1957 Chevy 3100, meet 1994 Dodge Ram 1500

[Purcell69]

The frame is now painted and the hitch plate is back on. All the brackets are back where they belong and the spring hanger is torqued down. I also mounted the under-bed spare tire carrier back in position, the first time since the truck was disassembled in 2013.

Yesterday, I began relocating the oil to water transmission cooler. This is a Cummins part that uses engine coolant to regulate the temperature of the transmission oil. The copper and brass truck radiator for the 1957 doesn't have a built in transmission cooler since my original plan was a manual transmission back 25 years ago.

The Cummins cooler was mounted on the core support at the top, next to the radiator when I first put it in. The problem is that it holds an extra quart of transmission oil which wants to bleed back to the transmission when the engine isn't running. The extra oil seeps past the o-ring seal between the dipstick tube and the transmission case over time. Obviously, the seal issue needs to be addressed, but moving the cooler to a lower position will help as well. The original mounting position had it about 2' above the transmission pan.

I found a spot that is about the same level as the transmission pan and is protected from debris. It will now be under the valance, behind the front bumper. It has free air all around it and will get additional air flow when the truck is moving.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

Here are the pictures for above.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

I started in on creating the oil to water cooler brackets yesterday afternoon. The weather started to become uncooperative towards the end, so it is lacking two mounting tabs but is otherwise assembled. There is just a bit more work to do and I should be able to finish it up this afternoon and have it ready to paint and install if all goes as planned. Pictures to follow.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

One more thing I forgot to mention this morning. I found an answer to the airbag module in the middle of the steering wheel.

When I bought the donor Dodge, the airbag came "pre-deployed" after the previous owner hit a cow in the road. I really wasn't concerned as there wasn't enough damage to the front of the truck to suggest frame issues and I don't plan to put the SRS system back in to operation. I wasn't planning on using the Dodge steering column, yet here we are. While I don't "like" the look of the Dodge steering wheel, it gives me the horn buttons and cruise control, so I am willing to live with it on a certain level. I figured I would pickup an airbag module out of a junker, just to fill the ugly hole where the deployed airbag used to be. I didn't exactly want "DODGE" displayed in the middle of my Chevy cab, even if I am using the Dodge running gear. If I had to, I'd find a way to live with it.

Last night while cleaning up from the sweat and rust I accumulated while making the cooler brackets, I had a realization. I could get a vinyl repair kit and use it to fill in the Dodge letters on the new airbag cover and just leave it blank. This led to another thought that I could make a bowtie stamp, essentially a branding iron, and emboss a Chevy bowtie in the center of the new airbag cover after I filled in the Dodge letters. Branding iron took me to a whole 'nother level...Why not just have a dummy airbag cover made in leather? I know a guy that does just about anything in leather. A puffy rectangle would present little challenge. This would let me keep the horn and cruise control buttons and be a custom touch that would be one of a kind. Then I went back to the branding iron and had a few thoughts of what could go in the center instead of Dodge. I came up with an idea that I am keeping to myself until it is done, just because I don't want to see someone else to it first.

Yep. You are all going to have to wait for the finished product on this one. Not to be a tease or build up scripted drama. I'm just really proud of the airbag solution and I know the execution will be unique and worthwhile.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

The cooler brackets are done and the cooler sits exactly where I want it now. The only thing left to do is paint the brackets and hook up the plumbing. When I figured out where the cooler would go, I figured a 90* preformed heater hose would work perfectly. It just so happened that I had one of the two needed sitting on a shelf in my tool room. I just took it to the local parts store and told the counter guy, "I need one of these."

"What's it off of?" asks the counter guy.

"Hell, I don't know. It was sitting on my shelf. Just get me one more like it."

Pictures tomorrow when I get to work. The site won't let me load them from the iPad.

-Joe

[joedoh]

wooo progress! the hours are spent in the minutia, not in the milestones.


keep it up! I cant wait to see this steering wheel.

[lower50's]

Ha I love doing that to parts guys, the look on there faces..... Can't wait to see what you are doing with the steering wheel sounds fun.

[Purcell69]

I'm looking forward to it. I've got a call in to my leather guy. He's a retired state trooper that does incredible work. He's not fast and it may take a while before I ever see the finished result, but it will be worth it if he's willing to do it.

In other news, the cooler is now mounted and plumbed. I'll post up pictures when I get back to work later this week.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

I met with my leather guy this morning. He is a retired state trooper and quite an artist when it comes to saddle repair and working leather. I gave him the disassembled air bag module and we talked about what I have in mind. To say the least, he is excited about the prospects and what I have in mind. One thing about my guy, he's not fast when it comes to doing things like this, but for the level of quality, I'd gladly wait a LONG time if need be. He has a lot of irons in the fire and other work ahead of me, so I will spill the beans rather than torture everyone.

The steering wheel rim itself is wrapped in black leather from the factory, which is also part of what lead me down this path. For the air bag module, I'm going with natural leather. I don't really want it to resemble the stock module, so black is out.

Years ago, I received a small, novelty branding iron for use when grilling food. The brand itself is about the size of a half-dollar and while I think it would be a unique touch for the center of the steering wheel, it would be on the small side. We talked about this idea and he says, "Send me a picture of what you want, and I'll hand tool it in instead, with a little bigger proportion to the center of the steering wheel."

Knowing Flipper's skill and craftsmanship, I jumped at the idea. Which brought us to this...














-Joe

[Purcell69]

I've begun working in earnest in switching over the wiring to work with OBD-2. I found a seller down the road with a 1999 Ram 1500 with 4wd and the 5.9L Magnum V8 and managed to score the computer for $25. I will still need to acquire a SCT tuner and programming to work with the cam I installed, but I need to finish the upgrade to the engine management system first.

Of course, once I got the ECM, I wanted to install the new engine harness that I found last fall, only to find out Chrysler changed up the connectors between 1994 and 1996, so I would need to get the 1996 Power Distribution Center and harness as well. Just to make sure there were no additional surprises, I got the in-cab portion of the 1996 harness as well. This will also give me the data port as well to hook up a scan tool or the tuner. The one remaining hiccup is the wiring that goes to the rear portion of the frame for the fuel tank, rear ABS and rear lighting. The 1994 harness has ten wires through one connector. The 1996 uses two different connectors for a total of twelve wires. I don't have that last portion of the harness for the 1996, just the connectors and pigtails, so I will have to match up the needed circuits.

The new PDC uses some funky relays that seems to be somewhat exclusive to Chrysler products. They weren't included the in the harness I picked up at Pull-a-Part the other day when I bought both parts of the 1996 harness. It is slowly coming together.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

From July 6, 2018

Again, no new pics, but I managed to get the engine harness installed yesterday. I still need to mount the PCM/ECM on the inner fender and there is a difference between 1994 and 1996 for the AC compressor plug. I have a 1999 compressor, but I doubt it is any good. I may steal the plug off it and splice it to the 1994 compressor. That way, if the 1994 compressor is bad or needs to be replaced, I can opt for the newer compressor and all the plugs will still match up without having to monkey with the wire harness itself.

I also have a service manual for 1996 on order so I can get the schematics I need, and a full set of those oddball Chrysler relays are en route as well. If everything goes right, I may be able to try and start it with the new ECM and harness by this time next week.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

Yesterday, July 13, 2018...

Well, I got the relays I needed. The manual was on CD and it was NOT the factory manual and did not include the full schematics and wire codes for 1996, so I was left to wing it with regard to the twelve wires that are for the rear half of the truck. I managed to match up nine of the original ten wires based on the color codes being the same. The only one that did not have an immediate match was the power for the fuel level sender, as 1994 used a solid blue wire and 1996 has two variations for blue wires with assorted stripes and one other that I don't recall the color on. Most of these are related to the rear lights and right now I don't need a fuel gauge, so none of these should be the no-start issue.

I plugged everything back in and tried to start it yesterday, but no luck. I have power to the ignition switch, but nothing happens when I turn the key. There is a stray wire from the engine compartment side of the 84-way connector which may or may not be involved, but without the 1996 version of the Dodge big book of knowledge, I am having to find the counterpart to that wire on the other half of the plug, under the dashboard. It also may be an issue in either the fuse panel or the PCM, if the PCM was setup with factory security, since I don't have the ignition switch or key from the donor truck.

When I turn the key on, my cooling fan works as it should, so I know there is power that far, but the fuel pump does not spin up and the starter motor doesn't engage to crank the engine. More digging to do.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

After a bit of research and lots of trouble shooting, I found out where the yellow wire with the red tracer came from. It had not pulled out of the 84-way connector, but rather a loop that is installed in a non-manual transmission application, since there is no need for a clutch safety switch. While I was trouble shooting, I put 12v to the yellow and red wire, only to have the starter engage. A bit more digging and I found the green plug body that the wire had pulled out of, pin and all.

Once this was done, I found the engine would crank but not fire off. The fuel pump wasn't spinning. It seems the wire code between 1994 and 1996 had changed, so my plan to splice the wires to the rear half of the frame (twelve wires to ten) was a fail. More digging got me to 12v keyed power for the fuel pump, but it still would not start. The Automatic Shut Down relay was tripping, killing the ignition...no spark.

I got access to the 1996 FSM for a Dodge Dakota and figured the schematics were pretty close. There was also a section addressing the ASD which had some good info on troubleshooting ASD issues. In spite of being 109* outside with 20% humidity, I couldn't resist finding the problem. After checking all the fuses, I found there was one missing from the main fuse panel. Also, it is not uncommon to have issues if the PCM isn't properly grounded, so I cleaned the aluminum body of the PCM and installed a dedicated ground lead to the chassis, rather than just relying on the mounting bolts to do the job.

With all of this now done, the truck fired right up! I still have more clean-up to do, including ditching the factory headlamp switch in favor of one that looks "correct" in the Chevy dashboard. At least I am now back to a running truck.

-Joe

[lower50's]

Keep at it, you will get it eventually.

[Rickysnickers]

Nice diagnostic work Joe!!!

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by Rickysnickers

Nice diagnostic work Joe!!!

Thank you Ricky! I was concerned that it may have been conflict between the PCM and the non-computer controlled transmission. The 1996 harness is for an automatic transmission equipped truck, as is the 1999 PCM. Since the transmission I have doesn't require a computer, I was afraid the lack of signal was causing the ASD to trip, which would have meant I needed to find a 5.9 V8, 5 speed, 4wd PCM. Fortunately that isn't the case.

All in all, I'm pretty handy with a test light.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

I noticed the other day that the serpentine belt wasn't tracking straight. It kept trying to jump out of the front edge of the crank pulley. It turned out the power steering pump pulley wasn't fully seated. It was off by 5/16" which was enough to walk the belt out of the crank pulley grooves and up on to the front lip of the pulley. I got it fully seated now and the belt tracks like it should.

Now I need to find out why the ASD is killing my spark again today.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

I got the overly rich issue resolved now and it is running good. I took a little video now that I can breathe with the truck running in the same vicinity.

https://youtu.be/Vawb6X_jhQ0

-Joe

[joedoh]

sounds good!

I do that "double ziptie to tie things out of the way" thing too haha

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by joedoh

sounds good!

I do that "double ziptie to tie things out of the way" thing too haha

Thanks Joe!

Lol, yeah, I go through a crap ton of zip ties until I have everything right where I want it. Once I get the inner fenders back in place, most of the zip tie mess will go away and there will be proper cable stays in place to tidy things up. For now, I get the bulk zip ties at Tractor Supply or whoever else has them cheap while I'm shopping.

For my own reference, I leave the ties long if I don't expect them to be used beyond temporarily, and cut the tails off the ones that I expect to leave in place. That way, I can remember which ones need to go away when I am done.

-Joe

[Rickysnickers]

Nice work Joe. From my Dakota owning days, I seem to remember guys not even hooking up the rear O2 sensor. They would just zip tie it to the frame.

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by Rickysnickers

Nice work Joe. From my Dakota owning days, I seem to remember guys not even hooking up the rear O2 sensor. They would just zip tie it to the frame.

Ricky, I am finding that to be common practice as well. Just about every place I have researched while working on this has had the same answer. The second O2 sensor is pretty much to determine the "health" of the catalytic converter. At the present moment, my dashboard consists of the two gauges in the video, (vacuum and oil pressure), so I have no CEL to worry about. In the long run, when I get an actual gauge panel installed, I will have the CEL feature, but the SCT Tuner and programming will delete the need for the second oxygen sensor, and keep it from tripping a Check Engine Light.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

First drive today, moving under its own power again for the first time in more than 10 years.

https://youtu.be/zlejOez1yAo

-Joe

[Purcell69]

Pictures to follow tomorrow, but here is the latest...

I spent yesterday doing lots of little things. The front sheet metal is back on the truck now so I could finish getting the wire harness situated in the engine compartment. When mounting the front bumper, I found there was some interference between the bottom edge of the bumper and the brass fittings on the transmission oil cooler. I used a block of wood and a hole saw to notch the bumper for clearance. Being on the bottom, the notch isn't visible and the cooler can remain mounted out of harm's way. I've also found the new mounting location works great with the transmission, no more leaks from the dipstick tube seal.

I used my new hammer and dolly set to knock out the gouges in the rear wall of the cab and finished out with a skim coat of Rage to finish the job. It looks so much better.

Test driving the truck the other day, I found the seating position felt like it was about 1" low. I used some leftover 11ga 1"x2" box tube to make some risers and now the seating position feels better. In the long run, I am going to get some power seat bases for that "perfect" position, but this will work in the meanwhile.

Today, the plan is to work on thinning out the in-cab wire harness. All the wiring for the climate controls and the sound system can be removed. When I add A/C, I will be using the vendor supplied components rather than the Dodge equipment. I also want to finish setting up all the wiring for the exterior lights.

The new O2 sensor will be arriving today as well, so that will get installed and the truck can be run with the computer receiving input from the sensor rather than in default mode.

-Joe

[joedoh]

a running driving truck is so much more fun and encouraging to work on than an inert pile of steel, nice work!