powderfinger

Awesome, I am pretty sure guy has the factory service manual with the car I am looking at but if not I may be interested in yours if I end up getting it.

It has also had a coilover suspension put on and it feels very stiff. We'll see just how stiff when I drive it this weekend. Rear leafs were also de-arched.

Yes Mike you are correct on the balance shaft. This is the Fire Arrow. The difference is I am pretty sure the Arrow had a 2.0L instead of the 2.6L. Also the fire arrow had 4 wheel disc brakes and limited slip diff. Issue is they only made the fire arrow in 79 and 80. Arrows are hard enough to find fire arrows are even worse. All body panels are the same but everything with the rear diff and axles are different and cannot be purchased new of course. There were also a few interior differences to make the Fire Arrow sportier looking. These cars were popular for racing back in the day so a lot of them were destroyed.

Posting this here to get any feedback possible since I know there are several people here with vast back grounds dealing with various different types of vehicles. I went and took a look at one of these this past weekend and fell in love with it, haven't driven it yet will be doing that this Saturday. Wanted to know if anyone here has any experience with these cars and can provide any feedback positive or negative. It's a rebranded Mitsubishi Lancer I believe this model was also called the Mitsubishi Celeste. It has a 2.6L 4cyl in it with a 5 speed transmission. Same engine and trans combo that was used in the Dodge D50 / Plymouth Arrow trucks. Unfortunately, these fall into a category that really sucks for the owner of one. They are rare and at the same time aren't really worth much at all lol. Impossible to find most parts without finding and purchasing spare cars which also isn't easy. The current owner knows a lot about these cars. Pretty sure he used to run the website plymouthfirearrow.com and he has been racing these cars for many years. It has a brand new rebuilt engine with all new internals (stock build) and was painted 6-7 years ago. There is one small rust bubble popping up on the bottom of the drivers fender and the only filler is on the right rear above the wheel well. Owner is very up front about the cars history and everything that has been done to it. Here are a couple of pics of the car. It comes with boxes of spare parts. The dude also has a black Fire Arrow race car that he is selling pretty cheap because the motor is bad. I would love to be able to get both off of him to have spare body panels, if the panels on the race car are straight. I think he is getting completely out of racing all together. I really love the car but would basically have to commit myself to becoming the "plymouth fire arrow guy" if I get it meaning I will likely have to collect most of them I ever see come up for sale just to have for spare parts.

The short transmissions in the 4x4 trucks are fairly easy to remove. The longer ones in the 2wd king cab trucks are a little more difficult just because the longer shaft wants to hit the floor of the truck when trying to get it out. Make sure you pull the carpet back and remove the cover around the shifter that is attached with 4 screws I believe. This will give the tail shaft of the transmission enough room to allow the transmission to easily be removed. No need to remove engine.

Yep, had the same thing happen to a transmission in one of my 720 trucks.

I am guessing your transmission must be making a fairly loud grinding/whining noise when driving after seeing those pieces that came out of it.

If someone was willing to give you 10-11 for it you probably should have jumped at that opportunity.

Make sure you post back on his site if you get that for it. I'll be posting mine on eBay with the quickness lol.

It won't matter what it was doing. If not currently running you won't get much at all for it. Even running these things don't bring Toyota prices so don't expect too much. Looks like a nice truck though.

Yeah, I would stick with the 86 bed if it is in decent shape. Very difficult to find a pre-85 bed that isn't rusted out and if you do find one that looks good make sure it hasn't been painted before. In that case looks can be deceiving, the bed may be full of body filler.

That would be a lot of scanning! The FSM is pretty hefty.

Thanks for all the pics, I may have to get some of these they look really nice. I still owe you pics of my seats as well. I'll try to remember to take a few when I get home.

Really nice car you have there, gotta love that 70s/80s red interior lol.

The stock Rodeo rails make the back half of the seat sit quite a bit higher than the factory 720 rails. Causes head to be closer to top of truck and also in my opinion makes the seating angle uncomfortable. Once I put the 720 rails on, the back of the seats sat lower and closer to how the factory 720 seats were angled.

Measure the ID, OD, and thickness I am sure someone sells a match. Likely also a manufacturer and part number on it. Many places sell bearings.

If you still have your factory 720 seat rails I highly recommend you swapping those onto your Rodeo seats, You will thank me afterwards. They almost directly bolt up, I think I had to drill either the front or the back holes in the rails just a tad bigger for fitment but it wasn't much at all.

Also, I am real curious how the seals work out. I almost feel bad for not buying them because I emailed them several times around two years ago asking them to start making these lol. I am sure plenty others also inquired about them too, otherwise they never would have made them. My seals are in worse condition than yours.

Tommy, since you like gray it should be pretty easy to find gray seats out of an older Passport or Rodeo that will fit. That's what I have in mine, I can take a picture if you'd like. I don't remember the year range though but that can easily be found with a search. The key, if you do this, is to swap the seat bases. The passport seats will bolt right in but the back of the seat will be too high which I am sure you have read people on forums complain about. The factory Nissan seat bases will swap onto the passport seats which will correct the angle and almost all of the height issue. They are not the best seats but way better than the factory seats especially if yours isn't an ST.

I have a rear sliding window seal from them that seems fine. I installed it last year.

Thanks, but no need. Like I said a couple of posts up. I am on the same group and I have talked to him before. There is just no way I am paying to ship one of those across the country. I have a brush guard that someone cut the bottom pieces that attach to the frame off of and had it only mounted to the bumper for some reason. At some point I'll mock it up and make some new pieces for the bottom and weld them on. Just haven't gotten to it yet.

Thanks, but no need to contact him for me. I am a member of that group so I see his posts.

Another thing is looking at what size tires are currently on the truck. I believe factory size is 215/75/15. If they are much taller it will really affect the power. A lot of people end up putting taller tires on these trucks because it makes them look better and quickly end up regretting that decision. Regardless as Mike said, even with the factory tires these trucks don't have a lot of power.

Does the idle drop back down as soon as you tap the accelerator pedal?

Their Facebook page has this on it from Dec 2021 which makes me not want to do business with them but that's just me :-)