theDyls3

Hello All, I was having trouble with my truck (B4B 1/2 ton) idling, so I pulled the carb to take a look. I found a bunch of gray powder in mixed in with the gas and a bunch collected in the float chamber. Cleaning it out is no big deal, but I'm curious as to where this powder might be coming from. I just installed a new carter electric fuel pump, but I have a hard time thinking that would be the problem. Any ideas? Thanks. Dylan.

Update time: So I added a 2/0 ground wire (battery cables were all ready 2/0). Didn't help. Tested the battery and it read 5.87v. Oops. So I bought a charger and after charging it turns over pretty easily, but still wouldn't start. Looked in the carb and could see moisture and smell gas, so I was getting fuel. Took the center wire off the distributor and held it near a ground. I could see a spark, so that was working. I tried again and got a back fire, so I played with the timing on the distributor to no avail. Checked my wiring order, and it occurred to me that the doesn't indicate the top of the distributor all that well. So I rotated all the wires one position counter-clockwise and tried it again and bingo. After so more fiddling the engine caught and I had it idling. A little rough, but still the first time I'd heard it run. When I tried giving it more gas it died. So gotta fix that. Any thoughts? Also, I noticed when I was trying to get it to start and had the wires wrong that if I ran the starter for a while some gas would leak out of the carb from where the accelerator linkage goes up through the float chamber. Any thoughts about that? Thanks for all your help. Dylan.

Hello, So I have a B4B I've been working on for some time and am currently working on getting it to start. I had the engine rebuilt, my starter rebuilt, have all new wiring, and a new 6v battery. When I hit the starter, the engine tries to turn over and then stops. If I hit the starter again, it sometimes turns it a little more, other times nothing. I can crank the engine over by hand using a large wrench. The amount of resistance varies as I turn it, from not much to a good deal. I'm at a lose for how to proceed. Is there something wrong with the rebuild of either the engine or the starter? Should I try using a 12v battery to force the starter to turn over the engine? Is there some trick I just don't know? Any advice would be great. Thanks. Dylan.

There is no need to rout a groove or rabbet the edge. If you use the lumber just cut to size, when you tighten down the bed strip bolts the strip will bite into the wood and hold it securely. Nor do you need to rout a recess for the oval washer on the bolts that hold the bed to the frame. I might be wrong, but I believe this is how they came from the factory (in addition to being painted black). Plus if you do it this way the metal strip stays proud of the wood allowing any load you carry to ride on the strips and not damage the wood. I built mine this way, using an unfinished cedar (which, yes, is rather soft) that will silver nicely as it ages. My though was why spend all this time getting a furniture quality finish, since there really isn't one that's going to hold up for any length of time, when you can instead use a cheaper wood that will handle weather on its own and that can be replaced pretty painlessly when it needs it. But then again I plan on using mine as a truck, so there's that.

I think if you remove the floor piece over the transmission you should be able to get to it. Otherwise you.re best bet is a small hand.

I installed my own glass, and I'd have to say the windshield wasn't too bad. Time consuming, but not too difficult. It would definitely help to have a second set of hands, since it's a bit awkward moving it into position on the truck once you have both panes in the rubber. I did it by myself though, and it was much easier than getting the rear windows in for me. My old windshield was fine, so I didn't buy a new one. I did however buy new door windows and that cost me around $200 for all 4 pieces. I couldn't imagine the windshield glass costing much more.

The fenders on a 1953 look quite a bit like the P15 ones.

My two cents: Fish and chips (or better yet a fried seafood cart). Chimichanga.

I agree with BobT, I too like paypal. The one time that someone ripped me off on Ebay and never bothered sending the item paypal took care of it and refunded my money. I did have to wait 2 or 3 months, but still:rolleyes: . I tend to shy away from people who say "no paypal" on their ads.

That transmission looks a whole lot like the 3-speed manual transmission I have in my 53 Dodge truck, and it's my understanding that fluid drives are automatics.

Tim, I have to disagree with you. I used both a disc and a belt sander when removing the paint and rust from my truck, and removed very little metal. It all depends on what type of abrasive is on your sandpaper and how aggressive you are with it. While it does create heat, it doesn't get hot enough to warp the sheet metal or anything. I also tried using a grinder with a brass wire brush and found it to be far less effective than sandpaper. It seems to me that sand blasting has much more potential to cause damage than sandpaper. But then again, I have been known to be wrong before .

BobT, I could be wrong (more familiar with woodworking tools than metal working ones) but I'm pretty sure a DA Sander is the same thing as a random orbital sander that we woodworkers use, so short answer is yes there are electric versions. I used my random orbital sander to sand my truck, worked great with a nice coarse grit sand paper (say 60 or 80) for the paint. I did find that finer grits tended to take out rust spots better than the coarser grits (150 grit). I'd recommend one with variable speeds and expect to go through a lot of sand paper .

Monroe 5752 are $26.57/each and the Monroe MA727 are $80.61/pair on Amazon.

It used to be true that repeatedly turning your computer off and on would damage the hard drive (thus the reason most businesses would leave them on), but the technology has gotten better and now most hard drives can handles 10's of thousands of boot ups with out problems. So, yes, to save energy you should turn your computer off when your not using it, or at least hibernate it. A couple of other relatively painless ways of saving electricity: Change your incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent ones. Insulate your water heater (assuming it's electric:) ) As Greg said, unplug items that aren't in use. You mentioned PG&E, if you live in Oregon you can get the Energy Trust to send an inspector out to your house and they'll tell you all the ways you can be saving energy and even give you some incentives to do so. Though, if you really want to make sure your not using electricity when you leave the house, you can always just trip your master breaker.

Does anyone have some pictures of the following interior parts? Horn Button, Arm Rests, and Escutcheons? Mine were long gone when I got my truck (53' B4B) and I was think I want to make my own out of wood, but haven't seen a good close up of these parts. If anyone has some basic measurements that would be great as well. Dylan.

That's good to know Tod. I will definitely look into doing that.

It's true 48D, I was thinking more in terms of energy efficiency than power efficiency, if that makes sense. I tend to be a pretty tame driver, not looking to win any drag races or what not. My concern was more ways of limiting the pollution of this old truck. I do think I got my answer though. The engine is what it is, and if I want to increase the trucks efficiency I should look else where (gear ratios, etc). I did have my engine rebuilt and I have rebuilt all the peripheral parts, so it seems I should be thinking about bigger tires and lower gear ratios instead of trying to hobble on a catalytic converter.

All right, so the take home message seems to be short of swapping to a more modern engine there's only so much you can do. Also thanks for the information on efficiency Tod, I haven't really thought of it that way (in other words that there is more to gas mileage than just the efficiency of the engine). It does remind me of another question: What kind of gas mileage should I expect with my mostly stock truck?

Thanks for the info, I'll have to look into swapping the rear end. I have been worrying about the top speed since I read somewhere that I should expect it to be around 45mph. I'd look into having the piston heads milled, but I already had my engine rebuilt.

So this is my first post on this site, so I should probably introduce myself. I have a 1953 B4B that I've been working on for a little over a year. Currently I am gearing up to start her for the first time. Then to finish up the interior and I'll be ready to drive her for the first time. Anyway, since I'm spending all the time to fix her, I was wondering if there are ways to increase the efficiency of the engine and/or reduce the emissions, beyond just rebuilding everything which I have been doing? Is it possible to add a catalytic converter? Would that even be beneficial? Am I being crazy to even think about this? (I guess I should mention that this is my first time working on a truck, so I'm learning as I go). Oh, and here's a pic of my truck as she looked when I got her, now she's in a few more pieces.