Dodge Power Wagon Dodge M880 Dodge W200 more juice from that engine power wagon plant!
Dodge W200 Dodge
M880 New Alternator
The stock alternator of our Dodge Power Wagon
M880 W200 is not one of the best parts of this truck, a change for the
better is a much more powerful alternator, a good choice is the Power
Master Street Alternator (PWM-17509), available through Summit, this alternator
supplies enough juice and power to keep your electrical systems running,
you will appreciate it when you use everything on the same moment, heater
blower, lights and extra lights, windshield wipers, extra amplifiers, it's
a good idea to connect your extra lights and amplifier(s) directly to the
alternator, it's better for your battery and now your ammeter will tell
you a fair measuring of your current is enough to charge the battery.
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Tip:
- Use for your amplifier(s) wiring at least 0.061
inch3 wire
- Use for your amplifier(s) and extra lights
always extra fuses between alternator and accessories
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Dodge W200
M880 New Double Batteries
I installed double batteries cause once I had
the experience that my alternator was worn and could not supply enough
current to charge my battery, if my ammeter worked I should noticed that
before, but my ammeter was broken and did not point anything, I was driving
on the highway in the third lane (just came back from a muddy event) and
suddenly the engine stalled and nothing worked anymore, I hardly
could drive to the hard shoulder just before it ended and a tunnel appeared,
fortunately I had a spare battery at the bed of the truck and on the hard
shoulder I changed the batteries, it was raining cats and dogs, and at
night I drove home with just my park lights and a minimum of using the
wipers and no heater, just keeping the ignition working, I made it to get
home, so with the rebuild of the Dodge Power Wagon M880 W200 I decided
to mount two batteries, I had to make a battery tray for two batteries,
this was not a simple job, because there is not enough room for a second
battery on the fender, so you will have to make a construction that moves
the second battery further to the engine (see photo).
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In my case I have made the battery tray in an L-shape, you will have to make lots of new brackets to support this tray to the fender, front end and to the frame, I also used stainless steel ends of thread to keep the batteries on their place, you will have to rewire the heavy wiring double, you can buy this wire loose but it is cheaper to buy a heavy jumper cable from which you cut the size you need, at the local auto part dealer you can buy heavy terminals so you can connect everything to each other, at Summit I bought two battery disconnect switches (SUM-G1432) to interrupt the plus, I mounted these two switches on an L-profile and mounted this piece of profile to the front end (see picture below, right), you connect the outgoing positive terminals of the batteries to your switches, each at one side of the switches, you connect the outgoing terminals from the other side of the switches both to a bolt mounted on a home-made bracket, which not conducts current, for example a piece of synthetic material, mount it to the frame, if you look at the picture you see that the red plate is connect to the front end with two bolts, beside the front end you see on the left side of the synthetic plate two other bolts, the large, stainless steel, bolt is the bolt which you can use to collect to outgoing terminals of the two switches, this bolt has then no contact with the frame, from this "collecting positive bolt" you can connect the wire to your starter relay, fix this bolt first with a lock washer and a nut before you mount the wire connectors, I have painted the synthetic plate red to avoid confusion for a garage that the bolts are positive terminals, above the large bolt I mounted a second smaller bolt, between the large and the small bolt I made a connection including a fuse, if you keep this small bolt a little bit longer you can make the connection to your stock positive wire to your ammeter and alternator and for several accessories like your car radio etcetera, an other advantage is that if you want to connect other accessories you just have to turn off the switches, connect a terminal to the wire and mount it on the small bolt, you can use a new lock washer and nut to connect it.
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You connect both the negative terminals of your batteries to the original location, so on the engine and on the frame, of course you have to use only one battery for daily driving (that was the whole idea to have always a spare battery in your truck), so one switch will always be turned off, so you now you never will be out off current, if your battery or alternator give it up, it is just a simple switch, every two months you should turn off the battery that you are using and using the other just by a simple switch, this will make sure that both your batteries are charged, under extreme conditions you can use both batteries but then there must be a real problem.
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Dodge Power Wagon M880,
Dodge W200 New Horn
My old horn was not producing any sound any more
after I did not use it for more than one and a half year, I tried really
carefull to hit it with a small hammer to make it work but no result, fortunately
I did not like the sound of the old horn at all, it was not loud enough,
so when I needed some more parts for the Dodge Power Wagon M880 W200
truck I asked my supplier for a new horn, they had only a new horn for
a Chevy (@#$$%%)
, the Dodge Power Wagon horn is negative switched and the Chevrolet horn
is positive switched, so now I had an other problem, but my supplier had
a great idea to make a relais between the connection to the steering wheel,
they gave me also a simple schedule how to do this, the small bolt which
I connected to the synthetic plate was very useful I just had to place
the new wire and connector over the bolt and just mount it with a new washer
and an other nut, if you buy a relais it is a good a idea to buy one with
a build in fuse, so then you can always see where the problem is when you
have a short-circuit.
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New Coil
A new oil-filled blaster coil, for example: Mopar:
DCC-4876733 at Summit, delivers 45.000 volts to make sure that you have
plenty of juice for your ignition and gives you "sparkle in your eye, one
of my favorite songs by Cameo". above
Tip:
A chrome plated coil bracket looks very cool:
MSD-8213, do not forget to make a spacer made from for example a chrome
piece of pipe with a length of 1 inch and a diameter of about 11/16 inch
to bridge the difference of hight of the mounting holes to the intake manifold,
for
one of the holes you should use a longer bolt.
above
New
Distributor, Cap and Rotor Dodge Power Wagon M880 W200
I have choosen a Mopar: DCC-3690426, this complete
package contains also a new electronical unit and a ballast resistor, this
is as for the price not more expensive than a single distributor.
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New
Wiring Harness (engine and ignition)
It is highly recommended to replace at least
the part of the wiring harness that concerns the engine and ignition (which
also connects the wiper motor, the heater and the alternator), it is just
a small piece of the wiring harness but it makes your Dodge truck more
reliable concerning ignition problems, the other separate parts of the
wiring harness are hard to get, for example the part that leads to the
tail lights, fuel tank, gauge etcetera, from these other parts of the wiring
harness you can strip the tape off and check if there are no loose wires
or burned out pieces, if you are sure that everything looks fine and is
connected in the proper way you can retape the wiring harness (it is a
good idea to ask someone for help, the job will be done more quickly),
I bought the new wiring harness for engine and chassis at my local part
supplier
(Van Dam, Elst,
The Netherlands).
above
New
Ignition Wire and Ignition Wire Loom Separater
To make it complete I ordered new wire for the
ignition (MSD-31303) and an Ignition Wire Loom/ Separator (RNM-1103C).
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