JBNeal

Greybeard & Allan Parkhurst put together their notes for folks to cobble together their own harness awhile back. I've been working on an alternative wiring diagram with integrated turn signals & headlight power relays and was going to put together my results once tested. This would include a material list and dimensions for assembly. The relatively low cost of the wiring harness materials makes it more conducive to supply your own parts; the devil is in the details on putting all the parts in the right place.

HOLLYWOOD LoneStar did a video with a B-1 in the background...

HOLLYWOOD The last episode of Alcatraz aired a few weeks ago where they recreated the chase scene from Bullitt. I watched the original during a rain-delay, trying to name all of the cars, trucks & vans on the streets, not seeing one jap car, a whole bunch of Beetles, a '20s Chevy (?) parked on the street, a powder blue & white A100 van in traffic then later parked on a side street...then I noticed what looks like a '48 B-1-B-108 at the top of the hill:

the '49 was the 1st non-synchro truck I had driven, and with practice, I got a feel for how the gears were meshing. Double-clutching in low gears while climbing a hill, feathering the clutch shifting into high gear, easing the gearshift into lower gears while decelerating all have a feel in the gearshift that will become intuitive with enough time at the wheel.

that flathead has carbon on the pistons and rust residue on the cylinder walls...at a minimum, take it apart and clean it real good, ya might have stuck rings and crud that might score up yer 'polished' surfaces. Check it inside & out for any other problems, slap it together for some testing, and ya might have a good replacement for the engine in yer truck.

I reckon the lowest point on these brake systems is the hydraulic line at the rear axle, so starting from the most distant point from the source is done to help flush contaminants in the hydraulic system, be it air or contaminated fluid, as from this hydraulic line the bleeding can be done by gravity then by pressurized fluid. With the brake pedal partially engaged to allow fluid to travel from the master cylinder to the circuit, the rear axle cylinders can be purged by gravity, especially if the vehicle is angled so that the master cylinder is slightly higher than the branch to the rear axle. Once air is purged from the rear axle cylinder circuit, the fluid acts as a barrier to prevent air from each front branch from travelling towards the reservoir. The front wheel cylinders have to be bled by pressure since they are higher than the reservoir. If bleeding is done by pressure alone, then you would want to start at the closest branch and work away from the reservoir. Of course, the reservoir cannot be allowed to go empty with either method.

take some jumper cables and ground the spark plug directly to your battery ground and see if the spark changes intensity. If it gets more intense, your engine head isn't grounded properly, possibly from rusty threads at the head bolts and block.

31 years dormant? ya might want to examine the bearings & races for any spalling...anything not submerged in oil could be susceptible to condensation.

Ya might want to keep the cab bolts loose and loosely hang the fenders & grille panel and the hood. That way all the sheet metal can be moved around on the truck to get fender gaps the way ya want and especially to line up the grille panel over the frame rails. Once your fenders are lined up, then the door alignment can be fine tuned. My guess is that when the cab + doors were installed at the factory, there was an alignment jig used against the frame to speed things up on the line before the fenders & grille panel were installed. If the cab centerline is not parallel with the frame centerline, and the grille panel is centered over the frame rails, then the fenders will not be lined up to the doors with the same gaps. When I put the front sheet metal back on the '48 after I re-worked the motor, I centered the grille panel over the frame rails, but then the fenders didn't line up with the doors, and the hood was hard to unlatch on one side. So I went back and loosened everything to line up the fenders and the hood. But then the grille panel would only line up over one frame rail. After crawling up under the truck to see if I missed something, I found that the frame was tweaked in one of the accidents my great-grandfather had in the truck before Grandpa took the key away from him. So now all of the sheet metal has to come off to re-work the frame properly...yaay

Replace the gaskets & seals, clean it up real good inside & out, slap it together, slick it up real nice & hoist it back into place

The door check with new rubber should keep the door from opening beyond 90 degrees. If you are using the rubber as a stop for the door, it sounds like there is something missing from the door itself. With a new rubber cushion installed to the check arm, the check arm is installed from inside the door through a clamping bracket that is riveted to the inside of the door. On my '48, this bracket is missing from the driver door so that when the door is opened beyond 90 degrees, it bounces around but does not hold the door open. The passenger door check is shown, and when the door reaches about 85 degrees, there is resistance to open it further as the clamping bracket engages the door check arm clamp. It takes a bit more effort to make the door open a full 90 degrees as the clamp springs are forced open while passing over the clamping bracket.

I don't see much benefit to putting a brake pressure gauge to the system; the extra fittings introduces another avenue for possible fluid leaks. I've had the brakes done on the '48 since '99, and as of this afternoon, that pedal is still firm. One of the tests I did when I first got the brakes put back together, replumbed with DOT5, and adjusted, was to put a masonry block on the pedal, measure it from the floor, and go back to work for a week. When I checked it again, the pedal had not moved, nor were there any spots on the cardboard I had under the truck, so I figgered I was good to go. Occasional inspection of the lines shows that they are not weeping, and the fluid level is constant. Unless there is component deterioration or damage to the system, hydraulics will act the same for many cycles before any kind of performance malfunction. Adding a fluid sensor can be done, I've seen them available at JC Whitney...maybe just putting an unlabeled red lamp on the dash could work, but I don't know how a system check would work to verify the light works on startup...that's a challenge for another day

take it out for a spin on a bouncy twisting road, retorque, repeat

this might work

the coil wire connected to the coil, disconnected from the distributor cap, and held close to the block should let the coil's secondary voltage arc to ground at the block. Jumper cables attached to the block and the battery ground can help with ground continuity for testing purposes.

I had my '89 Dakota 2.5L for 7 years, it was reliable, got 25mpg around town and boy-howdy was it SLOW...I upgraded to a K&N filtercharger, and that seemed to help driving around town, but out on the highway, if there was a hill coming up, I had to make a running charge at it to make it over without downshifting. I rented a U-haul trailer (the small one) to move some larger furniture and stuff several times, and it would not pull in OD cuz it didn't have the guts. The 2.5L was rated at 99hp, but it was throttle-body fuel injected so it ran a li'l better than my previous Dodge, an '86 Omni with the carbureted 2.2L. Moving up to a '92 Dakota longbed with the Magnum 3.9L was night & day difference: that V6 could spin the tires, had plenty of grunt to haul stuff, and could get me into trouble on the highway with The Man. I test-drove a '96 Dakota Sport with that Jeep 2.5L, and it had way more power than the Dodge 2.5L, but neither were a match for the V6. And the Magnum V8? WHOA NELLY

check the coil wire spark like a plug wire spark by holding the end near the block while engaging the starter motor with the ignition is on...if it ain't bluish white but more of a yellow, then the ignition coil may be the culprit.

this fine '53 Plymouth example appears to have Silhouette & Dublin Greens that are very close to what I've seen on this Spring Special, so I'll assume that they are correct for this truck. Two paint stores in two different counties have the Ditzler charts, but no current formulas, so at some point I'll have to get something that is close. I picked up a Fluid Drive brochure to do some research on a recent chassis purchase (codename: Frankenstein), and found an interesting picture...I'm guessing this is the picture that Don Bunn wrote about as the earliest example of a Spring Special seen in Dodge literature, and since it is in black & white, the colors cannot be verified:

My '48 & '49 had the 12" wipers, and they would just kiss the outside edge and be about 1/2" shy of the center post. There was enough flexibility in the wiper, the arm, etc. that the electric wiper motor didn't sound like it was getting in a bind. One way to 'shorten' the wiper arms is to bow them out a li'l bit.

here's a procedure that I've performed

A couple of notes: The one wire sending units are prone to losing ground continuity since there are several areas of contact that can oxidize. I have had good results with a simple ground stud installed to the sending unit and a separate ground wire run to the chassis ground. The gauge has a responsive needle sweep rather than an erratic needle jump that is associated with ground continuity loss. To give yourself a little wiggle room, adjust the float so that it does not touch the bottom of the fuel tank. I've adjusted a couple of floats so that they are about 2 inches from the bottom of the tank to show E on the gauge. Once the bouncing needle starts to touch the E on the gauge, it is a warning that the tank is nearing empty; once the needle stops on E for extended periods means that the tank is almost empty. This approach may mean that the fuel gauge may read F for an extended period, but it is unlikely that the gauge will hang on 1/4 F when it is actually empty.

here's some examples of something that might help fill in the gaps

take the generator to a starter/alternator shop and they might have what you need sitting on the shelf for some pocket change

A couple of things: verify that the contact at the center of the distributor cap is in place, as I've seen these fall out, never to be seen again, requiring cap replacement; also verify if the contact will mate with the rotor, as I've seen a "correct" cap fit onto a distributor, but the contact and rotor were too far apart for any spark to be transferred. The latter problem was eventually pinned down to an improperly boxed part at the factory.

The '48-'49 frames and '50-'53 frames differ in the mounting of the steering column, and the '53 frame has a different cross-member mount for the fuel tank...from what I've seen, the '48-'52 had one style of fuel tanks, and the '53-'56 had a different tank.