ggdad1951

I had a meeting....

heh, sat onthe phone w/ him for 20 minutes this AM, will be stopping by soon and sure feel he'll have a wealth of knowledge, he's already turned me on to other vendors I needed to find for other work! thanks for the contact!

might be a mold number, or some obscure code? Since castings are created way in advance of assemblies, they will put the production date on them in case there is a problem down the road so they can identify which lot might have issues. If the numbers are raised UP I'd say they are from the casting mold and are not indiciative of anything exept the mold date. If they are engraved IN the casting they MIGHT be put in after casting and refer to some other date an operation was performed on the part.

heh, that's MY plan for things!

or it disintegrated like things like that did on mine!

ok cool, and thanks again, I take Friday's off all summer so I have some time to "kill" and do stuff like this. Seems this year Fridays aren't for biking and lazing in the hammock, but for driving and cursing at old truck parts!

agreed, generally the stamping on castings is from the casting date/mold production date and not the assembly date of the final product. This is a pretty general rule for any casting.

What's the shop's name? Would they do it while I wait? The gf lives in Mounds View. And driving is no big deal. Friday I hauled the rear diff from Circle Pines to Zumbrota!

ok, thanks. yah, that was my thought, one time buy would not be cheap.

anyone have an idea of where to by a reamer for the bushings?

well, to get ALL the parts I had to get two different kits from NAPA, one didn't have the bearings and the other didn't have the bolt lock...what a racket! But now I can choose between the brass and the nylon since I have BOTH!

thanks guys! REALLY appreciate the help for this novice here! I got the parts and reciept and will hit up NAPA armed with this new knowledge over the lunch hour! And here I was hoping I'd be able to put my first parts back toegether last night!

ok, I'm scratchin' the ole noggin here....I can't find anything in the old posts (or I don't know how to search them properly) I went to NAPA, looked up a kingpin rebuild kit via the truck serial number and came up with PN 262-1451. It HAS the right parts for the most part as well as several extra parts. I have two questions, one philisophical and one practical. The old bushings in the king pin are copper and nice and fancy, the rebuild kit comes with plastic...do I pound out the copper and replace with the plastic? I slipped the new kingpin in and little to no play, since I'm in there tho....thoughts from anyone on this? on to the practical question: there is a bearing in there, the rebuild kit did not come with one, I'm going to NAPA tomorrow to see if they have it, or should it be in the kit?

very nice!

has anyone ever tried to contact Dodge directly about old prints/drawings or material specs? If so, any contact info?

yes, acetone is a SOLVENT! I'd think it'd take some paint off, but thinned down it might be a little more ok.

I've had really good luck with the "shmutz" (as my buddies and I call it) from NAPA w/ the yellow top. Spray it on, let it soak, wire brush the crud off, respray, wait, spray, wait (+ maybe some torch heat) and most came off pretty clean. I think in my WHOLE truck (except for the bed board bolts) we only sheared off 4 bols with that method.

heh, just wait till the REAR spring pins/bolts! I worked on mine for a while! I was lucky, my truck came apart pretty easy, but I also have the nice scar on a knuckle from the skipping cut-off wheel! IMO, break/cut the bolts off and replace!

"YoungEd" here PM'd me he saw maybe a 47-48ish rear axle, would that be the same by chance as the 51 1 ton? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?

I'll have to try and figure mine out as well, hard to do since I don't have it in hand right now! what I know is this: my truck is a 4 speed manual that won't go much faster then 50mph, so if that helps anyone figure this puppy out....

I meant that if the rear diff is in good shape, I'd take the whole rear diff (which, while not cheap could be shipped), just not the axle housing (which would be the INSANE shipping cost). But I'd want to know the parts I need are good in that rear diff.