JBNeal

pumps are precision machines, and once they start to wear, their efficiency drops, they become less effective, and eventually they just wear out to the point where replacing seals, pump impellers, bearings etc. are ineffective because the casting and/or the backing plate are out of tolerance for the pump impeller to work properly. They sold water pump rebuild kits in the past because the seals would blow out, the impellers would corrode from non-glycol based coolant, and bearings would wear out. But eventually water pump designs changed to where they were more precise castings & machined parts, so rebuilding the pump from a kit might not improve the effectiveness of the pump. That's when they started to just replace the water pump as a unit, because the special tools required were for measurement; if certain areas were out of tolerance, the casting and/or impeller were to be replaced, and then it was just cheaper to recycle the old pump & replace it with new. I reckon some places rebuild water pumps, but they know what to measure and how to take those measurements. Rebuilding those core units might not yield the results ya want if them castings are corroded enough. When I first heard about the NAPA dual application pump, I was interested because they had eliminated the grease fitting and routed coolant through the casting to be used as a lubricant. This meant the bearings would be lubricated as long as there was coolant going through the water pump, so ya never had to worry about them drying up & shelling out or being over-greased & blowing out a seal. The integral heater port is nice, too. I have seen what a failing water pump can do to the radiator & sheet metal of a truck, and back in '88, had to walk 15 miles through ranch country to town for help because of a bad one. The water pump had been leaking in the Suburban, eventually the bearings failed on a lightly trafficked highway one evening, causing the fan to vibrate wildly & eventually fly apart, spinning shrapnel through hoses, radiator cores & tanks, and sheet metal...very expensive repair. And that was on a truck that was less than 5 yrs old at the time...I wouldn't trust an old water pump, even if it was rebuilt, because of the mess it might make. The NAPA water pumps might cost more, but it's like buying peace-of-mind

To muddy up the water a li'l bit, confusion as to how to assemble these flatheads has been going on for awhile...when I rebuilt the 218 in the '48, I assumed it was the original engine, as the truck had been in the family since new & no one recalled it ever being worked on. After rebuilding the motor, the internet told me otherwise: I was able to locate the casting date, and the 'original' motor turned out to be from a '55 Plymouth. This 218 has the internal bypass, a NAPA water pump, and an external bypass thermostat housing. I snagged a '50 Plymouth 218 with the external bypass block, but it has an internal bypass thermostat housing. When I rebuilt the '49 230, the gasket set I used had all the internal bypass gaskets, which fit & don't leak (the rear main seals are different, but that's another story). So the internal bypass gaskets supplied with the NAPA water pump will work on external bypass engine blocks because the openings in the gaskets for the internal bypass are sealed over with solid metal on the block.

Just to add my 2¢...I've had a few folks ask me about the differences between the internal & external bypass blocks/heads and water pump applications, specifically when installing the newer NAPA water pump which can work with either setup. While going through some boxes of parts I've acquired recently, I found an external bypass water pump with an internal bypass backing plate, as well as a newer NAPA water pump (pictured on the right). The external bypass pump casting does not allow coolant flow through the internal bypass backing plate, and drilling through this area of the casting can be difficult without cracking the rest of the casting. Also shown in this pic is a '50 218 without internal bypass; the location of the internal bypass port would be in the area pointed to in this pic, and a sharp eye may notice that an internal bypass water pump & head gasket have been mounted to this external bypass block. The red block pictured is a '54 230 with the internal bypass. The bypass passage is pointed out in the block & the head; the 'hump' in the head can be seen as well. The assembled engine is a '52 218 with the internal bypass head and thermostat housing (water neck). The fewer parts required made for a more economical assembly; with one less hose to leak, it also is a more reliable assembly.

the linings that the brake & clutch shop installed were about 1/8" too long, so when they were riveted to the bands, the ends were contacting the drum, like the tip of a fingernail on a file. After so many revolutions, them ends wore down enough that there was some clearance between them and the drum. But them li'l tips took a while to wear down, so in the meantime they really stunk up the place. The park brakes still work great, and the drums show no discoloration and still brake smoothly when engaged. the brake shoe can be removed without dropping the driveshaft. There's a lock wire & a spring behind the shoe mounting bolt...pay attention to how the brake is installed, ya might want to take some before pics so ya won't have much trouble re-assembling.

I took mine to a clutch & brake re-lining shop...the pad they got for the shoe was a li'l thick, so after I made the adjustments so that the brake would hold when engaged, the ends of the pad dragged on the drum for about a hunnert miles, which kinda stunk up the cab...the heat build-up also baked the paint I put on, so that kinda stunk up the cab too

truck picture B-1-B-108: shakin' the yellowjackets out of the '48 after sitting in the barn for a few weeks:

The pads on the '48 only have marks left on the sheet metal where they once were, but I've got a remnant of the hood bumper pad on the '49, dunno how thick it needs to be but judging from the rub marks on the hood, it probably wouldn't hurt to put some sort of anti-squeak on the radiator shell to cut down on the chafing. The Spring Special still has its hood bumper pads intact, but the ones on the flatbed are long gone.

FWIW: I found a spare tire rim back in '95 that had some of the hubcap clips, and since my original rims had a few broken clips, I drilled out the rivets on the 'new' spare rim and put the usable clips where I needed them with new rivets I found at the John Deere dealer (same rivets are used on most sickle bars). It may not be correct, but I don't plan on runnin' round with my spare for too long...although back in the day, I recall that the spare tire was used in the tire rotation pattern so that when the time was right, the driver had the option of replacing all 5 tires at once. Anyhow, as long as ya can find something that fits, who's gonna know if the wheel ya use is 'correct'?

This B-series comparison shows some of the similarities & differences...I don't have part numbers to compare, but I'm almost positive that the '53 B-4 tanks are the same as the '54-mid '55 C-1 tanks.

The '48-'52 tanks are made the same as shown here; the '53-'54 tanks are similar, although they would require some sort of bracket to be fabricated for the forward frame mount. I don't have a comparison with the Tanks Inc. unit or the Dodge Central unit, but the '39-'47 tank is apparently shorter in length than the '48-'52 tank. My two cents: if a vendor isn't replying to emails within a week, I dunno if it's a good idea to do business with them cuz what're they gonna do if they have your $$$ and you have a problem with the product -OR- the product fails to be delivered? I just received a couple of fuel level sending units from Tanks Inc. for modification to my malfunctioning units, and they appear to be of a quality construction, similar to the ones Datcon made that were sold by JC Whitney up until recently. The price was competitive, and the item shipped via UPS to my house without incident (this has been a problem with JC Whitney and other vendors using FedEx or USPS), so for now they have my vote of approval

there's a few runnin'round here & there...that one looks like it could use a headlight, a set of tires, a gas cap and ya might be good to go

I've put about 10 miles on the odometer since I got this thing rolling again, making 1/2 mile trips hauling water, and got it up to 15 mph rolling downhill without foot brakes ...using the hand throttle is useful when operating in bull gear, as this thing tractors its 2300# load uphill nicely now. It's not spinning tires just yet, but it doesn't hesitate to take off now (loaded or unloaded) like it was doing the first few trips I made. Without the floorboards in place, and with air temps well over 100, the heat coming off of the engine turns that cab into an oven quickly. If I can knock out a few other projects this week, maybe I can have the foot throttle & brakes working with the cleaned up floor boards installed

I found this out by accident, didn't see anything about it in the Help Topics, so I thought I'd post this li'l nugget: if'n ya want to post an external link in a forum posting: in a second window, open the target link to copy the url to the clipboard; then in the forum posting window, type the text ya want seen for the link, then highlight that text, then click on the 'insert hyperlink' icon to paste the target url...when doing this method, instead of the target url appearing as text within the post (i.e. http://www.rust-cure.com/), desired text will show for the target url (i.e. Rust Cure)...it's snazzy internet editing

yep that sounds like how I prepared the rims on the '48: hammered the rims back into shape, sandblasted in the barn with a temporary booth, washed & treated with Rust Cure, painted them with rattle can Krylon semi-gloss black. They still look decent, considering I didn't know what I was doing back in '99 and put only 3 thin coats of Krylon on them old thangs...subsequent practice on some Farmall 1206 rims found that foam brush painting Krylon with wet sanding in between coats gave superior results, no runs and a better shine

VINTAGEPIC: saw this B-1or2 panel over on The HAMB

It took a bit of finaglin', but I pried the lock rings off of the rims of the '51 dually and the '49 1-ton. The '51 tires must be from the 70s judging from the DOT numbers and are as hard a rock. The tires I put on the '49 are about 12 yrs old and are starting to dry rot. But since the '49 tires were a li'l newer, they were actually stuck to the rim; the old tires on the '51 were so dried out and hard that they popped loose from the rim. And the dually rims had no flaps...hmmm. Anyhow, from the measurements I took, the '51 does take 6.50x16s and the '49 takes 7.50x16s. I'm only hoping the newer tires, tubes & flaps will go on easier than the old ones came off...I'd hate to straighten & clean up these rims only to beat the tar out of'm trying to install some new rubber

After I got the engine running on my '48 back in '95, I heard about Hemmings Motor News, found a reproduction shop manual, stuck a check in the mail and 6-10 weeks later got some highly informative reading in a brown paper wrapper. I've amassed a small collection of Service Reference Manuals featuring Tech the trainer; they're entertaining to read, full of useful information, including service charts, exploded views, and allll kinds of diagrams. I've also collected a few sales brochures from back in the day...pictured in the corner of a B-2 brochure is a small black & white picture/sketch of a Spring Special...others have cutaway views of cabs, motors, transmissions, axles...GOOD STUFF

when driving to town a lot, the '48 w/ 218+3spd+4.10 and the '49 w/ 230+4spd+4.10 got around 12-14 mpg...this was when I would drive them upwards of 45 mph, I reckon if I took some of the lead out of my right foot the mileage would go up a tad

I'd be a li'l nervous about putting more amperage thru the gauge than what it's rated for on a regular basis. I recall reading somewhar that with the amp gauge connected in series with the charging circuit, that amp gauge failure or malfunction can adversely affect battery charging. I haven't looked too much into it, but wiring the amp gauge in parallel seems like it might help, but I don't know how accurate the gauge reading would be. I wonder if anyone has tried some sort of Hall-effect amp gauge or how accurate it would be...

my 2 cents: lubricate the cable with weedeater drive shaft lubricant...pull the cable out of the housing, clean it & the housing of the old lubricant, then take the tube of new lubricant with the nozzle in housing and feed the cable into the housing while applying lubricant, twisting & running the cable in & out of the housing every few inches to coat the cable. Then chuck the cable end in a drill and spin that cable for a little bit to slick up the housing a little more btw weedeater drive shaft lubricant is very similar to water pump lubricant

that 3 spd is funny like that: there's an output shaft seal, but no seal on the countershaft that's held in place with a metal bar. I dunno if there is a fix for this as there's no provision for a seal in the transmission case, there's not a lot of gasket surface to make a difference, and putting silicone on the outside of the case is only a temporary solution. Checking the fluid level regularly and putting some cardboard or kitty litter down under the truck when parked are about the only ways I've been able to deal with this bit of old Dodge character

a trailer supply store?

I think the trick is ya have to crack the vent windows open a li'l bit so that there is less of a dew point gradient inside the cab. I've driven a car where the AC didn't have a charge, so when I would set it on defrost, the windows still fogged up cuz I was blowing warm moist air onto the cool glass

I've pulled the oil pan by removing the front wheels, then jacking up the frame to let the suspension drop out of the way. Removing the dipstick tube increases clearance, and the oil pan should tilt down and slide out

truck picture B-1-D-126: '49 at sunset: