Builds 1984 Desert 40 - Teardown and Rebuild

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Front doors have weatherstripping, sound deadening and glass in. Still need to put vapor barrier on and door cards, as well as remaining hardware. That weatherstripping is a PITA! Will say, however, that there's a nice solid thud when shutting. New OEM door lock mechanisms doesn't hurt a bit.

I shaved the mirrors on the doors and instead am going with hinge mounted ones. No problem to go back if needed/desired.

-Geoff
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Probably not a big deal to most but I was able to install working OEM delay windshield wipers.

Had to source the switch, delay module and a wiper motor that had the delay control wire, but it all works now.

Also it's he first time I've tried to embed a YouTube video so hopefully it works...



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I'll try to get some more pics of all the connectors when we reopen the dash next weekend. We tried to match the factory wire colors as much as possible so as to make this as easy as possible in the future.

Stay tuned.

-Geoff
 
Switch is the 1983+ LX switch and motor is the late model one with the intermittent functionality.

Key in all of this is the mechanical delay module. It's a bit of awesome old school tech!

-Geoff
 
Heater rebuilt. Sent the core to the radiator shop to make sure everything was ok. Rebuild kits from Shane at metrictlc before everything went pear shaped.

P.O. had gotten rid of the blower so had to source a replacement and rebuild. New blower resistor with replacement resistor bolt from @Racer65.

-Geoff

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Ok, here is the intermittent wiper info. Will be spread across a few posts. First the switch. A couple of things with it. We modified it to take an additional power (blue on the line diagram) to send power to the delay module. We also jumpered the black (ground for the washer motor) to the other ground on the switch and that ground goes to the main wiring harness ground. Could have ran two ground wires but this was easier.

-Geoff

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Here's the line diagram for the wiper setup as well as the switch functions.

I had to make a couple of changes as noted to make the diagram match my switch wire colors.

I checked the continuity of each function and my switch operates exactly as shown.

When following my chickenscratch, please remember that I draw all of my plugs (both male and female) as if you are staring at the end of the plug. So when looking at the 6-prong main wiring harness (female) versus the 6-prong switch plug (male) you will note that they are mirrors and match up if you put them together like plugging them in. Don't know if this is the right way to draw them, but it's how I do it.

Also, note that the 4-prong switch wire positions do not line up with the delay module positions. Looking at it now I should have done that and may still change it yet, but as of today you need to make sure that the wire functions line up. For example, Blue on the switch plug does not line up with Blue on the delay module right now. The new sub harness matches it up by how we wired each end of the sub harness.

-Geoff

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So on the line diagram note that what is called function "S" for the switch goes to "-S" on the delay module and then the output "S" on the delay module goes to "S" on the motor.

This is what the blue/white jumper wire is doing on the switch between the 4-prong plug and the 6-prong plug. It's taking the "S" delay module output and sending it through the main harness to the "S" on the wiper. Did it this way to prevent cutting the main wiring harness. Everything from the main wiring harness is unchanged. Everything changed is with the switch or sub harness only.

Photo of sub harness from switch to delay module. Again remember to follow the wiring diagram as how I currently have it wired, the sub harness does some crossovers on the wires.

-Geoff

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34 year old transfer shifter boot. It's seen better days. Got some new vinyl, and had a new one sewn up. Sandblast, prime and paint the retainer rings, 4 rivets later and viola!

-Geoff

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Geoff,

Make sure you also install the rubber transfer INNER boot to keep the heat and crap off your new vinyl outer boot.

And thanks for the wiper notes--been researching it and will contact you later.
 
Geoff,

Make sure you also install the rubber transfer INNER boot to keep the heat and crap off your new vinyl outer boot.

And thanks for the wiper notes--been researching it and will contact you later.

Absolutely! Was lucky in that my rubber has still been good. No chance of finding NOS for the inner transfer case boot and the outer shift boot. Would guess that you'd have to use a 60-series one and make work...

-Geoff
 
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So the late model Saudi-spec trucks had the 7 digit odometer and pictograms instead of words for the gauges. Since this cluster is no longer available I got the standard kilometer 6 digit cluster and sourced a JO7 speedometer/odometer and the pictogram version of the inner combination meter cover and swapped them out. About as close as I can get to period correct.

-Geoff

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Fantastic skills you have Geoff. I have to go to Ras al Khair occasionally and of course fly in and out of Dammam. Will have to try to connect up to see this 40 in person at some point.
 
Been working on a bunch of small projects, making progress in fits and spurts. One of the things I wanted to do was to upgrade the sound system while keeping it stock-ish looking. I had looked at having the guts of the radio swapped out for digital but that ended up being just too much. So I went for the retrosound head unit. @Picz34 posted a smoking deal back in December and I bought it on impulse.

The truck originally had stereo speakers up front - top of the line from Mr. T! :woot: Only issue was that the original speakers were incredibly thin. Retrosound makes the thinnest speaker that I have found, and luckily the speaker mounting holes lined up so all we had to do was create a small standoff to get the speaker to clear.

Don't tell my wife what I was putting on her dining room table while she was out!

-Geoff

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Original speakers.

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Retrosound replacement.

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In housing.

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Clearance.
 
For the rear speakers I went with my own version of the BTB speaker housings. They mention that the late model trucks need modification of the brackets. For me this meant that the driver side needed to be massaged to go around the tire carrier inner support bracket.

-Geoff

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