Originally posted by Oeneus:
Truck stats:
1977 Dodge Powerwagon Adventurer (1/2 ton)
Club Cab
Extended Bed
400 cubic inch engine
Edelbrock carb. and manifold





Each and every Dodge (truck) of that era that I have owned has had rusty floors. All of them except my current one have had rusty rear wheel arches and the lower rear section of the front fenders. One even had a bad enough case of cancer that the rockers were gone! My current truck is going to get new front fenders, rockers, bedsides and rear bed corners to make it straight again. The sad part, its not rusty (Nevada truck) but the metal has seen plenty of objects being pushed into it. New door weatherstriping is available through Checker Auto for a decent price (they have to look it up in their book), so far I have only found the window wipers at the dealer. You can also pick up the bushings for the windshield wipers from Checker for cheap. Gets rid of almost all of the play in the wipers. Clean out your heater box if you already havent, its probably full of leaves. Hopefully you didnt open it while going down the freeway. A metal screen over the holes below the cowl panel will solve this problem.

If its a 4x4, expect to spend a little more on the drag link from the steering box to the spindle. It was like a two year part and it shows in the price. AutoZone does have it for the cheapest I have found, of $100. Also, being a 4x4, I would look at your steering u-joints before you drive too much. They wernt greaseable from the factory, so they probably havent seen any since Dodge put it together. The replacements are cheap, and are also cheap insurance with you being a full-time 4x4.

You may find these helpful: rustrepair.com Ebay is also a good source for some hard to find items, like an 8-track. Partsvoice.com is also good for finding hard to find items since Mopar seems to have their part number stamped in everything. If you need a little more help, I would reccomend signing up to the Mopar Mailing List if you already havent. Ramchargercentral.com is also a decent place to put some of your questions.

Also, through the years, I have found that the headlamp harness sucks (not suprising hearing that from me). The 26+ years of service tends to make the contacts in the switches poor at best. I have even had one truck (`74 D100, RIP ) go so far as to short out its dimmer switch making me drive home without headlamps. Luckily I was less then a mile from home, on back roads and a quick wire through the flasher relay gave me extra bright park lamps. Anyway, I would suggest rewiring the headlamp harness on the radiator support. Doing this on my past Ramcharger I was able to get incandesent lamps to shine slightly brighter then halogens (until I rewired the halogen). I have done this to the `77 as well, it is a much needed mod that doesnt cost a whole lot. Granted, I would only want to do this on a truck that I was going to drive. If you are trying to take it back to perfect stock, stay away. Replace the rag joint in the steering too. Every single truck of this era that I have owned (4) have had the rag joints dying creating sloppy steering.

Long reply, but I am just sharing what I have found.

· Jon Miconi · Coming Soon! · 01 Cougar · 98 V70R