Hey, current 2nd gen owner here who is about to buy my first 1st gen ram. As title states it's a 1989 Ram, says Power Ram on the side, has the 360. My 2nd gen is a 318 so this is actually my first time owning a 360. Anything I should be aware of, check or be ready to replace right away? It's got 140,000 miles on it.

I'm getting it for a pretty good price and just need it for a 2nd vehicle for the time being.

Thanks in advance!

 

I would just check for any hack-job electrical crap. There isn't anything like the blight of plenum gaskets on a magnum, or stripped sparkplugs like a ford triton, or a case of being a chevy like you get with a silverado, but the electrical system on the TBI motors is hit or miss it seems. Some people drive them for years and years without problems, and other people can never get them to run right. It seems like most of the ones with issues have all been hacked into already. If it all looks stock, acts normal, and drives well, there isn't much to worry about. The ABS is one other thing I can think of being finicky, but if the brake lights are off, I wouldn't worry about that either. Its a quick and relatively cheap fix to delete it anyway.

 

Awesome! Good to know on the brake system and I'll double check to make sure there is not any kind of hack wiring going on for sure. Thanks again!

 

Well, everything seems good but the brakes are not quite right. I asked him a few times what it was and he said "they just need to be bled" and I asked are you sure? He said he was positive.

So, on the way home the brake light came on. So, were you talking about it being relatively quick and easy to just delete the ABS system in case that's the route I need to go?

 

Could be a master cylinder.
Mine went out on my truck and it had a mushy pedal that went to the FLOOOOOOOR. lol

 

If and only if you have no leaks, good braking, and no other problems than the light, you can try unplugging the abs box behind the glove box, and deleting the ABS valve on the rear frame rail. You can just run new line past the valve.

It sounds like you have other problems. If I were you, I would check your fluid, and start looking under the truck for leaks. Thankfully, our trucks came with a great dual reservoir setup instead of the horrible single reservoir plastic garbage they use today. If you are loosing fluid in the small reservoir, its a rear brake or rear line leak. If its loosing fluid from the large reservoir, then its the front.

 

Which brake light is coming on? You should have 4 boxes in the message center of the dash. The top one should be the normal brake system warning light and the bottom one is for the anti-lock brake warning. If it is the top light it has nothing to do with the anti-lock brake system. The top one tells you there is an imbalance in the front and rear hydraulic system. This could be the master cylinder, proportioning valve, poorly bled brakes, or a leak in the hydraulic system.

 

Both lights are on but I think the top one is on because the parking brake doesn't work. Both reservoir tanks are full and don't seem to be going down at all. Hopefully they just need to be bled, will try bleeding them Sunday if I get around to it since football has become an all day event for me.