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Showing content with the highest reputation on 12/19/2016 in all areas

  1. With no radio, no windshield wipers, no phone I decided to visit my cousin in Cloverdale, California. It took me 10 hours to get from Southern California to the San Francisco bay area. Next day 3 hours to get to Cloverdale. It was about 1156 miles (round trip). I'm going to figure out how much gas I used and see what my mileage was. The car drove like a champ. I don't like driving at night because I don't have dash lights - I don't have dash lights because I don't drive at night. Going across the Golden Gate bridge gave me chills. It was 1948, I was lost in dreams. At my cousins he took apart my WS wiper motor (and told me it's not a motor but we couldn't figure out what to call it). I am going to have wind shield wipers. I don't want to make a novel out of this but just wanted to say all the money I've put into that silly car was worth it.
    7 points
  2. better be warmer...-20° yesterday tailgating!
    3 points
  3. A 1-1/2 or two ton truck weighing 8-10,000 lbs or more with a load is way different than driving a light PU or a car. The engines used are the 236/251. Not a lot of H-power pushing a heavy truck using a 4 or 5 speed with a 2 speed rear axle.A heavier truck engine runs maxed out like a boat engine... loaded most of the time creating a lot of heat. Don't take mass out of the block In the heavier trucks a lot of the time you drive with the gas pedal down.... all the way down up any medium or long grades... Combustion pressures are way up as are combustion temperatures.... big time when driving any loaded truck. .So down shifting/split shifting all needed to keep your speed up going up grades...any excessive over heating and the engine might end up with burn't exhaust valves scored pistons, damaged ring lands etc or worse a bearing making some dreadful noise.. I know how to drive and have driven all the medium to H-duty dodge trucks . You don't want to lug em... don't over rev em if no governor either. They do the job fine for what they are. Drive them right and they last long and run fine. I've never had an issue with any of mine running hot but mine are all sodium valve /forged piston rebuilds... .030" over bore always engines...always went by what the books and machine shop taught me. Has never let me down. Soooooooo....I say.. On engine machining for the heavier trucks keep the heads thick and the cylinder walls thick... .060" is a safe truck max over bore Keep the valve margins thick as designed ..new valves A light car or PU bore the hell out of it if you feel the need.... for work horse engines I say don't... You don't want to EVER break down in a big truck! It'll cost you!
    2 points
  4. Driving a heavy Dodge truck you don't want any cooling system issues. Pedal to the metal on most all hills causes a lot of heat in these old flatheads. More meat in the walls is good. I have several heavy trucks and have spent many hours in them .Don't take a chance.with fast heat exchange through too thin cylinder walls.. You might be watching that temp gauge too much!
    2 points
  5. You could have the first block you show sleeved if the other proves to be bad also.
    2 points
  6. ... I made all of the brake lines and have them installed. I removed samples from various trucks and used them as templates. I had a new fuel line made at the same time. I searched around and found a ceramic fuel filter for the Carter glass bowl attached to the carburetor. I have found a number of trucks with rusted out lower radiator pipes here in Oz... so I had one of them bent up out of stainless at a local exhaust shop. I have had a few small pieces painted along the way. My Painter often paints old Harley Davidson frames for one of his clients, so he hangs my parts in the both and paints them at the same time. The list of small chores for me continues whilst I have the major body parts at the shop. How can so much fun be legal! May all the beauty and blessings this Christmas season has to offer be with you and your family. Merry Christmas to you all.
    2 points
  7. Glad to see this thread as it hopefully can answer many questions that I don't believe have been addressed to date. What is the final shift lever position once the transmission has been installed? Hopefully not in the middle of the bench seat. What floor board modifications are required? Simply cutting a new hole or must the hump be modified? Is the input shaft close to the same length as the original factory transmission? Will the factory pilot bushing work or will modifications be required? Will the original throw out bearing and holder fit the input shaft bearing retainer or are modifications required? Will the factory pressure plate work or is an upgraded pressure plate required? What clutch disc will be required? What emergency brake modifications are required? What driveshaft modifications are required?
    1 point
  8. I pulled a loaded cotton seed trailer once with my '48 half ton...ONCE...for those unfamiliar, the tongue articulates the front axle which is about 18" from the front edge of the trailer, and the rear axle is set back from the rear of the trailer the same amount, so there is practically no tongue weight...had about #2500 in the trailer, trailer was another #1000...took back roads from the gin, didn't go over 40 the whole way...crested a hill and nearly got plowed into by one of the local drunken Chevy operators, my evasive maneuvers nearly caused a jackknife, but since I had reduced speed, I was able to stop without the trailer dragging me into the fence...a few times I pulled a 2 wheel flatbed with my John Deere mower, total weight was about #2000 with #500 on the tongue...the truck handled much better, but the stock brakes required some planning ahead...so yes, even the small half ton can pull as it is geared for it, but not in a hurry, and there is a pucker factor when whoa-ing things up
    1 point
  9. Dang horse's water froze Tie a couple of Milk jugs together and hang them in the horse tank. Then in the morning remove the jugs and the horses can drink. If you take little time, you can show the horses how to push those jugs down, then they pop out, and they can take care of them selves. See you in April, when the grass is GREEN!
    1 point
  10. As someone who has used a P15 to tow a 2k pound boat rig to the elevation of 7200 feet twice in 100 degree heat with a 4.1 rear end (It came out of a truck) I can offer some experienced based advice. First, a 3K+ rig needs to have brakes installed. Otherwise it is just plain unsafe. If you are still 6 volt then hydraulic brakes are your only choice. Pulling up any kind of grade will be slow, like first gear slow. 4.1 is the way to go, anything taller than 3.9 is just eating up the clutch. Towing a rig this heavy needs a V8 to get the job done safely. Also be aware you are pushing the limits of the cooling system, between the load and if ambient temperature is high (80 or above). I never boiled over but had to stop numerous times to cool off when we got to the edge.
    1 point
  11. It's called hard to get and usually expensive.
    1 point
  12. Not all T5's will fit the trucks either tho, so you have to find the ones with the correct shifter location, or your going to lose your bench seat and seat support. I believe all the mustang and Camaro/Firebird had the rear shifter, so they won't work, sadly as some of those were the beefier of the trans. IMO the T5 is a great choice, no hunting for them, still parts out there, and the kit makes it easy to install.
    1 point
  13. I have talked to a gentleman in South Carolina who a few years ago put an a833 into his 1937 Plymouth and went over in great detail the change. That isn't in a truck I realize and since this is the truck forum I am out of my depth in terms of putting the a833 into a truck. I did have a 1954 Dodge 4 ton at one time that had a factory overdrive in it. It was a 5 speed. That was the only truck I ever saw with one so clearly the A833 route is the obvious way to go and keep it Mopar. I also know compared to the t5s that came out of the Mustangs and Comaros these are a lot less expensive. It seemed more slant 6 pickups had them. Personally with AoK boys building Adapter kits I would suggest chatting with them if you haven't already.
    1 point
  14. Its all covered along with a bunch of information elsewhere on the site although were you note just posting about using your spare t5 ?
    1 point
  15. I would contact George Asche or Tim Kingsbury... They are a wealth of knowledge on this engine. George has one with the .080 overbore. George also modifies manifolds and could probably hook you up. I just talked to him last week. He is a really nice guy!
    1 point
  16. Here is an interesting article about the A833 and ratios. Mostly performance oriented, but still some good info. http://www.hotrod.com/articles/a-833-the-ultimate-mopar-4-speed-fix-get-overdrive-and-strength/
    1 point
  17. The guy that not only comes to mind as he has a couple of 1929 Desoto's. 1 with a rock stock 6 and 1 that is as wild as it gets, is George Asche. He is in his 80s but still very much active and rebuilds more flathead engines than anyone I know. His number is 814-354-2621. Tim Kingsbury as Rockwood points out you can contact via the message service here. He is the computer contact for George and when talking to George he refers to Tim as his 3rd son. Between those two guys if that cant get your pistons and items required to rebuild it, I don't know who can. I did have Tim's email and phone number but I cant put my fingers on it at the moment. Barb
    1 point
  18. It got to 30 degrees!!!!.....Dang horse's water froze...Good thing I found a pair of long pants to brave the weather...Lol 48D
    1 point
  19. ... the work seemed to be moving along well, but was held up at times due to other rush jobs in the shop (and my supply of funds!). It was comforting to finally see things start to go back together! The load area panel between the seat and the bed was removed and beat back into shape. It is common to see them bent inward here in Oz due items rolling around in the load area and (I assume) smashing into that panel when the brakes were applied! My panel was not too bad, but it was certainly easier to remove it for re-working. The old rusty bed channels and flat metal bed floor panels were all made new and replaced. The channels here had a timber beam inserted in their center, which the timber floor boards would screw into. The only problem with that was that water would sit around those timber beams and cause the metal channels to rust out. I had new metal channels made up out of thicker gauge material and will spot-weld a top flat plate over the top of those channels for additional strength (and somewhere to screw the timber floorboards to). A small length of galvanized pipe will be inserted into the channel (before the top plate is affixed) to prevent the top plate for compressing when the body to chassis bolts are inserted to hold the body to the chassis...
    1 point
  20. Wow, it has been just over a year since my last build update, so I suppose that time is well overdue to bring those who are interested up to speed. I apologize in advance as it may be a lengthy story... The panel beating on my 53 Dodge coupe truck is still an ongoing project, which is thankfully nearing completion! It has been a long and certainly costly project! I have no doubt that there are those who would consider my attention to detail way over the top, but this is my truck so I guess I can do with it as I please. I decided early in the piece that we would undertake the panel work on this truck in the same process as we did for my 52 truck. It just makes more sense to me to rip everything down to the bare minimum in order to restore the panels to a standard of my liking. I suppose that we are a little unfortunate in a way that many of our smaller trucks here in Oz were produced in what you on the other side of the pond would call a 'uni-body' configuration as this created a fair amount of additional work when is comes to panel restoration. The guys carefully unpicked all of the spot welds required in order to reduce my coupe truck body to a skeleton, and then those panels removed were split inside from out so that they were able to be repaired from both sides. Most of those panels have small 'saddle-type' metal tabs spot welded to them in order to hold the 'captive nuts' to secure things (such as the rear guard wheel flares and the top bed rails) and there were quite a few of those fittings which I damaged when removing rusty bolts during disassembly. I was able to recycle some replacement fittings which I carefully obtained from one of my parts trucks - I bought new square nuts for those fittings as well, but I had to tap them to the correct thread before fitting. I wanted to make sure that all of these fittings were perfect while I had access to them as there are not accessible once the panels are welded back together...
    1 point
  21. Man would I love that truck! I can't promise to buy it, but I would definitely give it a place of honor if you made the BBQ trip with it!!! And of course your truck already graces my wall with its beauty.....along with some other trucks I know...lol 48D
    1 point
  22. Oh you guys and your little dusting of snow... I brushed off nearly a foot of snow from my grill yesterday, and it was still snowing. Merle. BYW... our trip is booked too.
    1 point
  23. Me too and were only 60 miles South of Tims BBQ.LOL
    1 point
  24. Went to a little Hot Rod gig in SoCal sponsored by Hop Up magazine. You guys in the North and East have no monopoly on snow and ice, ya know!
    1 point
  25. as a follow up......I called a very well known and respected spring company and asked what the stock ride height is for the 48 Plymouth. He informed me that those specs are not known and that the springs they sell are based ONLY on the original blueprint and specs of the springs uninstalled and their +/- rates are derived from that information based on the spring data compared to stock specifications and that is how they arrive at the place/level a builder wants to be in respect to stock ride....again..he could not quote the stock ride height, back to square one and hopefully someone here with an old service bulletin may be able to shed some additional information on the subject. This very fact alone explains how many may arrive at different levels of +/- as the known value of their stock spring due to age and fatigue cannot be measured and compared to 'when new' ride height. What one person used to gain or lose in respect to height would probably be close to that of another user but cannot be assured across the board.
    1 point
  26. Thanks. Good video, with a guy from Eaton. Sub-zero is not the season to be thinking about doing any actual work. But good to research and plan. I doubt just a shock would cause the leaning. Discussions on the Ford coil in a Mopar vary immensely. "too high". "too low". "rides stiff". "perfect ride". This is not a project you want to repeat more than once. Stock replacements are always an option. Pay a little more, to get what you think is right the first time. True, different springs for even the same model .... 2 dr, 4 dr, V8, 6, etc. Eaton does show a different part # for '49 Dodge, Plymouth or Chrysler. Yet Aerostar is being poked into all Mopar? Is it worth a $50 gamble, not to mention the work.Some use a compressor, others say it can be done without.Will check if local does this work, and price.Sometimes avoiding the hassle is a better choice. I'll be back.
    1 point
  27. Mark; It is not the tongue weight that will cause you to pause. A well balanced large trailer should always have around 200# of tongue weight. It is the 3500# of trailer you need to be concerned with. That and the 3.55 rear axle will probably not go all that well together. I am pretty certain you will not be able to accelerate in traffic safely. At the very least you may have to go back to a 4.10 ratio axle. Jeff
    1 point
  28. that Plymouth pictured above is the classic example of over carburation....tried to suck its own self into the intake.....hey..that's how I read the crime scene...
    1 point
  29. Excited to join the forum to provide assistance and ask for advice as needed. I recently acquired a family hand-down. My uncle gave me a 1948 Dodge Pilot House Truck that has been stored in his garage since 1977. He purchased it used in 1970 & drove it until he backed her in the garage. Thirty Eight years later, she came out and moved to her new home. I have started the search for parts, looks like I will need a few. I remember driving this old girl when I was 16 (Long time ago). I put a battery in it the night before and she cranked over with a sputter and I stopped. The gas tank & fuel pump is out. Veryfying the engine isn't locked up. Full steam ahead on a full restoration. I expect this project will take a couple years. I don't retire until the end of next year. Then she can get full attention. Enjoy a couple photos. Later!
    1 point
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