1985 D150 "Mr. Curtis" race truck with a 2015 6.4

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I had one of those "it might fit"-moments again. But i did not f it up this time - i think i really got a solution to get the turn signal / high beam stalk mounted.

See for yourself and judge :D

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I know it's rough. That's why i'll do another one. I had to let one die to get the measurements and positioning right.
Here's the "real deal":

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It sits a bit closer to the steering wheel and is clocked a bit closer to the 10pm position.
And i did not start on it because it was like 9pm and i got tired... been working on the truck for like eight hours today.
 
And yes, that's the housing of a AT column. Why? Because i was thinking i could put a nice three-stage shift light where the gear indicator used to sit.
 
That is a brilliant idea! What is the multi function switch out of? When you mount it into the column, post some pics. You're doing a lot of nice things to your truck, so keep up the good work. :thumbsup:
 
Thanks!

With the engine package i received the steering column. Unfortunately, it got bent in the wreck that this Challenger was in.
But the SCCM (steering column control module) is intact, the stalk is intakt and i have a habit of taking everything apart.

The second proto is better but still not good enough... i think i have one more steering column housing somewhere.
I am hesitant to cut into one of the rarer manual column housings...
 
FYI:
I took delivery of the Scat pack emblems, the dimensions are:

60mm (2.36") high, 70mm (2.75") wide
 
More pics of more steering column hacking:

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This is proto three, red in color. The color does not mean anything, i had it, it was painted by the PO, it got hacked up.
Now i have a solid solution to mount the stalk in the housing, feels good.

"All" that's left to do is build a turn signal return cam with an integrated horn contact ring. Yay.

For stuff like this, i could really use a milling machine...
 
More videos of fiddling around with a small stick. Much like Harry Potter and Sir Lucas, prince of electrical darkness.

Turn signal stalk testing


And now with them return of turn signals. Really proud of that ;)

 
Not going to happen. I don't like it any more.

First things first.

I will have to look into building the chassis soon, i took delivery of the 6" drop coils from Early Classic (Chevy stuff) and the trailing arm bushings.
I intentionally went with rubber bushings for compliance. This thing will be hard enough once it's done... and i don't consider poly bushings a good replacement.

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I think that's so awesome:

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And at the end of lots of making of waste parts, i think i am close to beeing done. All i need is a 50cm flat flex cable and additional wiring to the hazard switch and horn.
Oh and i need to figure out, how the BCM wants its horns honked.

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And i also made a different approach for the turn signal return cam. This is easier to build and it does not slip off the wheel stub.

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I built this contrapment:

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It locates everything in its stock Ram 1500 specs, adjusted to the aproximate ride height of my truck so i can just push it under the engine crossmember and start building frame attachments.

Well, no.

In stock form the inner axis of the LCA of the Ram 1500 is on a 2° incline with the rear of the control arm beeing lower.
It is also angled inward 7° in relation to center line, with the rear bushing sitting further inboard than the front bushing.

None of that works with my D150s frame.
Also i can not set the LCA level (which is something you want to have) and have my preferred ride height.

Gotta think about it, make some adjustments and see where that takes me.
All of this is scrap metal that we have in the shop, so no biggie if i have to cut it up and make another one.
 
Spot the difference:

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I had the LCA angled to the wrong side in relation to the centerline of the frame... bozo move.
No everything wanted to go where i first saw it going when i mocked up the LCA on a bucket and just shoved that under the frame...

Hearthrobbingly i began cutting the bump stop off the frame and drilling out the rivets of the original LCA mount.
These had to be drilled out to .35" and on the next metric drill size 10mm/.4" the rivet heads just sheared off.

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Yay!
These have been: A - larger and B - gnarlier on my '76 W200.
And they fought harder than they did on this purdy frame. Ignore the chisel marks on the LCA mount, i thought i would have to hammer and chisel the rivet heads off until i tried the .4" drill bit.

My arms still hurt though, the position i had to hold the drill at was not really comfortable or endurable for very long...

My small 270W B&D drill, made in the 50s in England, went through the rivets really well.
My gramps had the exact same drill in his small basement shop. Good memories.
 
Shoot...
I thought i had bought tail lamp "led lamp" inserts... it turns out it was just a pair of license lamps i bought.
Not reading the Ebay offer properly, i guess.
Anyhow, i needed one of those.

I was able to snag a complete tail light (only need one side to disect the circuit board) and a wrecked headlight for cheap, which means each one is around 200$ incl. shipping to Germany.
400$ in parts that i will have to destroy to understand them. Great.
 
Witness me cutting up 200 dollars worth of tail light:

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Forget the heat gun. Use real tools instead.

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And that's when stuff really went snowballin' on me. One circuit board after the other came out of this thing like there is no end!

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And i could not help myself and played with it a bit. Man these LEDs are bright... and yes, i totally needed the circuit board to understand what's going on.

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HEADACHES IT IS GIVING ME!
Honestly, what they do to generate the fault signal for the tail lamps is not too complicated.
BUT:
I can't have more than 0.4 amps on the park lamp wire, which is why the BCM shut it down all the time.
Was not a problem with the fault signal, but with the amps an incandescent bulb pulls... so this will have to run a relay instead.

The fault signal is generated for the turn signal/stop light, not the park lamp.


I tore into the headlight assembly as well and it's more complicated than that. And also a tighter packed board, which is annoying because it's harder to trace out.
 
Holy cow, this thread was dead.
Giving you a quick update hereby.

The project ground to a halt when i goofed up the front suspension:

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I did not know where to go from here... then some real-life **** happened and cost me another month to figure it out and fix my head.
Now i am slowly getting back to the project and trying to catch up with things.
I have not been lazy, my '85 W250 is at the paint shop receiving body repair (dents and unwanted holes) and new (original style) paint all over.

I now think i might have found a solution for the suspension problem, but i will have to look into that:

78-79 Ford truck coil towers. The ones without the shock mount. These bolt to the frame, bolt ons are good. Now i just need to get my hands on a pair of these...
 
Dude this build is gonna be absolutely wicked!!! Definitely looking forward to seeing more! Btw, why not just make the tail/brake light circuit boards fit the ram housings? Or can you guys not run LED's in vehicles that didn't come with them?
 
As for the wiring, i am going to get rid of everything i did so far and restore the factory wiring harness for all of the body lighting.
Why is that?

Mopar came around with a stand alone engine harness for the 6.4 engines, including everything you need to run that engine.
 
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