I drug home my father-in-laws 1991 D350 about a year ago. Finally got around to messing with it and between the 10 years it sat and the mice and it being a work truck for a drywall company it is in pretty sad shape electrically and interior wise. It is a 159" WB dually with a nice 12' steel deck flatbed. The plan was to get it running and then source a pierce dump kit to turn it into a nice little dump truck.

After a couple of weekends with new parts, gas tanks, injectors, volt meters and jumper cables I'm certain there are demons that I don't want to deal with... He told me it ran rough when he parked it and I thought the missing ground wire to the block/battery could have been part but now I'm thinking it might be worse off than I thought. It is a 360 TBI vin 5 motor. I was about to throw in the towel and talk to him about getting rid of it. Between the tow bill and the parts I've got into it I'm about $750 in since he gave it to me for free, so I'm not underwater yet....



I'm a craigslist junkie, so I did a little looking and found a 1991 D250 with the same 360 motor, red interior with a pretty beat up body, bad brakes but decent motor and electrical and super clean interior.



Price was right at $600, so why have one rig you've given up on when you can have two projects... Originally I was going to throw the motor/trans into the D350 and be done with it... But then it turns out that all dodges in 1991 are D's and the 4wd is an option? Because this D250 has a D44 up front, 60 in the back and a 241 transfer case... Not a problem since I'm going to sell the stuff I don't need and scrap is scrap.. or maybe somebody needs a set of 3/4 axles...

I obviously want to keep the frame and flatbed, the exterior cab is better on my D350, good paint, no holes, etc, but the W250 has a great interior and the wiring looks like it is in great shape and nobody (or no mice) have attacked it. I don't have them side-by-side yet, but it looks like everything will swap over... Any thoughts on using the 4wd drivetrail from the 250, putting the front axle up front and then modifying the rear axle to fit the t-case? I don't see at any point loading the truck to capacity, or beating it in any way, so a 3/4 axle up front would be adequate....

 

i would just swing the harness from the 91 into the other 91. no need to swap the engine unless there is something wrong with it.

 

Good point. I dont know of the motor is firing on all 8 or not.. but I guess I can start with the harness amd if it works then great, if not, then the project gets bigger...