Secret area in gm_tcwbuild.

Thx for the reply I really love anything that involves cranes in gmod 😊

It wasn't terribly difficult to add 3D model support to the Build engine. DNZH doesn't make major use of 3D models, it's limited to player and enemy NPCs and some world detail props. The Statue of Liberty is the largest model DNZH uses. When you see things that look to be rooms over rooms (something not actually possible in Build) like catwalks, those are just specially oriented sprites.

Not for 1st gen Dakotas. Finding any part for this truck is a nightmare. Try getting OE windshield washer nozzles, they don't exist lol.

You have to remove the lower dash and glove box assembly. While you can unscrew the blower motor, you won't be able to remove it because there's not enough room. I don't remember how the assembly comes off, but it wasn't terribly difficult to do. There's also a cooling line for the motor that you probably won't be able to reinstall, unless you can find a genuine Mopar blower motor. The aftermarket motors have the hole in the wrong location and the tube won't fit. I've run my blower motor without it for years, and haven't had an issue yet. You may just want to cap off the port in the air box to keep air from leaking out. But while you're in there, I'd suggest sucking all of the detritus out. There's no filter or even screen from outside, so the box fills with leaves and junk and eventually turns to rot. If you got a musky smell out of your vents, it's likely coming from there. When I reinstalled my air box, I installed a screen between the dash air port and the duct going to the air box. I had a couple of friction fires start in my air box from leaves and twigs falling in and getting stuck between the air box housing and the blower wheel. Had to dump water down the air intake to put them out.

@@GGigabiteMthanks for the info. I like my truck but the fan squeal’s

A voltage regulator mod would not have fixed the problem. The copper contactors and bus bars inside the ignition switch had such high resistance that they were causing a voltage drop of sometimes up to 4-5v. This caused secondary cascading failures (since everything goes through those contactors) of the headlight switch and hi/lo switch quite literally melting and smoking. I was measuring 14.5v coming out of the alternator, but only 10-11v at the battery and anywhere else. This is why the auto parts stores thought I had a bad alternator. This whole fiasco started when my headlights would randomly shut off and start flickering. Traced it to melted headlight and hi/lo switches. I burned through six of EACH before I figured something else had to be wrong. These switches were also getting so hot that they were melting and smoking. The reason they were melting and smoking is because the voltage was too low, which caused the current to exceed the rating of the contactors and wires. Likely what would have happened if I just slapped in an external voltage regulator is the truck would have burned down from all of the wiring getting grossly overloaded and burning. As for the first Dakota that had TBI, the first model year 1987 Dakota had factory option TBI, but it wasn't very popular. It was expensive and didn't really offer any benefits over the standard 2bbl carburetor. Even less popular was the smaller I4 engine, I think I remember seeing that less than 4% of all 1st gen Dakotas sold ever had the I4. Strangely enough, there was a TBI for the I4 engine! It only had a single fuel injector in a tiny baby throttle body. I've only ever seen one of them.

There are three vacuum connections on the brake booster. The large one on the side is the vacuum source from the throttle body. The small port pointing up goes to the optional cruise control module. The port on the front goes to a vacuum line through the firewall on the lower left of the brake booster to the climate control head in the dash. On the inside of the cab, it's somewhere above and behind the gas pedal on the drivers side. There's another vacuum line that goes back out the same hole in the firewall to the heater control valve in-line with the upper heater hose to the heater core. If these two lines are broken, your vents won't work and will dump to the floor and defrost vents.

The Tee pipe that bolts to both exhaust manifolds doesn't have a check valve in it. I've had the whole Tee pipe off of my truck once a long time ago, and I don't remember there being any check valve in it at all, it was just a straight pipe with a branch going off to the smog pump. Unless you mean the vacuum actuator that sits on top of the smog pump? That thing shouldn't have carbon or even oil in it, all it does is get air from the smog pump and blow it back through the exhaust. If you have a fouled up air line with carbon, that'd lead me to believe your engine is running extremely rich, and maybe a severely restricted exhaust system. It almost sounds like you have a clogged catalytic converter and the engine is trying to push exhaust out anywhere it can, one path being back up out the smog pump lines. I would need to see a picture of what you're talking about, because threads on whatever you're talking about doesn't make sense.

@@GGigabiteM Yes it's the the pipe that branches off that runs to the air pump. That's the one I'm talking about lol I wish I could post a picture on here. I would show you what it looks like

Is there a way for me to get a picture to you? Also, how do you know if your catalytic converter is bad?

@@jadepolky3805 You can try putting the picture on an image sharing site and linking it here, but there's a good chance it will get filtered. Always worth a try. Either that, or make a short video and upload it to YT and I can see it through your profile.

@@jadepolky3805 The symptoms of a bad cat are bad fuel economy, poor performance and difficulty starting and stalling. Problem with those symptoms is there is about a half dozen other things that can cause those same problems. The easiest method is to just remove the catalytic converter and look at it. It's a pain in the arse to do, but you probably need to replace it regardless since it's 30+ years old. They're consumable items, they wear out over time. Hopefully you don't have the California model, which has three cats. One on each down pipe in addition to the one at the end of the Y pipe. I need to replace the cat on my truck because it's rusted out, just haven't had the time.

Not sure. The first gen dakotas use a round connector on the fuel sending unit with 4-5 pins. At some point, Chrysler changed to an oval style connector, making them incompatible without having to chop and rewire the harness. When my fuel pump went out several years ago, I opted to just replace the fuel pump and pickup screen in the sending unit so I didn't have to modify the wiring harness. If you can rebuild your existing sending unit, I'd recommend it, because there's also the issue that the resistance on the fuel gauge float could be different, which would throw your dash gauge off.

Didn't drain anything actually, the heater core had leaked everything out through the condensate drain by the time I removed it. The engine coolant had been changed recently so I didn't do anything but add back the lost coolant amount after the job was done.

Started messing with electronics in middle school, mostly self taught. Board level repair and diagnostics is something that almost no college teaches. If you're lucky, you may find an AC or DC electronics course. The best resources you'll find are old resources from the 1930s to the 1980s, back when companies made products that were repairable, and provided schematics and knowledge for. All of that knowledge can be applied to today's electronics, just on a much smaller scale. Look for old Radio Shack magazines, Popular Mechanics and computer magazines from the 1970s and 1980s. There's a lot of videos on YT covering these topics, and many of the old instructional videos from like Army training films has been uploaded to YT as well. I'd also suggest watching some of Louis Rossmann's older repair videos, where he works on Macbooks. If you're in Texas, he recently moved here and is going to start doing repair workshops, where you can go and get all of your questions answered, and use the equipment we use. There are also web forums dedicated to older computers and electronics around the internet.

If the transmission has the proper fluid level in it, which you can check with the engine running and the transmission in neutral, you have a junk transmission. If the transmission fluid is brown or black, you definitely have a trashed transmission. Time to start looking for a junkyard transmission, get yours rebuilt, or find a remanufactured unit. Or if you want to throw good money after bad, flush every ounce of transmission fluid out, replace the transmission filter and then dump in a bottle of "poor man's rebuild" or otherwise known as stop slip and prey it does something.

@@GGigabiteM I should have been more specific the trans is good no slipping fluid is brand new same withe the filter When in gear if you try to accelerate fast or more than 1/4 throttle the engine starts spitting and and back fires threw the intake it gets plenty of fuel injectors pulse fine and spray well dis cap and rotor are new wires all ohmed out fine only other thing I could think of is a vac leak and I checked withe the old carb cleaner trick and I have found nothing and I've kinda tried throwing money and parts at it and now I am going to make it work with the tbi or if I decide to throw more at it just carb swap it if I can't figure it out am going to sell it who can use the money with gas prices and that's a thirsty 360 they way she is and won't do the speed limit

@@zachwebb6879 if its backfiring out of the throttle body when you accelerate, you have a timing issue. Either the rotor is way off, or there's something wrong with the timing chain. It could be worn and stretched so much that it's not holding time. It could also be off a tooth from jumping the gears. You need to get a timing light and check the timing on the harmonic balancer to the timing cover case. If the timing jumps all over the place when you accelerate, I'd suspect a stretched chain. If the timing is steady, but not firing at the right time, you need to adjust the distributor. I dont know what degree range the factory setting is because I don't have a 360.

@@GGigabiteM thank you I'll check it out I've researched a lot and that is one of my suspension other than some faluty sensor I haven't checked the fuel pressure either but it seems to get fuel alright I know I only drove 12 miles to work and back a day and had to put forty in it a week I understand the pressure drop and volume drop could effect it to any thing other than timing you would check oh and I know code 37 is a b but I have an auto with overdrive could the tourque converter or part throttle relay have anything to do with it I just want to know I am going in the right direction ya know

@@GGigabiteM it also don't go wide open only time it did it got stuck wide open and had to shut her off because it was over powering the brakes

>Where would you start with a problem like this? Thanks in advance, if you dare to even guess at this. Don't start jacking with the jets, those are the last things you should be messing with. Check the ENTIRE vacuum system first and make sure you have zero vacuum leaks. Even a tiny pin prick of a vacuum leak will cause run issues. The 1st gen Dakotas have dozens and dozens of vacuum lines, so you have a big task ahead of you. Check the vacuum lines for cracks or poor connections on tees and unions. If you got a bunch of vacuum line stuck together with unions and tees and tape and shit, take all of it out and make the simplest possible runs to where the lines need to go to eliminate sources of leaks. Document where the lines go and tee off to the different places so you don't put a vacuum line in the wrong place. Also remove the EGR valve on the drivers side of the engine and check to see if the passages in the intake are plugged with soot. If they are, vacuum the crap out and clean out the EGR valve. The metal line that comes off the side of the valve is also subject to getting plugged, you'll need lots of brake cleaner and some dollar store pipe cleaners to clear it. I don't know if the 87 has a PCM like the later TBI models do, but if you have an oxygen sensor on the down pipe, change it. A bad oxygen sensor will cause the engine to stall and die if there's any computer control of the engine. As for the carburetor, if you've never seen the inside of it, and its history is unknown, you'll probably have to tear it apart and clean it. Carburetors are almost never cared for properly, and if that truck sat for any length of time with fuel in it, especially ethanol fuel, the inside is probably horrible. I'd guess it has jellied fuel, rust and corrosion all inside the float bowl, and the jets are probably gummed up too. Rebuilding a carburetor is indeed a challenging task due to all of the parts inside. But if you take lots of pictures and document where things go when you take it apart, it will go back together properly. But only when you have eliminated all possible vacuum leaks from the system can you adjust the jets, because it requires a vacuum gauge. If there's any vacuum leaks, it will throw the gauge and fuel mixture off, and you'll either flood the engine or starve it for fuel. One other thing I forgot to mention is that the intake manifold is subject to becoming clogged. I would suggest getting a cheap boroscope, removing the carburetor and looking down all 6 intake passages. If you see any of them being restricted, you'll need to take the intake off and clean it.

@@GGigabiteM Thank you Gigabyte for all this great information. I'll start with the vacuum system then as it sounds way easier than the rest. My mother's offer of a free toyota corolla, just need to drive it from atlanta to maine sounds better & better though. I'll try the vacuum lines but the rest of it sounds like it would take more time than making that 1300 mile trip.

​@@GGigabiteM btw, is the big thing that attaches to the top of the valve cover on the passenger side part of the vacuum system? It has a hose that goes to the air filter compartment. Because the hole it fits in seems somewhat loose.

@@GGigabiteM Just to summarize the basic situation, correct me if i'm wrong please: the carb is controlled via the engine's vacuum. And so if there is a leak anywhere in the vacuum system, the carb won't function properly and you'll have the same sorts of issues like i was describing?

@@GGigabiteM Some great info in this: "On the vacuum line that routes to the ESA check the tee and its line that goes to vacuum controlled orifice tank vapor valve and see if that is leaking. The diagram shows a 1/2 inch hose that routes from the base of the carburetor towards the rear of the engine. It connects to a tee. One leg of the tee goes through a filter and onto the brake booster check valve. The other leg of the tee goes through a filter and connects to the vacuum amplifier. Disconnect the hose at the brake booster check valve and plug the end so there is no vacuum leak. Disconnect the other hose at the vacuum amplifier and attach your vacuum gauge. See if you get 16 inches or more of vacuum. If no then you will need to trace this hose back to the carburetor and also the brake booster vacuum hose from the booster back to the carburetor. My experience with vacuum hoses is that those that are closest to the carburetor or throttle body (heat source) will harden and lose elasticity. With no elasticity they will start to leak but from a casual glance appear to be in good condition. If you find the hoses attached to the tees are hardened you will have to be careful in removing the lines as the plastic tees will become brittle due to heat and are easily broken."

Rodents tend to leave the wiring harness alone, but they LOVE to eat the fuel lines going to the tank. I had asshole rats eat both fuel lines going to the fuel tank four times in a month. I got so sick of having to jack the bed up to fix the lines that I made an armored sheathing out of steel wire to cover the entire length of both hoses, haven't had an issue since. Also got a bunch of cats that got rid of the rats too. For the rodents on the valve covers, get those green rat poison blocks and put a couple in the valley on top of the engine. It'll kill all of the rodents that decide to take up residence in your engine bay.

@@GGigabiteM lol, "How to rat proof a vehicle fuel line"...you should do it.

@@leatherpunk Definitely on the Dakota, because the fuel line is in a stupid location. It's exposed to the drivers side rear wheel well, so road debris can be kicked up and damage the line as well. I've had rocks and junk get flung up by the tires and puncture the lines as well.

@@GGigabiteM Yeah, I'm not in love with this truck. Oh by the way, I'm back to square one, the check engine light came on again, voltage dropped. It does it for a few minutes, then it bounces back. It's not persistent/constant. Although, when I first got the trucking running last month, the issue WAS persistent. The next 'part' i buy is going to be a For Sale sign.

@@leatherpunk I like first gen Dakotas despite the weird issues they have. It's the only vehicle that I've ever been able to get in and out of without jumping way up or crouching way down to get into. I can just slide right in, and everything is in the right place. I'd offer to buy it if it was cheap enough, and not a rust bucket, but according to your website, you're across the country lol.

You need a special tool, commonly called a "crows foot" to get at the nut on the fitting going into the rack. I had to replace my high pressure hose a few months ago because the rubber line split at the crimp where it meets the metal line. I don't remember what size it was, so you'll just have to buy a kit of them. They're relatively cheap on Amazon. Getting any sort of normal wrench in there is impossible in my experience, without damaging something.

@@GGigabiteM Yeah I need an 18mm flare end crowsfoot. those look great.

Start switch.

Check for vacuum leaks and plugged vacuum lines. The 239ci V6 is ridiculously sensitive to vacuum leaks, and even a tiny pin prick of a vacuum leak will cause the engine to run very poorly. A plugged EGR can cause weird issues, and it can be a pain to clean because the intake manifold EGR passages can become so clogged that you have to remove it and manually clean it out. Also, check to see if you have a good working oxygen sensor. The PCM will go crazy and flood the engine with so much fuel it will stall and run badly. I worked on an 89 dakota the other day that was a no start and it had a melted wiring harness in the engine bay between the battery and firewall on the drivers side. There are fusible links there and if they are compromised, you'll have electrical gremlins. The same goes for the relays on the same side. Relays dont last forever, they'll get pitted and charred and will also cause issues.

The LED backlight has at least two parallel arrays of LEDs to keep the voltage down. If there was a bad connection or a marginal LED in only one of the parallel arrays, you can indeed get dark areas on the screen.

It's an ignition switch. Orilleys has them for about $25

Yes.

Yeah, it was available on film. I think it was one of the last movies to see a widespread 35mm film release before digital took over.

There's nothing stopping you from doing that, but no sense in reinventing the wheel when aftermarket ECM/PCMs exist. There are kits you can slap on almost any engine and tune to your specific vehicle, but be prepared to pay to play, they're not cheap. PCMs for the Dakota are surprisingly still available from auto parts stores, probably because they were used on other Chrysler vehicles as well. While you could theoretically use something like a raspberry pi as an ECM, it's in no way designed for such a use, and I would never trust it to be reliable enough to use as a daily driver. Getting the stoichiometry correct on the engine is a complex process, and I'd sooner slap a carburetor on before trying to design my own fuel injection system.

@@GGigabiteM I hadn't thought about engine timing sorts of uses of the power. For my own use case I've got simple blinker problems & also high /low beam control & also no windscreen spray or wipers. I figure if it isn't the fuses then rather than continue to use the old wiring then maybe just use some hobby switches on a piece of wood for a control panel. we'll see. For you I thought this voltage control could be solved with something more simple than existing wiring, but I suppose voltage regulation is pretty much the bedrock of the whole system.

@@surfreadjumpsleep The high/low headlight function is controlled by a mechanical relay attached to the lower left part of the steering column. There's a long metal rod sandwiched between the blinker stalk and the relay a foot or so down the column. That relay goes through the push/pull headlight switch on the left side of the dash, which in turn goes through the start switch on the top of the steering column. It's why I recommended to replace all three because they can all cause all sorts of issues. When you change the high/low relay and the start switch, be sure to mark the position of the screws because both are controlled by long metal rods that need the correct preload set. If you get it wrong, the rods will either fall out or when you turn the key or actuate the headlight intensity, it won't work right. As for the wipers, make sure that the mechanical linkage under the vent cowling hasn't fallen apart. There are plastic/rubber bushings that link the metal pieces together and they dryrot to dust over time and cause the linkage to fall apart. I've had to redo my wiper linkage a few times already. The same happens for the transmission shifter linkage under the truck, it uses the same plastic bushings that rot and crumble to dust.

Lol

I'd at minimum suggest pulling the engine/trans and putting a Magnum setup in it. Parts availability is way better, fewer headaches and more power and fuel economy. I wouldn't recommend hotrodding it, the truck is too light to have any sort of big power increase. Even the stock 125 HP V6 can spin the tires. Going to a Magnum would be the least amount of work and probably the cheapest if you can find a wrecked truck to steal parts from.

@@GGigabiteM yeah I have the 1987 v6 3.9 version. Is this the ultimate Dakota unicorn? He treated it like a baby back in the 90s in Georgia. He didn't drive it much for the next 20 years in Maine. I am hopeful that it mostly just works. Just now I'm replacing the valve cover gasket but I'm noticing orange gasket material coming out from the seams of whatever the next level down gasket is.

@@surfreadjumpsleep you're either looking at the intake manifold gasket or the timing chain cover/water pump gasket. If either of those is leaking anything, they need to be redone. Coolant flows through both the intake manifold and timing chain cover, so if you have a leak, it's very easy to get coolant in the engine oil.

@@surfreadjumpsleep as for being a unicorn, the first gen dakota was only made for 3-4 years, so parts are very hard to get.

​@@GGigabiteM ​ The car does blow white smoke at start... but then it's cold out. Still, there is an excessive amount of white smoke. The oil is not at all creamy though. I now think that my Dad might have put that orange gasket sealant on. I remember he and his friend took the engine out and rebuilt it one summer in the mid 90s. I'm not sure why he did that because the truck was so new then. Thank you for the tips. I may have more detailed questions once I start to dig into the truck. Are you going to swap out your engine for that other one you mentioned?

If you have an 87 Dakota, this layout may not help you as much. The first 87 Dakota had some sort of two barrel carburetor stock, the TBI was a more expensive upgrade option. I remember looking at the vacuum diagram for the carburetor years ago and it was much different than the TBI with even more vacuum lines. But if you have money to spend to get the truck in good order, I would suggest ditching the engine and transmission and installing a later Magnum V6 with the 4 speed automatic transmission. Parts availability is much better, you'll have fewer headaches with the vacuum system, have much more power (125hp vs 175/185hp on the Magnum) and get way better fuel economy. If you have an automatic Torqueflite 904 3 speed, it kills gas, I get 15/16 mpg on mine. To put it into perspective how hard parts are to get, it took me two years to find an intake manifold for it. The passenger side exhaust manifold is unobtanium, as is the Y pipe. So when you start having exhaust leaks, you have to live with them. There is some commonality with internal engine parts with the 318, except for the crankshaft, but that's not at all helpful since the external parts are so hard to find.

@@GGigabiteM Hi Gigabite. I've been working on the truck slowly making it better. How's your truck treating you? Right now I'm trying to change the power steering hose. Ever have to do this? The old hose on the '87 has a longer nipple. Maybe 12mm long. The replacement has a 7mm nipple. I'd just try the new part except that I could only get one of two sides of the old hose off. I'm curious if you did this and if you maybe ran into the same issue with the replacement part not looking like the old part. Thank you.

@@surfreadjumpsleep Mine has problems. Rear main seal leak and front crank seal leak. Too hot to mess with changing them right now. I had to change the high pressure hose on my power steering pump several months ago because the rubber line split. Bought a replacement hose from O'reillys and it was wrong, the bends on the hard line were 180 degrees off, so I had to do some creative bending to get it to work. I would recommend just taking the old line to a hydraulic shop and pay them to make you a new correct line, so you don't have to fight with chineseium garbage.

@@GGigabiteM But you didn't have to change the nipple? you could tighten it in there without leaks? Is your new hose's nipple shorter than the old one? (that sounds just terrible but I think you know what I mean). I could post a photo to show you what I mean. You need a lake or something to go dive into. I wish it were hotter here so it would be warm enough for the lake.

@@surfreadjumpsleep I don't remember if the fitting was the same depth or not. It shouldn't be too critical as long as the metal flare/flanges bottom out in the hole. The thing that makes the seal is the metal on metal, not rubber. The only thing the O ring will be doing is keeping the flare/flange centered and stopping low pressure leaks. Rubber seals can't be used on power steering systems anywhere. They'd be blown apart by the 1000PSI+ pressure on the high side, and attacked by the corrosive power steering fluid anywhere else. There are synthetic polymers that are used for seals on power steering systems

Good that someone got some use out of it.