John-T-53

That looks like a NAPA 1080, which will work on most of the bypass filter housings we have. My housing looks like yours Hank, with the inlet on the bottom and outlet on top. The 1080 is pleated paper and doesn't filter down to the level that the sock 1011 filters do, but it's a lot easier to change, and cheaper to buy. The only thing you need to do when using this filter is install metal washers that fit tightly over the center tube, at each end of the filter element, to get a good seal and prevent the spring from tearing up the fiber on the bottom. You also need about a 1/2" spacer to hold the element down from the top.

Yup, the inside diameter of the friction surface, or the diameter of the center section.

Powerhouse, can you post a pic of the one you have on here? I'm looking for a replacement internal bypass type housing. Vista is great. I have some friends who used to live there, just off Buena Creek/Valley Crest. All their neighbors were retired Marines, all with flag poles in their front yards. A beautiful place and an excellent location to grow anything.

I have an 11" in right now. I guess that leads me to wonder do 10 and 11s have the same I.D.? Thanks Ed!

I'll ask him for some of his reasoning when I get back to him, but first, he needs the I.D. of a stock clutch friction area so he can find a new disk for me. ....so anybody got a clutch apart right now that could do a quick measurement for me? Thanks in advance!

A PCV system will do a heck of a lot more for your old flathead than any alterations to the filtering system. As Mr. G mentioned, condensation induced by short trips is a big enemy of the crankcase. If you're going to do anything to improve your oil, above changing it and the filter element, install a PCV. I haven't heard of the "coke" buildup before, but I'd guess this might be a more common issue in places like Columbia, etc :-{

The guy at Advantage Radiator told me there's only one place in the country that's reproducing honeycomb cores today, and for a new one it's very expensive ($500+). I haven't searched for this myself, but when my rad gets to the point of no more fixing, I might try a junk yard radiator as a replacement first. He recommended "Bar's leaks" or equivalent for small seeps, but the key is to add it very slowly and when the system is hot. If you dump it all in at once it won't work.

I've had a couple shops in both your areas work on my truck's original radiator where the exact location as yours sprung a leak... Advantage Radiator in Mission Viejo, off El Toro behind Ganahl Lumber is a single man shop run by an older guy who used to have a huge shop back in the day. He's familiar with all the old stuff. He even stopped by my house when I lived in San Juan, on his way back from surfing to look at my radiator in the truck. Another shop in Atascadero up on the central coast did me good a few years back: Atascadero Radiator. Hope this helps....good luck.

There's a place in Southern Cal. that sells these hard to find rivets and rivet tools - Hanson Rivet. They have a pretty good web site: http://www.hansonrivet.com/w78.htm They've hooked me up a couple times with the goods when it became a necessity to play with rivets.

I've been talking with a gentleman named Tom in Michigan about getting some parts to adapt a T5 to my truck bellhousing and clutch. Does anybody have a stock clutch disc out of their vehicle right now that could tell me the I.D. of the friction surface? He may be able to get me a 14 spline disk I can use with the T5 and keep the rest of the clutch. I have a brand new 11" clutch in the truck right now, and he suggested going with a 10" so it would shift better. Anybody got a T5 and had experience with this? I suppose I could just switch the dist to a 10" and keep the 11" pressure plate...

A good thin gasket material I've used in the past is the cardboard back to a gum-bound paper note pad. Works great alone...and seals better with spray gasket adhesive. I've used this for the axle to backing plate seal and pumpkin seal.

The U-joints are good, the drums are tight, and the rear end seems quiet on the highway...although I can't really hear anything above the noise of the truck at 50 mph. I jacked up one side and jiggled the wheel. The axle bearings seem to be slightly clunky, as I could hear them even when rocking the wheel 2" back and forth. The inner seals are shot, so they're only being lubricated with gear oil right now. But the play is definitely the rear end, somewhere. With the driveshaft disconnected and both wheels on the ground, the ring gear can go forward and backward quite a bit (around 3/8" to 1/2") before hitting a stop.

I've got an all-original 1/2 ton 4:10 rear end with new brakes and no major leaks, but noticed some clunking when going between forward and reverse. Sometimes when starting from a stop in first, there's a "ping" from the rear as the truck starts moving. When I had the filler plug off last, I looked in there with a flash light, while moving the companion flange back and forth (driveshaft removed). I could see the ring and pinion clearly. There was quite some free play back and forth with the flange, like a few degrees of rotation, but the ring and pinion were engaged good with no visible excessive backlash between the teeth. The teeth wear pattern looked excellent. The axle nuts at the wheels are tight, and the keyways and pins are tight...what else could be loose? I'd be hard pressed to believe its the axle splines. Do the diferential side and pinion gears ever wear out? I've never spun a wheel while I've had this truck, but the fluid has gotten low here and there with the former leaky pinion seal. Looking at the shop manual, taking the differential case apart looks like a b*tch...it says to heat it with a torch and use a special tool to unscrew the case cap. Ugh...

I recently redid my floor boards and used "pickup truck cap tape" found at my local parts store. It's adhesive backed foam, about 1" wide and 3/16" thick, and comes in a very long roll. I too found remnants of the felt when I took the floor apart. The reason I went with the foam, besides its anti-squeak capability and easy installation, was for good sealing. I wanted to make the floor 100% air tight and eliminate engine fumes entering the cab. In most locations, I was able to split the tape down the middle and get a good, clean seal with a 1/2" wide strip. I taped over the bolt holes and came back with a punch, heated up with a torch to open them up - made a perfect edge around the hole. The panels can still be removed easily, and I have a lot of material left over. So far, so good.

Well after an afternoon out and about in the ol' gal, the T-stat housing has no leaks with the RTV seal. It was applied bare-metal with no gasket, bolts hand tight till cured, then tightened with a socket wrench after curing overnight. I'm still gonna get a new housing when available though, but this one should hold for now. Another head stud sprouted and I'm going to use teflon tape from now on. According to most manufacturers' web sites, plumber's PTFE tape is rated up to 550 deg. F so should be no problem sealing a block.

Thanks for the tip Hank. It would be very cool if I could get my mits on a new one. For now, I reinstalled the old one last night with a s-load of blue RTV. I'm about to refill the coolant shortly before hitting the road for a trip down El Camino Real to Mountain View this afternoon. I noticed a few of the head studs are weeping coolant now. When installed, I used permatex #2 on the threads and cleaned the hell out of the holes - thought that would hold it. When I removed them, the permatex was gone. I reinstalled the leaking studs with RTV this time. The thought crossed my mind about using teflon tape and pipe dope like a plumber would, but I'm unsure about how it would hold up with the heat. What's the forum's consensus on a good thread sealer for head bolts/studs?

I've done searches for a T-stat housing in the past and have had no luck. Spares seem to be non-existant. The housing on my engine is on its last leg - rusted, warped, and now leaking at the seam between the neck and the base. It's been cleaned, filed, and beat past its servicable limit. Does anyone have a spare like the one in the pic below? This is for an internal bypass system. Any help or good leads on where to find one would be most appreciated. Has anybody ever made one from scratch?

Mr. Erb, you might need to chime in again here.... When I pulled the head last time there was what seemed to be to much carbon in the combustion chambers. Would this be a result of bad timing? Last time I used a timing light and set it to 2 deg BTDC at about 1200 rpm, hot. For the timing light method, is it necessary to disconnect and plug the vacuum advance line like on most other vehicles? Also, where could a new distributor vacuum advance unit be found these days?

That's a very long stretch of lonely road, especially in North Dakota. Make sure you got plenty of gas and a good selection of music. Me and my folks drove hwy. 94 from Billings to Minnesota last September. Even during the day, the highway was pretty much empty of traffic. At night, it's pitch black. We noticed a few signs in Montana warning that "Meth Kills"...I guess it's a popuar thing to pass the time with out there? Some interesting sights along the way are Teddy Roosevelt Nat'l Park at the very west end of N. Dakota, where his hunting cabin can be seen, and Pompey's Pillar, just east of Billings, where William Clark carved his name in the rock in 1806.

The original finishes look neat on this truck. Even the glass and rubber look solid except for one side of the windshield. This one would be an ideal candidate for a "natural look" - with a little clean up, it could look really cool.

Ah Malibu, that area is cool....I took the truck through the Santa Monicas on Kanan-Dume road down to Hwy 1 around new years. Santa Catalina is on the right, and the Palos Verdes peninsula on the left. Hank, your neighborhood is in there somewhere. There was a wierd atmospheric thing going on at the end of the day that made the islands look vertically exagerated, hence their prominence from 45 miles away. Further up the hill you could even see San Clemente Island, 80 miles across the water from Malibu.

That Jasco Prep n' Prime is an excellent product. Great for stabilizing rusty surfaces and paintable when dry. If you immerse parts in it it'll actually remove the rust down to bare metal (it takes time, tho), and won't eat into the material like muriatic acid will. This stuff is a must for any bare metal body work before painting.

That's a lot of black...exterior, interior, and even the engine. A few specs of dust might take a couple k off the price....

I got my brown seat cover from Roberts about 7 years ago, and it's held up really well, even with getting sun on the vinyl most days. It's hot, though, I'll tell ya...only when I first get in, but a fair trade off for durability and easy cleaning. Before that I had a mexican blanket and burlap sacks, and it was a nice upgrade. I was reading in the "Bunn Bible" the 53's came with maroon vinyl with grey cardboard trim. Anybody ever seen one like this or have any pics? I think this would be a cool trim combo to eventually go with if I ever restore the truck.

That's one heck of a trip, all the way around the Sierras, through the desert, across the valley, and into the hills of El Paso de Robles. Last time I did that one was to go skiing at June Lake with a group of college friends from Cal Poly. One of our female class mates' family ran the resort up there, the Fosters, and they still live in Bishop. I think she goes by the name Hennarty now... Anyways, good luck, and hopefully the ol' gal returns home soon. If she needs radiator work while gettin' fixed up, there's a good shop over there called Atascadero Radiator I would highly recommend.