JBNeal

When looking for hard-to-find truck parts, this is the kind of place where purt'near anything can be found. Why? Rows & rows of BOOKS, with a computer on the side. Also note the roll of paper shop towels ready to go when needed, special orders pulled & waiting for pickup, and the Pontiac GTO on the calendar. Where are the guys behind the counter? At this particular moment, they had all gone to the warehouse through the door to pull parts. And it is a warehouse, not a closet, as it has a loading dock and a forklift and street access on two sides. Yep, this ain't no AutoZone or even Advanced Auto (formerly Western Auto, which most stores used to be like this), this here is A-Line Auto Parts in Waco. NAPA is close to being like this, but most of those stores are going to the AutoZone model with everything on the computer. So when the kid behind the counter gets stumped at NAPA, it's usually because the computer is telling him nothing useful, bless his heart.
I bring this up because of my '03 Buick Regal, a car that was in production for 9 yrs, and has been out of production for 6 yrs. This car is my commuter car, with a powerful & efficient V6, air conditioning & a smooth ride. I went to get the brakes overhauled as they have 80K on them. The rubber bushing with the accordian bellows was damaged on the front calipers by me, mistakenly soaking them in the parts cleaner with the caliper bracket to get all the muck off. The rubber swelled up & tore apart, so I went to get new ones. PART DISCONTINUED?!? I went to O'Reilly's, Advanced Auto, NAPA, AutoZone, Pep Boys & even the Buick dealer with no success. I tried A-Line as a last resort only because they are waaay downtown and the other places were within spitting distance of each other. They confirmed it was a discontinued part, but a couple of phone calls to warehouses in Houston later, and the parts I needed were on their way. The parts arrived as promised the next day and were exact replacements from AC Delco.
As I get ready to do the tear-down on the '48 & repairs on the '49, this was a nice exercise in patience and a reminder that hard-to-find stuff can be found if ya look in the right place. NAPA has been a good store in the past, but as I have noticed the disappearance of their parts books, I have also noticed that the younger guys running these stores can't hold a candle to them beer-bellied cig-hanging-from-the-lower-lip dudes who knew how to get things done.

I'm leaning towards fabricating a 'tank' out of a piece of 3" pipe (possibly PVC) capped on both ends, with one end tapped with two fittings. One fitting would be a barbed NPT nipple for a rubber hose coming off of the overflow tube. The other fitting would be a vent of some sort...it's a work in progress

Thanks to some unwelcome changes at my bank of several decades, I made changes to my accounts several months ago. This affected my PayPal account, and I attempted to update that account information a few weeks ago to complete a small transaction on eBay. The bank account change flagged my account, and I was prompted to verify my identity by submitting 1) a photo ID, 2) proof of physical address, and 3) copy of social security card. I've had this PayPal account for several years, so I was a bit annoyed at having to prove my identity again, but the other side of that coin is that this is a security measure to protect my account, so I begrudgingly supplied a copy of my ID. I had scanned my TX DL a few weeks ago for an application of lost title to the '53 Spring Special just last month, so I had it on file anyway to send.
Yesterday PayPal accepted my photo ID as partial proof of identity, but still required proof of address and my SS card. My address was on my TX DL that they had just accepted, and there was no way I was sending my SS card via the internets, no matter how safe them folks tell me that this might be. So I got on the telephone to hash this out, bypassing the automated service by speaking authentic frontier gibberish, which prompted the computer program to send me directly to a representative. I was simmering at this point, thinking that if a person with a thick accent answered the line, I was gonna hang up and try later in a few hours. Luckily, a nice English-speakin' lady from up yonderways greeted me with a request for my date of birth. I responded that my ID that I had just supplied had that information, and was concerned that there was a problem with my verification process. She put me on hold for about 3 minutes to look up that information, and verified my identity on the spot. This was simultaneously a relief and annoying: PayPal's system is highly automated, but it took a phone call to straighten out an error on their end that luckily went well.
I do not recall having this much trouble when I set up this PayPal account, but the original verification email mentioned "recent changes in federal law", I'm assuming this has something to do with combatting money laundering and The Patriot Act. I have dealt with identity issues stemming from The Patriot Act before, but this time it rattled me a bit because an automated system was borderline invasive with the request for an electronic copy of my SS card. I've heard stories about identity theft, and release of SS card information is just asking for trouble. In this computer age of convenience & commerce, staying vigilant with the finances & whutnot is never-ending.
All this to buy a barn-find NOS flathead crankshaft pulley...

This probably ain't an original idea, but I figger I'd float it out there: the PANEL switch next to the HEAD light switch seems kinda obsolete as all it does is operate the gauge back lighting. Modern autos have this lighting operated by the headlight switch, and this is a modification I'm going to implement when I re-work the '48. But the panel switch as a dummy knob kinda bothered me until just a li'l while ago...has anyone tried to wire the PANEL switch to the dome light? Or even mounted a couple of lights above the driver's & passenger's footwells under the dash? Post yer photos here if ya got'm...

When it comes to truck radiators, most folks just want them to fit inside the engine compartment and to keep the engine cooled off sufficiently without needing much attention.  When I first started working on my '48, I took my radiator to a local radiator repairman for a checkup, he ran a garden hose through it and called it good, said it looked like some of his work from a long time ago, elaborated by saying the flat-finned core was probably from an old Pontiac...there was evidence in the upper tank that the original neck was dead centered, not on the driver side.  In '95, I found two mostly intact parts trucks in a local wrecking yard, '48 and '53 half tons, with the distinctive honeycomb core radiators, which my '48 did not have.  I snagged the radiator in their '48, but when I went back a few months later to get some more parts with my lawn mowing $$$, I was informed both trucks had gone to the crusher just a few days prior...!
 
While doing some research on cooling system interchange part numbers, I came across some information in the April '54 edition of the '48-'53 parts manual, and it got me to look into my stash of parts as well as the radiators in the trucks in the yard.  And to my surprise, even though these radiators looked the same at a glance, it turns out I've got a menagerie of radiators that are related but have different p#s, filler necks, overflow tubes, and core thicknesses.  My parts manual muddies up the waters even further with some conflicting information regarding replacement radiator caps.
 
But the one thing that I can say for certain is that even with these variations, it appears that the cooling systems for the B-series and Route Vans used non-pressurized systems from the factory.  I looked into the flat-fender Power Wagons and there's indications that some systems were not pressurized thru '56 but others were depending on other criteria...I didn't want to go down that rabbit hole as I have before with other research that crossed Pilot-House parts with Power Wagons, WCs and M-37s.  This is based on the parts manuals I have and information gleaned from a few Power Wagon websites.
 
The radiator caps for these non-pressurized radiators can be identified by their size, either 2-11/16" OD (776379) or 2-1/4" OD (795519):
Cap 776379 is listed for all B-1 & B-2 except R/T/V/Y Cap 795519 is listed for all B-3 & B-4 except R/T/V/Y Several vendors offer non-pressurized caps depending on year specified but not by size.  Local alternatives may be available that have a slightly different look, possibly with more moderate pricing:
Radiator Cap:  Mopar 776379  -  Stant 10232  -  NAPA 7031475
                          Mopar 795519  -  Stant 10203  -  NAPA 7031400
 
Studying my parts manual, the breakdown for replacement radiators is by model:
Radiator Core:  Mopar 1272945  ==  B-1-B, B-2-B, B-3-B, B-3-C, B-4-B, B-4-C
                            Mopar 1272947  ==  B-1-C, B-1-D, B-2-C, B-2-D, B-3-D, B-4-D
The replacement radiator cap specified in a note is 795519 for both radiators...apparently Dodge was specifying the newer style production radiators with the smaller fill neck to replace the older style with the larger fill neck that had gone out of production.  
 
Looking through my stack of spare radiators and radiators in my trucks, I was scratching my head at what I was finding:
'48 B-1-B:  1195170 was pulled from a '48 parts truck, has the large fill neck, a discharge right overflow tube, and 2-1/4" core '48 B-1-D:  1195178 has the large fill neck, a discharge right overflow tube, and 2-1/4" core '49 B-1-D:  1195178 has the large fill neck, a discharge left overflow tube, and 2-1/4" core '51 B-3-D:  1272446 has the small fill neck, a discharge right overflow tube, and 2-1/4" core '52 B-3-B:  1272446 has the small fill neck, a discharge right overflow tube, and 2-1/4" core '53 B-4-B:  1272446 has the small fill neck, a discharge right overflow tube, and 2-1/4" core spare (1):  1195178 has the large fill neck, a discharge right overflow tube, and 2-3/4" core spare (2):  1272446 has the small fill neck, a discharge left overflow tube, and 2-1/4" core spare (3):  1272947 has the small fill neck, a discharge right overflow tube, and 2-1/2" core spare (4):  same as spare (3)  
As reported earlier, the 1195170 was superseded by 1272945.  But I cannot locate the other part numbers in my parts books, and at a glance, these radiators all look the same with respect to tanks, core thickness, and inlets + outlets.  The differences in overflow tube discharge direction has me a little stumped, as the left discharge radiators do not appear to have been repaired, so maybe these are deviations from Dodge specifications.  From a practical standpoint, the left discharge seems to be a defect as any sharp right turn or traversing a slope at an angle will cause coolant to drain out, whereas the right discharge would allow more coolant to stay in the tank.  The 2-3/4" core might be a repair job, but it is a honeycomb core, so maybe that too is a deviation.
 
At any rate, these part numbers might be helpful in determining if your radiator might be relatively original, a replacement, or "custom"

I dug up the shock absorbers that I pulled off of the '49 1-ton to study them a little more, as they appeared original with the DPCD logo stamped into the dirt shield.  I was able to get the p#s off of them and critical dimensions:
F  --  1261982  --  12.38  --  20.25 R  --  1196294  --  11.75  --  18.75 I could not find neither of these p#s in the parts book nor could I find any reference to them online, so I'm not sure if these were original to the truck or if the p# I'm looking at on the dirt shield is referencing something else...these dims compare very close to the dims of the 31000 & 32207 shocks that I've been using for years from Monroe, which were listed as replacements in their interchange book back in the 90s.
 
So I did some studying of the parts manual and Monroe's Instruction Guide, as well as Gabriel's Online Catalog (which took some digging to find), and found some more part replacement numbers that could be used.  Some shocks are more available than others, and some shocks are cheaper than others, but after putting a few more hours into researching this topic, I think we have more options available for builds and restorations.
 
One thing I noticed in the parts manual is the specification of 1" domestic and 1-3/8" heavy duty export.  Looking at the shocks available, the common spec for passenger cars is 1-3/16" bore, with light truck shocks having a 1-3/8" bore.  I switched to a large bore shock on The Blue Bomber years ago, and it produced a slightly bouncy ride unladen but under a heavy load or pulling a trailer, the truck rode nice and smooth, and braking was much more controlled, with noticeably less nose dive.  So if you are just going to use your old buggy for commuting, then the 1-3/16" shocks should work fine, as they are a stronger design than the originals...if you plan on carrying a load on a regular basis, then the bigger shocks are a good investment.  I know when I was hauling water with both my '48 1/2 ton and '49 1-ton, I noticed after a few years that the replacement shocks (1-3/16" bore) were all leaking as I was really loading up the suspension but not moving in a hurry on any trip nor traveling tens of thousands of miles annually.
 
B-1-B, -C, -D
B-2-B, -C, -D
Front  --  Monroe 31000  =  Monroe 59001  =  Monroe 32293
               Gabriel 81147  =  Gabriel 82047
[1-3/8"]   --  Monroe 34904  -  Monroe 37098  -  Monroe 37112
                    Gabriel 61500  -  Gabriel G63689 Rear --  Monroe 32207  =  Monroe 59017
             Gabriel 81676  -  Gabriel 82007
[1-3/8"]   --  Monroe 555004
                    Gabriel 61550  =  Gabriel G63949  -  Gabriel G63299 B-3-B, -C, -D
B-4-B, -C, -D
Front & Rear  [1-3/8"]  --  Monroe 66858  -  Gabriel 82065 The Monroe and Gabriel shocks are not exactly the same in extended and collapsed dimensions, but they are generally within 1/4" of each other.  The best way I can explain this is that the Pilot-House trucks have a certain suspension travel, as do other makes & models that have similar geometry, and the manufacturers make shocks that fall within a certain range within that travel, so several different shocks could possibly fit a certain suspension geometry and still work.  I would favor a shock that allows the spring to hit its bumpstop so that the shock is not bearing a severe load...conversely, a shock should still have some stroke left when the springs have reached max vertical travel so that the tires are not being lifted off of the ground prematurely, enabling more control of the vehicle in extreme situations.
 
Obviously, the B-3 and B-4 shocks that are available now are more limited...just looking at the applications online, that 11/16" mounting diameter does not appear to be an industry standard as the 5/8" and 3/4" mounting diameters have been used on many shock configurations over the years.  I would list the different colors that these shocks are coated, but some of the factory descriptions do not match the pictures on their websites...also, some vendors had different colors listed from the factory website, so I reckon ya get what you get in the box

It looks like the patch has worked...I upgraded to IE 11 a few days ago, and have not had any more problems since...thanks GTK! 

From the B-3 service manual:
flywheel nuts [7/16-20]:  55-60 ft-lbs transmission to clutch housing nut/screw [7/16-20 or -14]:  45-50 ft-lbs clutch to flywheel bolt [5/16-18]:  15-20 ft-lbs