Bobacuda

Go to the Mar-K website and look at the bed parts. You can also call and ask them, they have knowledgeable staff.

Those bed rails across the bottom of the bed are available aftermarket. And they were not all the same. Mar-k and Horkey’s are the two vendors I used.

Since my B4B, long bed, high side is on a lift, I took some photos from the bottom. When I did my truck, the bed was off and on a roll around cart I made that could be sat under and did not have a table top. It made it easier to work under- I made my son do that. The two outer boards did not fit well because time and too much load had slightly bowed the sides out - had to use ratchet straps to squeeze it all back together. Then I spaced the remaining boards on top, put the bed strips in place, and we bolted it down. After that, 4 of us lifted it and put it in place. There is a “pad” under each bolt that holds the bed to the frame - I cut squares off a mudflap I found on the road for them. A warning - a B4B’s front, DS mounting hole is a bit off set to the left. It is an L shaped bracket welded to the frame with the hole. The boards I bought already had the holes, and it was not drilled for a B4B. The hole they drilled does line up with a corresponding mounting hole, but you have to abuse your arm and cuss a lot, preferably in multiple languages, to get it. That is what I did.

Oh, and I did remove the arms and levers from the e-brake. The band is still attached, but that’s it. Soon as the trans jack gets here, I’ll find out?

The brake on the 3 spd is small enough to clear the cross member. The hump on top of the trans and the shifter arms on the left are the limiting factor. It appears the trans can slide straight back about 8” before the cross member is a problem. I have pulled the trans 2 previous times and never pulled the cross member. It’s been a while, but I think I rotated the trans to the left till the hump was cleared the cross member, then pulled it install was just the opposite. This will be the first time I have done this using a lift and high lift trans jack. And as always, I’ll be doing it by myself. Hope I can avoid gravity for this project.

While taking off the parts to get to the throwout bearing when the replacement parts and the new trans jack get here, I got to wondering - how many of the folks here have seen a Fluid Drive in a truck? My truck is a 3-on-the-tree. Anyhow, here are a couple of photos I took while taking a break from banging my head on the bottom of the truck. Due to the fluid coupler, the input shaft into the trans is damn long, which helps to make it a real PITA to get the trans past the cab cross member (just above and behind the e-brake) without upsetting the clutch parts. I guess I can't complain too much - this is only the third time in 47 years I have had to open this up for a repair or rebuild. This time I will see if it is any easier to do this hunched over or on my back, in the dirt...

I installed the elec fuel pump upstream of the mechanical fuel pump for 3 reasons: 1. A new Airtex pump made it about 2000 miles before the pin fell out of the arm. Fortunately, that was at my house. 2. The replacement Carter fuel pump made it about 500 miles before that same damn pin worked loose. I was about 75 miles from home, I tapped it back in and it mostly held up till I got home. I tapped the pin all the way back in, smeared epoxy over the ends of the pin, then cut some metal tabs that fit under the mounting bolts that I hope cover the ends of that damn pin good enough to keep it in, but everyone in the family worries about getting stranded on a road trip. 3. Drive it for awhile, get it hot, then forget about it starting until it cools down, and even then you have to crank it quite a while to move gas through the system. Prior to the electric pump, It has left me stranded for hours among the inconvenient laughs from my friends. So, the electric pump is there in the event of another mechanical failure. I have to road trip it and try starting it hot, but it is definitely starting better cold. And before anyone wonders, I am only running non-alcohol gas in it. I used the standard corn piss when I first rebuilt everything, and the gas would evaporate from the carb and leave a sticky residual. The non-alcohol gas fixed that.

I recently installed an inline pump (from Brock) on my B4B. Wish I had done it when the cab and bed were off, but I got it in, no leaks, and it appears to be working. The brown wire is the ground on our positive ground vehicles. I ran the hot wire to a toggle switch and then to the amp post on the ignition switch. It would have been easier to run it direct to the battery, but I wanted to make sure that the key switched it off. There is damn little room to work with. Buy about 3' of fuel line and good clamps. I had to cut out about a 7" piece of the metal fuel line, and I installed a larger fuel filter. The instructions say to put a "slight flare" on the ends of the metal lines - no kidding, make it slight unless you like filing metal flares until they are small enough to get inside the rubber fuel line. it all fits inside the frame. Anyhow, If I can get a photo to attach, I took one to show you.

Thanks for all of the info. I have one ordered, and I ordered a high lift trans jack so I don't have to crawl on the ground and practice bench pressing. Been there, done that, too damn old for it now.

Merle - Thanks for looking. I followed the NAPA link you provided - it shows two products. One is a computer (LOL) and the other is a bearing that has to be routinely greased (I would like to avoid that - been there, done that, got the T-shirt). In any event, the NAPA bearing is out of stock. Did you identify any other bearings - National, Federal, etc.? I have to admit, the lack of responses has surprised me. Surely, I am not the only Pilothouse truck owner that has needed or replaced the throwout bearing. Thanks again for your time and help. Bob

Surely one of you folks have gone through this. The last time I replaced the throwout bearing, the bearing shop mounted one on the collar with a grease fitting - said that was all there was. I did not like the idea because the damn thing is a pain to get to. But, lacking any other option, I installed and greased it. It was chattering within 500 miles. Grease would shut it up for the next 500 miles - royal PITA. This past week I was planning on driving to a rural car show about 75 miles away, so I checked all of the fluids and greased the truck... and decided, "What the hell, lets pull the 10 bolts and grease the throwout bearing." Silly me. The bearing grease zirk was MIA, as was any grease in the bearing. The bearing has almost fallen apart. I greased it and went to the scar show anyway, but i need to replace that damn bearing ASAP. Now comes the fun part - finding the right bearing. I find listings online, but they do not confirm if they are for my Fluid Drive application. Sometimes I find an ancient Dodge parts number, but it translates to nothing and is not clear if it for a 3 speed, Fluid Drive truck. Does anyone know an actual, replacement throwout bearing for my truck? I would prefer something off the shelf, not a budget buster, and no damn grease fitting. I would like to obtain the bearing before I tie up my lift with my crippled Dodge on it. Thanks in advance, Bob

There are A LOT of bolts to tighten. Sorry I don't have the before photo, but I do have a helpful tip. I did this back around 1978 by crawling around with lots of truck in the way. This last time, I made a roll around, open top cart to set the bed on for reassembly. The roll around cart will allow you (or some other poor soul) the "ease" of going under the bed to tighten all of the bolts with minimal things in the way. Over the years, the bed sides on my truck kind of "pouched" out, so this also allowed me to use straps and manpower to push them back in while bolting the bed wood straps in place.

Ma and Pa Kettle were good at math... https://youtu.be/4yO3oRLY5zA

Passenger side

DG - After photos. The black stuff by the carb was to protect the area while touching up paint. I was tuning the engine, so the vacuum advance line is disconnected, timing light connections hanging on, etc. Site won't let me load the passenger side, so I will have to do that separate.

With the spin on filter (modern type, equivalent to a Fram PH8A - not a bypass spin on), I had lower oil pressure. At driving rpm's it would be around 30 lbs, but it would drop to maybe 5 lbs at low rpm's - no matter what weight oil. Went back to the cannister, 30 - 35 low rpm with a hot engine, 40-45 lbs with a hot engine at driving rpm's. With the spin on, the average pressure for a trip through the pasture (or parade event) - 10 lbs. Highway, maybe 30 lbs. With the cannister, the average pressure for a trip through the pasture (or parade event) - 35 lbs. Highway, 40 lbs. It was that way up until I installed the spin on filter on it. Pressure was back to normal after I removed the spin on and put the cannister filter back. The lack of pressure bothered me.. I realize that Fords and Chevy's worked with low pressure, but the Dodge is not a splash oiling system and I'm convinced they put an oil pump capable of a consistent 40 lbs pressure.

And it won't let me load anymore photos at this time. Will try again later. If you search my past posts, there are photos of my 53 and a write up on building my wiring harnesses.

DG - I've had my 53 since 1975. Rebuilt it about 3-4 yrs ago and I took lots of photos if you ever need some. My engine (original) was pulled once for a valve job and painted blue - it is red now. It came with an oil filter, and I tried to use a spin-on instead, but it was not compatible with the bypass oil system - back to the cannister. On the intake manifold, you will see a Hollywood Wolf Whistle - been on there since 1975. It will take another posts to give you "after" photos of the engine.

I installed kingpins with nylon bushings in my truck. I asked a mechanic friend of mine that works on lots of old vehicles and his responses were, "Nylon is found in all new suspensions, and how much "real-time" use will your truck be getting?" He followed that up by telling me if it was his, and he could get brass and was sure they would be honed properly he would use brass. Based on that, he installs a lot of nylon bushings and reminds everyone that these vehicles were greased about every six months or 2,000 miles when new. Going on 4 years, still working fine - and I do keep them greased.

Good point about "The Day the Earth Stood Still." Looking at my list, I overlooked "Shane" and "True Grit" (both versions), as well. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' was another great one, as was "Little Big Man." I always watch "Midway" and "The Longest Day" whenever they are on TV, as well. I just like too many to limit myself to five :-)

I like so many and I would almost have to pick genres or actors. I think if I could only pick 5 the list would be forever changing. If I think about this any more, I will probably add new topics and different movies. :-) Western The Searchers Stagecoach (John Wayne version) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence The Three Godfathers (both the 1948 John Wayne and the 1936 version) The Magnificent Seven (both the Yul Brenner and the new one) Family The Wizard of Oz Old Yeller Marley and Me The Three Amigos Young Frankenstein War Shenandoah The Alamo (John Wayne and Billy Bob Thornton) Das Boot (German subtitles or dubbed in English) Gallipoli All Quiet on the Western Front (1979 TV version with Richard Thomas and Ernst Borgnine easily my favorite version) SciFi/Adventure/Monster King Kong (original and the newer versions) Frankenstein (Boris Karloff) Mummy (Boris and the new versions) The Time Machine Mysterious Island

Brent - Somehow I missed the backstory on this one. Your photo made me wonder Is this how all of those fires on the West Coast got started? Were you trying to compete with PFlaming's cat? Were you trying the PFlaming custom patina treatment? Or, were you fogging for mosquitos?