so i have a 79 plymoth trailduster. i have had it for over a year now and i have a situation were i can start working on it. im starting a new page on it because im starting to actually upgrade it. i was going to use my old post but people just looked and didn't get many reply's lol so lets try some thing new. beguine

the plans:
im planing on a 3/4 tone axle swap dana 60 front and rear and am going to try to find factory way of doing over sized brakes in front and disk in rear. high steer with cross over conversion and possible hydro assist. a 4bt cummins trubo diesel and a manual conversion. custom bumpers front and rear. 12000 pound winch. probbly only going to have a 4 inch lift with 35 inch tires. im taking a lot of ques form the super nacho that madmax is building. but i don't think i will be able to do that uber sweet airbag system at the moment because im not that much of a fab guy.


the history:
i bought it a while ago because my 84 dodge pickup died on me(timing chain went) and i didn't feel like having it fixed. i lived in a apartment that wouldn't let us work on ower vehicles.  i was walking to work one day when i saw it sitting in a empty dirt parking lot witha sale sign on it. called the guy up and 800 dollers i was driving it home lol. took it out wheeling a while later and wound up finding more trouble then i was ready for lol(see picts) wound up having to have it towed to my friends house were i spent a bunch of money on fluids to get it to drive again because i got water every were in i, tranny engine axles cab EVERY WERE. when i opened  my door i swear i had more water in the truck then in the pit lol. well i was driving on the free way one day a few months later. i steped on teh go peddle and the trans down shifted and broke. wound up walking a mile to a pay phone to call my friend to tow it again . had him tow it to my mecanic friend shop were he and i rebuilt the trans ower selfs. and now it sits in the back yard of were im staying. waiting for a new life.

what i spent so far:
800 for the truck
200 for Borgeson steering shaft
814(so far) for the dodge dana 60 front for 150(got 2 spindles for 160  and 2 calipers for 90 spindle nuts for 30 and 2 sets of gm style internal hubs rotors and studs for 190 ea(385 total) )
225 dodge np205 form a 93 dodge diesel auto (23 spline)

and the pictures:
the truck when i first got it.



the too much trouble i got into


the dana 60 front i got for 150  (any one know any good places to get parts for these?)

oh lol i will come up with a differnt name then lol

Not a big deal man.  At one time we had like three project POS on this site.

lol thanks for the input. im looking at a nv4500 for 600 bucks on craigs list. any idea were i can get a bell housing?

If you can't find one the dealer still carries them for about $200.

cool thanks. im still trying to get the guy to reply to my email he told me he had it the same day and when i asked him for his phone or something so i could pick it up he never replied   im still hoping he has it just for got or something. but knowing my luck he sold it lol. so dose any one know were i can get one for chap? ebay and all the yards around here want 1k for em

i got board and made a flag for my build. prob going to paint the whole truck black and were the trailduster emblem is i will paint this

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try greanleaf autowrecking. i bet they have a yard up there some where www.greenleafauto.com  , dodge made a 23 spline NV4500 for gas engined 5.2/5.9 94-02 2500/3500 rams. that's what i bought. they will sell you a used trans or can get rebuilt unit. they give you a 6 month warranty on used parts and will sell a 2 year, 24,000mi warranty for a little extra. i think the remans come with that 2 year.

my buddy's 95 ram 1500 360ci puts out 350+hp/420lbs w/that trans. 2+ years of abuse.

well i got the spindle finally little diferances but all the important aspects are the same

well from what i under stand the dodge and shevy are identical in the axle save hub and rotor.  but i did just buy a set of sheby calipers for 90 off ebay. how much you want for thoughs mounts?

ya im planning on putting a dana 60 rear with disk conversion on teh rear. parts are easyier to find for the d60 then a 70. im still torn between using a 4bt and a 6bt. i have been finding the 6bt engines a lot latly for under 2k and its hard to pass them up lol.

well let me know. i cant find factory brackets any were.  so let me know

i looked for those caliper mounts yesterday, have not found them yet, but i will keep looking i think they might be at my storage place

calipers came in today.


also looking at doing a np203 to np205 doubler. found a guy on ebay who makes them (http://www.jedsmachining.com/) said he could sell me the kit for 650 and another 145 for gear and bearing to make my 205 a 32 spline input. (with some machine work)

i saw that while doing research. what input shaft you have to use on the 205?

hmm lots to think about.


well this past weekend i found my caliper brackets for 20 apiece locally


and took them to work to sand blast them


now i kneed to decide if i should rattle can them or have them power coated. either way they are going to be black.

so dose any body know how this is all suposed to go to geather?

Looking good. Here is a couple of pages out of a 1988 parts book. Should give you a idea

well small update. picked up a nv4500 this weekend. came out of a 99 dodge diesel. the guy i got it from got it from the owner from a trans shop who had this in his truck. twisted teh input shaft and striped the gear a little....


got it for 400... i know that seems like a lot but most places want 500 for a core and push come to shove i still save 100 buck on core charge. but i think it is rebuild able for cheaper then using it as a core. im still looking into options at this point, but im leaning to putting a upgraded out put shaft from a gm style 32 spline in it so i can still do a doubler kit. unless some one points a 29 spline input shaft for a 203 in my direction.....

i dunno about the rebuild. thinking about doing it my self unless the change over is harder then i think lol

ya i seen the high impact one. but their web site is way out of date and i asked them about some part that they haven't carried in over a year and they still haven't updated their page and that was 3 months ago.

and the novak one. they dont carry parts for nv4500 and a np205. just jeep tcase.
but thanks for trying.

decided im not going to use a tcase doubler. due to price of converting every thing. i would have to convert my trans to a 32 spline output,get a 32 spline input for the 203, drill the case of the 203 for the 6 bolt round pattern, get a 203 to 205 adapter(bout 700 + bucks) and find a 32 spline input for the 205 because most doubler kits use a 32 spline out put in the 203. its just easyier to convert my 23 spline np205 to a 29 spline and mate it up to the trans lol. besides i wont do enough wheeling to use the doubler kit any way.

Congrats on the super find!!!!!!!

dose any one know where i can get a new radiator core support? mine is kinda rusted

im looking for one off a 79-81 so i can keep the quad headlight setup.

hey thanks for the pointer. are yo useing the 91-93 intercooler and radiator? i wonder if it will work with the 94 rad and cooler that i got with the engine