I want to drive this thing so bad

Okay so I’ve read through about every thread I could think of on here without registering to see if I could dig something up and haven’t been able too; considering the knowledgeable people here we are I registered, I’ve got a 79 dodge D50 atleast that’s what I’ve been told through the courts, while on the other hand I’ve got a paper from the original owner stating it’s a first series Japanese import, Mitsubishi triton????; whatever the case being with that I’m new to these things and I’m looking to get it running. That being said I’ve got no clue where to start, the transmission is currently sitting in the bed as we took it out and rebuilt it; (KM132) the motor is ~there aside from the radiator that was pulled while it sat in the guys yard (G54B) i have no clue what to do whether it be the wiring or the radiator and I’ve never touched or even seen one of these motors, here’s a ton of pictures and if anyone’s looking to help a new guy out, it would be unfathomably appreciated. :)

IceeeD50 welcome to MR50 ~ posting photos of your truck & it's components eng trans rad will help the helpers here help you in getting help :thumbup:
I got a kick outta saying help X5 but they will help (X6) after giving them more details ~ well, thank you for your time this time until next time
Aloha ~ George

Because I guess last time they didn’t upload!

“That being said, I’ve got no clue where to start.”
Yeah Icee I don’t have much clue yet either.
Your pics don’t show the rest of the truck. Is the body, interior, etc. good?
Are you intending on saving/restoring this? Do you have legal title?
is it possible you might be better off starting with another truck and using/selling this one off for parts? Given that some parts are gone and most of what you do have probably requires careful resurrection to make workable.....

You are apparently a capable mechanic if you just took out & rebuilt the trans. But it’s hard to offer any help without knowing s lot more about what you are working with.

Best of luck ~~ charger_ john.

The truck is straight other than what I can tell is going on with the motor missing the radiator (he cooked a bird and it blew a hole in the radiator and it’s sat since, his son ditched the radiator in plans for a rebuild and never finished it) and what I think to be possibly a water pump.. I’ve got a clean title and it’s a 2 owner truck me being owner 2, I’ve got ~above average mechanics knowledge as comes with taking the trans apart and rebuilding it but my problem is knowing quite literally ~squat about Mitsubishi or this motor in general, I’ve looked at an engine diagram and tried to piece it together but for some reason it’s like reading brail. I’m gonna drop probably 20-30 pics into this thread when it clears up tomorrow (currently pouring rain and I’ve only got a few photos of the bay because that’s been my focus) IM SORRY IF IM TERRIBLE AT THIS USUALLY I WORK ON L200s! That’s where my little knowledge of the KM transmission comes into play, other than that I’m basically a baby with this motor, if I can figure it out I’ll source a rebuilt motor.

These trucks were sold under a number of different names globally. Japanese market was the 'Forte', L200/L200 Express, Triton (but this name was used for second generation trucks) The Astron engine is like most chain driven engines except for the twin balance shaft layout running off a second timing chain. It was good enough for Porsche to copy it. The wiring is basic - not much to it. First gen trucks have an all metal brass/copper radiator. They share the same radiator as the Mitsubishi Express vans built in the same era except there are no side mounts soldered to the radiator frame (if you find a bad truck radiator but a good van one, a shop can solder the side mounts to it and make it serviceable which is what I had to do) There are alloy reproduction radiators that come up from time to time on ebay. Gen 2 trucks and van radiators won't fit. It looks like the PO has changed the carb on it. Have a good look to see if it's a Weber. If it is a Weber, you're off to a good start. The factory Mikuni carb is a pain to work on and nerfs engine performance.

*going off the images the heater hoses have been disconnected. One goes into the intake manifold via a hose barb from the top. It'll have the main heater hose barb and a smaller outlet branching out of it for the water choke which will be redundant if you're using a Weber carb. The other heater hose is hooked up to a bypass pipe that runs around the rear of the engine. The ends of these bypass pipes are notorious for rotting out.

It is a Weber carb, it was replaced shortly before the bird was smoked and he quit driving it lol. My big loss here is the wiring, I’ve sourced a radiator that will fit, the transmission is primed and ready to be bolted up once I know this block cranks and isnt done for (it’s got 12,000 original miles and doesn’t have the orange roll over tick suggesting it’s more than that) if you look at the picture of the whole bay, you can see that there’s 2 distributors, ones hooked up and works and the other is bolted to the inside (guessing it’s the original) but still wired in somewhere, the old man was really nice but it seems like he tried to fix what he could on this car himself and turned it into a hack job with the wiring, I’m almost ready to buy a knew wiring harness and take the 4+ hours to rewire everything but I’m hesitant as they’re expensive and I’m already in $1400 on what was supposed to be and beater with a heater. Guess I fell more in love with it than I thought lol.

X2 what charger_john says ~ I think what you need is a running original truck to look at and copy ~ any wrecking yards or other owners nearby ?
Good Luck but would you try to repair a shattered mirror or just go get another mirror ? If the fun turns into frustration then STOP is good progress ~ I'm no real help but do hope you have fun AND get your truck running & looking it's best ~ hopefully more knowledgeable folks will chime in soon but you will need to provide all the details they ask for...
Aloha from Hawaii
George

Decided to go with an aftermarket wiring kit and cut out a lot of the middle man stuff (interior lights, radio and that sort of stuff) for ease of not having to figure out all the wiring going on in that mess, that being said a lot of progress has been made since I posted this, the motor is out and up on a stand (taking it apart and replacing all the seals/gaskets to save face down the road) I suppose I’ll be seeing you guys when I try to figure out how I’m the world to run this after market engine harness.

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Originally Posted by IceeeD50

Decided to go with an aftermarket wiring kit and cut out a lot of the middle man stuff (interior lights, radio and that sort of stuff) for ease of not having to figure out all the wiring going on in that mess, that being said a lot of progress has been made since I posted this, the motor is out and up on a stand (taking it apart and replacing all the seals/gaskets to save face down the road) I suppose I’ll be seeing you guys when I try to figure out how I’m the world to run this after market engine harness.

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Good Job ~ got details of where we can buy that same wiring harness, thanks..?

I find it a pleasure not to have any conveniences (distractions) besides the 5 speed manual transmission horn wipers 'n headlights ~ I use a magnetic base LED light for interior lighting ~ no bells buzzers chimes warnings or whistles to worry about ~ everything is manually operated in mah truck & I would'nt have it any other way ~ no factory radio or cigarette lighter and we did the fender radio antenna hole delete too ~ I even went overboard and replaced the old muffler with a factory sounding look-a-like to help me pay attention to the engine sounds to help me shift gears properly ~ Last year I rented a Nissan biggest SUV when family visited & that thing was a tank with bells lights and camera all sorts of crap to look at and worry about trying to concentrate on driving the darn beast ~ it kinda scared me ~ every car that came near that thing set off lights & sirens F_CK..! opps
:jumpinganger:

i dunno, the wiring in these trucks is about as basic as it comes. An evening studying the wiring diagrams and you will get it.

https://swperformanceparts.com/product/12-economy/
here’s the link to the one I bought xboxrox, hopefully a good fit I guess we’ll see I’ve never used one of these I’ve always tried to stay with the oem stuff if possible but I’m on the fence about turning this into a auto cross truck so we’ll see what the motor looks like; for now this harness should be perfect.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IceeeD50

https://swperformanceparts.com/product/12-economy/
here’s the link to the one I bought xboxrox, hopefully a good fit I guess we’ll see I’ve never used one of these I’ve always tried to stay with the oem stuff if possible but I’m on the fence about turning this into a auto cross truck so we’ll see what the motor looks like; for now this harness should be perfect.

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Thanks I thought it was a replacement of the Mitsubishi but it's not ~ I am not smart enuff to do tricks like you can WOW NICE