bkahler

As I was inspecting the pumpkin last night I found this gooey white paste on the back side of the ring gear carrier. I'm sure it's a remnant of what I thought was white lithium grease that was found inside the teeth of the ring gear. What is odd about it is it doesn't feel like any sort of grease, more like a paste substance. I haven't tried wiping any of it away just yet, I'll deal with that tomorrow when I take it out of the bath to be hosed down. Would this be a remnant of whatever paste that was used for setting the clearances?

I kinda forgot you've still got the rest of the body to deal with! I've been known to get a project to a certain point and then start enjoying it only to never go back and finish.......

As expected it's looking really good I''m assuming you're not going to paint the truck right now, what are your plans for the bare metal you've been welding in place?

Merle, Your's is the first one I've seen that also has the extra overload springs installed. Based on the picture it looks like you might have a few more leafs in the lower stack. I think my lower stack has 6 and the upper has 7 leafs. Brad

Crap. No matter how hard I try too two take steps forward it seems that I end up taking one step back instead. Back when I was doing my springs I sandblasted them and then painted them with the Miracle Paint and the the Chassis paint. Now it seems the correct thing to do would be dismantle the springs again, strip the paint and install Delrin liners. ?

I'm wondering how my trucks going to ride with this leaf spring stack

Jeff, I actually took a slightly different tact. I painted each leaf with Bill Hirsch's Miracle Paint and then painted them with his Chassis Black paint. After that I drilled the end of the 2nd from top leaf on each end and inserted a plastic button as used on modern leaf springs. I have no idea if that's a good combination but it was the best I could come up with 20 years ago! I'm not sure how many drill bits I ruined drilling through those springs but I know the hardware store owner was always happy to see me Brad

I'm liking this

Jeff, I believe when used properly they are actually a benefit. Gaiters And more Gaiters

Many English cars back in the day had leather coverings for leaf springs. As a matter of fact there is still a company in England making rubber covers for various cars. I would think if a person was ambitious enough he could make his own leather coverings. I've toyed with the idea for some of my cars over the years but never got ambitious enough to actually do it

This scenario sounds more like what probably happened. I checked the spline count and the axles and there are 10 splines. I believe Don Bunn stated the change from 10 to 16 took place in 1952. Mine is a 51 so that seems to add up. Now about time travel........

Merle, I had always thought my truck was all original but you've sure done a good job of blowing holes in that theory! I guess the first clue was when JB pointed out that I had a Desoto radiator The u-joints had always baffled me as to why I had Cleveland style when everyone seemed to think they should be Spicer. Your theory sounds very plausible. I wish there was an easy way to eliminate the Cleveland joint on the differential but that would require a different driveshaft. Of course I still need to buy the Cleveland u-joint so maybe that money would be better spent finding a different driveshaft and then finding a way to source a Spicer pinion yoke. So many things to think about. Thanks for the info. Brad

So even with a mounting adapter it's still slightly shorter than the stock MC. That's good to know. Thanks!

Got it. I'm looking forward to Friday.....! Thanks, Brad

Thanks for the link, I think things are slowly starting to gel in my thick skull I guess now I wait until Friday when I can flush the unit out and start inspecting. Thanks! Brad

Up to this point I assumed it came original with the truck. The truck was not a fluid drive, at least there were no holes in the hoods for the Fluid Drive badge.

Merle, There is a lot about these swap combinations on these old vehicles that I'm not familiar with. I was under the impression that 1951 was the first year 3:73 was available in the trucks. I was also under the impression that car axles had a different spline count than truck axles. If some PO swapped in a 3:73 from a car wouldn't that mean they would have to swap axles as well? I've never counted the splines on my axles but can do that tonight. If I remember right my truck is something like the 2000th truck made in 51. Would it be possible the Cleveland style of joints were still being used early in the B3 era? Would the part numbers cast into the pumpkin housing be different between cars and trucks? Maybe that would help determine if a diff change was made. Thanks! Brad

Anyone know how long the Cherokee MC is?

As I've been doing research on my driveshaft, differential, transmission and u-joints I get more and more confused. My 51 B3B came to me with a 4-speed spur type transmission where the floor plate cover had obviously been hacked for the shifter tower. The steering column showed signs that there should have been a shifter mechanism there and the column floor seal had the opening in it for the shifter rod. So obviously my truck originally had a 3-speed. As I was collecting parts I opted for the later 4-speed New Process 420 gearbox with syncros. This change led to an issue with the 420 transmission end yoke u-joint. It was a Spicer style where the old transmission had the Cleveland style. This is where I get confused. It seems that most references I read indicate that the 51s and later used the Spicer u-joints at the diff and the transmission. If this is the case then why did my truck have a Cleveland u-joint at the differential? I have read of people dropping in Cherokee differentials where the driveshaft bolts right up. The only way that would happen is if the diff was already configured for Spicer u-joints. See my confusion? Brad

Good point.

The Speedway motors mc is 8" long. The original mc on my truck is 6-1/2" from the mounting point to the end of the pipe plug. Unfortunately I don't have the steering column installed yet to know if there would be clearance issues.

Attached is a page out of the service manual. The way I understand it is I need to mark the caps and the adjusters, loosen the bearings cap bolts and remove assembly. Upon reassembly I use the adjusters to re-align the marks. Is that the gist of it? Thanks! Brad

No. It's part of the water pump. Your new pump will have the hub installed.

Actually the hub is part of the water pump. When you buy a new water pump it comes with the hub. Are you thinking the hub is part of the fan and you're trying to remove it from the 1/2" diameter shaft? Here's a picture of what you're end up with when the fan is removed.

If that's the case then you just need to spray and wiggle, spray and wiggle. Get one of your kids to do it, that ought to keep one of em busy!