[91wagovanman]

So let get this thing going.
Truck: 2000 Dodge Dakota Quad cab Sport.
Engine: Stock 4.7 Magnum
Trans: Automatic 4 spd w/4wd
Miles: 301,482

I gave 500 dollars for this truck. I knew there would be issues but you dont pass up on a running 500 dollar truck these days. Issues I have run into so far have been 3 (in a row) faulty (owners fault) Throttle Position sensors. What I didnt know that I now know is that when you install a TPS you do so with a 1/4 turn of the sensor because there is a spring inside that lil bastid.... Clogged cat, which I removed from the manifold back and installed a straight 2.5 inch pipe with a turbo (cheap) muffler.... and Rust, OMG Becky would you look at that Rust. Its just so............. Ok I will stop now. Needless to say after 300,000 miles of Minnesota salt its rusty underneath. How rusty you ask? Well, I am glad you asked here are a few pictures of the frame right in front of the leaf spring hangars.

Is that rusty enough for ya? Well, me being the genius that I am I had to do some fabrication to stiffen this situation up. so i got out the Die Grinder some 1.5 inch square tube steel and got to cutting and welding. Ive got videos of this on my tiktok but the files are too large for me to send from my phone to my email so i can upload them here
and this is what I came up with.

And in Primer

I don't claim to be a fabricator or anything of the sort but this worked as a temporary measure. My nephew currently has the truck at a jobsite in Arkansas and the Welds and Bolts are holding. But, I know they are not going to hold forever so i went and bought this yesterday. It's a 99 Dodge Dakota Sport Club cab (they both have the 131" frames so I am praying that they match up.

I read somewhere online that the frame was the same for both trucks the Club cab has a longer bed and the Quad cab has a shorter bed to make up for the lost frame length. We are going to see though. It was a real pain in the A to get this donor off the trailer by myself but here are some photos of it happening. I jacked up the front with a Cherry picker, then ran a tow strap from the frame to a tree and drug that bastid off the trailer.

And here it sits on 4 jack stands. slowly being stripped of the parts I will not reuse. Any thoughts on how I can get the body off the frame solo? Also, I have been thinking about doing a dual gas tank setup since I now have an extra gas tank. Thoughts on that anyone?

 

[91wagovanman]

Well I got the body off the frame. unbolted it Got the frame as close to the ground as I could, and rolled that bastard right off the frame.

Its got some surface rust on it but over all a really good frame for the price I gave. I will flap wheel the rust and respray it all over with under-body coating. One thing I noticed right away. the body mount locations are a little different. I think what I will have to do with that is cut off my old ones Weld 1/8" steel plate to the back of them and then bolt them to the new frame with some grade 8 bolts. Can anyone tell what that small box/tank is for directly across from the red floor jack? It has a small vacuum line that runs to the top of the gas tank. A small line and a 3/4" hose that runs to the front some where in the engine bay. Since the truck had no front clip engine or trans. I dont know what they hooked up to. I am thinking maybe the CA. clean air act BS. If that is what it is can I safely remove that stuff without affecting engine performance?

 

[immattj]

. Can anyone tell what that small box/tank is for directly across from the red floor jack? It has a small vacuum line that runs to the top of the gas tank. A small line and a 3/4" hose that runs to the front some where in the engine bay. Since the truck had no front clip engine or trans. I dont know what they hooked up to. I am thinking maybe the CA. clean air act BS. If that is what it is can I safely remove that stuff without affecting engine performance?

You are an animal, wagovanman!
Anyway, I am down to one useable eye and it isn't good enough to tell from the picture provided, but from what you have described (& knowing that it is a gen2) that sounds like the charcoal canister and how it SHOULD hook up into the EVAP system (the purge control solenoid) in the engine bay. From what I have read, and from my experience when mine was leaking, engine performance is not an issue, but you will get a code & a CEL if you live in an emissions inspection state.

Not too crazy long ago I responded to a thread inquiring about rectifying an AVAP system delete, and I quoted from my '03 FSM (which on that system should be quite similar). Give me a bit & I'll find the thread & paste a link for you. At the very least, there should be some informative reading there.

 

[immattj]

. . . here you are:

Removing EVAP System

So in my journey of cleaning up the engine bay, i came to the choice on whether or not to remove the evap system. figured i would just do it. I have searched and read alot, but still have a few questions and would liek to make sure i do it right. There is the charcoal canister next to my battery...

www.dakota-durango.com

and don't be put off by the originating date of the thread . . . some one bumped it up with her own questions and it sort of continued to go from there. There may be some information that is applicable to yours.

 

[91wagovanman]

Thank for the info @immattj I will check on that more after class. I have the service manual but it's such a pain in the ass to find anything in it. CEL's I'm not to worried about I have an endless one now due to missing downstream 02 sensor. I will post more from home later.

 

[immattj]

Thank for the info @immattj I will check on that more after class. I have the service manual but it's such a pain in the ass to find anything in it. CEL's I'm not to worried about I have an endless one now due to missing downstream 02 sensor. I will post more from home later.

I hear you. There is so much in the FSM that (for me) it is quite often hard to find what I am looking for. So therefore, I usually start by looking in the highly maligned and often deficient Haynes. When I do get into the FSM, however, I usually find the info to be quite in depth and complete. And I won't bet my life on this, but I really don't think that the EVAP system should affect performance. When you get time and read through that thread I pasted up there for you, the replies are rather disjointed, but among them is, I believe, a pretty good explanation of what the EVAP system does and how it is supposed to work. If I remember, it starts out with a discussion on how to get away with deleting the system and NOT have a CEL, and I think that what I took away from that was that it cannot successfully be done on all years. But it is worth a quick read for you.

And that is assuming that I am correct & the pic you posted does, in fact, relate to the charcoal canister & the EVAP system.

 

[ritayong]

you are doing a great job, good luck!


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[91wagovanman]

So I am running into Cab mount issues and bed mount location differences. a few questions I have right now are.
Is the suspension the same from a 99 club cab to a 2000 quad cab? is the rear end mounting location the same from year to year. Are the Engine mounts the same? both are 4x4. both have the 4.7 I am sure there are other questions I need to ask but those are the most pressing right this minute.

 

[91wagovanman]

@Zaan Could you shed some light on this last question maybe?

 

[Zaan]

@Zaan Could you shed some light on this last question maybe?

Well. To my knowledge they updated the chassis in 2000, the year they came out with the quad cab, but I'm not certain. I know my 04 is quite a bit different then my 93. I owned a 98 durango for a while and it's frame was closer to the 93 then the 04.
As for the rear suspension. The frame is the same width, and the springs should be the same width, but I know they used a softer spring on the quad cab for unknown reasons. I broke a spring on my 93 a few years back and when I went to get new ones the spring shop said that the springs I bought fit dakotas from 1984 to 2004. The wheel base is the same between the extended cab long box and the quad cab, but I've never tried to swap them. Believe it or not a junkyard with a good system would be where I'd go to ask. Their systems sometimes have much more information then you'd think about what frames will fit on what rigs.

 

[91wagovanman]

Update: Well the cab has been stripped of all usable parts (usable to me anyhow) and cut up into tiny pieces that I can transport easily with my broke ass Dak. Going to start working on the frame again after the holidays. (hopefully some warm weather will be forthcoming) Right now it has been around 11-19 degrees here in the Mountains of GA really unseasonable for us. Will update soon after I go buy a used lower control arm and Spindle for the drivers side so I can at least get this thing on wheels and make it easier to move around.