It's Alive........bwaaahaaahaaha!

[pflaming]

Check your adjusting needle. If some one tightened it with a driver or wrench, the end may be flatten out. Also check your idle setting screw, mine would work it's way out as the engine ran.  

[Don Coatney]

An engine govenor works to maintain engine speed at a preset constant. If the load changes the govenor will adjust the pull on the throttle to maintain the constant speed. Many stationary engines and tractors use govenors such as the flyball govenor pictured below.

 

There are no provisions on an automobile to to maintain a constant engine speed unless a cruise control device is in place. Carburetors nor distributors will not automatically adjust engine speed above the preset idle speed.

 

[48Dodger]

Hey Jeff, a few comments on that hesitation thing.

When the gas pedal is pushed to the floor, you open the throttle plate to allow more vacum to pull gas through the different circuits.

The top plate is the choke, when warmed up it should be wide open, if not find out why and fix it.(sometimes a short throttle cable can cause idle fluctuations with the engine moving in a different direction than the cab)

If it's a hard pedal push....the accelerator pump is allowed to shoot a steady stream of gas into the system.

When you floor it (WOT-wide open throttle)...the vacum drops to zero and needs to build up to continue sucking gas. To help during this vacum drop, some carbs have a power circuit, power system or power valve.The way most work is vacum keeps the circuit closed....when vacum drops...it opens up usally letting raw gas pour in til vacum rises to close it. The B&B has a Step-Up Jet that does this, sometimes called the Power Piston.

The idle mixture screw has to be set right, to get the other circuits to run right. If not, you have multiple WOT issues (meaning no fuel). "Set right" means getting the most vacum you can at idle.

 

Not sure you have a Carter B&B, but this is still a good read: 1948 Chrysler Reference Guide On The Story Of The Carburetor

 

And of course the youtube videos on rebuilding a B&B:

  

 

48D

[Merle Coggins]

Jeff,

If I remember correctly, my dash pot screw is screwed in so that the plunger stays down all the time. The more you back it out, the more stroke the dash pot plunger has. The more stroke it has, the longer it will hold your idle elevated.

 

Merle

[Jeff Balazs]

Thanks Guy's;

It is a B & B.........but it is a model DTG1 which has a dash pot circuit in addition to all the normal B & B appurtenances.

I have had the Dash pot adjuster set at the midway point so far. I will have to see what adjusting it does....but it may be that the idle mixture needs adjusting first.

It doesn't seem to hesitate when accelerating......it is more like a fluctuating idle. My gut feel it is running too rich right now.

 

Sidenote: When I went through it I ended up buying a couple of rebuild kits....... the standard B & B kits do not have all the gaskets etc.required to rebuild a dash pot equipped carb. I ended up getting a kit that worked from Gary Roberts.

 

When you go to hook up a vacuum gauge what is the best way to connect it on one of these engines? Do you simply disconnect the vacuum advance hard line and make an adaptor to hook it up at the base of the carb? OR one of the branch's of the intake manifold has a small brass plug on the top which I suppose could be used? But I am uncertain if that location will give an accurate enough reading.

 

Thanks, Jeff

[48Dodger]

Anywhere you can get a clean reading from the manifold.

 

48D

[Jeff Balazs]

I adjusted the idle mixture and dashpot and that seemed to help some. Had 18" of vacuum. There is still an issue though ..... seems like it has an intermittent miss. I haven't been able to pin it down to one cylinder. I am wondering if the ignition parts I put in are not up to snuff? The rotor had a fair amount of play which I was able to get out by springing the metal tab that holds it to the flat spot. Is there a particular brand of cap and rotor that is better than some of the others? Any suggestions?

 

On the plus side there are no leaks......oil pressure is 45# at idle and temp is steady at 180. And Keven ......... the instruments look amazing.

I am very happy.......the few little problems I have had are nothing compared to the way I feel about this truck! :D

 

Jeff

[pflaming]

Since I do not have the heater in as yet, I have a hose from the radiator neck to the 'spicot' on the back corner of the head. If that hose gets too close to a spark plug, the fire will go to that hose. Question: got any water hoses close to the plugs? 

[48Dodger]

Do a wire check on that cylinder plug.....and a compression test.

 

I'm thinking a sticky valve? 

 

48D

[Jeff Balazs]

Here are a few shots I took yesterday afternoon after putting it back in the "barn".

 

I will do a compression check next week. The miss is about all that really needs to be sorted out so far. Brakes and clutch are good to go.

 

I think I will concentrate on fitting the doors next. It's really great to see this coming together. I have had several guy's stop to say how much they like the color.

 

Jeff

[B1B Keven]

 And Keven ......... the instruments look amazing.

I am very happy.......  :D

 

Jeff

Glad to hear it Jeff. Thanks!!

[ggdad1951]

hood, front clip and fenders before doors!  There are two bolts behind the door for the fender which are almost impossible to get to with the doors on!

Edited May 4, 2013 by ggdad1951

[Jeff Balazs]

Mark;

I will have to give that some thought.

It seemed to me that it would be best if the doors were fit up properly to the opening in the cab .......and then adjust the rear part of the fenders to match up to the leading edge of the doors and the cowl. The entire front clip appears to have a fair amount of adjustment range built into it of fit up.

 

But then again that is just my way of looking at it........and I have been known to do things the hard way. And then find out afterwards there was an easier way.

 

I do have a few things I want to do before the front clip is put back on. I need to get the miss or whatever sorted and I think I am going to opt to put in an electric fan.

 

Jeff

[Jeff Balazs]

Tim;

I had some time and did a little reading on the Vacuum readings I got yesterday. I had noticed a very slight regular flutter of less than 1# at idle. At the time I put it off to unfamiliar engine characteristics. My first flathead????

 

After doing some reading it sure sounds like the timing and/or the points etc need another checking. I have read other posts concerning the quality and fit of available ignition replacement parts...... caps...rotors....points. I am wondering if anyone has recommendations regarding which brands seem to work best. I ran into a similar situation years ago......once I found the correct brand of replacement I never had another problem with the ignition system on that truck.

 

Btw; Thanks for the link to that Carb write up. Very good.

 

Jeff

[John-T-53]

Jeff:

NAPA's line of Echlin ignition parts they have for our trucks are quality parts and work fine. Sometimes the rotor may be a lil' loose on the distributor shaft, but there's a spring on its underside that can be pried out a little if necessary. 

 

It's good to check the spring tension of the points like you did to minimize point bounce. After putzin' with the points, tighten everything down snug and double check your dwell angle to make sure it's within specs. Then, do the timing.

 

Make sure all plug leads are clipped in tight to the dizzy and on the plugs. Look for shorts. With a timing light, and the vacuum advance disconnected, you can do a check of the ignition and see if it's missing or firing abnormally. Is the coil new? If not, do you have a new one to swap out for comparison? (a bad coil once caused my motor to miss here and there).

 

With an advance timing light, you can check the advance curve of the dizzy - do two separate checks for the centrifugal advance and the vacuum advance. The advance specs are in the shop manual, but I think it's about 18 deg for vacuum and up to 22 deg for the weights.

 

As with any engine, ignition timing is critical. The more time invested in your ignition system will result in better performance, reliability, economy, and more power. Getting the spark delivered at the exact right time throughout all conditions of an engine's operation is something that has not changed in the design of internal combustion engines from day one. A breaker point system no doubt has it's limits, but works just fine for our flatties when installed and adjusted properly.

 

Keep up the good work and fill us in as you make progress!

[ggdad1951]

Jeff, I put my doors on first....regretted it ever since....I think a few others here pointed out it's best to do the hood/front clip first.  I'd agree with them after my struggles.

[Desotodav]

Jeff, I put my doors on first....regretted it ever since....I think a few others here pointed out it's best to do the hood/front clip first.  I'd agree with them after my struggles.

Good advice Mark. I had to pull the front of my truck off recently and those bolts that mount in between the front of the doors and the rear of the front guards are a PITA to get at !!!

[Jeff Balazs]

Thanks guys for your responses.

With so much going back together it is easy to get a little off base. As always it is great to have this group as a sounding board

 

John;

Thanks I will go through all those items. I did install all new components from Napa including the coil. When I checked the rotor the other day it had quite a bit of play but I was able to get that out as you described. It is possible that the timing may be off some. Now that I think back I may have pulled the distributor out after I had timed it and ran it months ago. I plan on checking that first....and then progressing from there.

 

Mark and Davin; Thank you. I have to ask .......were you able to optimize the way the door fits within the cab opening doing it this way? or did you have to compromise a uniform gap in this area to get it to work in a more general sense ?

 

Hey at least I know I have done some of this fairly well.......'cause there ain't any leaks. That is huge.  Thank you Mr. Permatex!!!

Jeff

[ggdad1951]

unless you have a tweek in the cab, about all you can do to adjust the door is in and out at each hinge, front to back you have to either bend the top hinge or warp the door per the shop manual.  I had a bear of a time trying to adjust the hood to the cab with the doors on.

[Desotodav]

 x 2 what Mark said on the door adjustment. I had to bend my hinges slightly to make the door/cab gap just right.

The 'dogbox' has slotted holes at most of the mounting points to allow you to get a more consistent gap between the door and the fender (see circles in attached pics). Judging by the work that I've seen you accomplish so far, I'm sure that this will not present a challenge for you Jeff!

[Jeff Balazs]

Thanks Guys;

When I got my truck somebody, I suppose the PO, had the doors and front clip fitted up pretty nicely.

So well that it totally hid the the major frame damage that it had at the drivers door area. The cab had also sustained damage in the front drivers quarter but it had been repaired and a replacement door hung on it. When I disassembled things I discovered that some of the mountings had been modified and or tweaked. This included elongated slots in some mounting surfaces and a handmade dovetail block for the door. Now that I am ready to put things back together....... and have repaired some of this...... I do have concerns about how well it is all going to fit back together. I am not super fussy about it all being perfectly stock.....I just want it to look relatively correct and of course work together properly.

 

What I may do is hang the doors temporarily to see how well they fit and then remove them and work on the front clip. It is probably not the most efficient method but I have found that I work better when I know that everything is going to actually fit.

 

Jeff

[ggdad1951]

I'd say that is ok to temp the doors to check fit vs the rear and top of the cab.  Just bear in mind the paint on the hinges might make it "interesting" to slap them on and off.

[Merle Coggins]

If you ensure that your hinge pins come out easy, then you can hang your doors to check the fit of things. That will make them easy to remove again (just pull the hinge pins and lift off the doors) to get at all of the fender hardware. I had my doors on and off more than once during my build. I used pins that would go in and out easily. I could then set the door in place and drop in the upper hinge pin, the carefully open the door to get at the lower hinge and drop another pin into that one. Remove in reverse order... remove inside lower pin, close the door, remove upper hinge pin, lift off door.

 

Once you have everything ready for final install, then, and only then, do a final assembly of the hinge pins. Add a little grease down into the tubes and tap the pins into place so that the knurled end sets the pin on place.

 

Merle

[HanksB3B]

Jeff,

 

After finishing up my truck, I decided to have someone professional act as a third eyeball and commission my truck.  I had heard great things about Dick Wagoner a local shop that specialized in 50’s vehicles.  Reed and his son Jeff are real first class dudes and treated my truck like it was their own.  I had what seemed to be a similar intermittent miss. They went over everything in their  clean enough to eat off the floor facility.  My timing was dialed in, my carb adjusted and what ever else they did made a noticeable difference.  One thing Reed mentioned to me was that somehow I ended up with suppression type wires which were wrong for our flatties.  He said it was no big deal but I took him at his word and replaced them with the ones shown below.  The look like they were made for a six cylinder Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engine which is what the L6’s really are. The wiring (which is how they rolled off the assembly line) made a very noticable difference in the power curve of my truck for sure.  

 

 

Here's a Yelp re: Dick Wagoner (if you ever decide to jump on the 405 and come down my way...free pastrami sandwich included if you give me a call)

 

I apologize for the catalog, but think VPW cache of parts is worth mentioning

 

 

 

 

I found these ignition parts from Kragen O'Reily to be top notch and very reasonably priced (working perfectly)

 

 

Love what you have done with your truck Jeff looking forward to seeing it in person,

 

 

Hank  (we need a thumbs up icon)

Edited May 5, 2013 by HanksB3B

[Jeff Balazs]

Well......I attempted to check my timing and had trouble seeing the marks. Not sure if it off a cog or it is just that the mark is hard to read. I wouldn't think it would run that well if it was off by a lot? My hernia was bothering me so I decided that it could wait a little longer.

 

Hank thanks for that info. I do have modern resistor wires on it right now. I have run into what you mention on plug wires for old magneto ignition engines.....but never on conventional ignition systems. Not really certain what to make of that?.........but will delve into it as I get this sorted. I have found that problems like this are good teachers... ......once you have located the culprit you won't make that mistake again any time soon.

 

Jeff