92red

Don't know much history on the truck, but I know it pulled a fiver for a lot of it's life. I guess that the PO wanted to keep his flow thru tailgate and put on whatever he could find that kind of matched.

When I open/close it, the bottom edge of the gate rubs against the rear, lower, vertical face of the bed, and it's rubbing thru the paint.

The question: should there be some bushings or something in the sockets that are attached to the bed? There is a lot of slop there, and I think if the studs on the gate were suspended in the center of the sockets on the bed, all would be better.

Any input / advice is welcome- I have some PTFE stock and I'm thinking I may just turn a simple set of bushings if there isn't a stock piece I can look for.

Thanks in advance,
Mike

BearKiller

Factory tailgates are sort of crappy and 1st Gen. Dodge are the crappiest of the whole industry.

It may be that something is just sprung; or, it might be that one or both of the bottom pivot-pipes/tubes/whatever are missing and the gate is floping around with the bottom bend being the hinge, instead of those tubes; I see this A LOT at work.


It would benefit your cause to examine the tailgate on another truck that still has one that operates properly, even taking it off for a better view, providing the owner is okay with that; the truck doesn't have to be a diesel.

unixcowboy

I ran into the same problem on my '81 ....
It's been years since I did this but - best I remember -

I cut a piece of 1" or 1 1/2" PVC ~ 1" long and slid it into the tailgate to bush the hole. I believe that the passenger side needed a small piece cut out so it was not a complete circle because the hinge pin on the pass. side was flattened and the hole on the tailgate had a notch cut out of it so you could remove it by opening the tailgate part way and then pulling the tailgate on the pass. side off the hinge pin.
If you've got the tailgate off the truck you'll see what I mean ...

Hope this gets you started in the right direction.

92red

Thanks, guys. Hadn't though of PVC, but it's sure a lot cheaper than PTFE. It could easily be that something is sprung out of place, but w/o a solid unit to compare to, I'll just head off on my own direction