1983 rampage 2.2

[a89mini]

Craigslist ad photo!


VEHICLE;1983 DODGE RAMPAGE 2.2 5SPD (a465/3:56) all original

MILAGE;92150 when purchased

I bought this Rampage when I was not really looking (this time) for one. the price was right,the trucklett appeared untouched and original,and original owner,after purchase It sat for a year &a 1/2 out in
the desert.Plans were to get everything needed than convert to a T2.Well plans change,my mother was going to move up north and rent home out where it was being stored,I basically have drivetrain but no suspension,so after moving mom,I went out to inspect the Trucklett again,I had driven it about 10 miles from purchased location and knew of fuel pump and fuel lines leaking,so after replacing fuel pump and several fuel lines went for test drive,little SOB was hauling --- when I decided to take this road
w/ big dip that I've caught air w/other vehicles many times,well it felt good but the landing was hard and clunk-bang-clunk bang-bang,I looked in r/v to see muffler rolling behind me,reversed the page through muffler in bed and drove to an auto zone a mile up the road,they had an almost Identical muffler in stock($25 muffler$30 install) Driving back to dip in road,fills like a solid truck (frt struts a little noisy) drove back and stored until I can pick up after new year.========11/2010========

The Story goes that this truck was used as a WIDE LOAD lead

vehicle,it had all the lights and WIDE LOAD sign

CB radio,additional fuel tank in bed IT has new tires(dated 03)

and brakes.January of this year went to pick up truck,

replace battery (had slow crank last visit) and drove 150

miles to my home getting 33 mpg (early #S) with gas prices

rising I've decided to make a DD until I wear out tires

and brakes----------------TO B CONTINUED




side shell door was access to aux fuel tank!




RICHARD=======

[a89mini]

mileage as of 1/2011-454 miles driven so far

eng bay=I believe the timing belt is original-bolts/nuts appear untounched

rebuilt carb in 2/2011carb had no base gasket,was bolted directly to spacer/base

[a89mini]

3/2011

weight test #1(600lbs give or take) sold a sbc drove about 30 miles streets & fwy,didn't notice

much body roll(eng was well centered)really didn't feel the weight in truck!Test 2&3(no pics during chores)

loaded more above axle center line #2 6 bags of 90 lbs concrete #3 30 bags 20 lbs manure

can feel load but truck performed well even @ 80 mph.

Got my first ticket of all things for no seat belt,but I wasn't alone cop also gave
my passenger one(cop saw he had no belt on first),cost me 3 C notes with a day of traffic school(damit)
Cop also said better get that windsheild fixed

you can see cracked w/s

[a89mini]

4/2011
Scored a new windshield and back glass for $260 brand new,with front glass installed.
Was told rear glass was only one left in country(selling pitch!) appears to be a chrysler part!
rear glass not yet installed.

[a89mini]

5/2011
Drove up to northern california to visit with Will Martin and picked up a few parts,trucklett performed
flawlessly @ 80 mph getting 35mpg.Speedo is roughly 6 mph slow.I've decided to play with cluster
assy,tach needle was broken,I replaced tach and i'm going to change
speedo(before or at 100K) to a 6 digit odo design,found a late
80s model Shadow speedo(I believe it was the shadow speedo)and I'm going to setup w/140 mph decal,after searching and comparing different speedos I relized that all L & P BODY
speedos have adjustable heads(except electronic designs)At least all the ones I looked at.
I have never seen adjustable speedos except for police
cars that require to be calibrated.I figuered I have roughly a 6.5 mph +/- adjustability on stock unit,of course I need to adjust "clock spring" nearly 40/50 mph tighter to use 140 decal,
adjustability is nice for fine tuning!

!st road trip cruising @ 80(speedo 6 mph slow,tall tires!)

Small brass/bronze lever adjusts to fine tune speedo
ck and see If yours is adjustable?
speedo head and decal



RICHARD======= .

[contraption22]

You can change the speedo gear in the trans to correct the speedo for taller tires.

[Vigo]

So are your seat belts broken or something?

[a89mini]

So are your seat belts broken or something?

No,but I'm just human,and you know how humans do dumb things,like jump in car and make lft turn in front of a cop without
thinking about the fact that were suppose to follow the law and what not=)

[a89mini]

You can change the speedo gear in the trans to correct the speedo for taller tires.

Your right,but what if you already have correct drive gear per fsm=195/75 R14=Yellow 19(not that many choices)

and speedo is still off? Thats why I said "adjustability is nice for fine tuning!" Besides I found that it was

out of adjustment,must have happen when I jumped the truck!

[a89mini]

Currant mileage as of 8/3/2011

6000+ miles in 7 mos,truck has already paid for its self
It started out burning almost 3 qts of oil per 1k miles,but has tampered
off to about a normal/acceptable 1 qt per 1k,It just needed a good old
fashion thrashing