The 4" lift always looks sweet on the RCs!! Nice job!
Jim

If you don't mind me asking, How much did it cost ya to lengthen your driveshafts?

Thanks for the info!

2" on both, although, I probably should have only shortened the rear 1.5", but I think it will be OK (famous last words)

Goat,
10-4 on Payne's.
I was really impressed with them, since I took in two of the nastiest d-shafts I have ever seen and they gave me the red carpet treatment with degreasing them, painting, and a full grease job on all the u-joints and a new pivot ball assemble.

I just removed all the stuff, someone had unhooked the smog pump belt and broke the air inlet pipe, but I have all of it if you need to know parts you need.

4spd

Really nice trailduster. Im in the middle of buying one from a buddy that has it behind his garage just wasting away.

Oh and by the way 4spd

im think the 435 has a better granny....well if you need 1 i got 1 for sale ...$100  you would need a bell housing for aswell...chris1

Oh I know the pros and cons of both, all my other trucks are manuals. However, I wanted my trail rig to be an automatic mainly because, if I'm in the shit, I don't want to worry about holding the brake, clutch and giving it throttle all at the same time.

I have an 84 with a 435 in it, but I wanted to put that truck back on the road. I think I'm going to pull the 727 and see if a front band is all it needs.

Stay tuned kids......

Thanks for the offer, but I want to go through the whole transmission so I don't have another hiccup down the road. Thsi truck sat for 15 years before I got it and  just want to make sure it is ready for RJ

i had to shorten my shaft 2" when i swapped in a dana 60

imo , i like the 435's 1st (GRANNY) gear.....but who am i ?

Stick with an Automatic, standards are a pain all around. Just build it with a factory Mopar kit.  The seals and clutches are far better than the cheap aftermarket crap.  While your at it install a trans go shift kit (heavy duty). 

Your band band probably had water in it at one time causing the band material to swell and fail.

While on a recent outing my brother came a cross this beater 79 RC slated to be smashed down



He first noticed the 1/2 tread 35's on little red express wheels, figured it garnered a closer look. Walking up on it, I noticed an out of place part--a nearly new borgeson shaft! So It came out and is on the floor at the shop.



The next find blew my freaking mind. He noticed a demon carb sticker on the rear qtr window, and thought no way. No luck, carb was gone, but after pulling the intake I noticed the cam had almost no wear. So, he pulled the valve covers, clean, clean clean.



Long story short, the motor is '76 360 punched .060 over with 9.5-1 compression; with new valves, springs, locks retainers, port matched heads, and a comp cams XE274 cam! Probably has less than 5k miles on it. The problem was all the wiring on the truck was shot and the PO could not figure it out, so he sold it to the crusher.

So the transmission rebuild will have to wait because I got the these parts for a screaming deal, but used all my mad money 

I'm in the process of cleaning the motor, someone painted it Oldsmobile turquoise. I graduate from school next weekend, but I'm done with course work this weekend, so Sat. I plan on starting on pulling the old motor.

Thank you and Thank you! College only required 6 years of my life, and no I'm not a doctor 

Thank you for your accolades Jungle!

nice looking project I am looking for an '80 ramcharger or a '79 ramcharger with the 4 headlight grille to paint up like my old '80 ramcharger you can see it in the picture section titled my old '80 ramcharger

My transmission guy actually told me for this build to stick with the stock lever, which is a 3.8. so I'm good there.

yeah new motor, i just got done putting my 318 back together hopefully the trany rebuild wont take long u can give that lift a good flex next time out 

If it is indeed an XE274H,  it's .488/491", 274/286 adv. dur. 230/236 @ .050". 

372 motor ready to go back into a truck



The transmission is done and I got the B&M flex plate late today, so it will go in tomorrow.

I went to the parts store set on hemi orange, but they were out and would not have any until Monday. However, the did have 2 cans of Chrysler blue 

Today was very productive, I finished all the bracket clean up and I got the B&M flexplate mounted up


This is the torque converter I'm running, Hurst Truck Terminator, stall is 400-600 less than factory to help out with getting heavier trucks with lower gears and big tires rolling.


With a little help from a creeper and the hoist I had the two halves back together


If your trying to find the gasket that goes between the transmission and t-case, good luck. My solution is fairly cheap and easy.
First pick up a cheap assorted gasket material pack from your local parts house, my local O'reilly's has this ROL pack for about $4.


Pick out the material that resembles the original and hold it to the t-case adapter on the back of the transmission (I'm standing over it looking down) and scribe the outer edge and hole location with a pen, pencil, or sharpie.


Then using a 3lb sledge, gently tap the gasket against the inner edge and outer edge to puncture the gasket, here is the inner circle done. ( notice the scribed bolt holes). To do the outer edge you can either scribe it and cut with scissors or do the same hammer trick, either/or.


Next was to mount the dip stick tube. Since I am only 5'6'' and I hate checking transmission fluid, every lifted truck I own has a van dipstick on it. Pop the hood and its right there; no need to crawl up and in the engine bay anymore.


Here she is mounted


Here is the comparison to the original, notice also the van dipstick curves up before the last exhaust port, helps to clear headers if your running them, plus you no longer need to put your hand down by the hot headers when checking transmission fluid. WIN-WIN situation!


I will get the t-case mounted tomorrow and hopefully install the whole unit also.

Thanks for viewing!