Jeff Balazs

Good luck with this. I am certain that several of us will chime in to help you with questions. A couple of comments I would like to add. If you are going to do this make sure you get the parking brake to work correctly. using a block of wood etc....is not a real world solution. It is true that having the FD does make for a nice driving experience. It will lug down to next to nothing in 3rd and accelerate without a shudder. Not quickly but it will do it. It is also nice when taking off from a stop on a hill. You will however need to keep track of all the component lengths when putting something like this together. And have a FD that has not been damaged by incorrect handling when it was taken off the donor vehicle. Hth, Jeff

When I have had situations like this involving nightmare wiring I have found that it is simply better to tear it out and start from scratch. Wiring one of these trucks is a pretty simple job. There is plenty of info on this site. Spend some time planning it out and it will be pretty painless. When you do this you will end up knowing and understanding the entire system. You can easily switch it over to negative ground during the process. Jeff

I put a 2002 Grand Cherokee rear axle with 12" discs on the rear and a rustyhope disc kit on the front of my 3/4 ton B series. No booster needed. In more than 25,000 miles I have not had to touch the braking system. If you are going to drive the truck much in traffic this mod is a real confidence booster. Jeff

After trying a few different plugs I settled in on using NGK BR6S plugs in my truck along with a set of Belden resistor type wires. I found the NGK plugs to burn the cleanest of those that I tried. They run a perfect medium tan color in my truck. All the others showed sooty black grey. I have always found that NGK has an optimum plug for just about anything. As I mentioned earlier getting the carburation just right took more effort than setting up the ignition system. My truck has FD and came with B & B equipped with a dashpot. No matter what I did with the original Carb I couldn't get it to run right. I lucked upon a NOS B & B on Ebay that was better but took several attempts to get it set just right. Now that it is right as it should be I help keep it that way with two modern sealed fuel filters in the system. And regular doses of MMO in the fuel tank. I don't care what anybody says about MMO the stuff works great as a fuel additive. Hth. Jeff

I can only say what I said before ........ these engine are in general in a very soft state of tune. Typical side valve characteristics. When I first got my truck running I played around with the spark gap. Going from .035" to .045" made absolutely no difference in the way the truck ran. My Pertronix set up was...... and still is working flawlessly. I had far more issues in getting the carburation working properly. Once I got that corrected my truck has been a joy to use. Never any issues starting right up and running properly. I have used it as my every day driver for the past 6 years. And that is what it is all about. Jeff

My truck has a fluid drive 4 speed. It was original to the truck so I kept it. It works just fine but there is more to it than a standard type clutch and transmission. Yes it is a bit easier to drive in heavy traffic.....but I wouldn't fit one to a non FD truck without very good reason. And yes the parking brake is an absolute. Jeff

These engines are in a very soft state of tune for the most part. It does not take a super hot spark to keep them happy. The real benefit of using a module like this is fewer moving parts... avoiding sub par points and condensers...and the inside of the distributor cap and rotor stay much cleaner. This is why I converted mine.....and it never fails to start and run right. Day in...day out. Jeff

Between the cab mounts and the front and rear engine mounts there is a fair amount of fine tuning that can be done. I had mine apart for over a year and ran into stuff like this. I found that a "little here and a little there" methodology worked well to correct things like this. Jeff

I get it and I think what Plymouthy suggests would solve the "look" thing. I am a reliability kind of guy and I make most of my decisions based on what I think is going to give me the most. I don't do car shows or even open the hood for just about anyone. It is just the way I am. I have made several mods like this to my truck and all I can say is that for the most part they have made the driving experience better.

If it was mine I would get the matched coil from Pertronix. I have this set up in my daily driver and couldn't be happier with the way it performs. If you take the time to do all this correctly I think you will find that it is a solid investment. Jeff

I had to make the same sort of modification to my distributor when I decided to put a pertronix module in my truck. It bothered me at the time. But it has not bothered me since. 😀 I have been using my truck daily for 6 years now......and this unit has been flawless. No way am I ever going back to P & C........ Jeff

Hi Ed; I like what you did there. I may do something similar with the rustic walnut I used for my bed. It lives outside all of the time and the water based poly I used has almost entirely lifted. I will probably tackle it sometime this fall.....but I don't want to disassemble it. Just clean up stain and then oil. Jeff

This is just a suggestion. Have you had these tires and wheels spun balanced recently. Might be worth a look see to see if anything is amiss with them. Jeff

Not absolutely positive but it seems to me that there might be a difference between the early cabs and the later cabs as far as wiper linkage goes? Seems to me I remember something about the later (52/53) wiper linkage not being a direct fit on an earlier cab. I know I asked some questions about the set I bought off ebay before pulling the trigger. Jeff

If I remember correctly there was someone on this site that converted from factory vacuum to factory electric wipers without too much fuss. It was maybe 5 or 6 years back if you do a search. I bought a complete working spare set off ebay back around then for a $125. Jeff