JBNeal

steering box overhaul

additional information - wiper motor wiring

one of the problems with roller bearings is galling from years of non-use...those black lines & dots on the cones & rollers may not seem like much, but things can get ugly when them relics shell out...to save me any headaches in the future when working on old farm trailers, tractors, trucks, etc I opt to replace roller bearing cones & rollers if they are not pristine

additional information - B-1-F survivor

wrapping the wiring helps to keep it clean & in place...the old cotton-braided insulation was prone to catching fire if soaked with oil or gas and got too hot for whatever reason, whereas the newer rubberized insulation did not have this much of a problem...that's why when the technology advanced, wiring was sleeved in asphaltic loom, then eventually poked inside convoluted plastic loom, cuz it was cheaper

Group 1 6V battery is what fit in the original battery tray, cca varies by manufacturer but they are generally in the 600 amp range

additional information - Rear Shackle Removal

car engines had the dipstick tube through the block, truck engines had the dipstick tube on the side of the oil pan. I have a '55 Plymouth 230 in my '48 1/2 ton, but it has been converted to a truck oil pan + dipstick with the car exhaust manifold. Ya might want to verify the engine ya have before ordering any parts, ya might have a hodge-podge of years cobbled together for a workable flathead (see the Flathead Identification link in my signature)

Builds Post revised and updated with greybeard's engine and bed replacement information

I looked at the amp gauges I have in the box, and none of them were marked on the cardboard insulator. However, one of the complete clusters that was pulled still had the red wire on the terminal on the right (directly behind the discharge side)...if that doesn't work out, swap terminals

It looks like Roberts Motor Parts is updating their website, and Steele Rubber sells some, just off the top of my head...others are further along in their restorations and would have better information.

a side note: I purchased several NOS & NORS rubber fuel lines that mount to the fuel pump & frame-mounted fuel lines. They were very pliable and did not look aged with the exception of the vintage paper labels. It was a few months after installing one of these on my '48 that I noticed it was coming apart at the crimped ferrules. I lightly tugged on the rubber & could hear the rubber reinforcement ripping apart. So off it came, and them other "correct" parts are hidden in a box somewhere in the garage. I updated to a new fuel injection grade rubber hose with clamped ends several years ago...so far, so good

hold onto that curved glass cuz it's out of production...the other glass is all flat, easy to replace. One of the reasons I parked the '48 is the corner glass gaskets were brittle and falling apart, didn't want to lose them gems bouncing down the back roads. If ya tear into that truck, try not to throw anything away, sometimes ya might need the old part to compare to the new part, like shock absorbers & whutnot. Cosmetics are great, but if the truck don't go or whoa, then it's just yard art

VINTAGEPIC: Here is a freeze frame from that training video that shows a B-1or2 dually express

Here are some freeze frames from them videos:

Quiet Ride may not have the original look, but it sure does appear like it has the spirit of the original look...it's a finalist for one of my restorations

Seat Control Tag

VINTAGEPIC: saw this B-1or2 garbage truck on the FB

The short answer is a definitive maybe... I'm not sure if the W-series 3spd & B-Series 3spd were the same...I would guess they were very close, but since there are precision parts involved, guessing is no guarantee. W-series 3spds had a straight stick-shift, while the B-series had the formed stick-shift. The major difference between the B-1 stick shift and the B-2/B-3/B-4 column shift was the top cover & park-brake attachment. I do not believe a 3 spd stick shift could be had with a firewall-mounted park-brake. I recall that the 3spd bell housing is different from the 4spd bell housing, so if you opt for the 4spd swap, the bell housings need to be matched. And then there are the Fluid Drive transmissions with their longer input shafts... The access panel in the floorboard will have to be modified of course...that's secondary to the transmission operation, and it can be covered with a floor mat, so precision, though nice to look at, is not required for proper operation. I have a '52 parts truck with a late '49 3spd stick shift installed in such a way it looks like the floor panel was modified with a Remington and a hatchet... I have not tinkered with the column shift in the Spring Special yet, but it looks very much like the linkage setup on a Farmall I worked on, and every wear point needed attention on that old beast of a tractor. The factory instructions were useless for adjustment because there was too much wear in the linkage points. So I did some finagling and made it work...it wasn't perfect, but only the trained eye would notice that I made any modifications. Given enough time, these linkage points can be repaired with some careful welding & machining to get the linkages to operate as required. If the column shift transmission is in good shape, but the linkages are worn, it may be cheaper and less labor intensive to fix what ya have...but then again, if ya have the right 3spd to make a swap, that could be the quickest repair

VINTAGEPIC saw this B-3 delivery truck on the FB

you can verify the cam lobe travel with a dial indicator mounted through the block...the fuel pump lever rides on that lobe and only travels so far to engage the diaphragm link. The last time I installed a fuel pump, I recall that the lever had to be partially depressed on the cam lobe so the pump flange would contact the block, possibly because the spring I had was on the long side. If you're concerned about dropping the spring into the oil pan during installation, you could put a dab of heavy grease on the end of the spring at the lever arm to make it stick in place

here's a tip: verify the engine year & size before ya start getting parts for it...that way ya don't have parts from the head gasket set that don't fit

hey look...a boat anchor

I have used these on my JD 425 for its 1/4" fuel hose & a 1/4" water pump bypass hose. The fuel hose has to make a right angle from the fuel filter to the carburetor; the spring rate of the fuel hose puts stress on the plastic fuel filter so much so that the inline filter takes on a banana shape. The problem is that if that fuel filter splits in the middle, the fuel pump in the tank will push fuel through this break and onto the very hot muffler, which can cause a fire...and this scenario played out for the previous owner of this fine machine, as he probably neglected to change out the filter annually, so he traded that marshmallow on a newer green machine, and I scooped up a Cadillac of a lawn tractor for a few bucks, it only needed all of the plastic replaced forward of the steering wheel. Anyhow, I upgraded the fuel line with these Gates unicoils back in '03, and haven't had a problem as the fuel filters have come out straight. The bypass hose comes in close proximity to the muffler on that machine, so I put a coil there to form the hose to clear that heat source and as a bit of a guard if the hose flops around, then the metal coil will bounce off of the heat source instead of the rubber. I may use them on the heater hoses on my trucks, maybe the fuel pump rubber line also...O'Reilly's carried them on the shelf until recently, but I was told they no longer carry them. NAPA has them as special order items, and their prices were competitive with the eBay vendors, so that's the way I went when I added one on the bypass hose

I reckon a true mosey requires a slow somewhat steady pace coupled with looking towards the ground...ya never know whut ya might step into while out in the country: rabbit hole, rattler, fresh pile...