1980 Plymouth Arrow Truck review from North America

I replaced the starter at 280,000 miles; recently clogged gas lines have caused the truck to repeatedly stall and fail.

Clogged gas lines caused massive problems with fuel delivery to the electronic carburetor at 280,000 miles. At first I thought it was the engine, when the usual fuel line fix tricks didn't work, but engine compression was strong.

After much sleuthing, it was discovered that there were fuel filters at the base of the gas tank (packed with 22 years' worth of metal shavings and mud), and a fuel screen inside the gas tank, as well as the regular fuel filter near the carburetor.

After limping around on a bad carburetor for months (it threatened to go out for years, but we were able to partially rebuild it at home), I finally had the carburetor professionally rebuilt at 210,000 miles; it was hard to find a mechanic who could do the work. A Mercedes mechanic was able to do the work.

I had some electrical wiring problems at 210,000 miles. It was very exciting: first, a blinker light went out, then the dash light, and of course, one dark and stormy night on a back road, the entire rear lights went out.

Truck is on its fourth clutch (there was an oil leak that ruined the asbestos on two clutch plates). So that makes it really two clutches in 20 years and I'm a hard country road driver.

At 260,000 miles, the gear shift came up in my hand; I'd literally worn it through. I temporarily lost first gear. We merely popped in a new shifter and all is fine.

The truck's code name is Lazarus because it keeps on going and going and going.

I had 15+ years worth of absolutely trouble-free driving on it - though it's hard to find a mechanic to work on it as it's extremely quirky, and parts are hard to come by. The catalog manuals always list the wrong parts, even for dinky fuel filters.

The engine is extremely zippy to this day (it has oil leaks) ; I can still beat most cars out at the stop sign, but I'm now kinder, gentler to my elderly truck. After all, it's still on the road 300,000 later. It must be some kind of record.

Great comfy bucket seats.

Am I the only person in North America still driving a 1980 Plymouth Arrow? The later predecessor, the Mighty Max, is a poor, poor copy of my truck.

Alas, I won't make it to 400,000 miles as someone just sideswiped it, and so its days are numbered because I can't replace the entire side of a truck... but it still runs fine.