I came across Gus (that’s his name from now on) from a guy who got him to flip and make a few bucks, so he comes with zero past information. Gus is an ‘88 D250 with a 360 auto.
Working in another state, and I don’t have a garage here, so this will be my evening shade tree boredom saver.

He’ll fire right up and starts effortlessly, but then things get weird.
Here’s a picture of him…

Driving him from the purchase location, he died at every stop when attempting to accelerate from stop. Each time restarting then feathering the gas to ease into movement I made it the short drive back to my place.

1st task for me was to clean up the engine so I could see what I was working with as it was terribly dirty. I sprayed down everything with undiluted purple power and let is set overnight. I pulled the greasy hood liner and just threw it away. Next day blasted everything with pressure washer for a remarkable outcome - really amazed at how well this cleaned up.



OK - so now the issues….
I foolishly let a couple colleagues take it for a drive and I’m sure these morons were hammering on him pretty hard as one asked if I could hear the “burn outs”.
He died upon their return and while that wasn’t unusual, the next day it was running terrible.
I found the large vacuum line of the back of the carb was off - not sure how that can happen driving it, but who knows.

I’ve since adjusted the high and low idle with a tach, and he’s back to starting easily and the choke works as it should.
But he actually now is worse from a stop. Idle = great; Drivability = not so much

I’ll be looking for vacuum leaks when I get an evening without rain, and plan to pull a plug or two and see what they look like.

Interior wise, he’ll need a seat cover, headliner is disintegrating into some weird yellow moon dust and he’s clearly hosted at least one mouse party.

45K on the odometer, but that could be missing a 1 or a 2. Either way, Gus isn’t as old as me and we’re about to become very well acquainted.

I’m not familiar at all with these old workhorses so any ideas or direction will be much appreciated.
Looking forward to the knowledge of you all in the quest.

 

Fuel injected or carbed? If the latter, I would consider maybe the accelerator pump is toast. (and easy to test too.) If FI, maybe bad TPS?

Welcome to DF!

 

it is a 88 360 which mean carb on top of being able to see the 2 ignition module in the pictures.

i would say you are likely having a carb issue. with todays fuel if it spent much time sitting it will likely need a rebuild. if you have ethanol free fuel available locally that would be the best fuel to run in it to try make it run longer without future carb issues.

 

Correct @crazzywolfie It’s a carburetor (quadrajet).
The module on the firewall is connected but the one on the inner fender is not.
it looks like the carb was recently at least opened as the gaskets are new. Alternator looks new too.

 

Found a couple vacuum leaks; big one was right at the vapor canister, one at the two little solenoids on the passenger inner fender and one was a broken hard plastic line from the canister to a 4 way valve on the manifold.
Today it ran pretty good. Took it to fill the tank and it didn’t die there or back 😀

 

I'd check the fuel filter too. It should be near the back of the alternator. If it had crud in it, it will restrict fuel flow.

I name my cars too. My newest project is a '97 Dakota Sport with the extended cab. It's name came to me as I was hauling it home on a trailer. "Rubigo". The body isn't as nice as yours though. I wanted something that won't get cut off in traffic.





(Rubigo is Latin for "Rust")

 

👍 on the fuel filter. I did change it too.
Rubigo looks good @ol' grouch! Always liked the looks of those Dakotas.
When I went to fill up Gus’s tank, the filler neck was just flopping around under a broken neck bezel. So today I was able to get what was left of it out and started attempting to reconstruct it. I cut a piece of a bucket lid for a backing plate and super glued what pieces were there back together. Then I filled the holes with some two part plastic. I then ran a full bead on the JB plastic around the hole and let it set until tomorrow. We’ll see if that works…

 

Started on the interior cleanup and found this … in the driver’s side vent


Three FULL handfulls of debris, and one hornets nest.

 

I didn’t take any “before” pics of the headliner but boy was it bad. Kind of a weird orange, brown foam dustish stuff.
the pic below shows the interior plastic trim and how some of pieces really faded while others actually look like they darkened from front to back. The piece under the rear window, behind the seat, had a piece of carpet type stuff glued to it.



Cleaned with Brake cleaner and a brush, then painted with plastic adhesion promoter and some Rustoleum camo paint in desert tan.

Very happy withe the results.
I ordered some foam backed faux suede for $27 and - Head liner done.
I didn’t get the dome light in before dark, so I’ll post a pic when I get the seat done.

 

Oh - on the original fuzzy crumbly headliner, liner, I brushed off the loose dust and put a couple coats of clear paint on it attempting to seal it up. That seemed to wrk OK then I used spray glue to adhere the fabric. I had a partial can and 1 coat didn’t stick well enough. I purchased a can of 3M77 and that worked really well sticking the foam backed fabric to the old liner.
Now need to clean the seat, seatbelts, and carpet.