crazzywolfie's 81 ram

[crazzywolfie]

i thought i would start a thread about my 81 since i have done so much to it and i figured some of you might be interested in some in some of the mods.
here is what it looked like when i first got it. for the most part it looked fairly good but it had it fair share of rust and pealing paint. someone had painted it and done a not so good job.

under the hood sat a 318 out of a 85 with the intake off a 77 with a 650 Holley double pumper. it also had an accel coil and wires but the coil was very flaky. would never run right so i replaced it with a stock one and never had a problem to date. i ended up being given a 570 street avenger that i installed and am still running.

i spent many hours sandblasting and and doing metal work with my dad to get it on the road. it required 2 front cab mounts and a bit of cab support. otherwise it was not too bad. had to do some basics like replace almost every brake line, 1 caliper, 1 rotor, the pads on one side. it looks like someone had installed all brand new brake parts on the one side but forgot to bleed the caliper so there was no wear at all. just a bit of rust. i also had to shorten some park brake struts off a newer dodge to fit the rear brakes. for some reason those where missing. put brand new tires and a center link on it and it was ready to drive about a month before my birthday and 1 day before i would loose a 10% discount on insurance.

well after i had it on the road for a bit i started cleaning up under the hood so i sand blasted the valve covers and painted them mopar blue.

painted and installed they look good but i was a bit unhappy with how the new paint made everything else not look so good.

so i spend another day sandblasting and painting the exhaust manifold. the only thing that sucks is that the cheap paint i used did not even last a year but it did look good for a short time. next time i will spend some extra money on the good paint. also would you believe my exhaust manifolds had no gasket when i took them off? put them back on the exact same way and didn't leak a single bit. i also took some video footage of it running with the exhaust manifold off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPRG_BsGYKU

not too long after i ended up picking up electric fans and a power distribution center out of a 2000 dodge caravan for $40 and the guy even took them out for me and gave me plenty of wire on the PDC to hook it up.

more fuses and relays than i think i will need but having extra can not hurt.

heres what the fan looks like installed. fits the rad pretty good width wise but is a bit short height wise but it pulls air through the top which is what gets the hottest.

just used a tiny bit of angle iron to hold it to where the fan shroud should have been.

heres the power distribution center kind of installed. currently the only thing i have hooked up to it is the starte and electric fans. i am planing on hooking other things like the headlights and everything else but have not got around to it yet.

if you have any questions just ask. i will try to answer them the best i can.

[Dodgestrike]

I might use that PDC idea on the trucks , should clean up the wiring too 

[crazzywolfie]

on every forum i join eventually putting headlights on relays pops up. now depending on how you decide to wire it you may end up using 2-3 relays by the time your done. this could bring you to 3-6 relays bolted to your fender and in my opinion the fender would start looking a bit crowded with that many relays. with the PDC it hides it in a almost stock looking box. plus it kind of gives you a bit of room to upgrade in the future. i think i could probably put my wipers on relays but i am not sure of that.

[Dodgestrike]

yeah I have the headlights on relays , plus one for the pusbutton on the shitfer another for the switch that cuts the power out of the pushbutton ,plus another for the trans cooler fan , and I think I'm going to add a few others for other stuff, so its a good solution you gave me. plus I think I can hide it under the dash or somewhere and clean the engine bay up 

[SixGun]

It sounds good but is there a thread out there or article I can read that shows details on converting the wiring into these?

[crazzywolfie]

i don't think there is any very detailed articles out there because not all distribution power are the exact same. you would most likely have to be pretty good with a digital multi meter. i know i have access to lot of diagrams but i ended up going through with my digital multi meter to find what i need. now if you do find one out of a 95 or older caravan they looked very simple to wires because you can see where all the wires go. the newer ones go to connectors and then run around inside the box.

[SixGun]

My big concern is your pic where all the wiring is all converging on the power distribution box.  Looks worse than what I have - no offense.  Is that the final product? 

[crazzywolfie]

that is not the final product. i just have not had a chance to finish wiring. having 2 vehicle in the driveway to work on can slow down certain projects. the repairs to my ramcharger really slowed down any work to my 81.

[Dodgestrike]

My big concern is your pic where all the wiring is all converging on the power distribution box.  Looks worse than what I have - no offense.  Is that the final product?

Like anything I think you can put it wherever you want and route the wiring as you see fit , I've tought of using a relay board from the aftermarket but this seems like a cheaper option and I like cheaper ,

[SixGun]

Cheaper is good but needs to look good too. LOL  Sounds good in theory though.

[crazzywolfie]

mine only cost me a whole $10 and it came with all the fuses and relays.

if the weather co-operates with me i might try finishing up some of my the wiring and get some new pictures of it cleaned up.

[crazzywolfie]

the weather seemed to co-operate and i manage to get some work done.

i am glad i got around to it today because i don't know if the dimmer switch plug would have lasted too much longer. the one terminal looked like it had seen a lot of heat.

i also managed to remove this wiring while i at it.

[crazzywolfie]

after about a year and half i finally decided to change the air filter. the guy at the parts store had a bit of difficult time cross referencing the part number off the old filter. eventually he got it sorted out and found me the larger filter like i wanted. i ended up having to turn the lid upside down make the larger filter fit but i think it looks good.

[crazzywolfie]

been a long time since i did much upgrading on my 81. since the weather is starting to get a bit warmer i was finally able to put my backup lights on relays and install a couple extra lights under the bed. haven't really got to test them that much since it started raining but even the stock lights appear to be brighter. might have to do up a DIY one day. i think it is almost as important as putting your headlights on relays.

[SixGun]

Good to see your back on it.