Hello everyone. I recently acquired my dads old pickup after he broke a spark plug in the head. Then I broke a extractor, so I pulled the head only to find 4-5 cracks. So the dilemma began. Do I spend money on a free truck that's worth ?? With a salvage title (insurance totaled it for minor fender bender years ago). Well I did it. I'm now about a grand in. So I guess she's a keeper. And boy do I have questions.
A great start. I bought my minor for $900 and now I've had it 10 years
Hi and welcome to mightyram. Well Matt, I think you are ahead of the game. If you were specifically after any car/truck, handed over, lets say, $1500/2k for it and then had to spend another $1500/2k to get it sorted just to make it reliable (or even just driveable) you have taken a deep but normal plunge. I had a similar thing. I was after a Gen 1 and all the local classifieds were selling them at about the $2-2.5k mark (AUD). I didn't bite at the time but within 6 months most of those trucks were back on the market with either collision damage or mechanical issues. I paid $400 for a non runner that had the foundations I wanted - G63B engine, 5 speed, bucket seats, rear step and tow hitch and the added bonus of A/C (which none of the trucks I'd looked at had fitted). In recent times I haven't seen a Gen 1 for sale anywhere in any condition. My truck still isn't running and I've made a fair investment into it so far (both money and time). But once it hits the road, I won't have to worry about it breaking down in a hurry as I'll know that it has been thoroughly rebuilt and had a few worthy upgrades to improve it during the process.
Well I have the 5 speed and bucket seats and a/c. I'm excited to have bucket seats since my daily is a k20. Sure am hoping for better mileage in the ram. Has anyone mentioned how crappy Weber instructions are.
And is the original mikuni power wire useable for a 12v keyed under hood source?
And the 32/36 Weber kit came with a aluminum barbed plug for the rearward manifold vacuum port? The vertical one? Next to the heater hose?
The black wire/white stripe fuel cut solenoid wire for the Mikuni is the wire you need to hook up the electric choke (makes life sooo much easier). You don't want to delete that big vacuum barb on #4 intake runner - you need to have that brake booster hooked up or your brakes are going to really suck (worse than they already do). Normally the install instructions for the Weber carb are goodYou will need to block off the coolant barb to the carb - off the shelf brass barbs are available and will tidy up the coolant hose situation (if you have the less common electric choke Mikuni carb then this is one thing you won't need to mess with). I have a feeling the heater barb used on 6 cylinder Ford manifolds will do the job as well. Most of the time that coolant T piece barb on the manifold is nearly rotten anyway. I sealed up the coolant port that passes under the carb base into the manifold by tapping a metric thread into it and plugging it up with a grab screw and loctite. It normally doesn't leak but this way it pretty much 'seals the deal' so to speak.
IMG_0032.JPGIMG_0033.JPGthis barb???
never seen one like that in a weber kit. Not sure why you would need it.
In the weber distructions under universal disassembly Step #10 stateslug the water choke hose on the rear tee of the intake manifold with the supplied 8mm barb? I dont think i have a tee. Just got her running and went for a test drive to the beer store. Boy those new plugs dont look so new anymore. I bled the brakes but it didnt fix the spongyness. Any ideas for brake upgrades.
Nup, haven't seen a barb like that ever (not without a NPT thread on the end of it). Was your Mikuni electric choked? 95% of the Mikuni carbs that members have grief with are wax pellet/water choked carbs, we don't see very many Mikunis with an electric choke on them. As for brakes, Gen 2 assemblies are a nut and bolt swap. Take the whole steering hub - hub/spindle, brake rotor & caliper + brake hose. You can go up to twin piston calipers but you'll need the calipers off a Montero Sport. If you only take the rotor and caliper off the Gen 2, the caliper will foul the arm where the tie rod bolts up to. Your master cylinder might be (and probably is) tired. Next question - did you go to a reputable dealer for your Weber? If you got it in a Redline/Weber box it's the real deal. The fakes are garbage and can't be tuned (I mean there is no amount of jetting or adjusting that can be done to get it to run properly)
Yes it is a real Weber. The mikuni was a water choke, but had some sort of a power wire blk/wht blk/wht and i get 12v off both terminals. the factory manual calls it a fuel cut off solenoid.
Yup, it is a fuel cut solenoid. I had one go bad and it would kill my engine at the most entertaining times (you know, trying to cross a major intersection or hitting a pot hole on a main road in heavy traffic...)Originally Posted by MattHammer
Thanks so much for your help. I'm not abandoning the forum just done in this section. I'm off to the tuning section. Let me tell u I'm surprised by findings.
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