Merle Coggins

Not all horns use relays. Do you have a single horn or duals? From what I’ve seen the single horns didn’t use a relay. Dual horns did. And as has been said, that wire is the ground side of your horn circuit. It goes up to the horn button/ring.

I don’t see a seal in that first picture. If you didn’t remove one then a previous “mechanic” didn’t put one in there. Does the replacement seal not fit tight into the housing? You also have it in there backwards. The lip needs to go towards the axle oil, or away from you. I don’t have a parts book for a ‘49 Plymouth to cross P/N’s with the trucks. I wouldn’t have expected it to be different, but maybe you don’t have a ‘49 Plymouth axle???

We’re in St. Ignace today. Touring Mackinac Island tomorrow. Then across this bad boy Tuesday morning on our way down to Auburn Hills/Pontiac.

2 seconds is about right. “Thousand One”, into neutral/clutch up, “Thousand two”, shift to next gear.

I don’t even know what a feather washer is.

Almost all packed up and ready to go... Well, I’m all packed and ready. Waiting on my better half to finish packing, then we’ll be off on our next Ol’ Dodge road trip. If anyone is going to be there, keep an eye out for me.

Are you sure it's not a metric thread? An M5 screw would have a 0.8 thread pitch, which would be pretty close to a 27TPI measurement. And 0.18" converts to 4.57mm. A 4 mm screw would have 0.7 threads. I don't have all of those size thread pitch gauges on hand right now, but I did have a 27 and a 1.0 in my desk and they are pretty close. The 1.0 is slightly off from a 27, when I hold them tooth to tooth. The fit is similar to holding a 27 and 28 gauge together. This makes be believe the 0.8 metric pitch may be pretty close to a 27.

Installation... without scratching the paint. ?

Then and Now Automotive has excellent fuel pump rebuild kits, and their customer support is top notch. http://www.then-now-auto.com/fuel-pumps/ I even had a pump that I couldn't fine any good identification marks on. I was able to send them pictures and they identified it and told me which kit to purchase. That one is now my 'back-up'/'spare' pump. Also, on my pump there is a long stud with the wing nut at the top for my heat shield. This never comes with a new pump. If you purchase a new pump you would need to remove the long stud and put it in place of one of the cover screws on the new pump. I would highly advise against a new pump, and instead opt for rebuilding the current one with a kit from Then and Now. New pumps have a tendency to have their pivot pin walk out over time. The kits from Then and Now have a new pin with retainer clips to prevent this.

For a "first start" in your situation you could just connect a wire from the battery to the coil with a toggle switch in between. Hook up mechanical oil pressure and temp gauges, and run it. If you have a stomp start starter you're good to go. If you have a key start, or push button start, you may also need to wire up a start button and starter relay. For a longer term way to run your engine in the chassis you could make a small control board with the gauges and switches. Then attach your voltage regulator to the board and wire it up to your generator. This will allow battery recharging during your run cycles. You could also wire in an ammeter if you so desire. I rigged up a panel like that on my truck when I was in the build process. I had to park the truck chassis outside during the week and would pull it into the shop over weekends to work on it. This setup allowed me to easily run the engine when needed.

That's going to be a lot of transmission to handle when installing it to the engine. It may be easier to install in separate pieces.

Yes, a cab/chassis would have short running boards, cab length only.

Your B3C and B4C should have the same size bed, but the bed board layout in the B4 will be a bit different. More boards, and narrower each. The B3B would have the narrower, and shorter, bed than the 3/4 ton versions.

For start up you can set the ignition timing to 0, or TDC. Also, double check that you don’t have the distributor installed 180 degrees off. It’s happened to me more often that I’d like to admit.

Both switches are robust enough to handle the current for stock wattage headlights, since that's how they were designed to work, as long as the contacts are clean and the wiring isn't adding more resistance (load).

I don't know that any trucks left the factory without grill bars, but many got removed over the years for whatever reason. And I was just clarifying your statement, "1950 had painted grille bars as an option" to say that Stainless was the option in '50 and painted steal was standard.

Actually, the stainless grill bars were standard on all light trucks in the B-1 series. Medium and Large trucks got the painted steel grill bars, with stainless as an option. The change in 1950 to the B-2 series made the painted steel grill bars standard on all trucks, with stainless as an option.

First one appears to be a '50 B-2, based on the steel grill bars. It's hard to tell from the picture angle, but possibly a 3/4 ton, C model. This one would be the best match up to the body panels on your B-1-B. The second one is a '51-'52 B-3-C. Most of the body panels of this truck will be slightly different than your truck. Hood, nose, and doors are certainly different. Front fenders may be slightly different too.

Yes, the Vaseline trick works great. I've also used white assembly grease. It helps seal up the clearances in the pump and create a suction to draw up oil, as well as keeping it lubricated when things start to spin.

The first picture certainly looks like a horn relay, and you would be correct on the markings. H=Horn, B=Battery, and S=Switch. I don't know how it would hold up to a continuous use, but it may be fine. The other relay looks like a typical 4 terminal relay, but with only 3 wires? Did you say is for your fog lights? I can't see it, but I would assume that the other end of the fuse connects to another terminal input to supply fused voltage? That would make your B and C the 85 and 86 terminals possibly. If the fuse is connected to a second terminal that would indicate, to me, that the 30 and 85 are connected together and the relay is controlled by switching the ground for the coil (86). Pretty much the same function as the 3 terminal relay for the horn. The third relay also looks like a 3 terminal relay, like a horn relay. It's possible that someone wired it up to the high beams to take some amp load off the headlight switch.

Yes, the top of the bell housing wraps down in front of the flywheel. Pull the clutch and flywheel, then remove the bell housing. I've never seen a housing brake like that? What would cause that? Top trans bolts come out and put all the stress on the bottom ones?

Couldn’t add these photos yesterday, from my phone. Here is the Napa switch I opened up. Notice the black coating on the contacts. I don’t believe the type of brake fluid would have any affect on this part. It could have an affect on the diaphragm under the contact plate, depending on it’s fluid compatibility. A quick rub with Emory cloth cleaned it up pretty quick, but they shouldn’t corrode like that. This is the Standard P/N I am using now. This one is the spare I carry and haven’t needed since making the switch. The box has a “Made in Mexico” label.

This thread already IS on the truck forum. I’m not sure what Andy was thinking...

I went through 5 or 6 Echilin brake switches from Napa before I gave up on them and purchased a Standard switch from Rock Auto. Napa switched would last a few months. They kept replacing them under warranty, but it was getting old. I had to keep a spare in the glove box so I could replace it on the road when I’d notice the brake lights not working again. The Standard switch has lasted several years now, and still going strong. The last Echilin one I took out I cut open. The switch contacts were corroded black and wouldn’t pass electricity.

Check out Julianos https://www.julianos.com/Seat-Belts-s/96.htm