Hi. I'm new here.

Well, I finally realized my childhood dream and bought a van. And not just any van, a 1998 Dodge Ram California Comfort conversion shorty with less than 120K! I couldn't be happier! Especially since I got it for a steal!

Anyway, I've already been fiddling around with it, I had to change out the power steering pump and I changed all the plugs and wires. Then the sway bar links flew off and after a mild freak out (not something you want to hear when driving down the road), I put new ones on.

Unfortunately, this is my daily driver for a while. The goal is to eventually get a different daily and then trick this puppy out for camping and road trips. I've already put a lot of miles on her, so I know she's good for the long haul.

There are only a few quirks that I need to work out, if anyone here has any advice:

first, gas mileage! Its got the 5.2L 318, and anything you can suggest to improve gas mileage would be hunky dory.

2nd: Interior lights. They don't work. Well the front lights work, but there are not "door" lights that automatically come on, and all of the back interior lights just don't function. Thoughts?

Last - door locks. I have a fancy key fob, but it only unlocks the front doors, locks the front doors and side doors, and the back door doesn't do anything. It would be nice to have it all working, but whatever.

thanks in advance!

 

What kind of gas mileage are you getting? I would think 12-14 is about as good as it's going to get...... Check the plenum, and see if the gasket is blown. (look down the throttle bores, see if there is oil pooling in the bottom of the intake.)

 

Your fuel mileage will create a vacuum. As for the lights, conversions vans often have two light systems. The basic one from the factory will do your dash lights and the overhead over the dash.The conversion company will do the lights in the back, both courtesy and decorative. You'll need to trace the wires. It will probably be something simple like a burned out bulb or sticky switch. On the locks, as old as it is, the mechanism may be gummed up. If you pull it out and clean it, you may get it working again.

 

Nice van.
I have an 03 Elk Conversion...
As for gas mileage...LOL...
12-14 is it. on the highway, you may get 16 if you have the OD transmission.
If you put 75-90 fully synthetic oil in the differential that is supposed to be good for 1 Mpg.
As for the lights...Im not sure how to answer, but in my van, the front "dome lights aka airplane click on and off lights" (there are two between the front seats) are basically standard dome lights controlled by the door switch and the standard factory relay for that. For the rears, it looks like that there is a wire from the front door switch to the relay in the back fuse panel. The backlights are powered by the separate fuse panel In the back. Also, this is a separate fuse box for auxillary lights. For auxillary lights i have four airplane lights and "stripper lights"; in the roof panel. These are all controlled by a switch box on the ceiling-mounted switch panel in the front
As for the locks, the solenoid is the same for the side and the rear doors. I have had to replace both of them with junkware finds. They work great. I should have tried to clean them, but since I had 3 that I took off a few vans when I did a couple of junkyard expeditions, I just replaced them. There are plastic connectors for the rods, and those may have fallen off, but they are pretty stout connectors.
I hope this helps.
cheers!

 

Thanks for the replies! I figured out my mileage issue....my speedometer/odometer is off by 1/10th a mile, or 10%. I'm actually getting 12MPG city/16MPG highway. Better than the 10-14 I thought I was getting!

I am running factory specified tires, so any clue on how to fix the 1/10th off issue? Not worried about the odometer, but when I think I'm doing 55MPH and I'm actually doing about 61-62....usually no big deal unless I'm in a small town in the middle of nowhere...

I have one other issue about the control arm bushings, but I'll post that in a new topic.