JBNeal

I have recently painted some steel hollow-core doors at the house using a foam brush, and if I had sanded in between coats they probably would have looked like they were spray-painted. I figgered these stake pockets could be coated with a similar foam brush taped to the end of a stick. Multiple thin coats should seal off the metal, even if it doesn't look perfect. I plan on painting the stake pockets before top-coating the bed sheet metal, cuz I can see dripping a li'l paint here & there during the process.

The '49 had a low oil psi reading after warmup when it was running before the tow truck debacle. Cold was 40psi, but after driving it for five minutes to the next stop sign, the pressure would hang at 10-20psi all day long. I took a few minutes to pull the regulator valve from the '49 this evening, using a wood screw to wiggle it out of its bore. Sure enough, there were two burrs on the valve, with the semi-circle burr more than likely matching the bore of one of the internal oil passages. Has anyone seen an oil pressure regulator valve do this? My guess is that with the small amount of rust present, the valve was stuck in its bore until I fired up the engine the first time back in '03. My flathead experience shows as I had not even pulled this valve out for inspection when I did my in-truck engine teardown in '02. I reckon when I fired it up, the pressure jarred the valve loose, but not before goobering up the valve surface. Anyhow, I'm gonna try to clean the bore out with some emery cloth glued to a wooden dowel, then flush the bore with brake parts cleaner to get the residue out. Hopefully the bore intersecting passages aren't too messed up.

I reckon that has a vacuum operated 2-speed rear, as evidenced by the big diaphragm. Them things are great for climbing hills while carrying a load.

whenever I assemble an engine, I usually fill it with water instead of coolant in case there are leaks...there's less of a mess, and it allows the thermostat to cycle faster. I usually run the motor for several hours of operation to kinda flush out any crud that I missed during disassembly. it's also cheaper...but only done during non-winter months.

Getting the engine to heat up faster has had me thinkin'bout finding a way to restrict air flow through the radiator fins in a controlled manner. Something similar in effect as winter grill covers on diesel trucks, but with a cable control to open & close a collar damper. I'm still doin' some figgerin' on how to do this, but this is part of the contraption I'm conjurin' up:

FOR SALE: looks like a B-1 with a B-4 low-side bed...but this turn signal looks to be located so as to be operated by the driver's, um...knees?

Just off the top of my head, I know where 7 B-1s and 4 B-3s are sitting in someone's back yard or next to an old barn. One of those is a grain truck that showed up at the shadetree mechanic's down the road, and that beast looks like it has been barn-stored for decades, lots of dust & barn owl sweat on it. I found a B-2 in the next town over, partially dismantled behind a low-end body shop. He wanted a $1500 for it, no title, windows busted out, interior gone, no rims, so I balked. Went back a couple months later, the truck was gone, the guy I talked to played dumb and told me to va-moose. One of these days I'm gonna get that camera and take pictures before all these beasts up & disappear like that one, several of them look to be excellent candidates for restoration.

it's a noticeable increase in the lower end, but it won't snap yer neck. When I traded my '92 Ram 5.9L CTD for the '02 Ram 5.9L CTD, now THAT was a noticeable difference...I could pass people on the highway without having to plan ahead.

Wellllll SHUCKS...thank goodness I don't drive either of my Pilot-Houses very much, cuz it looks like the Wix 51010 does nothing but sit in an oil bath for the bypass filter housings I have as the upper & lower IDs are the same. The 51011 appears to be what I need to have been using all these years...GOSH I reckon I've been spoiled by spin-on filters and never put much thought into how this flathead's filtration actually worked. This explains why the oil would be dirty within 100 miles after changing, no matter how I setup the carburetor. How'bout them apples...wellsir, this goes to the top of the list of engine upgrades to do: CORRECT oil filter, 180 thermostat, PCV system, paper air cleaner conversion. Thank all y'all for contributing cuz this is something basic that I have overlooked for years and y'all's back'n'forth got me to thinkin'bout it...cain't wait to get started on this now, maybe after it stops raining cats & dogs 'round here.

This sorta thing has come up at work when dealing with our European counterparts who want us to use very expensive Italian or German hydraulic control valves on equipment we build for them. These valves are more susceptible to failure from fluid contamination than the American valves we use for domestic production. With this known, we have a never ending analysis as to which control valve to use for which application. The expensive valves have smoother and more accurate controls, but at a higher price. In some applications, this expense is unnecessary. These flatheads were designed for high contamination use, not only in cars & trucks but as stationary engines for industrial use or heavy equipment power plants for agricultural use. My thinkin' is that we could have better lubrication with the house brand multi-weight oils of today than with the SAE 30 oils of 50 years ago. Full flow filtration may be better for the engine lubrication, but how much better might be negligible compared with the bypass filtration. Weighing the cost of modifying the flathead block for full flow filtration versus more frequent oil changes with the bypass filtration makes me think that the payoff would not be in my lifetime. DC's installation of the full flow filter makes sense because the modification requires simple hand tools since the flathead block was designed for this upgrade. My question is about the bypass filter itself. I've been running the Wix 51010 canister similar to what DC has pictured instead of the sock-type (Wix 51011). That canister was in the '48 when I started working on it when I was 12, and a similar canister was in the '49. I haven't seen a cross-section of either type of filter, so I'm unsure of what the actual filtration difference is other than the particulate rating. Is the sock type better than the canister for any reason? My guess is that it completely fills the filter housing as the canister does not.

Yessirree, this here was a real chore as I recall. I replaced my seal with the transmission in the truck, and removing the brake drum from the yoke was a protracted cussin' match because of limited access and a previous repairer's head-rounding procedure. When I worked on this in '98, I remember being able to pop the old seal out after removing the brake bracket, and the National seal # that was barely legible could be used to order a new one from Purvis Bearing Supply up the road. I don't remember the cost back then, but I figger that seal & the pinion seal set me back about the same $$$ as all the other front & rear wheel & axle seals combined. When I tear into the '48 here in a few weeks, I'll be documenting seal numbers a little better this time. In '98, all I did was label the new seal part box with location on the truck and kept all those little boxes stashed in a plastic container in the barn. When I went to check some numbers a few years ago, I found that a no-good varmint had chewed a hole in the plastic container & made a nest of those boxes, shredding my 'documentation' & excrementin' all over the remains. This time around I'll jot down numbers in a notebook and keep it in the house.

This appears to be a test fit of the cab, bed & powertrain to the frame. I reckon he's using a D250 club cab to keep the CTD powertrain stock, which limits his wheelbase to something like 133". The lines on the bed make me think it's a '59 or '60, so maybe that's what is holding the size of the cab.

looks like some progress has been made:

I dang near forgot about this li'l nugget: while in high gear on level grade, alternate stomping the throttle and letting all the way off. If the differential bearings are worn, not only with the chassis jerk to & fro, but it will make a clunky racket as all the associated parts bounce about in that case. This can be a dangerous maneuver if ya slide outta yer seating position, as I did when trying this on a D250 CTD ten years ago. The rear end on that old diesel had so much slop in it & the engine had so much torque that I durn near got wedged between the driver seat, the steering wheel & the floorboard.

If you are still running with the original fuel level sending unit, the variable resistor may be about to blink out on ya. The resistance wire in the sender is about as thin as a hair wrapped around an insulated cone, and it doesn't take much corrosion for that wire to lose continuity. Removing the sender from the tank & clipping some temporary leads to the fuel gauge will allow ya to check the fuel gauge movement with the sender movement.

OUCH...light pole 1, Dodge Pilot-House 0

I reckon you can rebuild the engine with it still in the car. I think the trick is to remove the front wheels and have the frame up on jack stands so the front axle will drop out of the way to give ya some clearance to work. I've done this with both my '48 & '49 trucks, even replaced the valve guides in the '49 without pulling the block. It is a chore to maneuver around the fenders & frame & whutnot, but it can be done. My concern with those pictures you've shown is the dark area on the head gasket between #1 & #2 cylinders. The steam cleaning of the combustion chamber from a coolant leak I understand, but I don't readily see where that leak would be, which makes me wonder if there is a crack in the block. This isn't necessarily the death knell for this engine, as a good machine shop can sleeve any cylinders that are in need. When an old classic has been parked for many years, the thought rolls around in my noggin as to why the beast was parked in the first place. I've been lucky in that the two trucks I've resurrected were parked because they were burning oil from stuck rings & worn valve guides. My 584 International tractor was a different story, as it lost coolant slowly but I never could find any puddling. Sure enough, the head on that li'l diesel needed a lot of $$$ work done to it to put an end to that. For this reason I prefer to tear down a motor to do a thorough inspection if it has sat dormant for an extended period for unknown reasons. This gives the mechanic the opportunity to find any internal wear &/or damage that could be catastrophic if not remedied pronto. It has given me the peace of mind that when I've put my projects on the road, I know for sure what cannot be wrong with it. Plus I've learned quite a bit by studying old shop manuals, parts manuals & the like to see what parts were used for years unchanged & what parts were redesigned every few years either because of performance or assembly/replacement issues.

I agree that the clunking noise usually indicates u-joints that are worn. Worn differential bearings would cause a growling noise when driving in high gear. Also, with both wheels off the ground and the transmission in low gear, turning either of the rear wheels would produce a slapping noise in the differential case if the bearings were worn out. Alternatively, doing this with good bearings would produce a clicking noise.

Yep, one shot oughtta take care of it...I put one shot in slowly while the motor is at idle so the grease will coat the shaft+bushing evenly.

I had a similar problem with the '48, it turns out the switch contacts on the starter were corroded and stomping on the starter pedal put enough pressure on the switch to get continuity. Eventually I replaced the switch with an adjustable one similar to the one shown. The button on the switch screws in & out to adjust the travel distance on the starter pedal. Converting the original foot starter to a push-button starter sounds kinda interesting. A starter relay & starter solenoid would be required, but I tellya whut, I like the foot starter when it's working properly cuz it can be customized as an anti-theft device. The first time I got my '48 inspected, that stupid kid nearly twisted the key off in the ignition before I hustled over to him to show how the truck actually started.

Might the oil pressure relief valve be hung up in its bore? That'll give a null reading on the gauge.

When repairing equipment of any type, it's the useless a-wipes that make me appreciate the knowledgeable folks who genuinely try to help out. I don't have to deal with the general public on a daily basis, but back when I did, I got to be a bit snippy too, but at least I tried to help out. AB kinda jipped me on some parts awhile back, sending me stuff that I later found at 1/2 the price at NAPA, so that's left a bad taste in my mouth. Roberts has done that on a couple occasions, but I've done a ton more business with them and they've been helpful every time I've called. I also learned not to call either place if the Pats or Red Sox have recently been defeated in a playoff game...yikes. Now I ain't tried this, but I heard way back that a broom handle can be used to align the clutch disc. Knowing this, any wooden dowel could work. I think the trick is to align the clutch before installing the pilot bushing? Anyhow, I reckon that's what that feller was gettin' at by saying you'll figure it out.

ya know I ain't tried it, but I'm kinda wondering if a quality grade duct tape would work, doubled over to increase thickness. that's a fairly economical peel & stick...

didja mount to the motor or to the frame? just curious I reckon...

Any place where there is sheet metal attached to sheet metal, there will be squeaking without some type of insulator between the metals. The '48 & '49 had these little strips where the floorboards, cab, cab floor, and transmission access plate met. The strips weren't continuous, probably stopped about 1-2 inches shy of each fastener. It looked to be some sort of cotton fiber strip that after 6 decades of the elements had all but rotted away to nothing. This material was probably put on at the factory as needed, with no set length except for a shop floor supervisor bellering "don't use so much". Now there are many types of synthetic silencing strips to choose from and can be found in rolls at good car parts stores, hardware stores, even fabric & hobby stores. Some even have adhesive backing where it's cut to length, peel & stick, repeat. My suggestion is to find something in bulk that is about 1" wide and can compress to 1/32"-1/16", usually this is some type of nylon fabric or open-cell foam. Adhesion with weatherstrip adhesive of your choice should do the job, as it will only serve as a place holder until the mechanical fasteners get to workin'. FWIW, the original seats squeak some. I can lean back in that bench seat and make it talk, and it ain't sayin' "how'bout them Cowboys".