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I purchased a 1982 Dodge rampage for $1000. I'm more of an electrical systems technican, and my girls in school for auto maintenance, so we def bough a bit more than we can chew, but it's such a fuckin suh-weet ride. I was looking through craigslist sales with the strict criteria of clean titles/less than $1500/""""running"""". We're learning as we go! Fun facts about the dodge rampage:
Fun Facts about My Dodge Rampage:
Things I have done for my Rampage:
Things that are broken/need attention:
Why this truck/car? because it's kinda funny to work on! It's a running driving shitpost. It allegedly gets great MPG, and can haul 1000lbs. It also has great lines. So far I've got factory service manuals, which tell me exactly where everything should go. Chilton? More like child-ton. Wiring/tubing/vacuum lines etc. It's takin me a while because i've never wrenched on a truck before, and I only work on her a few hours a week. But steady progress means that she's now better off than when i bought her. Will post truckpdates and truckpics in thread.
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# ¿ Jun 20, 2022 20:36 |
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# ¿ May 12, 2024 17:00 |
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night we picked her up an after photo of welding up the drivers side seat area I don't know what people like in build threads like these and I haven't been taking great pics. I'm accepting requests
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# ¿ Jun 20, 2022 20:42 |
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there are a million problems with this vehicle i have yet to discover/uncover/ or describe to you, the audience, but rest assured working on it is pretty fun.
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# ¿ Jun 20, 2022 20:52 |
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Seat Safety Switch posted:So this will take a turbo K-car engine, right? yep! She's stock for right now, but if i find a rolled 2.2L Dodge Caravan with an intact powerplant + turbo, It's gonna be mine no matter how many kids died in the crash. Path i'm taking right now is to get all the systems up and running before i make drastic alterations, but if i find a turbo ( turbo models generate a blistering 10 hp more over the stock 85 HP!) i'll find a way to drop it in.
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# ¿ Jun 20, 2022 22:07 |
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Investigation shows that the fan is operated by some high wear parts that check temperature from the carb/ carb air heater via vacuum tube. No guarantees the fan is actually running, so i'm going to test all the individual components and see whats working and what isn't. That'll be in a few days.
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# ¿ Jun 21, 2022 23:52 |
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going to pull a powerplant from a trashed 1980 Kawasaki LRV and wire it to a bunch of AA's in the tailgate.
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# ¿ Jun 22, 2022 19:53 |
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mental images of how cool she would look with fantasy art airbrushed on her aside, pretty sure we're just gonna go with a green/black two tone. the carpet samples i ordered looked best with turquoise. tried getting her running yesterday, was running really rough and was worrying me. might've been the fuel pump, and i got a fuel pump test kit from harbor freight, but i'll need to check it out at a later date. also i think i hooked up the brake booster to a vacuum line instead of an air line from the carb. i gotta check. I was going to try and start draining the coolant bc i don't know when a PO has swapped it. the radiator petcock was gummed up, but with enough picking at it and compressed air pointed at the top I think we got a good drain. Next is flushing it with water and finding some kind of fluid to de gunk whatever's in there. Vacuum line tech sucks so much. gently caress to carbs, and air lines. guy on turbo dodge has some extra interior pieces. he's out in ohio so it's going to be a pain in the rear end for shipping but then i'll have enough trim to put things in right. also might have a dome light cover and a template for the interior ceiling. this week my bud's coming up to continue welding stuff. pretty exciting!
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# ¿ Jul 4, 2022 15:09 |
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STR posted:There's no air port on a carb. You have ported vacuum and manifold vacuum. mercifully it's got an electric distributor. I'll go over the deleted hoses and see likely candidates for the brake vacuum line. I've previously adjusted the float and can do it again, I've gotten proficient at carb rebuilding. What I am concerned about is the vacuum advance for the choke, the temperature sensor connects to it via a port in the air filter and I gotta go through the books to make sure there's no further missing hardware. curious cause it was running dandy a week ago. I haven't messed with timing. I think it might be lean, but it was running and driving under it's own power prior to yesterday. I'm not particularly worried, just annoying. Signs of life are good enough for me, I'll just continue flushing the systems I know need attention. she's not going anywhere for a minute anyway, I'm thinking I'm going to take this original radiator out and send it to a guy to get boiled out. all sorts of gunk inside, and I'm pretty sure ethylene glycol is corrosive anyway. don't care to take my chances.
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# ¿ Jul 5, 2022 13:37 |
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Turns out the master cylinder is totally hosed, like you can see the housing warp when you put your foot all the way down, so that's definitely a fix that before go on the road thing. Turns out the weird struggling to start problem was a vacuum line cap split. I put together a new cap and she started on first crank and idled wonderfully for a $1200 ute. Radiator isn't actually super gunked up, it just needed some attention. Water pump works! Gonna adhere to manufacturer recommendations for what to put in there. Buddy started welding in floors today. I'll post pics when he's done because there's nothing to show yet. Got some info about the dash- apparently ammeters on older vehicles are a main source of dashboard fires? like they just go up and burn poo poo up? Anyway I gotta make sure mines unplugged, and while i'm at it see if there's sense in swapping the 1982-specific gauge cluster for an 83 or later model (has a tachyometer and a trip counter! wow).
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# ¿ Jul 8, 2022 01:57 |
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very tired, dark out, no pics, but floor is at a point where it is 'good enough '. any further welding risks damaging interior parts or are in impossible to get locations (behind brake pedal, for example). Prime candidates for silicon sealant. probably better than whatever the factory did. after that I can drill holes for the seats and have an interior! will take pics, but I think the steps for a floor are clean>Rust converter>primer>weatherproofing, right? and then you'd lay on the insulation and then the carpet? not a lot in the service manuals for trim and interior pieces, just going by vibes from car sites.
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# ¿ Jul 9, 2022 03:53 |
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if you guys know what to do with bare metal to prepare it for turning it into a long lasting sound proof heat resistant interior, i'd love to hear it.
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# ¿ Jul 9, 2022 22:56 |
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Too hot to wrench, but moved her to inside the garage so i can start working again. Got the right hardware to drill out holes for the seats. Of course on this extremely hot day she didn't feel like starting up so i had to shift her into neutral based on feeling. I had the battery on a trickle charger for two weeks, i hope i didn't gently caress it up somehow. I think the shifter needs a clip to keep the linkage at a constant location. I should read the book to find what size/part it is. Also i think the parking brake is engaged and won't turn off, based on the cable being pulled all the way forward and not letting go. I gotta figure that out, but i'll be doing all the brakes soon enough. Again i haven't touched her in two weeks so i don't think the failure to start could be anything but the battery being weird.
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# ¿ Jul 25, 2022 01:01 |
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replaced terminals. battery good. still don't run. my work schedule changed so I haven't gotten on her as hard, plus it's an emotional bummer to have her running and then not. here's a progress pic. before/after. tho pretty simple to run up the chain for what's no good. battery's fine. ignition hasn't been kicked or hosed with lately. maybe an open wire to the starter relay, or maybe relay is totally seized. point is I'm on the trail
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# ¿ Aug 2, 2022 21:40 |
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she wasn't running for a second! was agonizing over why. turns out the starter relay ground is plugged in upward and held in by best wishes. put some ty raps on it. it'll stay there for sure. installed a seat! passenger side was easiest bc there were still mounting holes left from the original frame. next is floor shifter and driver side. note the milk crate.
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# ¿ Aug 17, 2022 00:49 |
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driver side is in! shifter is in! shifter is at a 15 degree angle from straight with the body! That's fine I'm not a body guy. it's functional all it needs is to tighten the hardware down. shifter finally shifts without being a piece of poo poo. might get a u clip to restrain it further. worked on front disc brakes! removed the hardware for the rotors, calipers, pins and hoses! passenger CV boot is hosed! PO tried to fix with zip ties. lmao. gotta buy one 🎉 I have to learn how to build new brake lines 🎉 Not too bad, it's only a foot long or so. i have the tools and the correct hardware and lines. Very funny tho. next step is installation, which is the inverse of removal. I have 100% new disc brake hardware and rotors. new master cylinder. the drum brakes are going to be tricky as I don't have experience with them, and also to figure out what's going on with the hand brake
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# ¿ Sep 18, 2022 20:45 |
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Bent a new brake line, put on new hardware. Gotta torque everything but it's on there. Cleanest its ever looked Next up is replacing the cv boot on the other side. Honestly a little intimidated
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# ¿ Oct 7, 2022 00:36 |
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# ¿ May 12, 2024 17:00 |
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MrOnBicycle posted:Nice work! A little late for this, but if whatever bending tool you are using now isn't to your liking, I'm very happy with the Eastwood tool I got. Also helped to fill the lines with sand before bending. The line you installed certainly looks like NiCu lines, but be sure to double check if you buy more as you can't always trust store employees to know the difference. These are excellent tips! I Bent one by hand and my brakes expert buddy gave it a thumbs up. No hard corners or anything. Replaced master cylinder, and rotors calipers pads and hoses for the front disc's. Next step is rear drums. No pic because no need.
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# ¿ Oct 16, 2022 22:04 |