JBNeal

Did ya contact Tanks Inc. about them missing pieces? What did ya do about putting a filler neck on the new tank?

additional information - seat belt shoulder harness

BTW Tanks Inc. has recently started selling a reproduction tank they say is close to fitting the B-series

In the past 10 yrs, the price of steel has gone up considerably, and I partially blame this as a cause of the disappearance of the $100 fixer upper. I've bought several parts trucks that were beat up, picked over & riddled with rust & .22 vents, and only one was I able to pay a c-note cuz they guy needed it removed from his property by order of the city govt. The other guys wanted on avg 2x the price of the scrap metal value. Then there is my retired neighbor who bought a nice GTO, kept it for a year, then unloaded it for health reasons + car needed more work. He was quite proud to have profited $2k on his toy, even though all he did was attempt to bleed the brakes on the thing. People purchase old cars for several reasons these days, and speculators and profiteers compete with hobbyists for that vintage ride and parts now more than ever. Suppliers want to maximize profits as times have probably been tough on them as the US is still emerging from some of the worst economic conditions seen in decades, so they raise prices because they can. During this time, the bottom fell out of the collector car market as owners were looking to liquidate for a multitude of reasons. And then there is that wealth gap, as the rich that keep getting richer can afford to do whatever they want as the rest of us have to prioritize and sacrifice. So collector owners who are looking to sell will inflate their selling price (as my neighbor did) to attract those with deeper pockets. I've sold two late-model vehicles in the last 7 yrs, and both times I inflated my asking price to keep away the tire-kickers, and eventually someone would make me an offer that I was looking for...I got close to the KBB value, and the buyer had the sense that he had accomplished a significant negotiation. My biggest worry is that there may come a day that our vintage rides will be vilified as destroyers of the environment and severely limited as to usage and taxed to the point where it will be cheaper to sell them for scrap than it is to maintain & enjoy them. Hemmings and others have advertised over the years that salvage yards start to send their stock to the crusher as legislation gets passed that makes it tougher for them to keep their inventory as it has been deemed detrimental to the environment. The eye-opener is the $10/gallon unleaded that Europe has seen, most of it because of taxes...could that happen here? Not today, but maybe someday down the road as legislation is enforced for zero-emission vehicle usage. So for now, I try to keep the wildlife out of my fleet so that I can roll on down the road for a little while longer. And if I win the lottery, I'll build a shed to park'm in

I uninstalled IE 11, rebooted, and am now running IE 10 again. I went back and edited this post to insert the hyperlinks, and the hyperlink popup screen has now reverted back to its original version. Hyperlinks are now working, as well as inserting jpgs within text and copying & pasting text.

I would agree with the battery & cable assessments, but this truck has a different problem that I zeroed in on last year. The batteries for the '48 & '49 are a little over a year old, and about a month ago I pulled them out, cleaned them up, put a full trickle charge on them, and swapped them out to see if the trucks would start differently. The '49 still spun its starter much faster than the '48's starter. Since this '48's P26 is so hard to turn over, the starter has a higher amp load than the '49 to accomplish the same task. I've been sidetracked once again by other projects (and icy weather), so the P26 sitting in the garage has not been stripped down yet for machine work. I may make some progress this week on it, as my work load is starting to thin out as the end of the year approaches. While fixing a busted water line up the road last week, I got a notion to make a temporary sand blasting booth that can fit inside the garage using leftover 2x4s and poly plastic sheeting. It's an idea that I need to scribble out on the back of an envelope before I start swinging a hammer, but it's something else to do. As temperatures hovered in the mid 20s today, I got a wild hair after lunch to fire up the '48. Stomping on the starter did not instill confidence as the starter turned, paused, turned, paused, turned...I gave full choke, 3 pumps on the accelerator, pulled the throttle out about 1/3, and stomped on the starter again. This time it turned slightly faster, but still agonizingly slow for about 5 seconds, then VROOM...thud. Trying again, the starter turned a little faster for 10 seconds, then VROOOOM. After high idle for about 10 minutes, I had throttle & choke pushed all the way in, and set down the road to make a quick trip up the hill without incident. It had been quite some time since I had driven this ol' beast in sub-freezing temps, and was reminded of which gauges were being heated by the engine and which gauges were being heated by the small amount of current flowing though them. If I didn't have a massive arctic-induced flat spot on one of my tires, I would have taken it for a ride in the country, but that'll have to wait I reckon.

Microsoft ran some updates yesterday and I wonder if that has something to do with it...I think one of them was that I was updated to IE 11 for Windows7, don't know if there is a security protocol that is not allowing access to my laptop's clipboard that could be causing this headache...

Test post in JB account Link test here Plus image upload in text and afterward (2 times)

I can attach a file to a post so that it appears at the end of the text entered. But if I place the cursor within the text to add that attachment and click on the Add to Post function, nothing happens. I clicked on that icon as I have done before, and I was able to copy & paste text into the URL field. But trying to click OK or Cancel, or trying to X-out of the hyperlink window would not do anything, nor was I able to push the back arrow on the browser window.

I have been trying to post some information and have run into a few problems. While attempting to post hyperlinks to information within this forum and from outside this forum, using the hyperlink function in the editor toolbar, pops up this screen: <<insert jpg>> What is new to me is everything below the URL field. When clicking OK, nothing happens; when clicking Cancel, nothing happens; when attempting to X out, a warning pops up asking if I want to leave this page; when clicking OK, nothing happens. I have not been able to clear this screen, so I have to kill the work tab and open another tab within the browser to pull the website back up. I rebooted and attempted to add hyperlinks again, except this time I opened up two tabs on the same web page and typed the desired text into one editor. When I attempted to copy & paste that text into the other tab's editor, no text would paste either by right-clicking or by using the editor copy & paste functions. And while attempting to insert a screenshot within this post, the jpg would not add to the text field. Support Ticket Submitted

ya gotta be careful with JCW nowadays with their on-line applications on vintage vehicles...I did some checking on the Equus 9982 sending unit and it showed to match gauge 7362 & gauge 8362. These gauges have listed specifications of 0 ohms @ E, 90 ohms @ F. The Tanks, Inc. sending unit has listed specifications of 78 ohms @ E, 10 ohms @ F, which is closer to the OE units. I picked up a couple of Tanks, Inc. units a few months ago to do the modification using 10 yr old failed Roberts units, and the Tanks, Inc. units look similar to the JCW units made by Datcon that cost about $20 a few years ago.

carrying a fire extinguisher around is standard operating procedure in my neck of the woods...grass fires can flare up in the summer (which is about 6 months long) from hot or malfunctioning farm equipment and carrying around a fire extinguisher behind the seat can be a life saver, even on lawn tractors...be prepared

a clean flathead engine compartment is a flathead that ain't being used...invest in some old toothbrushes and clean every square inch once a month and ya oughta sleep better at night

yessir, it is possible to have a nice truck and it not be completely original...well done

TOOLBOX ARSENAL: I hadn't driven the '49 in a few days, so the carb probably needed filling. Taking a suggestion under advisement, I filled the Vienna sausage can with gasoline and improvised a dusty unused oil squirt can I found to fill with the metered gasoline. The nozzle fits in the carb vent tube, and I was able to put most of the gasoline in the float chamber without using a screwdriver. It was much faster and I wasn't stressing about dropping a screw in the yard.

I did some checking with the multimeter to put some numbers to the mechanical performance I was dealing with. With the air temp around 60F, the year old battery was at 6.2 volts. With the starter cranking, the battery drops to just under 5 volts. Once the truck gets to idling at about 500 rpm, battery voltage rises to 6.6 volts. I drove the truck for a half hour today with the amp gauge showing a charging condition, and within an hour of shutdown, the battery voltage had dropped to 6.4 volts and was still there 4 hours later. By comparison, the '49 also has a year old battery with 6.2 volts. With the starter cranking, the battery drops to 5.4 volts. Once the truck gets to idling at about 500 rpm, battery voltage rises to 6.6 volts. I let the truck idle for about 15 minutes today, and within an hour of shutdown, the battery voltage had dropped to 6.4 volts and was still there 4 hours later. I was having carburetor problems with the '48 until I cracked it open to free up the innards so I had not been driving it very far. But with the carb freed up, the truck can now climb hills without making embarrassing noises so I can take it on longer circuits to charge the battery a little better. The amp draw from the startup appears to require more charging time than the free-spinning '49.

Thanks to technical delays that stretched a 2-day project into a 10 day fun-fest, I did not get to working on the P26 until today. It took about an hour to get the flathead out of the back of the '48, mount it to the (replacement) HF engine stand, and spin the crank a few times to get some of the bugs out. As a comparison, I found a pic from almost 3 years ago of the '48 in the same garage. I had a few shelving units in there before, but they were not too organized as I had my hands full with work, the folks' house remodel, repairs on my house, and doing work for neighbors & friends and didn't have too much time to get things sorted out. The truck was full of leftover lumber from the remodel with some eventually turned into shelving in the closet area. With the truck parked nose in, cab entry/exit is best accomplished by way of the passenger door, much like parking downtown back in the day and sliding across that vinyl bench seat. The way the garage is situated now, the truck can still fit inside with the floor cleared, as shelving towards the ceiling and lots of organizing have allowed for dual usage of the space. With a recent break in the weather, I fired up the '48 for a trip to the post office 3 miles away. It had a little trouble on the way over, but the return trip up the hill was trouble-free. I drove it a few miles yesterday, and the only problem was the abundance of moths that had been hiding in the cab and fluttered all over the windshield, trying to get out into the sun. Firing it up the third time in as many days, and it was clear that the starter had begun to drag again, so the battery has lost a little bit of charge from the starter load caused by the tight engine. I reckon the plan now is to charge the battery every few startups until the engines get swapped out.

with practice, you can get a feel for when you can slip the shifter into a gear and when ya need to rev the motor for the transmission to slip into gear. I took this advice from guys who drove this kind of a truck for years, and after awhile I was able to adjust how much force to put on the gear shift knob without shifting gears to get that feel...now, instead of grinding gears, it sounds like somebody's politely knocking at the door

SURVIVOR: saw this'n while surfing the interwebs:

agreed on the pride they take in their inventory...I took a day trip up there in 2012, and upon entering the office spotted a B-series hubcap hanging on the wall. It was in OK condition--dings & scratches--and they wanted General Grant to liberate it from their custody. I opted to pass on that "opportunity" and just walk around taking pictures

looks like the driver couldn't cut the mustard

from what I recall, the Bendix drive starters were used on the cars, and included a firewall mounted starter relay and a starter momentary switch (push button would be the easiest install). The Bendix starter gear & truck flywheel ring gear would have to be verified as compatible. I have not done this swap, but I've seen a few pics online of it done with Plymouth powertrains installed in a B-series. Another option is to get a later year flathead starter with the conventional starter solenoid instead of a Bendix drive unit, again verifying the starter gear and flywheel ring gear compatibility. I don't have the specifics, but I recall that anything flathead from '57 to '60 went to 12V and they also changed the flywheel ring gear, so these items couldn't be used on earlier flatheads even though they looked similar.

the original B-1 seal in theory was to compress between the top of the tank and the bottom of the cab so as to not allow any moisture to collect on those metal surfaces, much like a flange gasket. But the spongy rubber material Dodge chose would shrink over time, allowing moisture & debris to collect, the seal would sag and eventually tear as shown and fall out of the truck. The thinner rubber seal used in the B-3s etc. is much cheaper to fabricate, install, and replace. The four holes are also in the B-1 cabs, and they must have served some purpose as other holes have been located and questioned. My guess is that these four holes may have been for locater pins on an alignment jig at the factory so that the cabs were aligned uniformly from one truck to the next, allowing the fuel tank to be properly located so that the sending unit can be removed from inside the cab as well as quick & accurate installation of front sheet metal, etc. Then again, these holes may have been for supplemental ventilation for all the cig smokers back in the day

there is an adjustment that can be made on the starter switch so that the starter pedal is not so sensitive from being brushed up against. I recall the starter pedal having a 2-3" travel before contacting the starter lever, and then the adjustable travel for the lever to contact the switch. But if ya make the Bendix starter upgrade, that starter pedal can be used as an attitude adjuster that can fit in the glovebox