Got the guages in today. All hooked up except the trans temp. I still need to install the probe. Needed to go get a fitting and did not want to install it while the fluid was hot.
A closer view.

Guages

I will be wanting boost, pyro, and trans-temp guages. I also want them where I can see them. I am not happy with the pillar pods that are available for the first generation trucks, so I relocated the message center to the radio hole and opened up some prime dash real estate for the important guages.

The guages come in Thursday.

I did a write-up with pictures on the DTR site. Here is a link. http://www.dieseltruckresource.com/dev/showthread.php?t=211964

Well, here it sits.
I've been driving it for a couple of days now.
The green is 1977. The black 1989. the engine, tranny, transfer case, wiring, and dash are 1991.5 Dodge Cummins, the axles are 1975 for now. All along, I have been calling the cummins stuff '92. COme to find out, it is 1991 1/2. It makes a difference in how some things, such as the over-drive, are wired.
I drove across some scales. 5300pounds. 3450 in the front, 1850 in the back. This shot shows the 92 dash with the 92 tilt column and heater box.
Nothing like wide open spaces.

Can you see me smiling. Some babes only a mother can love.

It's hard to tell from the picture what is going on with all these wires, but this is a shot taken in the middle of connecting the 1992 ctd wiring for the back of the truck to the 1977 wiring that is already in the back of the truck. I used a Haynes manual wiring diagram to figure out the color codes of the chasis wires. Since my cheapo manual does not cover diesels and I have not coughed up the 100 clams for the Mopar Field Service Manual for the 1992 cummins trucks, I had to use deductive reasoning to figure out what is what on the 1992 side. As I traced each wire, I labeled it with tape and marker. When I had them all figured out, I soldered and shrink-tubed all the connections. The frame harness on the cummin/dodge side originates at a dark blue plug under the dash to the left of the steering column. It then routes through the firewall in a 1 1/2" grommet, goes down the firewall, and back inside the left frame rail. When I dismantled the donor truck, I cut the harness at the bottom of the firewall, so the first thing I did was retrieve the down-stream part of the harness out of the old frome. Then I worked my way down the loom and identified the purpose of the wires as the exited the loom. The first wires I came to were for the fuel tank so I labeled those wires for the ground, guage, and low-fuel light. The next was for the abs sensor on the differential. These are not needed so I bundled them together and labeled them "abs." Then came the abs dump-valve. They were bundles and labeled "abs." Then I got to the left lights. The 92 ran ground wires instead of grounding to the frame. The black wire was ground for all the grounded items, that left three wires. One had to be the stop/turn, another would be tail, and the last would be back-up. I bundled these in masking tape and labeled "left." moving down the harness, I came to the license plate light wire. It was the same color as one one of the three wires in my "left" bundle, so I pulled that wire out and labeled it "tail." Finally, I got to the end of the harness. Here I had three wires plus a ground again. I knew which was the tail color. That left two. One was the same color as one of the wires in the pair that was left in my "left" bundle. This had to be the back-up light wire. The remaining wire in the "left" bundle had to be the left turn/brake wire and the remaining wire at the end of the harness had to be the right turn/brake wire. These old American trucks used a single 1157 two-filament bulb to function as tail, stop, and turn lights. Dim for tail and bright for stop/turn.

Before I soldered everything up, I double checked using a volt-meter. Headlights on = power to the taillight wire. Left turn switch on with key on = intermittant power to the left turn wire. And so on...

The amazing thing is in the end, it all worked.

Note: Since there were not enough wires running back, I chose not to wire the low fuel light.

The front driveline from the donor truck bolted right in because the length between the t-case and the front differential did not change. The rear driveline was a different story. I had to take over 20" out of it. The new length was 30.25" center of u-joint to center of u-joint. Since the Dana 60 is just temporary, I had the driveline made-up with the big u-joints that were factory on the cummins trucks. This meant I had to change the pinion yoke on the rear-end. Luckily the splines are the same from one to the other.
Rear joint made-up.
Front.
The whole thing. It ended up with very little room for the splines to move. I did not measure it to see if it came out the length I asked for or if it was my mistake in taking the measurement before I changed the yoke. Something to check on.

Tank problems.

This may be out of order, but I got excited and failed to post for a few days. I had trouble getting fuel up to the lift pump, and, in the process of tracking down the problem, I noticed the fuel tank was seeping fuel. It looks like the exhause was at one time routed too close to the tank and melted it. I had inspected the spot and determined that it was okay, but apparently I was wrong.

So, I pulled out the tank that was destined for my crewcab project. This tank is out of a 1993 fuel injected ramcharger. The sending unit is out of a cummins diesel Dodge. The two wires on the left are both ground. The other two are for the guage and low fuel warning light.
The top hose is the fuel return line. The lower is the fuel delivery line.
The old fill neck that fits the body of the truck was held into the old tank with machine screws. The newer style tank has a big rubber donut that friction fits the tube. I saw no reason to remove the flange and risk damaging the fill tube.
I used the existing vent for my vent line.
These two wires are part of the original 1977 rc wiring for the fuel guage. The yellow is grounded to the frame. The green is part of the loom that goes all the way up to the firewall plug and ultimately to the guage.

Using a diesel tank unit out of the tank, I found that blue/yellow wire in the plug on the unit was the guage plug so I connected it to the green wire in the frame harness.

Then I soldered it.

And shrink-tubed it.

I did the same with the ground wire.

Everything made-up ready to lift the tank.

All tucked-up in the frame.

Thar she sits.

Finally, I hooked-up the fill tube and vent. Since the tank vent was 3/4" and the fill-neck vent was 3/8", I left a bit of the old hose on the fill-neck vent, then overlayed it with the bigger hose before clamping it. Worked slick.

Another short miscelanious day.

I was holding off on hanging the left front fender until I sorted out the starting problem. While my daughter turned the key I was trying to troubleshoot. Suspected the park/neutral switch. Before crawling under the truck, I banged the start relay with a half inch wrench and it turned over. great lesson in shade-tree mechanics for my daughter. So, I went ahead and hung the fender. I buttoned up the rest of the dash, bled the brakes, filled the radiator, replaced the radiator overflow bottle to the stock location, and installed a seat. Tomorrow, I hope to get some fuel in it and run it for a bit. I still need to wire the brake/tail/liscence/back-up lights. It is another place where the 1992 meets the 1977.

Windshield Day

I started by cleaning up both sides of the flange with a wire cup brush in the 4" angle grinder. I followed that with a couple of coats of black Zero Rust spray paint. While the paint was curing, I scrubbed the old window rubber with a brass wire brush in a bucket of soapy water. In the past, I would have just purchased a new one, but they are now about $65. The old one did not seem brittle, so I figured it would work even if it was full of crud and had green moss on it. after it was scrubbed clean, I rescrubbed it with R-U Glide. R-U Glide is the rubber lube that they use when mounting and dismounting tires. As you can see, the rubber looks like new.

I started by pushing the rubber onto the flange all the way around the opening. You can see that I also dabbed some body sealer in the gaps above the cowel. I had forgoten to do it before. When it dries, I will paint over it to make it black. Eventually, it will be covered by the upper valence.
Next, I put the bottom of the windshield into the groove in the rubber and leaned the glass back against the frame.
Ordinarily I would have tucked a rope into the groove to help pull the rubber lip over the edge of the glass. Not having a rope of the correct thickness, I opted to use this tool. I think it is a tool used to loosen stuck hoses, but I am not sure. I saw it in the middle of an intersection and thought it would look better in my toolbox than sticking out of somebody's tire, so I stopped to pick it up. Working slowly and pressing inward on the window with my hand, I worked my way around the glass.

Working mostly with the tool this way to avoid poking through the rubber, I pushed the lip from the inside of the cab out. Occasionally, I would use it in the way depicted to pull the lip over the glass. Whenever it started feeling tight, I would hose it down with windex and it would slide right in place.

Eventuallu, The entire glass was in the groove in the rubber.
Once the glass is seated, the lock cord goes in. The lock cord fills the void that allows the rubber to flex enough to be forced over the glass. Using a rag, I liberaly doused the cord with R-U Glide. When it was dry, I could not force it into the slot. Once lubed, I was able to pop it in place with my fingers.
I worked it all the way around.

Just to the right (picture right) of the shine on the bottom of the windshield, you can see about 6" of the cord stiking up. This is the overlap. I am pretty sure that over time the cord, which was stretched during install, will relax. If I cut it to fit now, it may leave a gap later. I will give it a few days, then I will trim it.

Somewhat random day.

I didn't get out to the shop until early afternoon today. The first thing I did was hang the driver's inner-fender. I had been holding off on the engine bay wiring until this was in place. I left the bolts loose so that I can jockey it around to line up the hood and fenders. I also reinstalled the key lock and start switch. I had taken them out to get a key made. $25 later, I now have a key to unlock the column and some day start the dumb thing.
Next, I focussed my attention to the wiring. I ran the main bundle along the top of the firewall. I then mounted the voltage regulator to the firewall and plugged the harness into it. I also attached the ground.
Then I hooked up the grid heaters. The grid heaters are acuated by solenoids on the driver's inner-fender. When the key is turned, the heaters heat in order to assist start-up. From what I understand the computer times the heat cycle and shuts them off after a few seconds when the "Wait to start" light goes out. Later, if and when I rewire this truck to make it as simple and reliable as possible, these grid heater will probably go away.
These two big plugs on the side of the engine by the lift pump and fuel filter get connected.
These two plugs connect the alternator to the harness.
The blower motor plug.

This is the washer tank pump plug on the passenger inner fender.
After hooking up what I could under the hood, I hung a door on the passenger side. Since the rear body and the windshield frame do not move, the door goes on before the fender. I do not know how many times I tried it the other way around and spent the rest of the day trying to get things to line-up. By doing the door first, you just fit the door to the winshield frame first, then to the body, rear of the door. On the lower hinge, leave two bolts loose and tighten the middle one. When the door is closed, you can get to the upper hinge bolts and this center lower bolt with a 9/16 socket and a 6" extension. I adjusted the top hinge to make the door fit the bottom of the windshield frame. Then I adjusted the bottom hinge to even out the gap along the door and frame.
Since I am using a newer style door than the body, I had to change the latch pin. I did not take any picks of that. I will when I do the other door. Once the latch pin is in place, it is adjusted up or down so the door closes smoothly and in or out to make the trailing edge of the door line-up with the body.
Once the door is in place, the fender can go on. To adjust the fender, work from the door forward. For now, I only tightened the back of the fender. The rest is loose until the hood is in place. Then it will get adusted and tightened to make the gaps along the hood look good. This picture was taken befor the back of the fender was adjusted.
I turned the key. I got buzzer, blower, wipers, hazard flashers, wait to start, 4x4 indicator, headlights, and map light, but no starter. I just get a click. I put the charger on the battery to make sure it was fully charged. Tomorrow, I will do some testing before I put the other fender on. Lifted trucks are such a joy to work on. The top of the fender is just right to rest my forearms on and talk about the worlds problems. Way too high for easy access. Oh, the price you pay for being cool.

I should also get the rest of the screws in the top of the dash and get the windshield in. The more I do to it (thinking doors here), the harder it will be to do the windshield.

Das update.

The dash is pretty much in. Needs a few mor screws. I still need to get a key made somehow. I got the switch and tumbler assy out, but without a key, I can't get to key lock out of the switch. It is worth a trip to the locksmoth as each of the two parts cast $66. Anyway, the plugs under the dash that I could not figure ended up being some kind of flasher or buzzer for when you leave your keys in. something for the radio, the third was the place where the power door equiptment harness would plug in.
Another pic.