1989 Power Ram 50 4x4

[PowerRam348]

as some of you may or may not know, i was hit by a car in front of my house and have been recuperating since then. my sister has been using my truck since then because i am not. well, the starter goes out about a day ago. she comes over to my house and sits down on the couch next to me and says "hey, the starter went out on your truck. fix it so i drive it some more.". i just kinda looked at her and said "does it look like i can fix it right now?". she turns and looks at me and says "oh ya, you were hit by a car, you can't do shit.". gotta love family.

[crvtec90]

guess u dont get a lot of wrenches turned......id bet the gears in your head are moving along

[camoit]

LOL..... You may not be able to turn a wrench, but I bet you can still smack her up side the head with one....

[pennyman1]

sounds like something my sister would say ... actually she did that to my Dad all the time when we were growing up...

[PowerRam348]

i felt like whacking her with my crutch... actually tried to, in fact. i told her to fix it herself if she wanted to continue driving it. i'm getting better and am out and about more often. been going to physical therapy and walking a couple days a week and getting the strength back in my arm and leg. no more crutches as of yesterday. not to sound too juvenile... but i feel a little like wolverine when i look at the x-rays. won't ever be able to pass through a metal detector again with these metal plates in my arm and leg. my doctor says that i'm healing really well and i should be good to go back to work in a month or so. i hate the sitting around. at least i have had some excitement lately though. i had been having some remodeling done before the accident and it resumed a week ago. well, the contractor found black mold in the basement. in tearing out the walls in the basement they found a crack in the wall of the foundation. it was just a hairline crack inside, but outside...
hole.jpghole3.jpghole4.jpghole5.jpghole2.jpghole1.jpg

at least it got found and dealt with now. there is a lot of rain up here in portland and a crack like that could have been a really bad day during the future winter months. other than that BS, i'm healing good and getting stronger every day. again, thanks for the support guys.

[bobsnewdirection]

You would be suprised at how little the metal detectors at airports pick up. My entire left shin is titanium, the piece they put in looks like a pry bar. I've never had a problem, although when I was on the beach with my friend, one of those guys looking around with a metal det went by and he got a signal from me!

[DroppedMitsu]

Yea i too have plates in my left wrist and I have never gone off. Maybe it has something to do with being titanium? Anyways glad to hear you're healing up good and good to see you found that crack before anything bad happened.

[PowerRam348]

i found out today what happens when you use a hydraulic valve-train with heavy duty valve springs. this...

lifters.jpg

crushed two lifters yesterday. my sister was driving it down the freeway when they went and she thought the motor was gonna come apart. i think i'm gonna need to get a machanical valve-train.

[DroppedMitsu]

Dang!! Lol , yup looks like time to do what LSRMike did and get some 1.8l mechanical rocker arms.

[PowerRam348]

For sure. I do remember lsrmike saying that he had the same problem and went machanical cause he had crushed some lifters as well. Gonna need to get a hold of a machanical valve train.

[camoit]

Did you ever get the bar mounted into the back?

[Acuta73]

Bah, first a starter and now...bad fortune.

Good luck on finding the Mech rockers...I STILL haven't found a set yet. Still need to try the junk yard, though.

Makes me glad I didn't go ahead with the top end without them!

[PowerRam348]

i did get the light bar in and it looks real good...

light bar1.jpglight bar2.jpg

thanks camoit.

[PowerRam348]

been a while since i've been on. although on monday i spun either a main bearing or a rod bearing. gonna pull it apart this weekend and replace the bearings. thinking of getting the rotating assembly re-balanced and see if that helps. hopefully i won't need to have the crank journals ground. good times ahead. pictures to come.

[pennyman1]

Glad to see you're up and around enjoying the truck(and rescueing it as well). Now to keep your sis from driving it once its fixed...

[PowerRam348]

got the motor pulled yesterday and found a problem immediately. when i pulled the clutch off the flywheel there was this..
engine2.jpg
one of the springs in the friction plate had decided to remove itself and i found that my flywheel was loose. so that pretty much tells me why i spun a main bearing. now for the fun part.

[PowerRam348]

finally got the light bar painted and even color matched the paint pretty good.

IMG_20140802_175712_840.jpgIMG_20140802_175721_110.jpgIMG_20140807_204203_165.jpgIMG_20140807_204225_467.jpgIMG_20140807_204243_892.jpg

[geezer101]

Light bar - awesome. Clutch plate - ouch. Hopefully it's only a quick linish up on the crank and some fresh bearings.

[PowerRam348]

It turned out that I didn't spin a bearing after all. I had too much oil clearance. Thankfully all that needed to be done was to have the crank ground and new bearings. But a short while after I got it back together and driving it this happened...

2013-05-07 13.22.05.jpg2013-05-07 13.22.38.jpg2013-05-07 14.32.31.jpg2013-05-07 14.33.18.jpg2013-05-07 14.33.41.jpg2013-05-07 14.33.50.jpg

The bolt that holds the sprocket on the oil pump backed out and cracked my timing chain cover. Thankfully pick and pull has an abundance of d-50's in portland and I was able to get a used timing chain cover for $20. I replaced the oil pump and timing chain cover and then I got this awesome present from camoit

2013-05-10 16.58.01.jpg2013-05-10 16.57.45.jpg2013-05-10 16.57.33.jpg2013-05-10 16.57.25.jpg2013-05-10 16.49.44.jpg2013-05-10 08.50.47.jpg2013-05-10 16.58.21.jpg

[geezer101]

I had that happen to me once. Destroyed my chain sprockets and blew a hole in the timing cover exactly the same as yours. But I never got a present like those headers! You are gonna let us know how it runs once you're back on the road - RIGHT?

[pennyman1]

Great to see you still have the truck and you are OK. Keep us posted!

[PowerRam348]

Here is what the new header sounds like on the truck before it was hooked up to the exhaust.

https://youtu.be/Lc0Ugwk61Y0

[McDodgers]

Here is what the new header sounds like on the truck before it was hooked up to the exhaust.

https://youtu.be/Lc0Ugwk61Y0

that sounds aggressive. great work!

[geezer101]

Here is what the new header sounds like on the truck before it was hooked up to the exhaust.

https://youtu.be/Lc0Ugwk61Y0

Holy...shitballs. Once I spied the crank trigger in the video and realised this is something different, I'm going off to have a good read of your thread.

p.s. hope you're making a speedy recovery from your accident - and family can be such a-holes

[PowerRam348]

I went distributorless with this build. Best thing I ever did for the truck.