JBNeal

here's the envelopes for the rings:

NOSpart: 1450124 Piston Ring Set Chrome Master Ring Set purchased on eBay back in '03 for about 20 bucks...they were in pristine condition, so I put them in the '49 1-ton when I rebuilt that 230

aside from the lower torque that can be applied to these, if'n the wrench strips out, then ya be really screwed

SURVIVOR: this'n popped up on FB

has it been almost 9 years since this board started? time flies, I reckon...although I believe there was a different forum that predated this that I may have participated on 16 yrs ago but I may be thinking of something else

that rim style was used on '48-'53 for sure, I think the clips changed in '57 as the hubcaps changed with the overall redesign...looking at the parts manual for the B-series, it lists 15 x 5.5 for the 3/4-tons, my guess is that it may be from '54-56

if you're gonna keep'm both, I'd suggest finishing the daily driver first...if you can pull that off, then ya have one to drive while finishing the restore job. Also, if you lose interest in the daily driver project (I have lost count of how many have done so on this site alone in the last 5 yrs; rescued a couple from the scrap heap myself), then you can cut your losses as the restore job has its own challenges as to how original you want to keep things. You can always park'm in front of the house & call'm yard art, that's what I've done with a few of my rescue projects

the last time I saw a spark plug lose an electrode was on my John Deere 425 with the Kawasaki 2cyl. It had developed a startup problem that took me over 5 years to diagnose because it was so intermittent...one day it would fire right up, another day it would take a lot of cranking with a backfire after cranking before it would fire. Each year, the problem would get progressively worse, but no easy fix from diagnosis was apparent from the shop manual. I had narrowed it down to a couple of safety start switches that would pass their diagnostic tests, but after the engine stopped running one evening and I had to drag the machine onto a trailer to get it home, I took a shot & replaced both of the switches and, lo & behold, the problem went away. Evidently, the original switches, when they got to be around 17 yrs old, were corroding internally, and the heat & vibration from operation would vary their effectiveness. Anyhow, the Champion plugs didn't fare too well from the intermittent backfires at startup, as one electrode was badly burned and the other lost the electrode and a good chunk of the porcelain. NGKs only needed to be re-gapped every few hours after I would notice the gradual power loss when climbing hills. I rebuilt the motor a couple of years after solving the long cranking + backfire problem to replace the nylon timing geared camshaft with a steel geared camshaft, and I was not able to locate any damage from the electrode loss. After over 100 hrs of operation on the rebuild, the engine is more powerful than when I bought the machine 15 yrs ago, is good on gas & does not leak or burn oil, so I am inclined to think that the debris was blown out of the combustion chamber uneventfully. As for the rusty spark plugs, I've had the '48 & '49 parked inside a pole barn and the plugs would get rusty. My assumption, from what I saw on humid, cool mornings, was that condensation was the cause for the rust on the plugs. The porcelain would stay cold as the humid day would warm, condensation would form on the porcelain to the point where it would puddle while the heads appeared to sweat, the moisture would boil off in the afternoon heat, exposing the new rust, then nighttime cooling would start the process all over again. As long as the plugs were working, I figured this was normal

Interstate...

I think ya need sodium carbonate (washing soda), not the same as sodium bicarbonate, in order to the flow of electrons to initiate...Stovebolt's electrolysis instructions are printed up and ready to be tried, as soon as I can get caught up on this that & the other

When it comes to explaining computer usage remotely, it's like trying to tell someone how to tie a shoe...if ya write out the steps in tying a shoe, it reads very confusing, but once ya try it out a few times, it becomes second nature

fwiw I was in the middle of putting together a step-by-step with screen shots while at work but the phone rang and 7 hrs later it's still stuck in my head. I'll add that I have to reduce the picture size before attaching a file...to do this, I open the file from its directory with MS Office Picture Manager, click on Edit Pictures, click on Resize, then click on the dropdown menu to the 640x480 size, then click OK, then Save As, renaming the file so I do not overwrite the original (e.g., 49DodgeEngine.jpg becomes sm49DodgeEngine.jpg). It seems like a lot of tedious work, but once you get the hang of it, it's not a big deal. The alternative method is to share the file on a image hosting site, which can be easier but the problem with that is your files have to stay organized or the links will be broken, and folks don't like that

VINTAGEPIC: I saw this B-1-HA from a few years ago while searching for something else

additional truck picture thread - B-3

VINTAGEPIC: saw this B-1or2 on the FB

brake & fuel line routing at engine compartment

here are some close-ups of a '48 grille bar mounting stud nut & lock washer combo...the lock washers are slightly concaved with the outer teeth on the sheet metal and the inner teeth against the nut. The studs are #12-28, the lock washers could probably be replaced with a helical spring lock washer

that spark should be a bright white with a blue streak to it...that voltage should be more than 6V on a fully charged battery

if those are leather, ya might want to soak them in engine oil for a day or so to pre-lube them

VINTAGEPIC: I was trying out Bronc's to see if their chicken fried steak was any good (it was ok I reckon), and spotted this pic of what may be a Mrs. Baird's B-series delivery truck on the menu

the dually should have 6 wheels on it like the 1st one ya have pictured for the reason you know about tire separation on the rear. The single-wheel 1-tons had the wheel on the right...here's a comparison I did, with the dually wheel on the left and the single-wheel on the right...I reckon you could get by with the single-wheel rims on the front axle, but the rears have to be correct

1948 with 3 spd 1949 with 4 spd 1951 with 4 spd 1953 with 3 spd 2002 with 5 spd

I did some suspension work to The Blue Bomber this summer to correct the ride problem I'd been having for 9 years...it's like a whole new buggy now

on pristine assemblies, ground straps are a belt & suspenders approach to effective circuit grounding. When corrosion is present, ground straps are indeed a crutch that enhances a circuit encountering variable grounding impedance. Ground straps are designed into robust systems to account for the inevitable field contamination that leads to corrosion that can boost impedance sky high in low voltage systems...one gander at the grounds present on The Blue Bomber is an indication of how important the SAE thinks adequate grounding is on low voltage systems

maybe something is bent? here's a few pics to compare