How are Dodge Vans?

[ramblingvanman]

I lived in my 1991 Dodge B250 for over 6 years before selling it to get something with a hightop. It was a good reliable van. I had very few problems. Mainly the main power relay went out a few times, I just kept one in my glove box as back up, and the windshield wipers would stop working due to the plastic bushings that linked the arms and motor together disintegrating twice iirc. I had the 3.9 V6 and even with my tools it felt peppy enough. I also had to replace the water pump once, it was the original factory pump and the starter once. All in all a very trustworthy piece of equipment; much more so than my ex-wife LOL.

 

[GrantRobertson]

If I break down in the Ozarks can I get  replacement parts.

Have you been to the Ozarks? Just look in any front yard. You can't swing a dead 'possum without hitting an old car up on blocks.

 

[LeeRevell]

Dodge, Ford and Chevy - cant' go wrong with any of them.  Built for forty years, parts in plenty.  Not a problem.

 

[DannyB1954]

One thing that sets Dodge vans apart is their unibody construction. If the body rots out from road salt, there goes the frame. These sites have a pretty good history on them http://www.allpar.com/trucks/b-vans.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Ram_Van

 

[Mattkcc]

One thing that sets Dodge vans apart is their unibody construction. If the body rots out from road salt, there goes the frame. These sites have a pretty good history on them http://www.allpar.com/trucks/b-vans.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Ram_Van

I will definitely be crawling under any Dodge van before I make an offer. Salt is an issue where I live if I find one in good shape would treat the front end and get a wash with under spray any time I have it out in the winter.

 

[Gary68]

not only are the parts easy to come by with the repro market getting so popular should have no problem getting body panels,floor pans and such

 

[JoshIsLosingIt]

My 1989 Dodge looks brand new on the undercarriage.   No rust at all because it's a California vehicle.

That same van you linked to would sell for about $1,500-2,000 in CA.

As to the computer issues, mine kept dying when I first got it and would just die at a red light and not start again for 2 minutes or so.   Changed the computer and good to go...  until it started again.   After the 3rd computer I realized that it was a wiring harness issue and changed the engine wiring harness ($25.00 from the junk yard) and no more problems ever.   People think it's a computer issue when in fact most are wiring harness issues.

Lot's of $1,000 Dodge vans in Northern CA.

How involved of a task is it to change the wiring harness? thanks.

 

[SternWake]

How involved of a task is it to change the wiring harness? thanks.

I swapped only the 14 way connector on my engine computer. Then I had to open up the ECM and resolder the pins on the circuit board which align with this 14 way connector.

Techs in the past had punctured the wire insulation right next to the connector.  Eventually they rotted out, and my 'get me home' fixes, which should have been viewed as a temporary only type of thing, but which became more permanent, consisted of drilling out the back of the connector. Inserting the copper wire through it, and reseating connector with copper wire between pin and socket and use some rtv and zip ties to hold everything in place

This contributed to the breakage of the solder joints on the circuit board.

Opening up and resoldering the 14 pins was actually pretty easy, but I stressed out over it and spent some time trying to find somebody with more soldering experience to do so before saying Eff it, and getting the right tools and doing it myself.

If anyone with this vintage of Dodge van starts getting random stalling, hard restarts, of just very poor driveability which goes away or comes back like a switch was flipped, I'd strongly suspect this connector.  Turn the key on and wiggle the connector, and if relays start clicking on and off or the Idle speed motor engages  Disconnect battery and pull the connector.  Grab the pins on the ECM with some tweezers and wiggle them.  Any that move more than 0.5 to 1mm likely have fractured solder joints.

Have a look inside the connector itself.  Ugh, can't see anything but  what was once clear clean dielectric grease

Use Caig Deoxit d5 or d100 spray to clean all ECM connectors after flushing them of old dielectric grease with any average electronics cleaner.  No can of electrical connector cleaner, other than Caig DeOxit does anything to treat the oxidation on the conductive surfaces.

Do it to all the sensor connectors too.  It is rather amazing how much crap and black oxidation can come out of what is to be pristine conductive surfaces, even those which were supposed to be protected from the elements by liberal applications of Dielectric grease.

I resoldered my ECM 11 months ago.  not a stall or Hiccup since.  About 10 months ago I cleaned all my sensor connectors, and every other connector in my Van with the Deoxit products.  The 02 sensor, TPS and MAP sensor connectors were very oxidized.

After cleaning, it felt like my Van shed 500 LBs of weight, and MPGS I assumed were lost due to slightly larger heavier tires, came back.

More recently I passed a California Smog test with Much better Numbers than 2 years previous.  The Only thing i did which could effect emissions in this time is the ECM and Sensor connectors.

I could have produced 3x as much HC, 5 times as Much NO and 10x as much CO and still have passed the sniffer test.

http://www.amazon.com/CAIG-SK-IN30-...9?ie=UTF8&qid=1418173895&sr=8-9&keywords=CAIG

http://www.amazon.com/Tamiya-Craft-...&sr=8-2-fkmr0&keywords=tamiya+precision+swabs

http://www.amazon.com/Dentek-Slim-B..._UL160_SR126,160_&refRID=1TK05A9SZKQ718B976RA

Dodges are known for electrical issues.  The three products above can solve/prevent most of them with some effort on the part of the owner

 

[TravelDerby]

How involved of a task is it to change the wiring harness? thanks.

    It's a bit of an undertaking.  I once took the complete V6 powertrain out of a low mileage wrecked 1997 V6 Ram van and put it into a 1996 with 400k miles on the body. I transferred it harness and all and I'd say I had about a week of wrenching on it about 3-4 hours per day to get it done. I only had about $1000 into the whole thing, but it was a lot of work

  
  I drove my Dodge van for about 2 years, but had ghost issues in the wiring I just could not figure out.  After replacing the computer a couple times and going over the thing with a fine tooth comb, could just never get it right. It kept killing O2 sensors and I finally just parted it out on Ebay and just about doubled my money on the thing.    Bought a Ford E-350 and have had little to no issues in the last 50k miles.

 

[66788]

How involved of a task is it to change the wiring harness? thanks.

60-90 minutes to change the complete wiring harness from the computer to the engine.