Merle Coggins

That P/N does not come up in my '48-'53 Dodge Truck parts book.

I actually made a swap with another forum member at that time. He was looking for a 4.10 diff to put in his Plymouth Suburban with an overdrive transmission so he could have good gearing for pulling a boat or camper and still have a good highway speed. He found an axle that he though would have a 4.10 diff but it ended up being a 3.73. I had a parts truck at the time with a 4.10 diff. We traded pictures first and realized that there were a couple differences. One obvious one was the input flange that connects to the drive shaft. The cars use a totally different universal/CV joint system. The other difference was in the differential carrier housing. The truck diff with 4.10 gears had a more robust carrier housing. We decided to make the trade and it only cost us shipping what we had to the other guy. We pulled the pinion input flanges before shipping. When it arrived I put in a new pinion seal, installed the drive flange from the truck diff, pulled the original diff out if my truck, bolted in the replacement diff assembly, refilled the oil, and have been driving it for many years. The only caveat to this is to check the axle shaft spline count. There was a change sometime in the early to mid '50's in the spline count. However, if you end up with one that has a different spline count than what your truck has you may be able to swap the side gears. I believe Young Ed has reported that he has done this.

HA! I enjoyed reading those other adds too... "Turn Concrete into Gold!"... "Oil Filter Refills"... "Build a Helicopter Glider"... "Took in $217 First 10 Days"... ?

Nobody is reproducing gear sets for these axles. If you wish to keep your original axle you will need to find a good differential from another Mopar truck, or car, from that era. If you are looking for better highway gears I’d recommend looking at diffs from cars. I have a 3.73 differential from a ‘50 Plymouth in my truck’s axle. It was pretty much a direct swap. Just the driveshaft flange was different, but they swapped over, no problem.

I would recommend contacting Pertronix directly with your distributor number. Their search function doesn’t really break things down by distributor number and their catalog, that is available for download, doesn’t seem to list all available distributor numbers used in the Dodge trucks. They should be able to tell you exactly which model to use for your distributor and voltage. Once you have theIr part numbers you can search for suppliers. I got mine from Amazon a few years ago. I got their coil and plug wire kit too.

Assuming you have the Carter BB carb, you may have an issue with your power jet. It has a vacuum operated needle that should pull down to restrict the jet under a normal vacuum condition. At WOT the vacuum would drop allowing the needle to lift and open up the power jet to add more fuel to the air stream. At least that's the way I understand it... It sounds like this may not be happening properly. Item's 12, 13, & 14

I've always been taught that a taper shaft like these need to have clean metal to metal contact. The tight metal to metal contact helps to transfer the torque to take the stress off the key. I would rather need to use my puller again later than risk having a hub slip and shear a key because I used lube.

I would also suspect the sending unit seal if the tank was full. I get a bit of seepage from mine if I park it with the tank plumb full.

I'm wondering if you are getting in over lean condition at WOT. Maybe your float is set a little low causing fuel starvation at full load?

What did you use for a finish on the wood?

Are you sure you have a 1/4 tank of gas? The gauge may be lying to you. Could actually be empty. Could also have a leak in the line between the tank and pump that caused it to suck air instead of gas.

Like was said, use your bell housing for the 4 speed and attach to the donor engine. Also, a B3C would be a ‘51 or ‘52 model, so your ‘51 donor engine should be a perfect swap. They likely have the same engine code stamped in the S/N pad. I believe it should be T308. Lovin’ the ‘58 W100. Is that a Fire Department logo on the door?

That does look much better.

The parts truck I purchased, when building my truck, had the factory electric wipers. My truck had vacuum wipers. I pulled the electric unit, with all linkage, and put it into my truck. Piece of cake... I recall that the linkages were all different between the two which is why everything needed to be changed. I ended up giving my vacuum unit and linkage to Bill Pingel for his truck.

I was thinking the same thing. It doesn't look like the bearing caps fit into the yolk right. I questioned that u-joint earlier too, as it has internal retainer clips on those caps and external clips on the other caps. It seems to be a conversion type u-joint when it wouldn't need to be.

I'm being reminded of a similar engine failure from early on in my construction equipment mechanic career. We had Komatsu dozer that spit a rod through the block. I believe it started with an injector failure that caused piston damage. The piston seized in the cylinder bore and the con rod was ripped out the bottom, becoming a flail in the bottom of the engine. It busted a sizable hole in the block skirt. They decided to attempt repair in chassis. I dropped the oil pan and removed the remains of the con rod and discovered the crank was still good. Pulled the head and knocked out the piston and liner. The upper part of the block was still good. They brought in someone that stitch welded up the hole in the block skirt. Then I reassembled the engine with a new liner, piston, and connecting rod. We probably went through the injection system too, but I don't recall the details of that. (this was at least 30 years ago). I do remember that it ran fine when we were done with it. It at least ran long enough to go back to the customer. I never heard anything about it after that. Maybe it still runs today, or maybe not...

F.Y.I. This is the socket you’ll want/need. It has a 3/4” drive, so you may also want to have a 3/4”to 1/2” drive adapter.

That little notch in the drum is nice when adjusting your shoes. You can get a visual on what your clearances are as you spin the drum. I wish the smaller trucks had those. As for removing the axle shaft, I usually give the center of the end cap a smack with a hammer, after removing the nuts, and it will usually pop out slightly. If not, then you can use those other two holes with pusher bolts to pull it out. Once you get that out you will see the retainer nuts. There's an outer lock nut, locking washer, and inner nut. They are 8 sided, as I remember. I bought a socket for them when I was helping Kris with his brake job. They're not that expensive. If you don't have the socket wrench a hammer and punch/chisel is often used to remove the lock nut. The socket just makes it easier, and more professional. Pretty simple... much like removing the front drums once you get to that part.

You got yourself one of them fancy ventilated blocks... ?

If you plan on converting to Pertronix in the future I would recommend using their plug wires. That way you'll know you have good stuff for now, and they will be compatible when you make the swap.

You need to prime the pump as it is now empty. Best way to do that, without removing the pump from the engine, is to pack the rotor cavities with assembly lube, or Vaseline. This will allow the pump to pull up oil from the sump and start pumping again. The assembly lube, or Vaseline, will break down in the oil and won’t cause any damage.

I had a similar issue when I swapped out my differential for a 3.73 diff. When I went to reinstall the driveshaft I couldn’t get it into the yolk. I’m still unsure how I got it out on disassembly if it was that tight. Must have been some pry bar action. With a bare frame, no cab or bed installed, there wasn’t enough weight to compress the springs so the axle was in it’s most forward position. Anyway... I was working in the heavy equipment shop where I work, so I looked around for some weight to set on the frame to compress the springs so that axle would move rearward. An excavator bucket did the trick. I lowered it down onto the frame with the overhead crane until I achieved enough movement to get the job done. Also, looking at your u-joint it seems to be a combo unit with external circlips on one half and internal circlips on the other half. You’ll need to remove those internal clips to get it set into the drive yolk. And I believe the only place you’ll find those retainer brackets would be from another truck.

If the IAT 4011 is in good condition, why not just clean up that one and use it in your truck?

Reminds me of a story... Several years ago I was riding my Gold Wing down in Tennessee, coming up US441 into Gatlinburg. We were slowly catching a group of Harley riders and I soon realized that we would catch up to them right at the entrance to a tunnel. You can probably guess what they started doing. Well... I happened to have a set of air horns on my Wing, so I thumbed the horn button and held it until I came out the other end of the tunnel. When I exited the tunnel I let off the horns and keyed up the CB mic to say, to my riding buddy behind me, “I can make noise too.” He was laughing so hard he could hardly talk, but he managed to let me know those Harley guys got off the throttles and were looking around trying to figure out where the truck was. He had the same thought as we approached the other riders, and the tunnel, and he knew what I was going to do.

If you got the numbers off the bearing cone and cup, source new bearings according to those numbers. Don't rely on Amazon to tell you if they are correct for your axle. Their reference list probably doesn't go back that far. Take those Timkin numbers to your local Napa, or bearing house and get a new set.