New guy from North Idaho here

[donthekawguy]

I just picked up a 1980 D50 that was used at the University of Idaho since new. It has 102k on it and it probably has had a rough life. lol I'm picking it up this Friday and will have to trailer it back. It runs like a top but the clutch is slipping. I'll post pics when I get it home.

[Giovanni89]

Very cool! My experience working on some other folks vehicles owned by municipalities, might be similar for a big institution like yours. They led a hard life, but repairs were usually made when needed with good quality parts. Often OEM. Hopefully with a little tlc you'll have a nice solid truck! Welcome to the board.

[geezer101]

Hi and welcome to mightyram. Guaranteed your truck has done a gazillion short runs and had only seen a vacuum cleaner in the first month of ownership. That being said, it would've been serviced regularly and considering it's low mileage should be for the most part mechanically rock solid. Expect that the suspension and steering will need overhauling. As with all noobs - get a thread up and going, post pics ask questions :thumbup:

[donthekawguy]

About 30 years ago I was in a grocery store in the middle of the night and read an article in Hot Rod or Mopar magazine about swapping a 360 into one of these. At the time I had a 72 Vega with a 327 in it so I was into V8 swaps. The article claimed the swap was easy. Not sure why that stuck with me all these years, but now I have a new shop, the tools and a big son I'll have to think about doing that swap.

[geezer101]

We have a member doing the 360 swap and they are doing a freaking great job of it too :grin:

[xboxrox]

Think I saw that truck being auctioned online at Public Surplus or Gov Deals... (?) Congrats Sir...

[donthekawguy]

Think I saw that truck being auctioned online at Public Surplus or Gov Deals... (?) Congrats Sir...
Yeah it was at the University of Idaho. I got out bid by 10 bucks but the guy didn't pay so they offered it to me for my $550 bid. I'm going down in the morning to pick it up. I have to trailer it back with my 78 F250 that gets about 6 miles a gallon, has no radio and no AC. Good thing its only an hour and a half away. lol

[geezer101]

You'll be able to use the Dodge to tow the F250 on the way back :lmao:

[Giovanni89]

I love my little dodge, but nothing beats big block power. I've got a 68 f250 pulled apart. If you're getting 6 to the gallon, I'm going to guess 460/c6?

[xboxrox]

Here is the auction page of your truck https://www.publicsurplus.com/sms/au...ew?auc=2270851 (https://www.publicsurplus.com/sms/auction/view?auc=2270851)

[Chargerx3]

Good looking little truck.

[donthekawguy]

I love my little dodge, but nothing beats big block power. I've got a 68 f250 pulled apart. If you're getting 6 to the gallon, I'm going to guess 460/c6?
Yeah it has a 460 swap. I actually figured out mileage I got on the trip and I averaged 8.9. Thats towing a dolly 90 miles empty and another 60 back towing the D50 until I needed to gas up. Not too bad.

[donthekawguy]

Ok got the truck in the shop and the clutch kit arrived today. Any surprises waiting for me or is it pretty straight forward? I'm probably going to need the flywheel turned but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. I'll have to wait until the afternoon to get to it (root canal and need some new jack stands). I'll take some pics and I'm sure I'll need some pointers. Can't believe I'm 52 and never replaced a clutch before. I guess I have been lucky and never had one needing replaced. lol

[geezer101]

If you are only having to contend with a 2WD gearbox, you are going to be o.k. Have axle stands, a couple of jacks, some blocks of wood and something to lie on when you yeet the gearbox out. Take a look at the centre pinion carrier while you're under there removing the tail shaft. If the rubber has perished on it, there's no point to putting all back together until you replace it. If you don't see any major scoring or marks on the flywheel, get a sanding block with some coarse sand paper and dress the face of the flywheel just enough to de-glaze it. Otherwise you're going to need to lock the flywheel up and get the bolts out with a rattle gun and impact socket (not fun especially for a noob) Have fresh GL-4 gearbox oil as well. It'll be ancient and overdue for a drain and change. Don't use GL-5 as it can attack the synchros (the debate rages on about what gearbox oils to use but the manufacturer's recommendations are the safest bet)

[geezer101]

This might not be the ideal place for this but...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7NpsMZ9pBQ

[donthekawguy]

If you are only having to contend with a 2WD gearbox, you are going to be o.k. Have axle stands, a couple of jacks, some blocks of wood and something to lie on when you yeet the gearbox out. Take a look at the centre pinion carrier while you're under there removing the tail shaft. If the rubber has perished on it, there's no point to putting all back together until you replace it. If you don't see any major scoring or marks on the flywheel, get a sanding block with some coarse sand paper and dress the face of the flywheel just enough to de-glaze it. Otherwise you're going to need to lock the flywheel up and get the bolts out with a rattle gun and impact socket (not fun especially for a noob) Have fresh GL-4 gearbox oil as well. It'll be ancient and overdue for a drain and change. Don't use GL-5 as it can attack the synchros (the debate rages on about what gearbox oils to use but the manufacturer's recommendations are the safest bet)

Thanks for the tips! I'll be starting on it in a few hours as soon as I get done with the root canal. Working on it should take my mind off the pain. Lol

[donthekawguy]

Here is a pic of when I picked it up. Pretty solid little truck. All except that ding in the lower section of the bed and a smallish rust hole in the floor. I have a replacement panel coming for that. A girl at work is in love with it so I might sell it to her and make a few bucks. I bought a few too many cars last week so I need to clear some out. Lol22559

[xboxrox]

Sweet..! Maybe the original paint will buff out; that would be awesome... Looks Cool..!

[claych]

..apologies.. 'board latency'. reply moved to correct thread.

[donthekawguy]

Sweet..! Maybe the original paint will buff out; that would be awesome... Looks Cool..!

https://youtu.be/SVYxAcEvyUc

https://youtu.be/fjyBrpZrhNc

Paint turned out pretty good. Still need to wax it.

[xboxrox]

Black mirrors & matching black bumpers NEAT You Tube vids

I hope you might try saving any original stuff / like the door panel coverings, headliner, etc...

The D50 is super rare, luv it :)

edit edit ---> YES the paint came out great; you know a few things many of us don't ;)

[geezer101]

Old school acrylic paint is great as far as retaining shine. It was death to spray due to the added carcinogenics but that is the trade off. If you want your tyres to be show finish glossy, spray them with oven/BBQ cleaner (the stuff without the LYE in it), brush it in and then pressure clean/rinse them before applying tyre shine. It takes all the road grime off the tyres and freshens them up. The oven/BBQ cleaner is awesome for engine cleaning too. It should help with the transmission but for some reason it doesn't do a great job of removing the gunk from inside bellhousings :shrug:

[donthekawguy]

Black mirrors & matching black bumpers NEAT You Tube vids

I hope you might try saving any original stuff / like the door panel coverings, headliner, etc...

The D50 is super rare, luv it :)

edit edit ---> YES the paint came out great; you know a few things many of us don't ;)

I plan on keeping the headliner and door cards. I just need to figure out how to save them. The material is in good shap so it shouldn't be too hard.

[donthekawguy]

Old school acrylic paint is great as far as retaining shine. It was death to spray due to the added carcinogenics but that is the trade off. If you want your tyres to be show finish glossy, spray them with oven/BBQ cleaner (the stuff without the LYE in it), brush it in and then pressure clean/rinse them before applying tyre shine. It takes all the road grime off the tyres and freshens them up. The oven/BBQ cleaner is awesome for engine cleaning too. It should help with the transmission but for some reason it doesn't do a great job of removing the gunk from inside bellhousings :shrug:
I wish I would have taken better pics of the valve cover before I cleaned it. I pressure washed it pretty hard and it wouldn't come clan. My soon took it off and sprayed it with oven cleaner and scrubbed it. Now it's real clean and will look good. I have probably 10 cans of the dollar store stuff and it works great. I sent a text to my son about doing the trans last night so I see we are on the same page. It looks like all the leaking is from the valve cover gasket and the half circle rubber deals on the head. I have ordred new ones.

[donthekawguy]

Here's a better pic of how bad the paint was when I started. I washed it, rubbed it hard with a dry clothes then buffed it with a rubbing compound. When I get it all bad together I'll wash it again and hit it with a wax and that should do it.

[donthekawguy]

I had to take the flywheel in for a resurface. It was only 50 bucks and the guy that did said it looks like the original one and that he didn't have to take hardly any off. I got the tranny cleaned off today and figure the mess was caused by the valve cover gasket or the half circle rubber gaskets things. It'll take a while to get a new set but that's to be expected. I have to do the rear seal of the trans and might as well do the rear main while I'm in there.2263122632

[donthekawguy]

I might take a wire wheel to it because it's driving me crazy the way it's looking. LoL

[geezer101]

I might take a wire wheel to it because it's driving me crazy the way it's looking. LoL

That's a slippery slope to walk onto lol. Be warned a wire wheel might be too aggressive and burnish the alloy. The worst stuff to get off is the 3,000 year old road grime. It is really stubborn and actually needs mechanical means to remove it. I went a little nuts on one 5 speed and sort of polished it (like anyone was ever going to see it...) Maybe a non metallic scourer pad and non caustic BBQ/oven cleaner.

[donthekawguy]

That's a slippery slope to walk onto lol. Be warned a wire wheel might be too aggressive and burnish the alloy. The worst stuff to get off is the 3,000 year old road grime. It is really stubborn and actually needs mechanical means to remove it. I went a little nuts on one 5 speed and sort of polished it (like anyone was ever going to see it...) Maybe a non metallic scourer pad and non caustic BBQ/oven cleaner.
I tried oven cleaner three different times. It helped with the old oil but as you can see in the pics the back half is really pitted. I dont need to polish it and probably should just leave it alone but I feel compelled to waste a couple hours cleaning up a part that will never been seen. lol

[claych]

^^^
Humble apologies (Bows at Waist),
The oven cleaner cleaned & discolored the front of the case & left the tail housing untouched ????

[donthekawguy]

^^^
Humble apologies (Bows at Waist),
The oven cleaner cleaned & discolored the front of the case & left the tail housing untouched ????
The oven cleaner and pressure washer cleaned the front. The back half is really pitted and rough. It looks like its dirty but it's just really rough and pitted. In a way the oil mess protected the front half. Ill try to get a close up of the rear half to show how rough it is. It feels about 80 grit. lol

[geezer101]

The amount of dirt and grime that makes it's way under the truck is going to find places you wouldn't normally clean. A couple of drives on a beach, road salt etc and then have it stuck there for years on it will bite into the alloy no problemo. The die cast is going to oxidise either way from age so your guess that oil leaking over the gearbox has preserved the metal somewhat is fair call.

[donthekawguy]

The amount of dirt and grime that makes it's way under the truck is going to find places you wouldn't normally clean. A couple of drives on a beach, road salt etc and then have it stuck there for years on it will bite into the alloy no problemo. The die cast is going to oxidise either way from age so your guess that oil leaking over the gearbox has preserved the metal somewhat is fair call.
This truck has spent its whole life on a college campus here in Idaho so I'm not sure where it would pick up so much corrosion. We don't use salt on the roads and not a lot of beaches in Moscow Idaho. lol Probably just 40 years of use. I lost my motivation due to an infection after a root canal last week but I'll get back on it today.

[donthekawguy]

Anyone know the torque specs for the flywheel bolts? It would be easier to get the nuclear launch codes than it is to find the specs.

[xboxrox]

donthekawguy --- THANKS to member YAMAHLR who sent me his 1986 Factory Service Manual for free (I still owe him something in return for that :redface: )

(You can try using WD-40 and 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper to remove the road grime off the aluminum)

HERE are the Flywheel Torque Specs

[tortron]

Stuff like that gearbox could get vapor blasted. will come up like new

[geezer101]

The truck aside - hope you are feeling better. Root canal AND and ear infection. Yeesh...

[geezer101]

22641

...what happens when you get carried away and I didn't keep this gearbox either - I sold it to a guy for his project (insert one of many regrets for not hoarding rarer parts :shakehead:)

[donthekawguy]

donthekawguy --- THANKS to member YAMAHLR who sent me his 1986 Factory Service Manual for free (I still owe him something in return for that :redface: )

(You can try using WD-40 and 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper to remove the road grime off the aluminum)

HERE are the Flywheel Torque Specs
Sweet! Thanks man! I plan on just hitting it real quick with a wire wheel in my drill. I don't want to put too much work into it. lol

[donthekawguy]

The truck aside - hope you are feeling better. Root canal AND and ear infection. Yeesh...
The root canal got infected, I got a cold and went to the ER on Saturday because I got Bells Palsy. All in one week! Kind of a rough ride. I'm starting to feel better but the Palsy is going to be around for a few weeks. Sucks not having any control of the left side of my face, but it was nothing to write home about anyway. lol