Merle Coggins

A Truck-O-Matic would be cool to have. It’s essentially the M6 transmission behind a Fluid Drive coupler. The same setup that Chrysler, DeSoto, and Dodge cars used under different names. Prestomatic, Tip-Toe Shift, Gyromatic. It may have been a 1 year only in the trucks. Shortly after that the automatics came out. As you may have read, it’s a 4 speed trans with semi-automatic shifts between 1st/2nd, or 3rd/4th. You have to manually shift between the low and high range gears. For most driving around you could put it into high range and drive it like an automatic vehicle. Only need the clutch to get into gear initially, or to shift ranges or directions. If you could get the engine running you could probably just swap in a standard 3 speed behind the Fluid Drive. That was also an option in the trucks. Or, sometimes you can come across a complete drive train and swap out the engine trans combo. As you can guess, the bell housing and everything would have to be swapped out to remove the FD. The axle can remain as is unless you want different gearing. You can always find a 3.90 or 3.73 diff out of a car from that era that will swap right into the axle housing.

Is this for the lower panel, below the windows? That wasn't available when I got my interior from them.

It's all down hill from there. (relatively speaking ?) Enjoy the scenery in MT. Won't be much to see once you get into the Dakota's

Look for an "L" on the end of the studs to indicate left hand threads. Lock ring wheels are safe to handle once aired up and locked in. When they need to be caged is when airing up after assembly, or if one had been driven on with low air pressure. To be safe when airing up a tire, get a clip on tire chuck with a long enough hose so that you can clip it onto the valve stem and stand off to the side while adding air. I have one that I've made up for airing up large equipment tires with lock rings. I have a ball valve with a pressure gauge at the other end of the hose so that I can check the pressure and control the air flow while standing away from the lock ring.

Did you get the brakes working yet?

I wouldn't run anything buy NGK plugs in my motorcycles, but I run Autolites 306's in my truck. Autolite 306 plugs seem to be easier to get locally than the NGK BR6's.

Your C-series cab may be a little different than mine, but the headliner I got from Quiet Rides is ABS plastic. It was 4 pieces sewn together. The side panels were already attached. The front slipped in over the top of the windshield header and it attached to the rear window header. The lower panel, around the back windows, then attaches over the top of the headliner. My rear panels were 3 pieces, but Quiet Rides now provides it in a single panel. I believe they now also have a lower section to cover behind the seat.

Body ID tag. The knockout is possibly for the radio antenna.

You didn’t take the truck and trailer over there for the startup?

Nice!! If I had running boards like that I’d probably be like Mark and wouldn’t let anyone step on them... ?

No. It’s standard, flat, laminated safety glass that’s delaminating. Most any automotive glass shop can cut a new one, using your old one as a pattern. Especially since you already have it out. Then get new rubber molding and reinstall your new glass.

The sending unit is a variable resistance to ground for the gauge. Voltage to the gauge and out of the gauge to the sending unit. As the level goes up the resistance gets smaller and the higher current flow will pull the needle towards the full mark.

Front

'54 3/4 ton would be C-1-C

Should we redress him and give him a new name...?

MIke, Where do you normally park? I recall seeing you coming in one day when I was there a few years ago, but we never found you after that.

Could you grind off/drill out the rivets that hold the drum to the hub? Then you could remove the drum and access the back side of the hub to place a temporary nut for removal. Then install studs as recommended above. Now the drum will slide back over the studs like a more modern vehicle.

So that you can only use the lighter with the lights are on???

Before DCM started offering them I bought a set from MAC's, a Ford parts supplier. They are so similar you couldn't 'tell the difference. However, the inner diameter is slightly smaller. I had to grind down the outer shaft of my crank handles to fit inside the escutcheons. But they work great and look correct.

Got a photo of the front? I was thinking maybe Hudson, but I don't think they had the speed lines on the hood side and fenders.

Your park brake linkage should use a similar cam, as shown at the top of this picture. But on yours the cam is connected to the bottom of the brake lever. On mine the cam connects to another linkage arm. This linkage bolts up to a bolster on the top trans cover. Does your trans have this attachment point? Does your brake lever attach at this similar point? The pull cable attaches to the bottom of this "T" link to pull the brake linkage and set the brake. If so, you can likely fabricate this linkage, or something similar, and connect it to your existing brake band. And I believe someone here found a cable from a modern truck that can be retrofitted to work in place of the original. I don't recall the details of that but I'm sure you could search and find it.

Looking back through this thread I see one photo that shows the park brake handle under the dash. but in other pictures there appears to be a park brake lever coming up through the floor. It's quite possible that someone swapped out the trans to an earlier model and used the park brake arrangement from the earlier version.

Mine is a 4 speed with Fluid Drive, but all B2, B3 and B4 trucks use the same parking brake system. The drum, band, and linkage may differ slightly between years and transmission models, but the overall system design is the same.

Here's a good look at the inside of a honeycomb radiator, and how they're made.

Quite true. It could possibly be hot tanked and flushed, but if it hasn't caused any issues I'd flush it myself and preserve it's integrity.