Well shes 99% back togather, the stupid little tube for the EGR comming from the manifold broke so I havnt really ran it. Also I managed to do something completely freaking retarded and needless to say im totally pissed at my self :mad:, I managed to connect the battery wrong......I cannot believe I did that, It was freezing dark and i couldnt see. It was bad not just a bump on the terminal with the wrong connector, i actually connected it and the odd part is the lights came on so I didnt thing anything was wrong til the voltage regulator started smoking :eek:. So far the only thing I can tell is not working correctly is the radio.....it seem to be dead unfortunately, everything else is in operating order, all the lights, wipers, and even with just 3 plug wires connected i turned it over and she actuallly fired up on those three cylinders, so i've got my fingers crossed and i think the damage was minimal. I feel like a moron.

Anyway on the upside I did make it to a you pull it yard on saturday morning and got a perfect condition folding rear seat out of a 1998 Carolina Panthers edition Ram Coach conversion van. Althought it was a total pain to install (had to remove the wall to mount it) the seat folds flat into a bed and when it is folded out in fits exactly between where the wall is and the front seats. So I ended up walking out of the junk yard with a aluminum rear door ladder and the rear folding seat with the controls and wiring harness for $80, what a steal!!! and the electric motors on the seat work great. Next trip im going to take the front captains chairs out of one that are the same color as the rear seat, Im not going to lie it looks a little out of place with grey leather in the rear and blue pleather in the front.

heres a couple pics.

Update:

as of last night she is up and running, motor is very smooth, idles well, sounds powerfull and tight. All 8 old injectors were stopped up solid and that most definitely was why she wouldnt run......can wait to get her on the road!

Good deal :)

That is great.

Hey guys the van is running perfect, but I am still having a couple small issues from my idiotic move of connecting the battery terminals incorrectly in the dark one night. As I mentioned earlier the radio is dead, the only sign of life it has is when you turn the lights on the green/blue back lighting comes on, but still no power to the turn on the radio. Also a bunch of the gauges do not work (temp, oil pressure, fuel, etc.). I know things can get really messed up from connecting the batter incorrectly like this, where should I start to look for what could be causing my problems with the radio and gauges? I replaced the voltage regulator because it was smoking:eek:.

On a lighter note, I'm having a free exhaust made for it. I have a friend who is a ford gas and diesel tech who works and a performance diesel shop locally and has some extra pipe and a Magnaflow muffler laying around so he offered to build me an exhaust. On a van I'm obviously not looking to gain HP, but if I'm paying for the gas in a 8-cylinder I sure would like to hear it burn it.

I think you'll have take a look at the wiring harness to see if you have any burned spots on the black tape or the insulation. or you may have to replace the instrument cluster and radio.

I looked at the wireing up under the dash and didnt see anything really burnt looking, I also went throught the fuse box under the dash and found one blown fuse, replaced it and the Raido works now but still no gauges.