Merle Coggins

Can't be any worse than mine, although you have a shorter wheel base. The longer trucks tend to smooth things out a bit more.

I'm with Jeff on this. I've never had my spring packs apart. I sprayed them down with penetrating oil a couple times early on. Now I'll add a spray down with a dry lube spray every couple of years. I'm always amazed how well it rides for a 70 year old 3/4 ton truck.

3 wires would probably indicate a built in resistor for multi speeds. Maybe low, medium, and high? Or Maybe 2 speeds with the 3 wire being ground? The single wire is likely the power for the motor and it may be grounded through the mount. In that case you would need an external resistor/rheostat to control the speed, like what Mark states. I also have that same rheostat switch under the dash for my Arvin heater. As for changing the direction of the fan motor when you switch polarity, it will depend on if it's a permanent magnet motor, or if it has electromagnet field coils. A permanent magnet motor would certain switch direction with a polarity change. But one with electromagnet field magnets, the magnetic field will also reverse when reversing the wires, so the motor would still spin the same direction.

Another theory on the possible "upgrades" a previous owner made... As you state, you see evidence that it may have had column shift, which would indicate it had a 3 speed. With the swap to a 4 speed it would require a different length driveshaft. So they may have just used the driveshaft from the donor truck, and since the rear u-joint wouldn't have matched up they may have just swapped the differential pinion flange with the earlier version. If this is the case your axle and diff may still be original. Or that could be a mix match of components from other donor vehicles. Only time travel would tell the whole story... ?

While it's true that your Optima's will have a higher amp rating than a replacement lead acid that doesn't mean they'll be discharging all of that amperage. Your alternator, or generator, only needs to output enough current to displace what your car is using. The largest current consumption is at cranking to start the engine. After that the ignition system draws a small amount. If you have lights on there is more current draw from the battery, and etc. So, the charging system just needs to replace the amperage that was used during the starting process and power consuming devices while running. Normally you may see your ammeter move higher to the Positive side right after startup, to replace that amperage draw, then it'll settle down and show a slight positive charge during normal driving. The generator, or alternator, will only output the amount of current (amperage) needed to maintain the battery state of charge. Since you aren't adding any large current consumers to the system there is no need to increase the charging capacity. Stick with the single alternator, or generator, and you'll be fine.

I didn't see anything about a 3.73 diff ratio in the initial post. However... my parts book lists a 3.73 gear set as available for all generations of the B-series, in B and C models, but I've never personally seen a truck with 3.73 gears that hadn't been modified in that respect. In my case I happened across a deal for a diff from a '50 Plymouth that had 3.73 gears. I had to swap the pinion drive flange to keep the truck version, as the car drive flange is quite different, do to their use of ball and trunion joints. Other than that it was a direct swap into my axle. There was a change in the axle shaft splines at some point in the early to mid '50's, but I don't know exactly when that took place. And it could have taken place at different points between the product lines. If you happen across a diff with the updated splines I've heard stories from guys that successfully swapped the side gears within the differential so that they could continue to use their existing shafts. As for the universal joints for your truck. A B3B should have the later Spicer type u-joint. The change was made during the B2 series generation. There is no S/N break as to when they changed, it only designates the "UP TO" as the Lock Plate type and the "AFTER" as the Retainer type. And you need to make the determination by how your u-joint is retained. The fact that your truck has the lock plate, or Cleveland type, u-joints leads me to believe someone swapped in a complete drive train from an earlier truck. Maybe they came across an earlier truck with 3.73 gearing and a 4 speed and decided they wanted that setup in their B3B truck?

I would venture a guess that a previous owner swapped in a 4 speed from an earlier truck, and rather than modifying the driveshaft to work with different u-joints they swapped in the earlier axle too.

As stated, the hub is part of the water pump. Do not remove it unless you are doing a pump rebuild, which isn’t worth your time.

Where you see that pin is part of the fan hub that is part of the water pump. Do not mess with that pin unless you wish to disassemble the pump. Rust is probably making the fan tight onto the hub. A bit of penetrating oil and a little wiggling and it should come off.

No need for dual charging systems. It sounds like more of a headache than its worth. Once you connect your 2 6v batteries in parallel they basically become 1 larger capacity 6v battery. Your one generator will easily keep them charged. The advantage with an alternator is higher output at lower RPM’s so its less likely to discharge at idle would the lights on, as it will on a generator. Also, don’t over complicate your thinking with a Pos. Ground system. Electric theory is all the same regarding current flow, its just that the Neg and Pos are reversed. It only really affects polarity sensitive components, such as electronics with diodes and transistors. Maybe a tube radio would fall into that as well. And when doing diagnostics you need to remember to connect your volt meter leads correctly or you’ll read negative voltage.

That’s a pretty typical fuel line routing. You can also see the fuel pump heat shield in that photo.

The 3 speed transmissions prior to the B2 series were a standard floor shift, so it would have needed a similar seal

That’s probably for a 3 speed. Yours looks like a 4 speed. I had some thick chunks of foam that I used to cut my own. Similar to that, but sized for my trans.

Interesting upper water neck and carburetor/intake pipe. I wonder what it’s intended application was.

As Tim states, it's a heat soak issue. Fuel expands in the float bowl and tends to flood the intake. I find that holding stepping on the throttle pedal slightly while cranking helps get the Ol' Boy started up after short rest periods. This introduces more air to help lean out the over rich (flooded) condition. In my truck, with a stomp starter, I've mastered the trick of pressing the starter pedal with my tow while giving a little throttle with my heal. It always fires up that way within a few crank revolutions. Without the throttle input you could crank the battery dead before it'd start.

I've seen single wheel motorcycle trailers, but it doesn't seem to make sense to me.

? So you truly kept our military running with bubble gum and zip ties... Good story. And thank you for your service.

First thing I would do is check the backlash of the gears. O don’t have the spec handy, but there should be a small amount of movement of each gear before it contacts, and moves, the other gear. When doing this, you should be able to determine if the pinion bearings are stiff, or if it’s the diff carrier bearings (making the ring gear hard to turn). Or maybe there’s zero backlash causing the tightness. After these initial checks you should be able to determine where the problem lies. Either way it may require a disassembly/ reassembly to correct the setup.

I believe it’s the accelerator pump spring that wants to open up the throttle plate when no linkage is attached. Once you have the linkage connected, with a return spring, then they should rest against the idle stop screw.

Isn’t a WD a 1 ton truck? If so, you’ll probably want to address the front end some too to get matching wheel hubs. Otherwise you’ll have mis-matched wheels front to rear.

218 and 230 blocks are virtually the same. The difference is in the stroke length. So you have to measure the piston stroke to determine the displacement.

Your hole over #6 is probably plugged with carbon and/or rust. You can usually poke around in there a bit and get it opened up. Try a drill bit, by hand, or pick away at it with an awl. On your pulley marks, I recommend only marking/highlighting the TDC mark and possibly the one where you want to set your timing. It’ll make it easier to see what you want with the timing light.

Sounds like your shocks are too short. They should be in the middle of their stroke when the springs are supporting the weight of the truck.

The other side of the coin.

Merry Christmas, a day late. We’ve had a busy week with my wife’s side of the family. Today we took a drive down to Indy to visit my family. I did get a nice little gift from my lovely wife. It’s a coin, slightly larger than a quarter that she found on eBay last year and put away for Christmas. It was put away so well that she forgot about it. Then while doing some cleaning recently she came across it again, so I got it this Christmas.