84 Crewcab...AKA..Patches

I also just got a new (really good used) rear slider put in. This truck has an odd ball back window...it's about 1 1/2" shorter then 90% of the other dodge trucks out there. And there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to when this smaller back window was used. I've seen the smaller back window used form the mid 70's on up into the 90's...randomly.

Anyway I scored this "new" one out of a 80 dodge ram in the wreckers....$35...Thank you very much!!! Needed to do a little work on one of the sliders since the plastic spacers on the bottom were gone...little back yard engineering and it's good to go again. I then took it down and had the glass tinted. This is an aftermarket unit, the original was leaking like a sieve since the joint was in the bottom drip rail...what engineering morron decided that was a good place to put a joint!! Anyway the new one has it's seams mid point on the outer left and right sides....much better location!!

Here it is before....

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And after....

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wow that cleaned her up ALOT....tho..im no fan of the sliders i have seen EXACTLY what your talking about on the randomness of the rear window size

as for the water up front.....well....what do you have in it for door seals?..look for a set of 70s-90s chevy units with the metal in the door lip wrap..they seal twice as good as brand new stockers and with a lil pinch of the lip area before install dont require any glue and will actualy stay in place even in a offroad beating with no doors on....next up the wing windows..are they the "locking" or are they the standard opening type?....the lockers i never could find a way to keep em from leaking and always switched to the older non locking type and bent the tab at the botom a bit to make them seal tighter

now...the cowl seams.....well....what i did on my RC tub was to wire wheel out every seam i could of the crap they put in them...and then slathered EVERY single seam on the firewall and front kick panels and cowl with jb-weld...that body doesnt leak a drop and its got a original windshield seal and cracked windshield....tehre seems to be a few very key ares on the cowl....first off is making damned sure the drains are clean...the main leakers are the 2 vertical points about a foot in on each side behind the dash and in the cowl itself...over the years of looking for a rust free tub..ive seen some HUGE gap variances in them..its no wonder these trucks ended up with water on the floor....theres also a drip rail seam on the firewall that actualy catches the runoff from the hood it has crap for seams as well

i should note....theres only a few bolts that hold the dash in.....and it CAN be taken out with the windshield installed...you peal back that "covering" lip on the dash and youll find 4?5? 1/2inch bolts pull them and youll find 2? more just above the kick panels now aside from the wireing and the column the whole dash will come right out easily..since my trucks a play toy i cut off that covering lip so i could always get at the bolts
 
Good advice 69!! I do have the cowl cracks though. I'll need to pull the front sheet metal to get at them and repair them properly...next year I'll try to get that done. While I have the sheet metal off I'll do as you suggest and check, and re-caulk all the seams I can find. I have checked and cleaned out all the drains...cowl and sides...so they are clear.

But speaking of door seals. It does have new..er door seals. They are the glue in style. But when it's raining I get water wicking in from the door jams, up in and around the door seals and then over/through the seal and onto the floor. I removed my carpet last winter because of all the water..have a new one on order and it's not going in until I get the water leaks repaired. Clean metal floors are very easy to dry out. I use one of those crappy "Shamwows" to soak up the water and wring it out. :D
 
yeah the glue ins are just far far far too soft and they always wick in water...even when brand new out of the box....the chevy pu/van units are more "rubber" like than our more "foam" like units as well as a bit thicker(dont worry it wont throw your door alignment off any)..and in that the rubber itself is stiffer everywhere it counts...its a DIRECT fit ZERO mods...i bet you get a lil wind noise and probably dont notice it....the chevy seals eliminated ALL wind noise in my RC and ALL water leaks from the doors....hit up a wrecker and find a set..as i recall they might be either a few inches longer or shorter..but that can easily be delt with under the rocker trim.....once youve got a stocker "sponge" in your hand and a chevy one in your hand youll wonder why the hell the factory ever ran this crap instead of the chevy seals...which as far as i know was NOT made by gm..in fact alfas used the same style of seal as well as some volvos and some others...i just know the chevy truck units are a dead on fit even the door shape is almost identical...but being "spined" you can shape it however you like


i dont belive you have to take any sheetmetal off the nose to get at the leak areas..just the cowl and the hood..and idealy the dash...you either have door leaks (most likely) or cowl leaks running tward the doors..its been a while since i looked at the seams
 
Well the cowl cracks are a pretty common issue. Here are a couple pics from a thread over on the DTR. The user DNRCustoms posted these up from his repair.

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yeah but none of that enters the cabin..does it help to fix how the truck squeeks..sure but its got nothing to do with water entering the cab.....i once had a cowl that i had removed ALL openings in and i was still getting water in..did the doors seals and cut 75% of the leaks out...the rest were all firewall

pop the hood and look at the firewall and look for the seam that crosses thru to the cabin..also i belive in that first shot....theres a rust spot that is the other seem that you have to attack from INSIDE the cabin looking up at the cowl rain gutter
 
I'd be looking closely at the windshield gasket, personally. It's just a thought. When they're installed "dry" (no sealant), lockstrip-style gaskets turn into leaking bastages as they age.
 
Dr.Jass said:
I'd be looking closely at the windshield gasket, personally. It's just a thought. When they're installed "dry" (no sealant), lockstrip-style gaskets turn into leaking bastages as they age.
Click to expand...

Mine leaked from new. Had to give it a couple weeks in the sun and it sealed.
 
Oh I finally found a good glass shop. I had tried a few bigger local glass shops and they all polietly told me to bugger off, because these old trucks are not worth there time or effort. So after talking to a few guys I was given a recommendation for a small glass shop where the older gent who owns it has been in the glass buisness for a long, long time. Well this guy, and his couple workers sure know their stuff. They used sealnt on the outside, and inside of the windshield gasket. Dirty, messy buisness, but it's probably 99% sealed up. Couple small drips from the gasket under the front drip rail...kind of tough to get any more sealant in there due to the drip rail overhang. But I can live with a few drips. But I will be bringing all my glass buisness to this shop from now on.
 
Excellent! I had a similar experience with an older gentleman when I had my '81 Mirada with the fake convertible top... being canvas, I got in touch with a fella who made and repaired sails. I brought him the car, and showed him how all the edging on the top was coming undone due to thread deterioration. He knew I was in a tight financial situation with a non-working wife and a new baby, so rather than do the job, he took a couple of hours and taught me how to do it myself. He then gave me the required needles (nasty, curved things) and correct-color, more-durable thread.

Of course, after actually doing the job, I could see why he passed. What a bastard that was! My fingers hurt for weeks. :D Sorry for the hijack, but it's always great when someone finds great help like that.
 
Well I decided to install the Cummins 3rd Gen 190* thermostat yesterday on my 89 Non-IC motor....things didn't quite go as planned.

I first removed the alternator and brackets, then went to remove the thermostat housing...seems someone else tried a long time ago and stripped off one of the bolt heads. Thankfully it was the upper outside bolt and I was able to cut off the head and then pull the T-stat housing and work with heat and penetrating fluid to get the bolt loose.

I then set to work cleaning up the T-stat housing. I forgot to order one of the big rubber/foam gaskets that seals the housing and lift plate. SO I carefully cleaned it up and re-used it. When I went to install the new T-stat I found that the outside diameter was too big. I bought the thermostat off rockauto, after comparing dimensions and stuff I thought it would be drop in affair....it was not. Seems the original was 54mm and the new 3rd Gen unit was 58mm. So I broke out the grinding wheel and took off 2mm all the way around to make it fit.

But during all this I wondered if a T-stat from a car/truck gasser motor would work. I had a couple spares and tried one....dropped right in and would have probably worked with no problems. Anyone know why there is a difference in gasser vs diesel T-stats??

Anyway I got the new T-stat into the housing, used some RTV silicon to help seal the old gasket and bolted it up. I managed to find a perfect fit metric bolt in one of my "bucket-o-bolt" tins to replace the broken original....was pretty happy about that. Let it set up for a couple hours and fired it up and took it for a drive. Had a bit of an air blockage for a while...she got pretty hot but eventually moved it out and through.
 
yeah its just a heat valve....it should be the same regardless of what its in aside from size/flow rates....as in how big the oppening is and how far it opens but thats going to vary from manufactures brands etc
 
Been driving with it for a couple days now....sure heats up now! The only thing I don't really like is the cycling that the new T-stat does. It goes all the way up and past the 1/2 mark on the factory gauge...then opens and cools down to just over the 1/4, then closes and warms back up. I find it very unnerving thinking I'm starting to over heat.

My old one used to open, then the gauge would just sit at just under the 1/4 mark.
 
Well I finally decided to rip off my drivers door seal...it was new-er when I got the truck 18 months ago, but it was the glue in style. I had bought the JCW kit for 2 ramchargers...for my crewcab...and have since only replaced the seals on the front door glass.

Anyway I ripped off the glued in seal, and what a mess...they used so much glue that the seal came off in little bitty pieces and I had to scratch the heck out the door jam to clean off only some of the glue to be able to install the new door seals.
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So I finally get the new door seal on...very nice fit over the old glue in style..but when I went to close my drivers door it would not close all the way. It would only go to the first lock on the door latch. I messed and messed with it and just could not get it to close..
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I was sitting in the drives seat with a flash light, looking at my problem and feeling just a little bit angry and sad, when I had an epiphany!! Maybe I should spray the new door seal with a bit of soapy water? Maybe the new rubber is grabbing the door and not allowing it to close properly?...well I did just that and low and behold my door now closes all the way!! It's still tight and will probably take a few weeks for it to settle but at least it closes.

And yes 69 these are the GM ones I think...since it has the tin in the channel to help with a tighter fit...;)
 
yup..and i bet theres a "texture" on that tin area too isnt there..........oh yeah i belive laqure thiner removed my glue
 
yup chevy seal on the right mopar seal on the left not even a question in my mind.....and they really do feel like rubber vs foam in comparison dont they
 
69.5CUDA said:
yup chevy seal on the right mopar seal on the left not even a question in my mind.....and they really do feel like rubber vs foam in comparison dont they
Click to expand...

Yeah your right about the feel. The new ones actually feel like a rubber seal...the old ones are exactly that...Foam!

When I was tearing off the old foam seal I could see why I was getting water wicking into the truck from the old seals. Who ever installed them put them on with the little drain holes pointing up. So once the water got inside and drained down to the bottom the seal was just filling up with water and it was then leaking out of the holes on the top and draining into the cab. There was probably at least a cup of water in the seal when I tore it open.
 
ill bet the freeway noise is a lil quieter too now..tho with that rumbling diesel its probably not noticable LOL
 
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