JBNeal

Or maybe a glob of silicon adhesive or liquid nails...?

MMO can soften grease to make it lubricate again, I have used it many times to free up frozen lock cylinders, ratcheting mechanism, sheaves...it takes several days of applying MMO and letting it soak in, applying some force to get the parts moving a little, reapplying MMO working the parts some more and waiting, then repeating...it took many years for these things to freeze up, it can take several days to get them to function properly...MMO and patience goes a long way

Maybe pulling the handle out and applying Marvel Mystery Oil to the shaft, then let sit for a days and repeat a few times, might free things up...I had the thumb button get stuck on the '49 floor lever and tried this approach... within a week, it was working fine, and no disassembly was required

NOSpart: 1325984 Valve Grind Gasket Package found this gasket set on eBay years ago

additional information - wiper pivots

I took a few minutes to look at the wipers on the '48 and I cleared up a few things as I was a little confused. Modern vehicles have splined wiper pivot shafts that mate with a keyed socket for an accurate indexing of the wiper blade arms. The Pilot House trucks have shafts that are splined and tapered, and the tapered spline wedges against the surface of a circular plate in the wiper arm, with the hex nut securing the arm to the shaft. So the tapered spline OD has to be greater than the circular plate ID for the wedging action to work

Sounds like it's time to whip out the calipers and do some measuring... Splined shafts require an exact fit for proper function and eyeballing it will only be a guess an opinion

That fuel gauge is missing an explanation...

I cut an old brake line to verify this year's ago: if it's rusty on the outside, it will be rusty on the inside...and that's a good combination for pinholes to develop

if the master cylinder piston is starting to leak or if the piston bore has a problem such as pitting, then fluid in the lines will seep past the piston when depressed, leaking back into the reservoir when the piston returns back past the reservoir port...eventually, the "overfilled" reservoir will overflow. I recall having this problem with my master cylinder before I sent it off to be sleeved

Builds Post revised and updated with 4 spd spur gear output shaft and 1-ton pinion seal information

I found some seal boxes that I labeled years ago: 4 spd (spur gear) output shaft seal: National 450308 Chicago Rawhide 21210 1-ton pinion seal: Chicago Rawhide 18924 National 6017

Maybe I am missing something, but if ya measured to the top of the cab, then measured standing with your hands outstretched fingertip to the floor, then added those two measurements and added a little wiggle room, wouldn't that get ya the clearnce measurement? My guess is that 15' would be adequate clearance

NOSpart: 1238415 Universal Joint This Cleveland-type universal joint was found on eBay years ago...

NOSpart: 1189331 Differential Pinion Yoke This tagged pinion yoke was found on eBay years ago...still has the protective cardboard tube covering the seal surface

Chrysler had a different view on cost back then, with 3 examples: oil filtration was an option, as ppl who did not rack up a lot of miles could get by with changing their oil when it got dirty (or once a season or maybe once a year, like how we service push mowers nowadays); PCV systems, designed for military applications, were not implemented on any vehicles (or stationary engines) but instead used the draft tube setup, giving us "the drip" and smoke puffing from the engine compartment, so we could motivate Nixon to sign us up for the EPA decades later; and harmonic balancers were used on finer automobiles as they were the only ones that "needed it"...everyone thought a buzzing car was normal back then

Pardon the hijack but will that type of freeze plug work on the flathead block? I was under the impression that the concave plugs are to be installed and expanded into the groove in the water jacket hole by striking the concave apex with a rounded object, like those found on a ball pein hammer...and a sealant is best applied to the groove first...I am not sure how the cupped plugs will seat on the flathead holes

If ya have the stock 4.50" wide rims on a half ton, then the original tire size was 6.00x16 or 6.50x16...closest size to that now is 215/85R16, and that is hard to find in anything under a D-rated tire, and that can be a rough ride on a lighter truck. The1-ton duallies also rode on 6.50x16s as standard equipment, but the 1-ton sgl.wheels had 7.00x16s up front and 7.50x16s on the rear as standard equipment...I've got 7.50s all around on my sgl.whl and have no problems with tire clearance and the frame when turning. At any rate, verify your wheel width before ya invest in some new rubber...skinny tires on wide rims, as well as wide tires on skinny rims, kinda look funny and can be problematic

Folks have trouble understanding when I tell them that shocks (& struts) help with braking...in short, shocks keep the nose from diving while braking, keeping the rear tires planted, which allows the rear brakes to reduce speed more. After replacing several sets of struts and shocks on different vehicles, I immediately would find problems with brakes, primarily vibrations from warped rotors. Once that got addressed, the improved braking performance was eye-opening: two trucks I reworked could stop on a dime and give ya nine cents change, when their braking before was marginal and somewhat high on the pucker factor when in traffic. These trucks are no different, with new shocks that can magnify the problems with the rear brakes.

Not to be a smarty pants, but ya got a 50/50 shot of hooking it up correctly . . . otherwise, it'll just be backwards and show discharge on the gauge when the regulator kicks over to let the generator charge the battery, shouldn't be able to let any smoke out that way

I have replaced them by putting a 2x6 under the oil pan (not on the drain plug), lifted the engine with a floor jack on that lumber, high enough that the load is off the motor mount, removed the nuts from the mount studs, then pulled the mount out to replace. You can also remove the floating power bracket from the frame with the engine lifted to get better access to the mount and for better access for cleanup. I also take the water pump pulley off for accessibility

3 of them batteries showed 1.44 volts, the other 2 showed 1.14 volts...I'm too skeered to hook them up to a lamp to see if they'll discharge cuz I kinda wonder if they would 'splode if'n they got too hot

If it has a valid title and is in good condition, 1500 could be a good price...I've gone through the bonded title process with TXDoT and just thinking about it makes the top of my noggin warm up, so if a title is in hand, that piece of paper is worth a lot of time that ya don't have to mess with infuriating apathetic govt clock watchers...btw Marvel Mystery Oil is your friend

Fluid Drive bell housing (note removable cross member for transmission removal)

One of the local machine shops closed last year, it had been around since the 50s...I asked a guy at another machine shop what was going to happen to all of that equipment, and he enlightened me on something that I had not even thought about before: that machinery was worn out and needed replacement and the owner opted to close the doors and retire rather than reinvest. I kinda wonder sometimes when parts for our vintage machines are being made by worn out equipment...this can affect quality and performance. These hydraulic pressure switches may be manufactured on the same piece of equipment that made them decades ago, has been passed around from one mfgr to the next, and it is wearing out too, producing an inferior product as compared to decades ago. So I reckon it's a good idea to keep an eye on these things before venturing out to keep the surprises to a minimum