Leaderboard

Okay, so some tools arrived today from Amazon, managed to get the correct puller on the steering wheel, a few adjustments, and some torquing on it. Then, POP it came off. Steering gear is pulled from the cab! Steering wheel is hanging on the garage wall for time being. A couple side notes, if anyone comes across the steering wheel situation, let me know, the tool is yours to borrow. Plus lil man took 1st place in his wrestling tournament today! So it was a god day.

Well I drive it every day........and it is my only ride......so it has been fairly easy. I generally put around 100 to 125 miles on it a week. It is funny but once you get used to driving one of these you don't really enjoy driving other stuff. Jeff

I finally got around to welding the perches onto the Cherokee axle. This is the first decent day we've had in a while so why not take advantage of it For others that might be interested in using a Cherokee diff in their B3B the one I used came from a 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee. It is a Dana 44 with the aluminum center section and C-clip axles. It is a disc brake rear axle. It measures 1" shorter per side at 60-1/4" wms to wms. The original axle in my truck measured 62-1/4" wms to wms. The Dana 44 measured 55-1/16" from outside to outside of the flanges. The leaf springs on my truck are 44-1/4" apart centerline to centerline of the springs. On the Dana 44 diff I ended up measuring in from the outer flange 4-1/2" and placed the edge of the perch at that point. Using 4-1/2" places the centerline of the perches at 44-1/4". Next up is temporarily mounting the disc brakes so I can see where to mount a couple of brackets to hold the rubber brake lines for the calipers. They need some sort of mounting bracket so they don't just flap in the breeze while driving. Brad

I think I found a winner! The Dorman M390378 that I bought from Amazon for the 97-06 Wrangler looks like it's going to work. As luck would have it needed a slightly modified adapter plate so I fabricated one this afternoon. Currently it's made from 3/8" aluminum plate but I think I'll use 1/2" for the final version. I'd like the extra thickness for the 5/16-18 bolts that hold the MC to the plate. More depth means more thread engagement. The reservoir doesn't come close to the steering column or the pedal. There are some definite differences between the Wrangler MC and the Cherokee MC. The Cherokee reservoir is 5-1/4" tall from the centerline to the top of the high part of the reservoir and 4-1/2" at the low end. The Wrangler is only 3-1/2" from centerline to the top of the reservoir. That difference right there was all I needed to get a lot more pedal travel. The pedal actually runs into the firewall pad on the right edge where it angles inward. At rest the pedal is about 10" above the firewall. Fully depressed it gets to within 1-1/4" of the firewall. That equates to about 1-3/16" piston travel. I think full piston travel is about 1-5/8". I have no idea if not getting full stroke of the piston will matter but there's nothing I can do about that. The pedal arm does contact the the top of the reservoir at full pedal travel but my guess is if the pedal travels that far I probably have other problems to worry about at that point ? I will have to use socket head cap screws to mount the adapter plate to the bell housing or else countersink the holes and use flatheads. SOHC will definitely work for the top two holes but the bottom one will likely need to be countersunk. I'm still in the mode where I don't want to alter a new MC to make it work if I don't have too and I think even a SOHC will interfere with the bottom of the MC. One other thing. The depth of the Wrangler MC bore is deeper than the Cherokee so the end of my pushrod that I cut off will need to be welded back on ? Brad

Brad it does get real close. Probably within a 1/4". My set up might be slightly different than yours as I have a fluid drive 4 speed and the bell housing is different. I think you could remove some metal from the underside of the brake pedal . As I have said mine has functioned quite well for over 20000 miles. Jeff

Here new 1968 Camaro with Ford Flathead V8.

Thanks, just curious.

Right on Tim would like to help with that, if I can.

Plymouth and Chrysler cars in general were the first mass market cars with hydraulic brakes. From the first Plymouth in 1929 until dual circuit brakes became mandatory in 1967 single circuit brakes did just fine. The argument against single circuit brakes is exactly the same as the one against hydraulic brakes in general made by Henry Ford. However, if you've ever driven a mechanical brake car that is out of adjustment you will willingly (and happily) drive a single circuit hydraulic braked car. I have never had a brake line fail by bursting. I have had to replace brake lines which de-laminated internally and caused fluid blockage. As it happened that was on a dual circuit system and it still wouldn't stop. I have raced a car with a dual circuit Master Cylinder, where the Master got fried by a broken exhaust pipe. It made for "interesting" braking performance to be sure...but I finished the race. The rarity of broken brake lines is more than made up for by the Plymouth parking brake system. That brake band will stop a car! So...you pays your money and you takes your choice. Simplicity vs complexity a good discussion. What causes a loss of brakes in a single circuit system is loss of fluid. If one checks the fluid once in a while and notices a fluid loss...problem solved. With a Master Cylinder under the floor board you're not as likely to do that. With my suggestion of a remote reservoir under the hood you'd be more likely to check it and you'd have a lot more fluid to lose. Taken one step further to add a level warning light satisfies safety and simplicity. In my mad mind such a system would actually be safer than a dual circuit master cylinder under the floor boards. But then it's my opinion.

59+ trucks and you finally realize that you may have enough? LOL!! ? ? Just kidding... It is a pretty impressive collection. And it sounds like several of them still get used.

Hey Moose, Great work here; labor intensive but all worth it in the end.? John R

Thanks for the kind words Tom. I always look forward to having a reason to hang out and work on a truck with my friends, in any capacity...lol. I've been working hard at the computer trying to find any independent museum that might be stowing a Pilot House in the wings, but nothing so far. I did find this article about Dodges in a museum close to Brent in Oregon. Pacific Northwest Truck Museum 48D

Big T This is a noble endeavor. I would enjoy helping in any way. You could also look at the California Agricultural Museum in Woodland. I bet they would love to display a truck like that. Looking forward to the BBQ!

Vintage Power Wagons in Iowa. I bought most of my engine components from them

Yeah.....I think I can tell a difference......... ?

Speaking of filling gaps with weld: I had a old neighbor that was a retired steelworker. He was working a trailer in my shop with my welder and had that exact issue. He grabbed a second electrode, I think we where using 5/32nd, and used it as a filler rod. Just fed it into the puddle from the other one in the holder! I learned something from him that day that comes in handy every once in a while.

Any numbers or manufacturer info on the boxes? If so Rockauto.com has a great xref. Just look up what fits your engine, click the info box and it will show you other PNs that fit.

Hi Dogedood It’s a comp hydraulic flat tappet xtreme energy .507”/.510” lift, 240°/246° @.050 I have 3.21 sure grip so I’m looking for torque not revving for HP. The 512 motor soaks up a bunch of duration making the cam seem milder, also I’m running ‘stealth’ heads unported so with my inches I would need max wedge ports to be able to make high rpm power. I bought cheap secondhand mufflers. They are rediculous but for $75 I’m good. Might put some quieter ones on at some point but you can have a conversation in the truck now and it’s a hotrod with no radio... Actually these are all excuses because my mufflers are silly. I have small tube block hugger headers that are probably barely better than manifolds (but fit!). They have 3” collector flanges. From there I have 3” downpipes that neck up to 3.5” pipe then into dual 3.5” flowmaster 40 mufflers. No crossover. The mufflers have scooped angled 3.5” tips that aim the exhaust at the tires in case I want to do a billowing burnout, which I’m definitely not in a hurry to do since I bought expensive dot drag radials!

Thats's awesome, what kind off cam do you have?

Here are 2 pictures of the Dodge B series in the Chrysler museum Detroit.

Found these....I'll look some more

I believe the only I’ve seen was in the Chrysler museum in Detroit, which is now closed. I can’t seem to find any pictures from my visit there, at this moment.

I understand the impulse to convert to a dual master cylinder. Redundancy is your friend in safety systems. That said, I have been running a single master cylinder for over 20 years in San Francisco and greater Bay Area traffic and it only failed once. That failure was right after I purchased it. I had a bad rear wheel cylinder. I purchased a new one from NAPA and put it in. About a month after that it blew. When I took it apart I could see that the seal had a manufacturing defect. After that I always inspect all seals in all brake items even if new. In the big Desoto I have a remote fill container up on the firewall. The end plug on the cylinders will screw into the top and you can just run a line up to the firewall. I use a white racer one so that I can just look and see how the brake level is doing. I use modern steel braided flex lines in place of the rubber. I new NAPA line got a bulge in it after about 14 months. So much for quality. My single master cylinder was sleeved with brass, but the man who did it has retired. You can get them done with stainless as well. If you rebuild everything carefully and keep an eye on it, the single unit system works fine. I think the real reason they went to a dual system was the lack of proper maintenance on thousands of peoples part that of course then lead to bad accidents. James

I've only seen one Pilot-House in a museum, but this private museum is now closed. It was a nice truck, but I was distracted by its non-originality...there was a Tucker Torpedo 50 feet away, which was a sight to behold

Well.....you just have to build an engine that really sucks.......!