Bobacuda

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?

My brother is the wood worker...I am the wood butcher. He uses fine cut saws...I use chain saws. . The last time we worked together we built a pole barn. He cut each rafter on his side individually. I strapped all of mine together and made one cut with the chain saw - I thought he was going to kill me. Like I told him, "The hay and the cows will never know the difference." And that is why rolling cart is made of metal - less chance of it falling apart and landing on me. I am lucky enough to have a tractor with a front end loader, which is how I pick up heavy stuff now.

ARGH! Tooljunkie - My most humble apologies, I meant to say '69 Sweptline, NOT '79 Sweptline… I also apologize to anyone and everyone that felt I was wasting their time and efforts. I make typos, but that was ridiculous. OK, I am sufficiently red-faced. Bob

The Sweptline trucks use I-beam with king pins, same as the Pilothouse trucks. I think I first read about this swap on a Sweptline forum. Anyhow, it was just a matter of disconnecting the brake line, the steering ends and then removing the king pin. This removed the spindle and the hub. I did this to both trucks, then I installed the Sweptline spindles with new king pins on my truck. Make sure you get spindles with the same diameter king pin - the first set I got were from a Sweptline model that was supposed to be a "gas miser," and the pins were smaller. The set that worked for me came off a full size, 1/2 ton '79 with a slant 6. After the spindles were installed, I put the brake backing plates back on and replaced the brake components. I ran all new brake lines, and I regret not using the original diameter lines. I used the size that the '79 and the '90 Dakota used. I have always wondered if this affects the amount of pressure I have to apply to stop the truck. Anyhow, I put new bearings and seals in the hubs and had the drums turned when putting it all back together. If the set you get has left hand lugs, this is a great time to change them out. Since I have a Dakota diff in my truck, I have eliminated the LH lugs. Its all hidden behind the hub cap, so no one ever sees it. Fixed my bad hub problem, I now have brakes that are easy to get parts for and are easy to adjust.

The body is at the body shop, I have the drivetrain at my place. Trying to move the diff around reminded me that I did not want to work on it on the floor, so I got to looking at the tubing I had left over from the k-frame/engine/trans dolly and I thought, "Why not make one for the diff?" I tried to make it adjustable enough to use with other diffs, but it would require some additional "fabrication" to use on a diff that mounts under the springs. The bottom of the brake drum is 15" above the floor. The support under the input collar is a bit redundant on this diff, but I thought it might be necessary on others...and I had the scraps to build it with.

Before I show the project, I should make it clear that the last time I welded anything was with a stick, "Lincoln tombstone" welder about 50 yrs ago (where does the time go...?). I have removed the B'cuda k-member (and the rear suspension) and I wanted some way to get the front suspension off the ground for rebuilding. The concept evolved into something strong enough to hold the engine and trans so it can be rolled underneath and the k-member (along with the engine and trans) mounted to the car, rather than lowering it into the car. So, I found some other people's projects online and came up with mine. Contrary to the other designs, mine has 4 wheels (rather than 3) since I tend to dump anything with 3 wheels on its side (specifically my 53 truck's engine first time I pulled it). I got a Hobart 140 as a retirement gift, so I added another $300 and upgraded to a Hobart 190 at the time. This is the first time I have used it in almost 2 years. And, I proved I can still make some welds look like cat poop on a flat rock, some that just look like poop, and some good ones. By the time I finished, they were all looking good. Time to order suspension parts and get busy.

I put a 1990 Dakota full diff (8.25) under my 1953 B4B. I had to cut off the old spring hangers and weld new ones (from Northern Tool) on the top in the appropriate places. The u-joint was the same. I tried to use the Dakota e-brake, but my 53's factory lever could not get enough "mechanical advantage" to make it work. I removed all of the e-brake hardware and fine-tuned my original e-brake. Modern brakes, easy to find parts for, no LH lugs. I also put the front spindles (I had a bad spindle and hub) and brakes from a 1979 Sweptline. Nice, new brakes with easily available parts and I eliminated the LH lugs as part of the process. My only complaint is I ran the smaller diameter brake lines from the MC to the wheels - I think I should have used the large size line and downsized at the wheels. However, it all works fine. No complaints, so far.

Almost as much fun as replacing the water distribution tube. I had to put lots of PB Blaster on mine, but one refused to move. Following another person's advice, I used a hydraulic jack and a long block of wood with a plate of metal under the pin. Then I jacked it up to put lots of the truck's weight on the bottom of the pin and left it overnight. Applied heat the next day (while under pressure) and finally was able to tap it out. There are different length pins. Measure your old ones before destruction. I got mine from https://dcmclassics.com/15-Door-parts-and-accessories

When our '51 Plymouth and our '50 Dodge engines had that, it was a bad head gasket. Dipstick looked like it had been stuck in an off-white milk shake. Is the radiator losing water?

JB- Finding that B4B script is amazing. Getting that piece of Unobtanium off the dash without breaking it will be damn near magical.

I don't know about the older than 1953 Dodge straight axles, but when one of my front wheels spun a bearing and wiped out the hub and spindle, I was told I could use one from any of the Dodge I-Beams from the '50's up. I got a set from a '69 1/2 ton short-wide that was a "miser," lightweight 6 cyl - the kingpins were the wrong size. I went back and got a set from a '69, full size Sweptline with a slant 6 - fit great. I am using the spindles, hubs and drum brakes. It goes without saying to use the wheel bearings and seals that fit the replacement spindles and hubs. So, from my experience, spindles (get the hubs and all the brake stuff, too) from the newer Dodge I-beams will work, just make sure that you have the correct King Pin size or a parts yard that will work with you if you get a set that won't fit..

Fritz Von Erich, aka "The Iron Claw"