new here ?? help??

[1988]

i recently acquired a 1988 mm base. old man used to drive has only 91000 original miles. it has not been driven regularly in three years. just by his son who had it stored at his work and drove it around once in awhile.. i am going to do timing belt due to sitting. any thing tricky about these??? i have mechanic experience worked for saab 15 years ago for about 12 years. Anything else i should look for or do..... it was maintained has newer w/p new idler arm brakes appear good. i put cap rotor and plugs in to it. thanks in advance for any help.also am going to get tranny fluid changed..

[noahwins]

Welcome, check out this thread in the Member Introductions forum:

http://www.mightyram50.net/vbulletin/showthread.php/3278-To-the-New-owner-here-you-can-find-what-people-recommend-you-do-first-and-do-it-ASAP

...and post up some pics of your truck when you start a thread there and say hello, we love pics.

[1988]

thank you i saw that list..really was looking to for big things to look out for..do these go thru head gaskets how are the automatic trannys etc. thanks for pointing me in the right direction..

[pennyman1]

Auto trannies are pretty strong - my Dad had an 1988 Ram 50 spacecab and he ran it over 150k before I had it and put 15-20k more on it and then sold it - never had a issue with it. He changed the tranny fluid every 50k and it was as clean as it went in. This was a man that killed 70's torqueflites in stock vehicles, when they were damn near indestructible. Head gaskets blow on these when you overheat them, heads also crack for the same reason.

[mitchi]

Welcome from Georgia.

Pics....pics......pics...

[1988]

thanks for answering pennyman..mitchi if i can figure out how to get pic from my windows phone to download to site i will (not good at that stuff).. has anyone s swapped out auto tranny for 5 speed. if so how hard is it . sure someone has..think it would be more fun 5 speed..just a thought

[mitchi]

I'm sorta interested to know how and what it would take for that too.

My 1990 Macro Cab is automatic, and would consider changing over.

First things first, I need an engine or a rebuild.

[DroppedMitsu]

To swap to 5 speed you need; transmission, tranny crossmember, speedo cable, reverse switch and mess with the neutral start switch wiring in the truck, cut out the clutch cable thing that goes through the firewall on the manual truck and weld it into firewall of auto tranny truck, the manual driveshaft and maybe a thing or two more that I'm forgetting.

[mitchi]

What about the pedals...................?

Clutch and brake pedals.

[pennyman1]

swap the pedals - but you must modify the trans tunnel for the gas pedal - it sticks over where the pedal goes and must be modded in an auto trans truck

[DroppedMitsu]

Yup and what they said. Think that about wraps it up.

[1988]

thanks guys (droppedmitsu mitchi pennyman) sounds like more than i want to deal with at this time...automatic working fine right now....if it goes someday then maybe i will look into the swap..