Merle Coggins

Day 1. We got on the road around 7:00 am. Traffic was fairly light leaving town. Just a little north of Milwaukee the roads were wet, but we missed the rain. We didn’t get into any real rain until a little south of MKE. Then it rained off and on all the way through Chi-town. We got out of the rain just before getting into Indiana, but then traffic got heavier. Gotta love Chicago traffic... NOT!!! Modern tech in the Ol’ Dodge...

Well... this is what we have to look forward to this morning. Looks like it’ll be a wet drive this morning. We’ll probably catch the heavy stuff through Milwaukee and Chicago. ?

What kind of howl? Like a bearing going bad? Maybe your clutch throw out bearing is contacting the clutch all of the time and has failed? If it was the wiper vacuum line leaking it would likely run poorly too.

So tomorrow morning begins our 10 day vacation, with the Ol' Dodge, to the annual WPC Club meet in Chattanooga, TN. The truck is all ready to go after my recent maintenance and repairs. I've got a car top cargo bag in the bed to keep our luggage dry. Even through I have a tonneau cover some water gets in around the tailgate, leaving little puddles on the bed mat. The cargo bag will keep things dry just in case... and it looks like a pretty good possibility of driving through some rain tomorrow. Heading to Brownsburg, IN (Indianapolis area) tomorrow (370ish miles) to visit my sister, then on to Nashville (another 300 miles) for a couple of nights. If all goes to plan we'll roll into Chattanooga (130 mile final leg) by noon on Tuesday. We have plans to tour Ruby Falls before heading to the hotel. There will be many sight seeing tours during the meet, but that place wasn't on the list. We've been told it's a must see when in the area. I'll use this thread as a blog of our trip, hopefully with may pictures of awesome Mopar vehicles and other cool things. I was looking forward to meeting up with Greg down there but his plans changed and he won't make it now. If anyone else from this forum will be there be sure to say "Hey". Stay tuned...

This is from Tod Fitch's ply33.com web page https://www.ply33.com/Repair/tempgauge

When "all heck breaks loose" what does the timing light do? Does the timing become very erratic? That would indicate points bounce as Don mentioned. It happened to me once. Didn't get the spring hooked right and the points would bounce/float at higher RPM. Timing would go nuts. Engine would stumble and loose power. Redid the points with the spring properly hooked and all was right with the world.

Wheels look nice! In my opinion, a short sidewall tire would look out of place in the larger wheel opening. I'm running 235/75R-15's on my truck and they're pretty close to the original 6.50X15's as far as overall diameter. Plus, a smaller diameter tire would mean higher RPM at speed than a taller tire. If you have a lower numerical differential then it may not matter to you, but if you still have the 4.10 gears you'll wish you had taller tires.

LOL! Years ago I helped a friend build an Olds 350 for his '80 Cutless. It was a sweet running engine and really packed a punch. Someone finally caught up with him at a stop one day and asked what he had under the hood, because he couldn't keep up with him. "Just a 260 with a cam." was his reply. ? If you want a "sleeper" engine, why not just use the Mopar big block blue?

I run Amsoil in everything that I drive. I've been running Amsoil's Premium Protection oil in the Ol' Dodge since I built it, except for a short time with dino oil for break-in. While I agree with most that zinc is probably not needed in these engines, the Amsoil product that I use does have a high zinc content. They recommend it for older vehicles, including those with flat tappet cams. I could probably run the XL 10w-40, as it is a couple bucks per quart cheaper, but for the amount of driving it gets I'm not going to worry about a few extra $$ per oil change. The Z-Rod oil also has a high zinc content, as stated earlier. It is recommended for high performance engines, including those with flat tappet cams. Z-Rod comes in 10W-30 and 20W-50 viscosity. Whereas the Premium Performance is available in 10W40 and 20W50. For whatever reason, I prefer the 10W40 for my truck.

Don't pump the gas pedal to try to start it. It is most likely fuel peculation within the float bowl causing a flooding condition. The next time it won't start after a few minutes of being parked hot, give about 1/4 to 1/2 throttle and hold it there while cranking. If it fires up that way you have confirmed this condition, which is quite normal on these vehicles. You can try to lower the float a little bit, which helps some. I just am in the habit that if it doesn't fire right away I just give a little throttle as I'm cranking and it fires right up. It's even more tricky on my truck with the foot starter. But I've mastered the toe/heal method. (toe on the start button, heal on the gas pedal)

I don't have an answer for that. As I recall when I put mine back on, the nuts had one shiny side due to previous contact with the flange. The other side was oxidized/dirty. I put them back on the same way.

Yup, that'll have a spur gear trans. They didn't get synchros in the 4 speed until the B3 series trucks in '51

Sweet!. Lookin' good Joe.

Yup, it's a tight fit up in there. Only an open wrench will work. To use a torque wrench you'd need a special adapter, like a crows foot wrench with a long reach, to get the head of the torque wrench out in the clear. I just use my 5/8" open end wrench and get them as tight as I can. You probably also found that you can't start a nut on the studs if another one has the unit snugged up tight. It has to be backed off a little bit, then get all 8 started, then snug them all up.

Before you start tearing things apart, get a mechanics stethoscope and listen around to see where the noise is coming from. A broom handle or long dowel rod will work too, but the mechanics stethoscope is much easier to use. Touching different parts of the engine while running you will hear many noises. When you get to the one that sounds like what you are hearing, only louder, you have found the source of your noise. You can find a mechanics stethoscope for $8-$15 on Amazon, and you can probably find one locally too. I don’t know how well they’ll work with hearing aids. May need to remove those first.

Before you start planning a retrofit upgrade, open it up and inspect what you have. It may be a simple fix.

I was at a Cross Road a few weeks ago...

Yours is a bit different than what I have in my truck, but on mine the regulator is grounded to the body via the mounting bolts. It needs to be grounded somehow. If there isn't a separate ground wire it would need to ground via the mount bolts. Also, in regards to filing the points, I found this in my truck's shop manual

This again confirms a possible ignition issue, not a mechanical issue inside the engine. You have mentioned the work done on the distributor, but it sounds to me that either you have a bad wire that is shorting out when the points plate moves with the advance mechanism, or you don't have the points installed correctly so that there is too little spring tension. I did this once and when the engine got over 2500 RPM the points would bounce and the engine would stumble greatly. I couldn't get over 35 MPH. A deeper investigation of the replacement points revealed that I didn't get the additional spring connected properly. Once I figured that out and got it corrected it ran great again. I highly recommend a thorough inspection of your distributor and points again to verify that everything is correct. Also, if you have a timing light, connect it and run the RPM up until it "shutters violently" (as you state). If the timing light starts to flicker intermittently that will verify that you have a points issue.

Maybe you just need to open it up and clean up the contact points with a points file. Sounds like one of them is sticking, or making intermittent contact.

LOL ? "Majestic". I like that term. My truck has Fluid Drive with a spur gear 4 speed. I'll sometimes come to a stop without depressing the clutch, then forget to downshift out of 4th. I realize it quickly when the light goes green and I crawl away from a stop. It'll pull it though, as long as it is fairly flat.

Yes, but "Fluid Drive "only refers to the fluid coupling between the crankshaft and clutch. It could have a standard 3 speed transmission behind it or the fancier semi-automatic M6 transmission.

As far as I know all 3 speeds were synchronized since at least the 40's. The B-2 series, in 1950, was the first year that the trucks used the column shift 3 speed and it was certainly a synchronized transmission, at least in 2nd and 3rd. If you need to double clutch your shifts your synchronizers are not functioning properly.

Are you double clutching with a 3 speed trans? That should have synchronizers. If it's a 4 speed then yes, skip 1st gear unless you are heavily loaded and pulling up a hill.

The 3 speeds have synchros, but the 4 speeds didn’t get them until ‘51 in the B3 series.