JBNeal

On the trucks, I put about 750 lbs of big rocks in the bed and drive down a lumpy road for several days...that extra weight over the rear axle limbers up the springs nicely, and with the weight removed, the squeaking almost completely goes away.

If ya look at the bore on the untouched spare fitting, notice it is located so that no oil collects in the fitting because it has enough relief to allow drainage back into the block casting. To replicate this with the 1/32" bit would be quite a feat as them little bits flex if ya look at'm funny. My opinion on that 1/32" fitting concurs with Merle's statement as it appears to be a flow restrictor to dampen pressure spikes, something that I have designed into industrial hydraulic systems for smoother operating hydraulic equipment. I do not have one in my flatheads, and I'm thinking either the oil pressure gauges had a built-in restrictor or the restrictor was eliminated as the gauges were not as sensitive to pressure spikes as in previous models. If ya want to try another approach, solder the bore, drill the 1/32" restrictor into what would be the vertical bore instead of the horizontal bore as it would be easier to center. Definitely locate with a centering punch of some kind, maybe even a finishing nail could be hard enough to get that little divot stamped so that the drill bit point won't wander.

fuel gauge reading full or empty with no readings in between kinda sounds like a ground issue...I had this issue with the '48 until I ran a ground wire from a stud I mounted on the sending unit flange to the battery, then the fuel gauge started working more accurately.

originally, the manifolds were painted aluminum (silver) from the factory, but those castings were clean. Rust removal through electrolysis or Evaporust could prepare the metal surface for adequate coating adhesion. Also, these flatheads were low compression designs so I would be surprised if exhaust manifolds exceeded 500°F. If your header paint does not require a high heat primer, then stick with the paint instructions to the letter...I have found those instructions are your guide for best coating performance.

Dodge trucks upgraded to 12V in '56, so your gauges shouldn't need an extra voltage reducer. If the sending units you are using have a mismatched resistance range than the gauge, then the gauge will give you readings that won't make much sense. additional information - fuel level sending unit resistance ranges

the starter is easier to remove and install if'n your floorboards are removed additional information - starter ground performance upgrade

the FARGO dash emblem says it's a 1953 model

if ya really want to remove rust from the casting, remove all guts and externals so that the bare casting can go through an electrolysis treatment or evaporust soaking

Screenshot or it didn't happen

I have a '48 B-1-D-116 that the powertrain is kaput, so I've looked at options for this pie-in-the-sky project that has a half dozen other projects in front of it. The short answer is look at what the Power Wagon guys are doing for modern highway speed and braking

This oil pressure gauge appears out of calibration as it does not read zero with the engine not generating oil pressure. However, the pressure range that gauge is displaying appears consistent with the pressure range of a normally operating engine. From what I recall, the oil pressure gauge operates from direct oil pressure from the engine acting on a flat copper tube that is formed in a curve, acting like a spring, so that increasing oil pressure tries to straighten the copper, and the copper returns to its formed shape with decreasing pressure. At the end of this copper spring is a rod that contacts the gauge pointer mechanism. On my '48, its oil pressure gauge was not reading zero with the engine off. So I massaged the copper tube with my fingers and thumb carefully to make the gauge read zero with no oil pressure applied. This is a delicate operation so great care must be used when handling these parts. Once I made the gauge read zero at no oil pressure, the oil pressure gauge showed that the engine was operating at normal oil pressures, just as the shop manual listed. I verified my oil pressure readings with a new replacement mechanical oil pressure gauge that I bought at the auto parts store, made in Taiwan with a nylon pressure tube...my assumption was that the new gauge had been calibrated, and once my original gauge matched the readings of the new gauge, I assumed that my original gauge was then calibrated also. Generally speaking, the oil pressure gauge is only used to get an idea of engine operation, so it does not have to be accurate in pressures measured as much as the range of pressures measured.

additional information - rear axle breather bolt

that oughta buff out

Having a working key and a clear title can seal the deal for quicker sale...having gone thru the bonded title process, I would rather have a colonoscopy ?

Miatae ? That's a sweet buggy ?

Wheel bearing grease works as long as brand and type remain consistent...I have a plastic knife from a restaurant take-out pkg that I dip the tip into the grease can and feed into the hole...when grease starts to come out of the hole, it's full ?

additional information - spark plug wire sleeve repurposing

Onward and upward...may the next chapter be more enjoyable than the one before

The Gallery feature may have changed a little bit since I opted to try photobucket in 2015. I had removed pictures in the gallery to clear storage space, but this picture appears to have been corrupted and I cannot find a way to delete it: when I try to insert the image URL, the window will not accept it and I cannot insert the picture. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I think this was what I ran into when I decided to go the photobucket route. What I was going to try to do was upload several reduced resolution pictures into an album and replace the same pictures that I have in my attachment quota. This would be a preliminary step to organize pictures in the gallery, reduce duplicate pictures in my attachment quota, and remove my photobucket pictures linked on this site in order to get off of photobucket altogether.

that oil filter sure could use a big yeller sticker on it Are ya gonna fill the cooling system with tap water to flush out the assembly crud and act as a hose clamp leak detector?

According to Bunn's book on the C-series, 12 volt systems were standard for the C-3, which started in September 1955...the '55 C-1s were introduced in April 1955.

While removing wiper switches, I saw remnants of this similar gasket and thought that I could make my own from the smooth parts of a plastic milk jug...it's cheap, more durable material than the original, but slightly thicker.

After seeing a variety of failures in several different kinds of engines, I am a strong proponent of flush + coolant renewal every 3 yrs, regardless of mileage. The coolant pH changes over time, causing damage to gaskets and castings etc. If it's time to flush coolant, then ya can readily inspect that head bolt for corrosion and apply fresh sealant. If the head gasket had a small leak, that could account for thread sealant erosion and the fluid observed.

Since I've spent several previous IWOYTDs doing chores, this year I decided to be more proactive and get some work done in the evenings in case I got swamped with chores again...yep, we've got weather moving in so I gotta do blahblahblah on IWOYTD again... This year I opted to remove the electric wiper motor et al from the '48 B-1-D-116 parts truck to refurbish and install it in the '49 B-1-D-126. The '49 originally had a vac.motor, but I had a '53 parts truck with electric wipers and somehow made that work back in '05...something that I need to figure out how I did and document for future reference, because I vaguely remember that it took some finagling to get the wiper sweep to work out right. I took many pictures disassembling the crusty '48 wiper motor, cleaned it all up, inspected the innards, then started putting it all together when I realized how important it was to scribe an indexing mark on each crank, cuz I did not do that simple step and it took waaaaay too long to get things back to what they looked like in the pictures. I ended up pulling the wiper motor out of the '48 B-1-B-108 to compare and eventually refurbish that, and what I found partially explains why that truck's wipers seemed out of synch. I then went into my stash and found the electric wiper setup I liberated from the '48 B-1-D-126, but it appears to have been shut down in mid sweep, so I'll have to look into that one further to see how it is indexed. Of the 4 spare B-3 / B-4 wiper motors I have, none are indexed the same, one has longer crank arms, and another appears to have stripped gears. So now I'm thinking I need to pull the electric wiper motors from the '51 B-3-D-126 and the '53 B-4-B-116 to see how they were set up. While trying to refurb the electric motor, I realized that my Radio Shack and Bernzomatic soldering irons had bit the dust. Found a replacement Weller soldering iron, but haven't gotten around to trying it out yet, maybe in a few days when I get caught up on springtime chores. So what started out as a simple electric wiper motor refurb is now shaping up to be another reverse engineering project on two varieties of electric wiper motors that I was eventually going to get around to doing...and I'm not complaining one bit, cuz any time working on the old trucks is a good time indeed ?