JBNeal

have the title ready and clear for transfer, that helps boost the sale price. The truck is nearly 60 years old, so the brake system may need a complete overhaul as the brake fluid absorbs moisture, leading to component corrosion and failure. If somebody wants to spend $5k on a restoration, they'd probably wanna spend 1/4 of their budget on the truck if it's intact; probably 1/2 their budget if all it needs is work that doesn't require removing the powertrain; and probably 3/4 of their budget on a truck that just needs a new set of tires & a paint job.

FYI the perimeter seam weld on my '49 fuel tank was full of pinholes from rust. I had a guy at the junkyard the next county over patch the whole in the top, cleaned it up & painted it real nice Rustoleum black, bolted it in and topped it off. Two days later, opened the barn door to the stench of 86 octane and saw the puddle. I ended up spending the $$$ to get the gas tank Renu'd, where they boil out the tank, patch the big holes, then dip it rubberized polyurethane sumthin'ruther. It wasn't cheap, but they did a top notch job and I haven't worried about it since.

there's a pic in Bunn's Bible of B-3 2-ton on the assembly line, and the cab is being lowered onto the chassis by the tops of its door jambs; the steering shaft is in place but the steering wheel is off. It's easier to work with the cab with as much removed as possible, if not for the decreased weight but also for less interference with chassis components. I've lost the polaroids, but my '49 had a serious problem with the rear cab mounts as the cab floor had cracked out to the door jamb, causing the doors to drag the front sheet metal. I fabbed up some bolt-on fish plates, but needed to get my clearance for installation. So I removed the sill plates under the cab, got some wood blocking, and placed a floor jack on the running boards to lift the cab at the sill. I've seen where cabs have been unbolted and jacked up enough to slide 4x4s under the cab. The 4x4s were jacked up with a high-lift and blocked with tall saw horses. The chassis was then rolled out from underneath. It seemed like a lot of work, but the guy did it all by himself with stuff lying around. I reckon if ya can pull the steering shaft, top of transmission, fuel tank, and bed + fenders, then ya can ease the cab rearward without having to pick it up sky high.

Longer shocks go in the front...front & rear have almost the same travel. Ya want the shocks to be a tad longer than the free axle travel so that in extreme cases where frame torsion allows the spring to increase in deflection that the shocks aren't torn apart in the process.

the oil in rope or leather seals eventually wicks out if not replenished within a certain amount of time, probably within a season change. Once they are dry, the sealing surface can be torn apart, removing enough material to cause seal failure. In some cases, the seal can become hard and wear a groove in the machined surface that it is supposed to be sealing against, amplifying the problem.

the 1/2 ton wheel cylinders on the rear axle can be done by getting the flare nuts on first, flaring the tubing, and bending the tubing by hand. I recall using a large phillips screwdriver to get the radius right. I also recall having to make several attempts before I figgered out how to do it without kinking the tubing. Instead of making one bend with one radius centerpoint, I massaged the tubing so that it had a bunch of radius centerpoints to eventually approximate one radius bend. I've also used a long coupler on the flare nut to get a better grip on the tubing. It's tedious, but it is metal forming, and sharp turns always take multiple passes in order to stress the material without creasing or tearing it.

SURVIVOR: current owner says this is a '55, ran when parked, last tagged in '89, previous owner died and widow couldn't find title:

that jives with what I've heard over the years: when the engine wore out, ya swapped in another and kept going...when they switched to unleaded gasoline, it didn't matter cuz the motor internals were plenty stout...and loose bumper guards are better than mashed or bent-over guards. It took a bit of work, but my '49 had bumper guards that had been used as hitching points for chain pullin'. The polaroids of their original condition have been lost, but believe me they looked like they'd been runn'd over by a freight train.

I finally got some time to look at the dipsticks on the '48 & '49 and took a few pics of what I found. The '51 has the dipstick with the round loop handle, with the tube cap brazed on but no gasket. The '48 has a '53 Plymouth motor in it, and its tube cap is brazed on as well. It appears to have a cork gasket shoved up in there that is gummed up. But the '49 has some interesting details, including a gasket made of the same material as the strip that catches oil on the flywheel cover. The tube cap is not brazed, and it is loose, allowed to float around when the loop handle is squeezed together. When the loop handle is released, there is a clear gab between the spring steel legs that you could drop a paper clip through. I reckon I'm gonna try my hand at getting that dipstick brazed like the others, and make a small gasket for all of them. It's a small detail I can do anytime, and will help keep trash out of the crankcase.

carbon build-up will practically weld these parts together. A good succession of raps with a heavy hammer should break the carbon loose.

Fix'm up whatever way makes ya happy, but drive'm for fun when ya can.

If you are running a stock electrical system, the starter motor would be untouched until the starter switch is closed. Voltage passes from the battery to the starter switch stud up to the voltage regulator, then to the ignition switch and gauges. With a different 6V battery installed and no starter motor engagement when the switch is closed, I suspect the battery cables are at fault. Either the terminals aren't tight, or there is enough copper corrosion inside the cable sheath that the cables' internal resistance is too high for the 6V battery to turn the starter motor. An easy test is to disconnect the voltage regulator charging circuit and jump start with a 12V battery, then remove the jumper cables and see what happens to the 6V battery after the engine gets to operating temperature. Once the engine is hot, turn the ignition off, wait a couple of minutes, and see if the engine can be re-started with the 6V battery. If not, time for new 2/0 cables with soldered lugs. Another option is to connect jumper cables from the 6V battery to the starter switch and ground one of the starter mounting bolts. If this setup allows the battery to start the engine, the battery cables have too much internal resistance and should be replaced.

look again, the casting date is partially in the lower right corner of the pic...the '48 had a '53 Plymouth engine in it, painted dark green, with an OKC engine rebuild tag on the block under the starter. From what I've read, engine swaps were common back in the day as it was feasible to pull a worn engine and replace with a refurbished unit.

I ran the 8 volt battery in the '48 until it pooped out, which took several years. In that time, gauges & lights operated adequately, but I would have to charge the battery (on the 6 volt setting) after the coldest day of the year. Once I shook out all of the electrical gremlins on that truck, I went back to the 6 volt battery, which needed charging after the coldest day of the year.

The '49 was parked for at least 20 yrs, and WOW it had sludge halfway up the top row of freeze plugs. I used a coat hanger to scrape the jacket where I couldn't reach with a screwdriver. Flushed it all with a garden hose, and when I got the motor put back together, used only water for coolant for the first 100 miles, then flushed again.

I took my banged up ones into the trailer shop in town and they matched them up. The trick to installing them without bashing them is to use a piece of pipe, circ.tube, metal conduit, etc. that will rest on that wee li'l shoulder and drive smartly. When the hub caps are popped off of mine, that cap looks brand new, like it was installed by a pro & not by a grease monkey.

I figger the ones in Bunn's Bible are as close to correct as there is, with the perimeter script leftover from the '47s, and the straight script the replacement. As much as I like the look of the script in the lenses, the bucket is a tad on the small side. I've had enough close calls with people not paying attention and nearly sliding up under the spare tire carrier to make me want to upgrade to round 4" lights. They won't be original, but for this day & age, I'd rather have brake lights that make folks whoa-up instead of ooh-ahh.

I recall reading in an old shop manual that leather seals do not work properly unless soaked in light oil (24 hrs). On rotating shaft seals, the oil should be worked into the leather with a polished metal cylinder, such as a clean wrench socket or philips screwdriver. Once the oil saturates the leather pores and causes the leather to expand, it takes a great deal of effort to remove that oil. The accelerator pump is no exception, as the seal is in a bore and the seal sees very little surface contact with gasoline. I reckon there is a surface tension component that is also at work with regards to these fluids, as the oil & gasoline would interact little because of the low surface area involved.

To address similar questions on another duplicate thread that overlooked the answers given here, as well as for another thread that had doubted the answers' authenticity, I dug up the original shocks to the '49 1 ton, and all were stamped "MADE IN MONROE" and had the DPCD Logo:

ya got a nice truck there: deluxe cab, stainless steel grille bars, bumper guards, and your parts truck has a factory rear bumper. Lots of potential there...take your time, do the research on this site by reading every post and you'll find purt'near every answer you'll need. There's even two or three books available by Don Bunn that are like The Bible for these ol' beasts. Heck, ya might restore one truck and make a daily driver with a T-5 transmission out of the other.

I reckon Chrysler accepted that the rear main seal was not going to be leak-free early on. Consider the flywheel cover area. One cover has a strip of cotton fiber that all its good for is soaking up oil & dirt. I've known many a tractor & old truck that didn't leak until somebody decided to clean off all the greasy crud. Maybe the engineers back in the day counted on any leak to plug up with dust.

I reckon the B-1-F/H label could be an error in the shop manual. The picture looks to be a spur gear type 4spd, used in the 1 ton. The B-1-F/H has the helical gear 4spd, the best that I can figger. Dunno whereabouts new gears can be found, as those spur gear 4spds weren't synchronized so ya had to dbl clutch (or grind, depending on yer skill level) to shift gears.

within a year of getting the '48 pickup on the road (legally), I got caught in a pop-up spring shower. The rain was brief and without incident, but the problem I had was braking once the rain stopped and folks drove like they hadn't driven on wet roads before. Some heifer pulled her Datsun out in front of me and I purt'near plowed right into her blu-smokin' clunker as my bias plies briefly slid on the not-so-dry pavement. A few miles later, at a stop light, some guy in a beat-up Chevy C-10 locked it up and started sliding sideways right towards my rear bumper. Dunno how he got it stopped in time, but I was bracing for impact as I was blocked in by cars in front of me & to the right, with a jersey barrier on the left. From that day forward, I've never taken a drive in the classics if the roads are gonna be slick...too durn risky to get caught up in an incident with some moron un-insured motorist.

The most annoying questions I get about the '48 or '49 B-1s had to do with money. I found that to be so tacky: "how much did you pay for it" or "how much did it cost to get running again". My responses are usually something like "it was my great-grandfather's but was parked for 20yrs, I was told that if I could get it running again that it was mine, I could have bought a new truck for that amount (not really, but close)". When the really annoying dudes ask "how much ya want fer it", I automatically say "one meeeellion dollars". To date, I have always gotten a very annoyed response and a follow-up offer well south of $500. I then revise my asking price to the north, and the low-baller usually slinks off...good riddance ya bums, I'm a-thinkin'... But the most annoying of them all was the barber I had about 10 years ago. I had driven the old Dodge that Saturday morning to get the ears lowered, and that guy wanted to talk about my old beater. I was Mr. Diplomacy since the guy had easy access to a straight razor. Eventually, he began to criticize & berate the time & $$$ spent on such a thing. And within a few days, I learned to cut my own hair.

awww shucks I assumed the plugs were leaking from the perimeter. A leak from anywhere else on the surface of the plug is a sure sign of a need for replacement. Besides, the radiator sealant only works well for small leaks or pinholes as a coagulant of sorts. I don't recommend it for sealing a block coolant passage, but only reeeally tight spaces like radiators & freeze plugs. Definitely back flush the block when replacing the freeze plugs.