Merle Coggins

There should be a rubber bumper on the radiator cowl to support the front, and the hood lace across the windshield cowl supports the rear. The center shouldn’t even touch the fender. It’s close, but doesn’t touch.

Yes, Monteagle is what I’ve learned is the moniker for that hill. So you are saying the west side of the hill is the steeper grades? That’s good to know that the homeward bound run will be a little easier. I thought about running 41 down from Nashville yesterday, as an alternative to the interstate driving. But I had already booked 12:00 tour tickets for Ruby Falls and I didn’t want to risk missing my assigned time slot and have to purchase new tickets. So we stayed on the super slab. As it turned out, they weren’t busy and asked us to join the 11:30 tour to try to fill it up. I’m sure they would have shuffled us into a later tour without an issue. But without knowing that we took the less scenic route. And heading home we have a lot of miles to log, so we’ll probably stick to the big road again too. I’d love to have the time to stay off the interstates, but alas that is not the case on this trip.

Day 4... 3rd leg of the journey; Just a short 130 mile drive today. Nashville to Chattanooga. Not quite as hot this morning either so it was a little more comfortable driving. One long hard uphill pull the temp was running high again. The needle hovered a little below the 212 mark. I estimated it around 200-205. The Ol’ Dodge could only maintain around 45 MPH in some sections. Then once we crested the summit and started the downhill run (6% grade warnings were prevelant) the temps came way down. With very light to no throttle input for the next several miles the temp needle almost got to the 160 mark. Normal running has it slightly above that mark, where I estimate 180 for normal operating temps. We dipped into Plymouthy’s territory briefly. ? I-24 drops into GA for a short distance, then back up into TN to get to Chattanooga. Then we “acted like tourists” again with a visit to Ruby Falls underground water falls. If you are ever in thes area I highly recommend this attraction. It’s pretty amazing. We are now relaxing at the hotel. Plenty of “tourist” activities scheduled for this week before the show and banquet on Saturday. All in all we’ve driven a little over 800 miles so far. The truck is using a little more oil than I anticipated, but I have been pushing it harder than it typically sees. I’m getting 12-14 mpg on this trip so far. It could probably be better, but I can live with it. I’m considering going through the carb again this winter to inspect the function of the step-up plunger and idle-delay plunger. Maybe I can squeeze a little more MPG out of it.

Day 3; Not much driving today. Just a little bit around the Opryland area, near our hotel. Visited Madame Tussaud’s wax museum and The Grand Old Opry. Then took an Uber downtown to visit the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Historic RCA Studio B, and the Johnny Cash Museum. Busy day. Lots of walking. But enjoyed it all. Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Louis, and Elvis Presley. (The Million Dollar Quartet) To keep it car related... Here is one of Elvis’ Solid Gold Cadillacs. And “The Bandit’s” Firechicken It was hard to get good pictures of the cars due to the museum lighting, and the glass that surrounded them.

Speaking of armadillos... I saw this one at the Country Music Hall of Fame gift shop and almost bought it for you. But I just tooka picture instead.

You going to replant the poison oak along a new hedgerow to keep your neighbor out? ?

Day 2; Brownsburg, IN to Nashville, TN. Truck ran fine, but the temp gauge was running a bit higher than normal. With temps in the 90’s, and some long pulls up the Kentucky hills, it was understandable. It never approached overheat territory, but I kept an eye on it. My fun moment of the day was watching the odometer roll up all 6’s. To bad we weren’t on Rt 66. 1 number off... we were on I-65. ? EDIT: Now that I look at the picture I can see that the first digit is a 5. ? Check back in another 10,000 miles...

With the marks like that you will have #6 in firing position. Rotate the crankshaft 1 full revolution and both marks should be at the top fo their respective sprockets. They will all line up through the center lines fo the shafts. This will be #1 TDC on compression stroke.

I’ve seen a couple of those in some DeSoto’s

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.