New member, new truck, a slew of new things to learn

[Skattergun]

Sup, I'm Zach or Skattergun or whatever the hell you wanna call me basically. Used to drive a worn out 1990 Dakota that was notoriously unreliable among everyone that knew it up until recently, but after three years of learning all of it's little quirks and just barely keeping it on the road far longer than any sane person would bother, it was recently rendered undrivable and not remotely worth fixing and has been replaced...

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...by this here fine looking little '86 Power Ram 50. (Except this was taken two months ago when I first got it before some idiot hit it and caved in my door but that's for a different thread...) I'm not exactly a mechanic, but I've found that learning your own vehicle and doing as much of your own work as possible saves a damn lot of time and money, so forums like this are invaluable. Little thing runs pretty good with only 123k miles on it, but naturally being a 30 year old vehicle it does have a few little quirks I need to iron out, not to mention other things I wanna do to it down the road. Anyways, glad to join the forum!

[geezer101]

Hi Zach, welcome to mightyram. Seems there has been a spate of MM/D50 'ramming' of late. It smells of conspiracy, might be the strong whiff of stupidity in there as well. Your truck looks (looked - sorry) pretty good. There is a certain sense of reward for doing anything for yourself. These trucks are relatively simple but tough. Basic regular maintenance keeps them ticking for eternity. Put the word out for anything you're after. Like a good door. The Dakota is a big metal box compared to the D-50. You're gonna have fun with this thing, trust me...:thumbup:

[royster]

...and another Virginian joins the fellowship.

Welcome! Be sure to cruise through this thread:

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

[Skattergun]

@geezer101 Thanks! I'm liking it so far, finding it really doesn't give a damn where you want it to go once you lock in the 4WD. Definitely ain't running right, it has a noticeably significant power drop going up hills and I'm pretty sure I should be pulling more than 10-11 mpg. Last owner threw a new carb on it but flat told me he didn't do much more than throw it on there and didn't really know what he was doing so iunno if that'd have anything to do with it or not. Gonna change out the fuel filter once this snow clears out, see if that doesn't help.

@royster Thanks, that thread actually has a good bit of info!

Guess my first question and current biggest issue is the door.
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Even if I had a window to put in it, there's no way in hell I could as caved in as the door is. You don't seem to see a lot of the first gen D-50s around here, and so far the only thing close I've been able to track down is an '87 D-50 at a Pull-A-Part place, but if I'm not mistaken that's when they went to the 2nd gen body style. Best I can see the 1st and 2nd gen doors look a bit different, but would a 2nd gen door fit an '86 until I could find a better match?

[geezer101]

The 2nd gen door won't fit. And of course it had to be the drivers' door too. Your MPG is horrid, there's definitely something not right. If you don't need to be smogged you might wanna look at the 32/36 Weber carb. Tons of info on the site and is by far one of the best upgrades you can make to your engine. Once you have it tuned it will give excellent MPG and good useable power. Add a nice set of headers and it will climb ev'ry mountain...

[crvtec90]

Nice ride. Better than a Dakota in my opinion but still takes work to keep it going strong. Not very easy to source parts either. I highly doubt the 2nd gen door will fit. Stick around here long enough and u have a shot at locating one. Theres also a mighty max page on facebook.

[Skattergun]

The 2nd gen door won't fit. And of course it had to be the drivers' door too. Your MPG is horrid, there's definitely something not right. If you don't need to be smogged you might wanna look at the 32/36 Weber carb. Tons of info on the site and is by far one of the best upgrades you can make to your engine. Once you have it tuned it will give excellent MPG and good useable power. Add a nice set of headers and it will climb ev'ry mountain...
Damn, was hoping I would get off easy with the door. Whole thing jammed up today so now I have to climb my 290 pound ass over the passenger seat to get in. Gonna get to make me a hillbilly window out of plastic wrap and duct tape too I spose.

Round these parts you can find piddly little backwoods garages that'll slap an inspection sticker on pretty much anything as long as your lights, tires, and brakes are good so I'll definitely look into that Weber. The last owner put a brand new carb on it, but it's one of those little Mikuni carbs so I'm assuming it's essentially got what would have come stock and it's my understanding that those are basically garbage. Don't know much about carbs, most of what I know right now came from working on an F-150 I used to own and my Dakota, both with EFI. This'll be my first real foray into working with anything with a carburetor.

[pennyman1]

I know this is in Wash state, but this place on ebay has a truck with a good door possibly: http://www.ebay.com/itm/262119558655?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[claych]

Welcome Zach !
On the door thing, what kind of tools/ equipment do You have access to ?

[Skattergun]

Welcome Zach !
On the door thing, what kind of tools/ equipment do You have access to ?
I don't have access to a full garage or nothing fancy, but my dad was a mechanic for 40+ years and when he passed on in '08 I inherited all of his tools. I've got one of those big Snap-On chests full of tools and a half decent air compressor with a reasonably decent selection of air tools. I've only been doing my own work for the last four years or so but generally I have exactly what I need. Gonna have to start buying some new stuff in the future though since most of what I have is damn near antique at this point

May have found a door, me and my brother are heading down to Florida later this week so I decided to check all up and down the East coast round where we'll be traveling through, there's a place in Alabama that has an '86 D50 so in theory I'm gonna tear the door off that.