[Wildwest]

Engine needs rebuilt, auto trans, cracked windshield, dubious statements and who knows what else. There's a sucker born every minute!

I forget what that show quality Rampage sold for that was listed on ebay, the guy who got it posted here. But I'll bet it was close to the asking price for this one.

 

[Meek]

LOL Almost New Tires. -87k original miles. He must mean the tires have -87k original miles.

From the look of the body and interior the original miles seems more like 187,000 original miles, if not more.

When I first saw the truck I was thinking $2200. But the more I looked and read how the
Ignition switch is bypassed my thought was more like $1100. More like a fancy painted parts vehicle.

 

[Wes Henderson]

Ugh... It's been a while. With due cause though. I'll start from the beginning.

It was a perfect Saturday morning. I had called pick n pull twice earlier that week to confirm they had the 1982 dodge rampage that was a perfect candidate for cannibalism. It had everything I could want and theneed some. I called once more before I headed out to make sure it was still there. It turns out, they were having a 50% off Sale so I decided I would just buy the whole thing. I make my two hour drive and go out into the yard. My heart sinks... the row it was supposedly in is all missing. I rush back inside and they said they literally just crushed the whole row. I was pissed and devastated. Well that was only the beginning of my problems.

On my way home a huge, lifted truck swerves in front of me and is kicking up rocks galore. I don't think anything of it until about ten minutes later when my car instantly overheats. I pull over and check it out, confused because everything is literally brand new. Well... that truck must have kicked a rock back hard enough to go THROUGH my radiator because there is a hole in it is could fit my pinky through. -__-

I'll skip the details and problems I had with roadside assistance, but let's just say it took eight hours to get home and I had to drive it about two miles at a time. So she is home, I drain the little bit of coolant left and no oil in it. Good. I drain the oil and no coolant in it. Good. Installed a new copper radiator, flushed and filled the coolant, did an oil change etc. Started her up and she sounded fine. I INTENDED on checking compression after running her a little bit to listen for symptoms. I only have a four miles commute for work. Well, this morning something (head gasket) gave on me. She bellowed white smoke and sprayed coolant out the exhaust. I suppose I'll be rebuilding her... again.

I blame pick n pull. If they had not crushed my truck-to-be, I wouldn't have encountered any of this nonsense. *sigh*

 

[Meek]

Did you ask the Morons why they crushed the whole row if they were in the middle of a 50% off sale ?

I guess they are rather dim bulbs or they wouldn't be working at a you pull it yard.

 

[INSATANSSEAT]

Pick and pull sells whole vehicles??

There's a TI Lancer at one near me.

 

[Wes Henderson]

Depends on the location. It's at the manager's discretion from what I understand. But something that they don't sell many parts from, like a rampage, is easy to persuade them to sell.

I did ask them that. They said they had cars in their back lot that were waiting to be brought out. Still doesn't quite make sellers to me.

New Mopar performance head gasket is on the way, along with another water pump (seep hole leaks after overheating the seal) and a felpro single piece valve cover gasket. No more four piece cork nonsense.

 

[Wes Henderson]

Been a while, so I figured I might check in.

Here is what I have done:
-Straight pipe exhaust from manifold to rear wheel. Single chamber muffler 1 to 2 will be here on the 6th.
-Rebuilt the head and cooling system... again.
-1" temporary lift in front.

Here is what I will do:
-Finish the exhaust
-Relocate battery and replace with two Optima 6v batteries in series.
-Replace seat belts
-Plastic weld some damaged interior panels.
-Buy a new driver window.
-Tint the windows. 25% VLT.

Here is what I can't figure out:
-I have a strange sound... When I turn left hard enough or turn left some and accelerate, something starts feeding noise to my passenger speaker. It may even be both speakers, but the driver one is bad. Even with the radio off, that obnoxious static white noise is miserable. ANY thoughts would be appreciated.
-I would like to lift her a bit for now. The rear is cake. I can make some hangers or lift blocks. But the front... What options do we have? Any clearance issues with raising the front? I'm thinking about 3" front and back.
-I can't find any rear shock replacements. Anyone know a part number or dimensions? (I realize I would need to account for the lift if I do it).
-She has an irregular lifter sound. By irregular I mean that sometimes it is there and sometimes it is not. Just sitting at an idle, it will come and go. But it is almost always heavily present on deceleration. The timing is set correctly as well. Do you guys think retarding it would fix this? Maybe the IAC?

 

[Wildwest]

Wes,

I installed a lot of CB's and car stereos back in the 70s and 80s. Don't know what kind of head unit you have, but I'll assume it's a single DIN model. It sounds like it could be a short in the wiring between the head unit and speakers. Loose wires under the dash or loose connections on the speakers could cause that. You've got a lot of other priorities it appears, but when you're ready to tackle it, here's what I would recommend:

Get a pair of replacement speakers that you want to install
Pull the head unit and connect it to a spare battery to bench test it
Strip the wires from both speakers and the head unit
Just twist them together and make sure it's tight
Fire up that head unit and put in a CD (or cassette). Do not use the radio as the reception will be poor with likely static
If it all sounds good, mount the speakers in the doors and use terminal connectors that fit nice and tight. Use 12 gauge with mostly copper strands (cheaper wires have more aluminum), do not splice the wire between the speakers and head unit.
I highly recommend soldering the wires from the head unit to the speaker wires.
Use plenty of zip ties to keep them together along the run and find some other wires or supports under the dash to keep them from dangling. There should very little, if any, sway along the wire run.
Crank up them tunes, man!

As a side question, I would be interested in learning what you selected for your muffler and why. The exhaust system on my Rampage is a down the road project.

 

[Wes Henderson]

Wildwest, if the vehicle had an aftermarket stereo then I most definitely would have done exactly what you said. However, the speakers and stereo are all original. I would like to keep the original radio if at all possible. The thing that makes me feel a bench test is unnecessary is that the sound is present with the radio off. That and the fact that the noise is directly proportional to the engine rpm. If I push the gas harder, it gets proportionally louder. If I let off, it decreases proportionally. But even coasting around a tight enough turn has some minimUm level of noise. I feel as though it is some other signal back feeding into the speaker, but this is something I've never encountered.

Irt the exhaust, it may not benefit you since I have the 2.5 instead of the 2.2. The exhaust tones and resonation are different between the two. At the very least, backpressure is related to displacement divided by cylinders divided by number of exhaust pipes times exhaust inside area. I'll be sure to link a video with sound once I am finished. Perhaps you may be able to take what I am using and simply step the two pipes down 1/4" in diameter after the single chamber.

I am going to play around with the timing probably on Sunday and see if it affects the lifter sound.

For the lift, I was thinking of possibly using a modified k member that has dual pivots and then welding up my own control arms after taking some measurements. Then find struts of the length I want and order or make front coil springs to length.

I was so close to picking up a 5.9 Cummins for my trucklet but the guy sold it out from under me. So I am still waiting for the right one to turn up.

Side note for anyone interested, I'm making a how-to thread on odometer repair.

 

[Wildwest]

Sorry Was, I had assumed it was an aftermarket unit. That opens a whole different can of worms. The only experience I've had with them is when I pulled it out and marked the wires before I cut them.n

You're right, like your stock radio I'm keeping my stock 2.2L engine. I was just curious. Sounds like you have so e grand plans for your Rampage.

 

[Wes Henderson]

Does anyone else have a factory speaker top center in the dash? I realized mine may be missing and perhaps that is causing my noise in the passenger one.

 

[Wes Henderson]

Daggonit... There I was just driving home from the gym and upon taking a left turn, she died. Engine unresponsive, everything else was fine. Coasted to a stop, tried to crank, nothing. No new codes and no time to troubleshoot the fuel pump or HEP due to having watch. I'll post when I have more info. Towed it home, sadly.

 

[Wes Henderson]

Thanks to NASWI and his post, I was able to determine that my new ignition coil gave out on me somehow. For reference:

No Start No Spark

She's back up and running. Oh, and I finally gave her a name. "Wench" it is. It's a play on words for when she gets her front and rear bumper winches and the winch crane in the bed. Not to mention, she's a pain in the ass and I'm a sailor, haha.

 

[Wes Henderson]

OK guys... I could really use some help. My passenger CV joint is failing. Ordered a new one but the inboard shaft is too short. The splines don't engage because they don't reach. Also, the one that I've been driving on, it has a much thicker diameter shaft. Everything else about the new and old axle is identical. I have the A413 and an 86 Aries 2.5 swapped into it.

 

[Meek]

It seems likely that you have a 1986 A413 transaxle because the A413's that came out sometime after 1984 had the thicker axle shafts on the CV joints. It makes me wonder if the CV Joints from the 86 Aries were on your vehicle?

 

[Wes Henderson]

It seems likely that you have a 1986 A413 transaxle because the A413's that came out sometime after 1984 had the thicker axle shafts on the CV joints. It makes me wonder if the CV Joints from the 86 Aries were on your vehicle?

After doing a bit more research this morning, I found out that is exactly what is going on. The Aries axle has a unique double ring on the passenger shaft that looks like a friction weld. Lo and behold, so does mine. I'll be sure to follow up once I've confirmed fit and function but it's been frustrating.

 

[83scamp]

Buy yourself an axle for an 88+ Omni with automatic trans. That will give you the correct length, and the correct spline.

I had to do the same thing on my Scamp because I installed an A-520 5 speed. It has the larger splines as well. Works like a charm.

 

[Wes Henderson]

Oh no... My 86 Aries axles arrived and they don't match. I hope it's not because I was too stubborn to listen, but I'll admit it if it is. I went in to NAPA, part in hand, and they assured me it was from the 86 Aries. The new one's overall length is too long, but the inboard shaft is too short. Here is a picture of the old and new axles, inboard side.

 

[83scamp]

Oh no... My 86 Aries axles arrived and they don't match. I hope it's not because I was too stubborn to listen, but I'll admit it if it is. I went in to NAPA, part in hand, and they assured me it was from the 86 Aries. The new one's overall length is too long, but the inboard shaft is too short. Here is a picture of the old and new axles, inboard side.

The left one is a large spline axle. See how the splines on the end are the same size as the machined surface? The right one, the splines appear to be noticeably smaller than the machined area. Also note the recessed area in the middle. A sure sign of a small spline axle.

If the left one works in your trans, and the right one doesn't, they sold you a small splined axle...

See my post above for the correct axle to ask for...

 

[Wes Henderson]

So I took measurements of the axle that came out. 38" overall length compressed, 25 inboard splines, 26 outboard splines. I looked up 88 Omni CV shaft and read it is 38 31/32" oal compressed with the same splines. Now, to measure compressed, I actually have to push the axle together as much as I can, yes?