mechresto

Troy, pull your carb and inspect the sides of the throttle butterfly for wear near the throttle shaft, if no wear/slight wear is found loosen both screws slightly and recenter butterfly. if significant wear then of course butterfly replacement is in order. common problem, easy fix and no extra springs

@ $15 inc freight, does your machinist work for free? if he does, tell him I've got plenty of small run jobs for him!

Steve It all hinges upon the magic numbers contained on your data plate. my one b series is a gravel truck, 27000 lbs of gravel in the back is a good load. my other B flatbed will handle 4 cords of green red oak @ 4000# per cord and it's a 1.5 ton. I guess what I'm saying is this : what they'll carry is not whats listed so you can't go by that to figure a gross weight. you need to use your data plate. My flatbed was also a one owner, a fire dept in southern minnesota, 4000 miles on it, original tires and runs like a top Bryan

A relay wired into your hot lead or ground lead, which one is of personal preference, will work just fine. cut the lead, wire to both main terminals and run the trigger wire to key switch. Unless key is on there's no power to anywhere on the vehicle. There's many relays (solenoids) to choose from but try to get one that requires very little amperage to keep it in the energized position. It runs a pull in winding and a hold winding. any partsman worth his salt will be able to set you up. Bryan

in the yrs 1949-1970 they used two different aspect ratios. these measurements are based on the "90" series aspect ratio (the most common) for early tires, later bias ply used a lower number "80" series aspect which resulted in a shorter tire. first are the called widths then the tire OD, then actual widths for standard pre-64 Bias ply tires. 4.75/5.00-16, 24.13, 3.94 5.00/5.25-16, 26.80, 5.00 5.50-16, 26.90, 5.25 6.00-16, 26.36, 6.25 6.50-16, 29.30, 6.80 7.50-16, 31.45, 8.20 8.25-16, 32.45, 8.80 to get a modern radial to fit a 6.50-16 with close to the original height/width you have but one choice LT225/75R16 (29") Hope this is what you need Bryan PS the fellers at coker tire have always been a help to me when converting bias to radial. it's not just about size, it's application

Go here for vehicle weights with and without options, should be enough to get your info. http://www.dodgepilothouseclub.org/know/salesmans_models/imgcol/index.htm Bryan

agree with the bad ground diagnosis, however I have run across bulb holders that would accept the bulb in either orientation which does the same thing...tail circuit thru bright side and brake thru dim side, made me scratch my head. Bryan

there are differences in the 4 speed units for the 1/2, 3/4, 1T+ trucks dependant upon year....... '37-'45 1/2 & 1T spur gear '39-'45 3/4T """"""""" '48-'50 1/2 thru 1T spur gear with parrallel plug case#1195972, and spur gear with 30deg drain plug case #1268027. these two interchange by swapping MDG and retainer '51-'53 1/2 thru 1T helical gear case #1393364 '44-56 1/2 - 1t spur gr case #1194253 '46-'53 pwr wgn spur gr case #921853 '48-'54 rte van spur gr case #1261863 '53,'54 1/2 , 3/4 truckomatic 4spd helical gear. case #1134931, 1137315, 1137365, 1400079 as was mentioned in another post, neither the top loader or the side loader 3 spd transmisions share anything with any 4 spd. Bryan

Hurd key is correct. My '49 B series is new (sat in a firehall for it's entire life) and has the hurd keyset. Bryan

'52 1/2-3T came with 3 different carbs, dependant on driveline config and engine designations here they are... Stromberg 380261 (BXVD3) Dodge truck '49-'52 RTE VAN .....................................Dodge truck '49-'52 D series 1T Carter DTE1 & DTE2 Dodge truck STD TRANS '49-'54 ............DTG1 - Fluid Drive Dodge truck '49 - '54 ............Eng I"D are T112, T113, T125, T306 for 1/2T .............Eng ID are T114, T115, T308 for 3/4T .............'52, '53 B3D 1T w/fluid drive Carter DLT1, DLT2 Dodge Truck '53-'54 1/2 - 3/4T w/fluid coupling & m6 trans BXUV3 carb is a stromberg 380849 and came on '41- '50 dodge truck WC, WD15, WD20, WD21B&C 1/2 - 3/4T BXVD3 carb is a stromberg 380261 see above. Bryan Mechanical Restorations

Have you tested your heat riser? sounds like it's stuck in the closed position, which will anwer up the exact result youre experiencing. thru warmup runs fine, when heat riser should open it doesnt causing fuel to boil in carbs and sputter, once it cools for a bit it runs well till temp rise. and well lather rinse repeat!

There is absolutely no benefit to swapping polarity, instead the inverse takes place, starter performance will diminish, it gets a little heady with the engineering calculations but boils down to this, DC current flows one way and the engineers at chryco, ford, chev, and 99% of the old car truck and tractor manufacturers took advantage of this. with pos ground there is more power available to the starter and other accessories. a few manufacturers even kept pos ground when the changeover to 12v took place. There are several models of chryco vehicles that were equipped with 6v neg ground as standard, if memory serves it was ambulance and police. presumeably for compatability issues with the radio communications. The regulator is one component that will also need to be changed as well if converting to neg grd. In 40+ years of working on old vehicles i've only seen one come thru the shop with neg grd as standard. Bryan

In a nutshell, no 3spd or 4spd, in high gear they both run straight thru 1to1 so there are no changes to the top end speed however the lower end is slower on the 4spd.

Sorry Merle Did'nt know you were working with 6V ! But anyhoo here's the relay that you need with 6V, the other that I posted is for 12v sorry. http://www.aecsensors.com/DG85.pdf On the bottom of the page is the configurator, everything on the page is what the options are for the relay. You spec it, they put it together. Pricing is very reasonable usually $3-$5. They've saved my butt on several occasions. Some older farm equipment has relays that are getting hard to find, Along with older volkswagon, triumph etc. Bryan

Merle Did a bunch of detective work and I find that what once was a very uncommon failure has now, due to cheapening of construction, become a very common problem. the failure of brakelight switches. It seems that in the past the inner workings of the brakeswitch were far more robust, the contacts were larger and employed a wiping action when engaged. That wiping reduced the arcing and kept the contact area clean. The common "workaround" is to install a relay. The brakeswitch is still used but only to fire the relay using far less current. Heres a link to a place that has what u need (hopefully) Bryan http://www.watsons-streetworks.com/relays.html

Guys The condenser doesn't care whether it's inside or out of the distributor case. What does matter though is that for it to do it's job it MUST be mounted close to the points. It has two functions, one- to absorb the electricity when the points just open thereby protecting points and, two- to send that electricity back to the coil the very instant the magnetic field collapses and generate more spark. In 40+ years of wrenching I've only had about a dozen condensers go bad, those were due to heat and vibration, a manufacturing error on the equipment. If you're popping so many condensers that you need to mount them out of the dist body you've got issues elsewhere, such as coil wired backwards, wrong coil, wrong MFD or capacity condenser for the system, bad grounds at the distributor and block to chassis, plug wire leakage and arcing back into the cap and internals etc. Bryan

Kevin If the crankshaft broke under a severe load, check the line bore of your engine, guaranteed to be out of tolerance. The tremendous stresses that are involved when a crank breaks will shift the block. If your block is already at max manufacturer size (.060 over) the best thing you can do is harvest your block for all useable parts and scrap it. At the point where you are now you're going to be throwing good money after bad, cut your losses and get another block/engine. Sell your harvested parts to help fund the purchase. Bryan

4MULA It appears that either you have either mis-identified your engine as a 251, OR you have the pistons from a '52 Chrysler C51-1 or C51-2 265 in your 251, or you have a 254. The pistons from the '52 C51-1 and C51-2 engines are the only ones that I have found that came with a three ring pistons.(Chiltons auto repair manual 1953 pp414) There could be other years but my books don't show anything. the bore diameter is correct at 3 7/16 and the wrist pin diameter is useable at .8594 which is only .0001 larger than the normal 4 ring piston. There is another reference, here it is -- "Dodge TR. '49-'53 using replacement engine 254". (Hollander 23rd ed, sect 7 pp37 col 1) To me that means if the stock engine was replaced with a factory supplied engine,you recieved a 254 with 3 ring pistons. Another reference: Note: "Dodge shows that late '54-'56 used a piston of a different part number from the late '53 thru early '54, but replacement parts manufacturers sell the late '53-early '54 piston for the late '54 - '56 jobs. Compare these pistonscarefully before interchanging." (Hollander 23 ed, sect 7 pp36 col 3) There is one more difference in the application that may or may not have anything to do with your situation. The stroke from the C51 engines is 1/4 inch longer, 251 @ 4 1/2 inches 265 @ 4 3/4 inches, where the referenced 254 falls with it's stroke is anyone's guess as I have nothing that lists the 254 engine. Is the wristpin to piston top dimension different than that of a 251 or 265? Is the 254 merely a 251 with the C51 265 pistons in it? Is Don Coatney reading this? Don perhaps you can shed some light?? Bryan

Here's my '49. sat for 60 yrs in a firehall, original tires 4300 miles, runs like a new one and it should ! it is.

One thing to remember guys, these charging systems with the exception of police, route van and ambulance, dont charge at idle speed they are set up that way. If your engine is idling you can energize the system by manually closing the contacts but it will open them in a short time. Polarizing the generator does two things, 1-it gives the field windings a weak residual magnetic field, 2-it sets up the field windings to the proper north south orientation in the gen. Polarization must be done with the engine off to achieve proper orientation of the coils, if done when running, 90% of the time it will just scramble that orientation. Regulators are not hard to set up just follow the directions and take your time, and remember that autolite systems must be tested with the regulator cover screwed in place, the cover is an integral part of the magnetic field telling the regulator what to do. Adjust it, put the cover on and test it. If any of you want the flowchart to test/isolate/diagnose charging systems or if theres a place to post it on the site let me know Bryan

If you had the battery out for winter storage then just repolarize the system, not uncommon for the circuit to lose polarization. Bryan

Here's hoping it works this time. The truck sat in a firehall basically unused, 4300 miles, it had a pump mounted on it presumeably to fill tankers? The gentleman I bought it from couldn't seem to sell it as no one would believe him as to the actual mileage, one test drive and i gave him what he was asking and drove it home. The red paint is peeling off all over the truck revealing the original Blue underneath Bryan

Looks like you've already been down the road i'm trying to travel ! advice well taken, am going to keep my eyes open for an OD trans though as most of my driving is empty to light loads (< 1.5tons) I use it for shop use and take it on service calls. It never fails to bring a smile.

Thank you very much. The clark 204VO trans used in gmc,and a few others has the same guts but slightly different case and MDG, thats why i was inquiring as to your case numbers. theres a few junkyards near me with gutted cases. see where i'm headed? if I can find a case, I can use the majority of the internals from the more common clark units to build a trans. It's either that or wait another 15 yrs for one to show up....

Dodgeb4ya, would you do me a favor? could you post or email me the trans numbers off your five speed? that info will help me immensly in my search. the case numbers will tell me in which direction I have to continue looking, ie studebaker, gmc, etc.etc.