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1985 Dodge W150 fun!

Damn, they musta changed after 84.......... oops. :bag:
There is a spring loaded (kinda) plastic lever tab that locks into the hole. Kind of a one way sort of thing, if you can slide a thin flat probe from the back (out) side it should release the lock tab.
 
Polara_500 said:
Damn, they musta changed after 84.......... oops. :bag:
There is a spring loaded (kinda) plastic lever tab that locks into the hole. Kind of a one way sort of thing, if you can slide a thin flat probe from the back (out) side it should release the lock tab.
Click to expand...
Yes and I forgot the truck has some of both. Cab wiring is a combination of 82 and something else, possibly 83. Chassis wiring is 83 and engine bay is the after 84 with modifications. Hey if you don't like something just change it.
 
Yes that helps alot. I was looking at the rubber pad thingy on the inside but didn't take it out. Now I will and see what fun things I will find. I will take picks of my progress and post them here for all to see. Thanks again for everyone's help. I'm quite sure I will need more in the future!
 
Well mine doesn't have the cool blue lock thingy like in the other thread. But I can see the lock tabs with the gasket removed. Slip in a small flat head and the wires fall right out.
Screenshot_20200918-161243_Gallery.jpg
 
now I can route all these wires correctly and cleanly. Also see which ones need replacing. Thanks everyone for all your help!
 
Got the all the wires out. (Engine side) Only one missing wire, one broken terminal lug, and 11 cut wires. Now the fun of what is good and what needs to be replaced. Also where to find new terminal lugs.
Screenshot_20200919-104012_Gallery.jpg
 
It's been awhile since I put in an update. So here it is... I have been working on the wiring issues. Looks like whom ever worked on the pickup got the engine side bulkhead connector out of a 6 cylinder automatic truck with cruise control. Not that it matters but the wire labels on some of the wires don't match a 318 4 speed. But that's what schematics are for. So attempt #1. I think I found some crack to smoke before I started. I don't know what I did, or how I did it. But I made everything worse. I thought I needed a new starter, so I bought and installed one. That was not the problem. I thought, maybe a bad battery, nope. Luckily I didn't buy a new one. Turns out that in my crack fueled frenzy of wiring madness I managed to wire everything that needed power straight to the battery. Now there is too much draw on the battery to even turn the engine over. I suck!!! Now that I think I'm sober enough to actually read through the schematics. I have realized what my problem is. ME :arghh: So I ripped out all the BS I caused and started over. Attempt #2, actually reading and understanding the schematics, who would have thought that this might work. Now as per the schematics I have the Negative side of the battery going where it should, and the Positive side going where it should. I'm currently working on the Alternator connections. The big black wire is hooked up, the green wire is hooked up, and all that's left is the red wire. I ran out of wire so that's where I have stopped. But it is currently to freaking cold outside to work. I'll put another update if this works or not.
 
hotskins said:
It's been awhile since I put in an update. So here it is... I have been working on the wiring issues. Looks like whom ever worked on the pickup got the engine side bulkhead connector out of a 6 cylinder automatic truck with cruise control. Not that it matters but the wire labels on some of the wires don't match a 318 4 speed. But that's what schematics are for. So attempt #1. I think I found some crack to smoke before I started. I don't know what I did, or how I did it. But I made everything worse. I thought I needed a new starter, so I bought and installed one. That was not the problem. I thought, maybe a bad battery, nope. Luckily I didn't buy a new one. Turns out that in my crack fueled frenzy of wiring madness I managed to wire everything that needed power straight to the battery. Now there is too much draw on the battery to even turn the engine over. I suck!!! Now that I think I'm sober enough to actually read through the schematics. I have realized what my problem is. ME :arghh: So I ripped out all the BS I caused and started over. Attempt #2, actually reading and understanding the schematics, who would have thought that this might work. Now as per the schematics I have the Negative side of the battery going where it should, and the Positive side going where it should. I'm currently working on the Alternator connections. The big black wire is hooked up, the green wire is hooked up, and all that's left is the red wire. I ran out of wire so that's where I have stopped. But it is currently to freaking cold outside to work. I'll put another update if this works or not.
Click to expand...
Yeah, best to leave the crack pipe down until you're finished! :fool:
 
On my 85 the wiring was a major train wreck when I got it. I went to the junkyard and got another harness and started over. Along the way I got an under hood fuse box off of something newer (mine was off of something brand F) u cut the fuse box out with about a foot of wire to spare and incorporated it into my new harness, I untaped the whole replacement harness, fixed a couple of bad spots (bad due to age, bad insulation in a few spots) and along with the factory wiring diagram, I built my own harness with everything that used to go thru a fusible link now going thru the under hood fuse box. Much easier in the future to find a parts store with an assortment of Maxi fuses than to find fusible link wire and easier to change too.
 
Yup.
The original harness was so bad, (due to what I call past owner interference) the hot from the alternator changed color and gauge size 3x in the length of the/6 valve cover. No connector whether butt splice or wire nut, just twisted and taped, one such connection right above the fuel line by less than a 1/2". And the tip of the twisted wires facing down and bare 4 of the fuse links were fried and just as crudely repaired.
He had an extension cord to a way too light duty flip switch going from a bike in the dash bezel straight to the blower motor. I haven't pulled the bezel yet to see how bad it might be there yet.
It had a crude aftermarket cruise control on it just as badly wired under the dash. That is gone.
I have yet to change the ignition switch in the column (non tilt, same as 70s cars, wheel has to come off/ I have the replacement.) it has lost most of it's "spring". That is just wear and tear.
And that don't count the melted out voltage regulator, or the badly botched ignition primary wiring at the coil and distributor pick up, not the lean burn removal that I did either.
 
Well, I put crack pipe away. Opened a bottle of beer and went to work. Got everything wired up as correctly as I can tell from the schematics. Now I got the engine to turn over, that part sounded great. But it would not fire. More beer, lots of U.S. Navy language!!! Yes I was a sailor. Found out I'm not getting a spark at any cylinder. First I checked to make sure I actually connected everything. That seemed good. Checked the coil, voltage to the coil was good. Popped the top to the distributer. Now nothing in there looks like any thing I have seen in all the parts pics for the distributer. So now, I'm like WTF. Looking at it closer, I find the at some point a new after market distributer was installed. An Accel Street Billet or something to that effect.

I didn't know anything about this dist. so I went onto the World Wide Web of misinformation and found out that on this particular dist. you bypass the ballast resister and remove the ECU. If you don't the engine wont fire. Muther Effin Whore! That's why there wasn't any of that in the engine bay when I started this whole mess. I found the manufactures recommended installation instructions and followed those. And like freakin magic, the engine fired, well long enough to burn up some wires under the dash.

Don't know the extent yet, but the lights flashed and the horn went off. A little magic smoke and that was it. The turn signal switch connector just crumbled in my hand, so that's where I will start tomorrow.
 
So, the turn signal switch is garbage, new one on order. The amp meter in the dash is also toast. I believe that's where the smoke came from. I have that bypassed for now. But from what I understand, the amp meter is junk anyways. I will be getting some after market gauges to replace with later. So as of right now i do not have a short that I can find. But my truck still wont start. A couple things I found, first the manufacture recommended coil needs to have less than 1 ohm resistance on the primary side. The one in my truck does not, it has 1.6 ohms. Also the spark plug wires look to be suspect. As it looks like an animal (or previous owner) has chewed on them, and the coil wire doesn't match the rest of the wires. Under the distributer cap, and inside the distributer looked pretty clean. i.e. nothing looked burnt or corroded. Spark plugs were a little black, but not oily or wet. But I believe the combination of the wrong coil, and shady ignition wires is the culprit of no spark at the plugs. So with any MOPAR (Money, Overhaul, Part Are Required) more parts are on order. I let you know what happens once everything is in and installed.
 
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