Brian Humphreys

Hi, sorry to jump in the middle of this thread, but I had a quick question about the transmission in your photo. I’m helping my neighbor with his 49 truck which has the same transmission. I took the transmission cover off to get the motor out the truck (I know know I could have done that differently) but I can’t seem to get it to shift through the gears; it’s stuck in neutral. I think I reinstalled the cover incorrectly. Also, when the cover was off it didn’t feel like the shifter/cover had the full range of movement. I was hoping that it would free up when installed it on the transmission but no luck. Are there any tricks to reinstalling the cover on that transmission? Thanks!

Hi. I thought I replied to this, but I think I didn’t do it correctly. Thanks everyone. I got the oil flowing and the truck started. the oil pump was the problem; I should not have installed a cover gasket. As soon as I removed that it started working perfectly. So thank again.

Hi. No, I’ve check the spring in the relief valve a few times. Clean, installed correctly etc. And yes, those images are really clear. thanks

Just a bit of an update. I may have a solution… maybe. I pulled the oil pump out and checked that. The cover gasket was really thick, and had a lot of silicon. It’s possible I guess (well I read on line) that a thick gasket can stop the pump from working. I’ll swap that out and see if that works. Thanks everyone!

Actually I have another question. Some motors have the lines feeding as per the images above and others have then the way they were in the photo above. Does anyone know if the lines change across the blocks?

Here’s the cleaner motor

By the way… that’s the old picture… the motor looks wonderful now

So here’s an interesting clue; it’s in the WTF category. So being the good backyard mechanic I am, I put everything back the way I found it. Do you notice what some guy did to this truck? The oil lines are reversed! I don’t know if that will solve my pressure problem, but hey, fixing that won’t hurt!!

Thanks Bryan!

At one stage I got it started and got no pressure building up at all. Thanks. And yes, I’m not going to try a restart until I get oil flowing and pressure buildup. BTW; I know it’s not the gauge as I haven’t got oil even going up the line to the guage.

At one stage I got it started and got no pressure building up at all.

Thanks, but wouldn’t the oil pressure line receive oil straight away?

Hi. This is such a great forum. I wonder if you can help me; I'm getting more grey hairs every day as I try to start my neighbor's 49 Dodge. Long story, but my retired neighbor has had a Dodge B1-B in his garage for a while, unable to get it to running properly. So I decided to volunteer my time to help get it on the road. I rebuilt the motor, transmission, generator, starter (I started off just planning on replacing the head gasket) Anyway, I put it all back together, but I have a few gremlins. It started initially, but then I had oil coming out the top of the oil filter container. I stopped the motor, tightened the filter cover and now nothing is happening! It won't start and I have zero oil pressure. I've turned it over with no spark plugs in and get no oil feeding to the filter. I also checked the line to the oil pressure switch and I'm getting no oil there as well, so no oil in either of those lines. I removed the oil pump a couple of times and primed it... it looks like it's working but hard to tell. Where should I look next? I just ordered a kit to rebuild the oil pump. I figure if I do that, and re-index the pump (and hence distributor) I should get spark back. I'm just wondering what I'm missing? Thanks!