Cool truck! Enjoy the Slanted ride, and modding...

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

I have big plans if I can bring them to fruition. First is just a general clean-up and tune-up to repair everything that has been done to this truck in the last 40 years.

I found on the door plate it was built 6-76, so it is either mistitled as a 76 or a very late build 76 truck. I would have thought a truck built in 6-76 would be a 77 model year truck, but I could definitely be wrong on that.

Made another foray into the uncharted wilds of my parts stash. This time I netted a closed element air filter off of an early 80s Dodge van, the sheetmetal snorkel end for the heated air intake system that bolts to the kickdown linkage on the bottom of the exhaust manifold, the cold air intake ducting from my old 84 Ford van I junked about 6 years ago, and a brand new in the box brown Napa distributor cap (I need to check the part number but at least it is new with bras terminals).

Off came the 60s era unsilenced air cleaner, on went the silenced air cleaner, hot air piece, and the beginnings of the cold air intake system. The Ford ducting fit perfectly on the end of the van air cleaner snorkel, like it was made for it.





Now I need to find a terminus for the cold air ducting and get it plumbed and secured.

I didn't find my one barrel choke thermostats, but I could have sworn I still had three of them in a bag. I will keep digging. Every day, in every way, it's getting better and better. Except yesterday I went to open the driver's door and when I pushed the plunger on the handle I heard a PING and a tinkle and then the plunger wouldn't actuate the latch anymore. Two steps forward, one step back.

If Trucks had a similar schedule to the cars, model year for mopar typically ended 2nd week of July for the 1975-1980 cars...so if Trucks also ended the model year in that time frame, you have a late '76 truck... if it was an August or September 1976 date, it would be a 1977 car/truck...

Too bad your visit was short, I have a couple of those plastic "fresh air" fender ducts in a bin in my shop...

Dang, reasons are mounting for me to make another trip to Oregon. I need to get some pressing work done (gotta pay for the truck!), but I might put together a trip south in a few weeks.

More progress. Today I fixed the wobbly rear view mirror and driver's door mirror. Turns out it is super easy to adjust the tension on the ball and socket joint. However, the passenger side mirror base is stripped on the threads for the mirror head, so there is no cure for its floppiness. Since these parts are shared with the Warlock and Little Red Express, chrome mirror bases are hard to find and expensive when you do.

I upped the idle from stall speed to close to right. I have misplaced my tachometer so I am setting it by ear. The truck actually runs pretty smooth when it warms up. Right now I am running it with no choke since the manual choke doesn't work.

The silenced air filter made it quieter, but now the big exhaust leak is much more noticeable. I think it is coming from the union between the manifolds on the exhaust tower.

I found out that the PING and tinkle I heard in the driver's door was part of the latch mechanism breaking off, rendering the latch inoperable from the outside. This is really annoying since I have to open the door from the inside, which means crawling through the passenger door or leaving the window rolled partially down. Leaving windows rolled down isn't an option during western Washington State winters. Door latches also are hard to find and EXPENSIVE if you do. EDIT- unless you scrounge on eBay! I found a NOS one last night for cheap, so this problem will be fixed soon.

Discovered the passenger door vent window weatherstrip leaks. Also discovered that replacement vent window weatherstrip is hard to find for 76 Dodge trucks. I'l keep on looking.

Also discovered that ashtrays with the cigarette lighter in place are expensive and hard to find for this truck. You wouldn't think it, but I am coming up empty.

I have want ads placed on relevant forums, and I will have one here soon.

I actually drove the truck today. I loaded an extra set of cop rims in the bed and took them to my storage unit. While there, I swapped the original chromed slotted rims for a set of aluminum finned rims I have.



I did that because of the tires. The tires on the chromed rims were 11 year old passenger car tires that were too small for the rim and the truck (these are 15x8 factory chromed rims). The tires on the aluminum rims are five year old light truck tires in the correct size. I will likely be getting new tires soon and putting them on the chrome rims, but until then I am riding on my aluminum mags with old truck tires.

I switched trailer balls from a 1 7/8 to a 2 inch and I wired in a flat four trailer wiring harness. The truck has a funky old 6 pin plug that isn't wired right. At some point I am going to have to clean up the trailer wiring. It looks like the truck was built with a factory trailer wiring option, but 40 years of dirt and corrosion have made the connections poor. I have brake lights and turn signals, but no running lights, and the lights are all dim. Good enough for a dump run.

So, it is decision time. I have to pull the manifolds to fix the exhaust leak. I have a Super Six intake, a couple carbs that will work on a Super Six intake, and a Lokar kick down linkage. Do I upgrade to a Super Six or do I keep it stock for now? I don't have a good two barrel air cleaner, and I generally like to get an engine running well in stock form before I modify it, but swapping manifolds is not something I do casually.

Also, there is a definitely lack of power issue and the shifts are not right. I need to check base timing and the advance mechanisms and adjust the bands and kick down. I also don't think this 727 has part throttle kick down. I know the truck weighs about 4000 pounds, but it has a 3.90 rear gears. It should be able to accelerate fairly quickly. However, acceleration is terrible. Something isn't right.

I'll keep chipping away at the little projects. I ordered a new set of window felts. Maybe that will help quiet down the interior. The old felts are GONE.

Loaded up and ready for its inaugural dump run in the morning:

I forgot to mention that I disconnected the windshield washer squirter hose from the carb. Yes, a previous owner had plugged the driver's side windshield washer nozzle hose into a port on the side of the carburetor. I don't know if this was some attempt at water injection, but it had to go. But now I need to verify that the driver's side windshield nozzle is present.

For the stripped threads on the mirror- I don't have a visual, but could you try going slightly oversize with a metric cheater screw? (Don't be embarrassed, nobody else has to know, just you and me).

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"Louise", a 1976 Dart Custom project, (now sadly reverted to being just an "organ donor" to our other project Darts.)

Supersix it and adjust the transmissions kickdown. Also if you point the air cleaner snorkel towards the battery, you can hook up the choke housing to the air cleaner.

I think if you're going to super six it, you might want to check to see if the cam is where it should be...if it's not the transmission being finicky or slipping, then I'll bet the cam is a bit retarded causing a lack of power....

Thanks. I need to set aside a weekend where I can dive into the engine and do all the basic tests- slipped vibration damper ring, compression check, valve adjustment, check the cam timing, etc... Acceleration is just not what it should be.

Actually, I have a reground cam with a hotter profile and a fresher head. If the compression checks out good then I might swap the hot cam and fresh head onto the motor.

With that air cleaner I have to point it that way because the center hole is offset. It is from a van so the carb bail hole is not centered in the lid or the base.

I do think a Super Six is a good idea. I need to gather all my conversion parts and do an inventory and make sure I have everything I need. But before i get too far on any modifications I need to check ignition and cam timing, compression, valve lash, and the transmission.

I didn't get any work done on the truck today, I didn't even get out of the driveway. I spent most of the day reorganizing my garage and clearing out crap to o to the dump. However, I was looking at the 76 Dodge dealer databook at http://www.hamtramck-historical.com and I discovered that on 1976 trucks the "emissions reduction control system" was an extra cost option. What a different world. That explains why no charcoal canister is present and there are no ports for the charcoal canister on the carb. It wasn't ordered with one!

Onward and upward! I gotta get some lawyer work done, but hopefully this weekend I can dig into the truck a bit more.

Mostly played lawyer today, but I did a little organizing in the garage and found a set of little yellow fuzzy dice I bought a few years back. I put them in the truck. I found an old throttle return spring and installed it on the carb and I bent the bracket for the manual choke a bit so it sort of works now. Probably won't get back to the truck until this weekend. Hopefully by then I will have won the ashtray and cigarette lighter combo I am bidding on on eBay and my factory service manual will have arrived. I did find time to do a quick clean of the rims and tires on the truck with some Simple Green. The tires are cleaner, but the rims look pretty much the same.

I might also have found a replacement mirror post in Oregon for $30. I am waiting on an email back from the junkyard. Fingers crossed!

Let me know if you ever want to trade for a nice black powder coated grille. Not sure if I'm feeling the look of the contrast on my white pickup.

Well, I am pretty fond of the chrome grille on my truck. I like the contrast of chrome with a dark colored vehicle. Chrome is good. It is shiny. And we all know that shiny things make the vehicle....better.

Today I will drive it to the dump and empty it and the trailer, then park it in front of my garage so I an start to address the various issues. I still need to flush that radiator and cooling system...

Hooray! The window felts and my factory service manual arrived! now I can stop the rattling windows and read up on the carburetor and emissions systems.

Driving to the dump it became obvious that the front end ned a lube, if not a complete rebuilt. Lots and lots of banging and popping when i went around corners. But the brakes are amazing! Light brake pressure locks them up solid. Not sure I like that. I will get to them eventually.