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Andrew50

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  1. Yeah, I saw that too was puzzled. Thanks. Hey Guys. This truck came back to me a couple weeks ago for more work. I've now replaced the whole wiring harness and replaced the water pump with parts purchased from DCM Classics. The old water pump was unbelievably worn out. Bearings were shot and seals leaking. The engine is now so much quieter with the valves also adjusted. So yesterday, for the first time, I took the truck for a real ride. As it gets to 40mph it develops quite a shimmy/shake seemingly on the front left side. I checked toe in with a tape measure and it seems pretty close. So it seems it needs wheel balancing, or is this a characteristic of king pins worn out? When I had the truck in the air I rocked the front wheels and noted a little movement in the king pins but figured it would be okay. How much is too much? How hard are these to change out? Update: Today (Nov 12) I discussed with Steve at DCM Classics. He suggests I check toe-in specs with a target spec of 1/4" to 3/8". I believe it now has very little and will check and adjust in the near future. I did rotate tires from front to rear & rear to front with no improvement. This doesn't completely rule out balancing but I'm going to first check alignment.
  2. I actually set these valves on the loose side of .008 and .010. I am hearing no clicking and don't feel like now going through them again. In reading my B2B shop manual in the engine section I see the valve train covered but not the valve setting specs. I am pleased with how much quieter the engine became. On every vehicle I ever timed the light connected to plug wire #1. I read this vehicle to connect to #6 and thought that odd from the git-go. I do have the paint pen and will put it to use. Wonder why the timing tab is directly at the 12 o'clock position where one cannot directly view it? Will check timing again but I think it is pretty close.
  3. About 20 years ago I got to explore the Denver area extending to Castle Rock and Colorado Springs. I went to hike a place named Blue Lake that was above Boulder. Colorado is a beautiful part of our country. Anyway, I learned the valves should be .008 intake and .010 exhaust in a Google search and on page two of this thread. I tried setting while idling but found engaging both wrenches concurrently while taking an oil shower was quite the challenge. So with the engine warm I bumped it over to set each valve. Now you say .010 & .014 hot. Are you sure this isn't a cold engine specification. I hope I don't have to do this again. Those valves were overall too loose and now the engine is much quieter. So quiet I can now hear what I believe the water pump bearing rattling. ? Another thing; The idle speed was over 1k RPM. I set it down to about 600 which further quietened the engine. I put the timing light on plug 6 but had difficulty reading the timing mark. Now that I have cleaned it and photographed it is the center mark with D | C TDC zero?
  4. Adjusting the valves should be fun. What size feeler gauge for intake and exhaust?
  5. Well this truck's access port is offset from the fuel sender unit by about 1/2 of the diameter. It did allow me to reach with multi-meter but I was hoping for a larger opening. I dropped the tank and determined a few things. The tank is filled to about 5" to a possible 12" overall depth including the reduced width area. Ten gallons in an 18 gallon tank should register about 1/2 full, I think. The sending unit was preset to extend to 1" above the bottom of the tank, not to the bottom. This is to have some reserve gasoline. The sweep of the sending unit correctly reads 0 to 90 ohms. Wiring the sending unit to the gauge outside the tank revealed the gauge reads 1/2 full when the sending unit is at about 3/4 travel. The upper 75% of the gauge needle travel occurs in the upper 1/3 travel of the sending unit. Meaning; it starts out slow and accelerates as it nears the full mark. So, I extended the sending unit float to down below the floor of the tank and reassembled. Now my gauge reads 1/4 tank with the 1/2 tank of fuel when before it read just above empty. I am confident it will still show empty with some gallons of fuel remaining. I think this is the best I can do.
  6. So I used the DCM fuel sender unit and wired a 12v to 6v diode inline to the gauge. I mock wired the sender unit before install and watched the gauge hand sweep from empty to full when I moved the float arm. Now I have it all assembled and with ten gallons of gasoline it reads barely 1/4 full. I suspect the new DCM fuel tank is 20 gallons or less so it should be reading at least 1/2 full. I did a visual check of the float arm length before install and was satisfied it would reach the bottom of the tank when empty, but maybe the arm length needs checked, which means dropping the tank. Thoughts? Or maybe like FlashBuddy I need to drive it down a dirt road. ?
  7. Well I got it all sorted out and today took the truck for a drive. The brakes feel good and it stops straight. I am satisfied with them. The engine valves are chattering and demand my attention. I will again view the video posted earlier and will tackle them. This truck has front turn signals but no rear turn signals. There is a breakdown in the wiring somewhere. No brake lights either and no obvious wires to connect to the master cylinder brake switch. The wiring overall looks pretty bad. Now looking at the possibility of replacing the entire wiring harness. Any of you done this? I am considering purchasing from DCM https://dcmclassics.com/electrical/163-le-104-complete-wiring-harness.html?search_query=wiring+harness&results=4
  8. What are the torque specs for the castle nut securing the rear drum to the tapered axle? Purchased the spare tire hanger. How does this install? https://dcmclassics.com/body-parts/475-b-606-spare-tire-carrier-15-16-20-wheels.html
  9. That $12 spent at Harbor Freight for the brake spring tool was money well spent. I cannot imagine being strong enough to string them across with channel locks. Got all the shoes set with the drums and then bled the brakes. Everything went well except for the brake indicator switch attached to the front of the master cylinder that leaks around the electrical connect pins. ? Thankfully Steve at DCM Classics is sending a replacement free of charge. Next I will again align the shoes with the drums then tighten and secure the castle nuts with cotter pins. How much drag should the shoes have against the drums?
  10. Shouldn't the drum surface have some roughness to help bed the shoes? I know it helps to have the flywheel a little rough to bed in a new disc. I've gotten my hands on a pair of drum spring pliers. Even with them these springs have a lot of tension and they are difficult to get installed.
  11. In that picture it is hard to see but I did mask off the shoe contact surfaces. They are all smooth surfaced and I've been considering how I might rough them up a little bit. I see you are in Greer. Howdy neighbor!
  12. The backing plates and drums have been de-greased, paint remover applied, sand blasted and painted. They are now reassembled with the new shoes, wheel cylinders and front springs. The new brake lines, hard and flex, are installed. I need to get the rear springs installed. What is the secret to accomplishing this? The front I gripped the spring arm with a vise grip and used a pry bar supported by a lower eccentric shoe bolt. The rear springs seem to be more difficult to install. The front center backing plates were replaced and new felt seals added. Because I didn't have the correct rivets I tapped the plate holes to 10-32 and used screws to secure them. You can see the screw heads below. After installing the rear springs and the line connecting the two rear cylinders I will turn my attention to setting the shoes to the drum. Then I will need to bleed out the system.
  13. The shoes in the picture were once soaked in brake fluid and replacements are ordered. I hope the new shoes closely match the drum radius. I am thinking this setup will work pretty well. I made it adjustable to utilize on the back's 11" brakes.
  14. With some parts in the misc bin I made this to dial in the new shoes. The bearing is from a previous timing belt replacement. Sometimes being a pack rat does pay off.
  15. Your concerns are noted. I am ordering new shoes front and rear. That puts the brakes on using that pot. ?
  16. Jerry, good info, thank you. I can make a variation of one of those. Larry, thank you. Since these have material remaining I'll do some more research and decide if these can be salvaged.
  17. Well the replacement puller arms delivered today. I ground clearance to allow radius support and applied pressure. With some big hammer application, impact wrench and whacking the end of the puller shaft the drum popped loose. I then turned my attention the other side and after applying the same it too popped loose. ☺️ There is no noticeable ridge from shoe/drum wear but there is a lot of brake fluid contamination. After being soaked in brake fluid for an extended period are the shoes toast? Or can they be degreased and cleaned up? I figured I might just replace them. Is there anyone out there who will let me lease the tool to correctly set the shoes? Now let's discuss the master cylinder. ? With the brake line attached as pictured above it is impossible to thread it through the framework and parts of the truck to install. The steering box is in the way. So I removed the bellow and clevis hardware and got it installed. Then I couldn't get the bellow reinstalled on the back of the master cylinder. Worked with it for more than an hour. There is limited space and much grease and dirt on the underside of the truck. So the master cylinder had to come back out for reinstall of the bellow. In doing so I spilled most of the fluid, a lot of it on me and the remainder on the floor. ? Net result I lost my fluid and bench bleed. So I emptied out the fluid, removed the brake line, reapplied the bellow and reinstalled the master cylinder. Then screwed the clevis pin into the back and reinstalled the brake line. I'll have to gently bleed the master cylinder after I get it all back together. Whoever "restored" this truck did a great job on the sheet metal and interior but just painted black over everything underneath. I can scrape 68 years of grease off surfaces and I often find surface rust under washers and other areas of the frame and suspension. I wish I had the space, time and equipment to remove the body and completely restore the frame.
  18. Thanks. Does one use Teflon tape on the 3 tapered threads on the master cylinder? I am wondering if eventually the brake fluid will eat through it. Edit: I have a tube of Permatex Ultra Copper high temp silicone. Might that work? Edit2: I bought a tube of black Permatex and will use it. Edit3: Added picture of bench bleed
  19. I expect the replacement arms delivered Tuesday so I've turned my attention elsewhere. The new brake master & slave cylinders and lines are to deliver today. I'll be reassembling the front brakes, running the lines and installing the master cylinder. I understand the reasons to bench bleeding a master cylinder, but aren't these master cylinders kind of self bleeding with the holes between the piston and reservoir? It seems any air in the piston area will bubble up into the reservoir after the piston is withdrawn. What am I missing?
  20. The supplier is sending me at no charge two more arms for the drum puller. My thinking is this.... It is Chinese made and hopefully I can get away with successfully using it this one time. Also, I am going to do additional modification before using it again. Earlier I wrote how I ground some clearance to allow the swing to the Dodge bolt circle. But the result was contact of the arm at the disc at the tip of the finger. This puts maximum pressure at the radius of the arm's end. I am going to grind more to allow contact at the radius of the finger. That should put full strength at the union. I'll post a picture to show the current contact configuration. If I still had access to a lathe I would reduce the diameter of the disc contact point by ~ 1/4". But unfortunately I do not. I hope you guys understand what I am saying. I did make contact with the son of the local guy who owns the two old Dodge Powerwagons but I have received no response. I'll leave that alone unless I see them out somewhere. We tinkerers of old trucks should stick together, I think. I wish I had a lathe.
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