1974 W200

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mopardude318

mopardude318

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Small block, NP435 and divorced 205. Dana 60 rear and drum brake dana 44.

This had a 360 but I blew it up. I have too much fun with manual transmissions. I bought this back in 2020. Finally doing something with it. It’s just gonna be a driver, kinda down and dirty.

I pulled the front clip off, the cab and bed. Took it down to the frame and pressure washed it. I’m gonna get my pod blaster and blast the frame and paint it with summit brand chassis paint. It was way too greasy to work on so I thought stripping it down would make it more enjoyable to work on. Kind of a clean slate.

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sireland67 said:
Looks like a fun project
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Thank you. It’s a little more fun this time around. I’m kinda just using what I got, cleaning up and painting parts as I go.

I did convert the Dana 44 to disc brakes using all the parts from the outer axle shafts, and spindles-out, from a Chevy K20 Dana 44/10 bolt, and used Warn hubs.

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Yeah, 44's are pretty interchangeable, putting a 90 W250 front end on my Ramcharger framed 47 Dodge truck.
I have a 75 D200 that I am going to use for a parts truck, to take the HD D60 for the rear of the 47.

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This truck is also getting crossover steering, so I had the passenger side knuckle machined flat and drilled for the steering arm. Moved the steering box to the 2 wheel drive location and welded in frame stiffening plates to complete the conversion.

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Your original steering box should be a reverse rotation.
 
sireland67 said:
Your original steering box should be a reverse rotation.
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Precisely. I didn’t mention that. I grabbed another box from an early 80’s Dodge truck. I forget the cutoff year that was, ‘75 maybe? But after 78 or 79 I think they went to the metric o-ring fittings on the ports of the box.
 
Is you old box usable?
If so I would be interested in it.
 
I like the frame re-enforcement plates you welded in. I'm going to need to do that to my 88 D100 when I down it to swap in the 5.9 Magnum. Did you make those or buy them somewhere? My frame is cracked behind the box and steers like a dirt track car! I'd planned on making cardboard templates and transferring that to metal and welding it in after welding up the cracks.
 
sireland67 said:
Yeah, 44's are pretty interchangeable, putting a 90 W250 front end on my Ramcharger framed 47 Dodge truck.
I have a 75 D200 that I am going to use for a parts truck, to take the HD D60 for the rear of the 47.

View attachment 1716155337
Click to expand...
That is one cool old power wagon! I really like Dana 60 rears. Pretty strong for what they are. I put a Dana 70 in my other W200, but if or when that blows, I’m gonna go with a Dana 80.

I’m probably going to put an Aussie Locker in the Dana 44 on this one. It’s cheap enough. And I can do it myself without fussing with gear mesh and what not.

Aussie Locker XD-14430 Dana 44 30 Spline – Torq-Masters

torqmasters.com torqmasters.com
 
JDMopar said:
I like the frame re-enforcement plates you welded in. I'm going to need to do that to my 88 D100 when I down it to swap in the 5.9 Magnum. Did you make those or buy them somewhere? My frame is cracked behind the box and steers like a dirt track car! I'd planned on making cardboard templates and transferring that to metal and welding it in after welding up the cracks.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I bought them from Jungle Jim over at RamCharger Central.

Here’s a write up about it and all the products he offers for dodge trucks.

www.ramchargercentral.com

How To - Jungle's Frame Stiffening/Crossover Kit...

Jungle's Frame Stiffening/Crossover Kit Install Submitted By: EY8s Date: August 26, 2011, 02:23:21 PM Views: 8965 Summary: This how-to is based on my installation of Jungle's frame stiffening/crossover kit on my "Judge" project. Jungle's Frame Stiffening/Crossover Kit This kit is...
www.ramchargercentral.com www.ramchargercentral.com
 
This is gonna be a good project!
 
mopardude318 said:
That is one cool old power wagon! I really like Dana 60 rears. Pretty strong for what they are. I put a Dana 70 in my other W200, but if or when that blows, I’m gonna go with a Dana 80.

I’m probably going to put an Aussie Locker in the Dana 44 on this one. It’s cheap enough. And I can do it myself without fussing with gear mesh and what not.

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You know there is two different stock 60's.
Easy way to pretty much tell is the standard 60 has bolts holding the axles in, these most likely have 30 spline axles.
The heavy duty 60 has nuts and studs holding the axles in, these most likely have 35 spline axles, and use larger bearing on the hubs.
 
mopardude318 said:
Thank you. It’s a little more fun this time around. I’m kinda just using what I got, cleaning up and painting parts as I go.

I did convert the Dana 44 to disc brakes using all the parts from the outer axle shafts, and spindles-out, from a Chevy K20 Dana 44/10 bolt, and used Warn hubs.

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Great conversion for the 72-4 W200. I did this to my 73 back in the early 90"s.
 
Looks good. I hate having to work around greasy parts, or scaly rust that always falls in my eyes.
I have the 44 for my project on saw-horses in the garage, in degrease and clean mode now.
 
So a friend of mine owed me a favor and came with his mobile blasting rig and stripped the frame and painted it for me.

I’ll clean up the axles and springs next, and I can have me a nice rolling chassis.

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I got a little more done this week. There’s a guy who has a small fab shop who makes lift brackets and crossmembers and what not for these trucks. So this is the best way to go about doing a suspension lift without using lift springs. I want to do more truck pull stuff with this truck so weak worn out front springs, and even taking a couple leafs out of them is the way to go.

Drill the factory rivets out of these spring hanger mounts, then you bolt up this one piece crossmember. Same for the shackle end. They all use larger 5/8 grease bolts. Much more beefy. Lol

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Front axle bolted in. Next thing is making the rear axle all gussied up, and find new leaf spring bushings to press in. Maybe next week.

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Keep in mind the front spring from the factory were almost flat.
 
@sireland67
I don’t know if you can see this video, but this girl removed all the leafs on the front spring and just left the one! And she’s running 700 pounds of weights up front. She said that was her solution to stop wheel hop. Truck hooks great now.

I know every setup is different but I’m experiencing a whole lotta bounce from
my other truck. Im willing to try anything. LOL. I didn’t wanna take more than the 2 bottom leafs out.



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Well the video won’t post but here’s a picture.

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