That gizmo on the rear spring is a proportioning valve. it senses how the
truck is loaded as a function of the position of the spring relative to
front spring hanger. When the truck is lightly loaded, it bypasses brake
pressure back to another proportioning valve mounted on the frame under
the cab on the drivers side. If it's really rusty, it is possible that
it may be stuck in the "unloaded" position. Take a *GOOD* look at all of
the brake lines. If they are really rusty you should replace them. I
had one of mine blow out a while back and things got really exciting !!!
If it seems like the front brakes are not working up to par, check the
proportioning valve under the cab. It has a poppet valve in it that's
designed to keep the front brakes from engaging until the rear shoes have
begun to contact the drums. The designers put this valve in a really
stupid place, as it gets covered with all kinds of crud from normal
driving, and the poppet valve faces forward. Mine rusted to the point
where the front brakes wouldn't work at all. About the rusty fuel lines,
take a good look at the connections where the rubber line is clamped to
the metal line entering the top of the tank. This area is prone to get
caked with crud. If it rusts through, it will cause some funky fuel
delivery problems before an actual leak is apparent. It's also pretty
hard to see up there. Mine got to the point where I had a 6' dia. puddle
of gas under the truck after work one day.
About engine mods for performance, forget it. If there are any
aftermarket goodies available for the early 3.9's I havn't found them.
The good news is that you have the best automatic trans that CC ever put
in a Dakota. The A904 has some wierd shift points, but it is pretty
indestructable.
It's good to see another *Classic Dak* owner on the list. There aren't
too many of us. I've got the factory shop manuals for the 87, and a lot
of experience replacing worn out Dakota parts, so feel free to E-mail me
directly if I can help.
Rich
87 4x4 SE 3.9 Auto
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:07:45 EDT