j-d wrote:
That Manual just catapulted me over four decades back in time! I don't think you'll find one for the Cube Van chassis with DRW. Van L--0^0--KS more like our 71 than our 71 did. Ours was a 12-pass window van and it had the Bronze and White paint. Friend had a 74 15-pass that was simply worn out. Had a mechanic go over it and it needed Everything, decided to junk it. I got lots of little stuff. The chrome bumpers, the grille in that picture, the trailer hitch... Maybe exhaust manifolds. Swapped it all over at an A/C shop - JarTran rental lot he had in a less-than-desirable part of Tampa FL.
Went pretty well till the Hitch Part, but first this entertaining interlude... Friend goes out on an errand. I'm removing the hitch and my friend is away running errands. Impact wrench won't get the famous Last Bolt out because the Nut is hidden in the Frame and spinning. So j-d pulls the hitch down to put the Nut in a bind hoping to back the Bolt out. Didn't notice the Directional Button on the air impact got bumped, from Reverse to FORWARD. Pulls down hard, gooses the Impact, finds self fastened to Bottom of Van by Left Thumb. This resulted in a total loss of concentration, dropping the Impact, Socket coming OFF and rolling out of j-d's now very limited reaching range... attached to that Van and all...
Oh, the Ignition went Electronic almost right away. There might have been a 70.5 Dodge Van with the motor moved forward from the old butt-head ones, ours was a true 71, and by 72 possibly 73 the B300 got front disk brakes (that I got off a junk 73) and the Ignition was Electronic with that PentaStar Five Terminal Module Connector. Get you an Electronic Distributor, but I recommend a Delco Ignition Module MOD, just replace the MoPar with the common in-distributor Delco module and call it Good. No, not Good...Better. Unless you're doing a full Numbers-Matching Restoration of course. Same odds as digging up a complete T-Rex.
Oh, our 71 had the 318. With homemade camper conversion inside, weighed nearly 5000. Towed boat weighing 4000. Passing school buses down in South FL, I found we were on the wrong side of the two-lane for a MILE to pass with the 318. The 360 solved that problem. That's when I learned about crossmembers, torque converters and so on. For now, 318 pulls about like a slant six. 360 doesn't sound impressive like 440 but it will get you "out of the hole" and I think you'll be pleased.
Gotta bounce. Up early to get ready for contractor to come do major A/C work. Later...
Thanks for the morning laugh, best thing in the world.
The Mopar Manual does include all the van models, including the chassis cabs.
I laid the wiring harness out in my den and took pics. I'm tickled pink that it turned out so well. It's giving me flashbacks to when I did the harness on my AMC/Jeep CJ-5.
Griff, I know you're not crazy about ammeters, but I don't want to add anything to this rig that it did not have. I took out a quite a bit of extraneous wiring that was in terrible shape and connected to nothing. I have this weird idea that if you keep everything original, you won't have issues, so time will tell.
Here are pics of the 1976 Manual, as well as the wiring harness. The two cut white wires in the 3rd pic, that are in a "V" shape, are the door jamb switch wires. It was easier to cut them, in order to take the harness out. They will, of course, be soldered and heat shrunk, when I put it back in.
