 91-93 chassis, what could be done to upgrade the front suspension during the build, since I have heard that the front suspension from these model years was rough and not user friendly.

Lastly, I will be lifting the truck 6-8 inches during the build and was hoping to hear some suggestions for possible suspension lift options. I glanced briefly at the photo galleries of members on this site and found the lift on member TATER93 (specifically the one tone burgundy CC) to be to my liking. Any help with identifying the lift on that truck would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any help provided.

 

Is your truck a Club Cab or Crew Cab?? If you find a W250 or 350 from 1989 to 1993 it would be a relatively easy swap as the frames are almost identical if you have the club cab.

In my opinion using a 2nd gen chassis would be a spectacular waste of money, as the frames and wheelbase are different not to mention you would have a less desireable front axle.

The front suspension on these 1st gen Dodges is not very forgiving in the ride quality department but these trucks are rock wagons, designed to work. If you want a soft ride, maybe check out a Kelderman Air suspension, and I think the only company that offers a diesel lift kit is Skyjacker. I am also fairly sure there may be a firewall fitment issue with your '76 and the CTD but I could be wrong. So good luck and take lots of pics, and ask lots of questions, as the guys on this site have probably thousands of years of experience if you add us all together. Anything can be accomplished with enough time and money and your project sounds like a fun one.

 

you should'nt run into too many problems with the conversion. The biggest problems I have had were with wiring for tail lights and fuel tank. You can see some of it if you study the ramcharger blog in my signature.

As for the running gear, get a 4x4 doner and swap over the axles and springs from the cummins truck.

The more you bring over from the donor, the simpler it will be. Engine, tranny, t-case, front and rear axle, front drive line, springs, engine wiring harness, dash, dash wiring harness,...

Unless you want to do a lot of fabrication, I would not consider a 2nd gen. Not much will swap. If you stick with the 1st gen. most of the swap is wrench work if you have a complete donor.

I can't help you with the lift questions. Good luck.

 

The only firewall issue you will have is not with the ctd, but with the heater box and wiring harness pass through point. The firewall on my 77 ramcharger was rusted out so I cut it out and replaced it with one from an 89 gasser. If it had not been rusty, I would have cut the heater hole to fit and grafted in a proper sized hole for the wiring harness plug. If you do not use the 89-93 dash and wiring, you will not have firewall issues that I can think of.

Welcome to the forum, by the way.

 

Just did this with a 77 club a few months back. It was a breeze doing the body swap onto the 92 chassis, the only thing that was an issue was the hole for the TC shifter, and I had to cut off four little brackets on the bed, where it sits on the hump for the rear axle. Now the wiring and misc. stuff is what is a time consuming pain in the butt. Oh, couple other things, use the core support from the 1st gen, and start looking for a non birdbath hood, and cowl piece, our old style hoods wont work, unless ya chop the support out of them, and modify the heck out of the latch.

 

I stand corrected. Thanks Trooperthorn.

 

Trooperthorn:
Thanks for the info and the links to your blogs. Not to mention the kind welcome. Cheers!

Clyde Roper:

Would love to see some pics of your build. Sad to hear about the issue with the old hood. I was hoping to use the old hood since it has the original Power Wagon hood emblems. May have to consider the mods. Any photos can be sent to my email: h2obody@shaw.ca

Cheers;

 

I dont have a huge amount of pics, but will mail ya what I did take. Will hit ya with em tomorrow, if I get a chance. If I dont get em to you, remind me, Im old, and have a memory like an old steel trap, that is to say, rusty, and sitting on a shelf in a dusty shed somewhere

 

mailed em out.

 

You can modify the old core support to work with the 91.5 to 93 intercooler and still use the awesome bird bath hood.

sorry this is the best pic I have


Done!!!

 

I couldnt figure out how to squeeze everything in there, So I just used the 92 core support, the 77 support looked like it would put the rad to close to the fan. With the 92 support, there isnt room to put the condensor behind the 77 grill, and it relocates the headlights up, so just wasnt an option for me. I still have to find a grill that will work on mine, not sure how that will line up with the 77 fender lines tho

 

You're right, the older gasser core supports need to be clearanced so that the radiator is as far fwd as possible. It won't fit as is. That said, I spent one morning hacking away and it fit ok on my 1972 truck with stock diesel radiator setup.

 

if you are thinking of using the newer frame you will run into clearance issues between the floor of the rear of the crewcab and the late frame. could use a big body lift i suppose . not for me.