Jeff Balazs

Ha Ha! I can't believe I never thought about that..... I dump enough out of my pockets every day to do the job. I will tell you what though that semi fluid grease does the job just fine. The side benefit is that it is much less likely to leak out too. Jeff

That is what I was thinking too. From the reading I have done this seems likely. Jeff

Merle; Garonteed to put a smile or at least a S$%T eating grin on your face every time you hear it. Goes back to the 70's......you youngsters missed out on some reel gud music you know. Look it up....very catchy lyrics. Pure Prairie League was part of a music genre that spawned the likes of the Eagles.....Poco (my favorites)....and the Outlaws to name a few. In my opinion we all need a theme song.......and this one could be all yours. Jeff btw.....probably no surprise here as I am not a fan of noise.....you get a big thumbs down on that turn signal racket from me. Heck I even switched over to semi fluid grease in my transmission......works a treat on reducing gear box whine.

Nice........but you could really use some theme music. Look up the band Pure Prairie League......They have the perfect tune...it's called "I'll fix your flat tire Merle"........."don't get your sweet country pick'n fingers all covered with earl" Jeff

Welcome to the group Paul. Your truck looks like a great starting point for a project. Have fun with it......and don't worry about obsessing on it. Most of us have a bit of that in us. Jeff

Just a guess.....but he was sounding fairly frustrated. Maybe he is just taking a break before he tackles it again? Ralph......you ought to keep an eye open for an AJS or Matchless. They are out there......just sort of depends on what you want. A buddy of mine wanted a restored one several years ago. He got a pretty nice Matchy from Oz via Ebay. Nice solid complete runner for a decent price. I built mine the hard way......bits and pieces. Started with an engine out of a attic in Iowa. I built mine as a period desert sled. Gathered the parts from all over the world. Took a year and a half but it was really fun and I still have friends all over the place. In my opinion the ones built in the late 40's and early 50's are the sweetest runners. The later bikes have higher compression and lighter flywheels.......they make more power but are not as forgiving to ride. Jeff

It is simple if you stop and think about it. The color I chose to paint my truck made a huge difference. The dark traditional colors just absorb more heat. Looks nice but not a real good choice when it comes to a hot environment. All you have to do is put your hand on my truck after it has been sitting out in the sun for a while then go find a dark blue, green or red one and put your hand on it. And just forget about black. The insulation I have added to mine serves a few purposes. It helps prevent any heat absorbed by the sheet metal from being transmitted into the airspace of the cab. It also keeps the heat generated by the engine out of the cab. I have used a combination of several products.......and I went at with the goal of having the coolest and quietest cab possible. Honestly I seriously doubt if anyone has done as much work on this aspect of their truck as I have. I have four separate products in use on the entire floor of my truck. Rubberized bedliner.....Hushmat Ultra.......at least a double layer of foil bubble type insulation and rubber floormat or rubberized carpet. And that includes the area behind and under the seats. I cant tell you exact degrees or decibels that this all adds up to.......but I will put it up against any other Pilothouse truck in it's effectiveness. Heck I even went after the back side of the dash and the glove box. It all adds up. Jeff

Congrats John. Sounds like you found a true keeper.......although you might want to keep an eye on the drooling thing. Jeff

Because I live in a hot climate and I built my truck to be my daily driver.... I took the task of adding insulation to the cab very seriously. Multiple layers of different materials.....everywhere. I also chose a cool color instead of one of the more common stock colors. Big difference there. The third thing I did to help with this is the addition of the factory fresh air kit. It all works together very nicely. I can park it out in the sun on a hot day with all the widows closed and get right in and go....without getting scorched. I have so much insulation on the firewall and cowl area I don't get any discernible heat from the engine compartment into the cab either. It was a lot of extra work and cost me quite a bit but it was totally worth it. Jeff

Ledfootslim; Look up reading a vacuum gauge online. There are some very good tutorials. It should become very apparent how useful one of these gauges will be to you. In my opinion they belong in every mechanics kit. It can tell you more about your engine than just about any other single tool you have. If everything is set up and working correctly you should see a very steady reading of about 18" to 21" at idle. A vacuum gauge can tell you all sorts of info on the actual running condition of your engine. Sticking valves......vacuum leaks... etc....etc. I like them so much I have one permanently fitted with the gauge mounted on my steering column so I can tell if all is well at a glance. You may want to take another look at your carburetor. Did you fit the correct slotted gasket at the base to allow vacuum from the manifold to operate the step-up circuit in the carb ? There is a small hole in the base of the carb that feeds up into the step-up chamber. This needs to be clear and should be tested. Is the step-up piston and rod working smoothly. These can hang up due to wear or corrosion in the carburetor body. Either of these faults would have a negative impact on performance. Jeff

True when I did mine I was cleaning up several things at the same time. I stand corrected. Jeff

You will need to pull the oil pan to get to a couple of the bolts.....but it can be done. Jeff

Ledfootslim; great name btw..... You could try rechecking the point gap..set at .020"?...new condenser.....how is the rotor and the inside of the cap? any sign of arcing? What is your timing set at? Have you pit a vacuum gauge on it? It should read between 18" and 21" at idle. What shape is the carb in? How about the exhaust system? Any blockage would put you down on power. Just a few things it could be. Hth. Jeff

Hey Tim; Thanks buddy. Glad you enjoyed it I guess I should learn to use that button more often myself. I will admit that I "resist" more often than I probably should. Suppose it is a cranky "old school" guy thing. You know? Like you never want to make anyone feel too good about themselves.......then they start thinking they are something special. Can't have that......right? Maybe I just have a ingrown tendency to always hold back some? Like "Hey that Tim is a great guy!........................when he's sleeping". Jeff

Don; That is a real "duesey" of an article. I brought this up in this topic to highlight the importance of having the correct tools available when working on a project made in a foreign country that uses a different set of standards. I don't imagine our friend in Africa has a lot of sources for this aspect of his project but I suppose I could be wrong. At any rate I have been through this myself with projects in the past and it can stop you in your tracks until you get the right stuff. One of the truly interesting aspects of that article is the reference to how and why certain standards are adopted, changed and dropped. People these days seem to think that our modern standards and forms are better than what was used years ago. In reality it is more about politics and the egos of engineering societies than it is about what form is best for the application. IMO we would be using some form of Whitworth today if the selection of standards was based on using the best for the job at hand. In it's day the British Motorcycle industry was at the top of the game. Anyone interested in technical innovation and real applied engineering would enjoy a study of what they built in the period from just before WW1 until around the mid 50's. The economic hardships they suffered as a result of WW2 and the lack of investment capital after the war is what brought them down. But prior to their collapse the built some truly interesting and fantastic machines. If you have worked on some of this machinery you may be familiar with the significance of their approach to thread form selection and the use of specially engineered fasteners. One very important aspect is the use of several different size fasteners with a thread count of 22 TPI. In the early days of m/c manufacturing fasteners loosening up due to vibration was a problem. Studies were undertaken that pointed at the fact that this was less likely to happen when a 22 TPI thread was used. As a result you will find fasteners in the most commonly used sizes of 1/4" to about 5/8" dia. all share the 22 TPI thread pattern. And guess what it works extremely well. Jeff

Sorry about what you have found. I guess it could have been caused by blockage in that part of the cooling system ? I am a bit surprised that you did not see high temperature readings on the gauge to go along with all this but I suppose it could have been localized and did not show. ? Also it is hard for me to imagine that a hole between the cooling passage and an oil gallery would not have allowed a bit of coolant into the oil pan at some point. You would think that after shut down some coolant would have made it's way into the oil. I am relatively new to these engines so I will defer to those with more knowledge on the subject. Either way I think it is a good idea to true up the mating surface of the intake manifold if you are going to reuse it. It has a fairly small mating surface and an air leak at one branch might not show up as anything visible to the eye. Years ago I had an small OHV 4 cylinder engine with a similarly configured intake manifold develop an air leak at one branch. Before I was aware of what was happening the heat caused by this leak removed a pie shaped section of the exhaust valve just as neat as a lazer. When I nursed it home and pulled the head the discoloration and cracking around the exhaust valve looked very similar to your photos. Jeff Edited......was thinking exhaust but typed intake.

Tom; Probably timing but there is one thing on the carb you could check. Take a close look at the step up piston to see if it is hanging up. These 60 year old carbs seem to develop a bit of roughness in the chamber the step up piston rides in......can prevent the step up jet from working properly. If it is stuck in the up position it will run way too rich. Also if you did not use the correct gasket at the base of the carb it will block the vacuum to the step up and do the same thing. The correct gasket has slots that allow vacuum from the manifold to go through a small hole in the base of the carburator. Hope this helps, Jeff

Some perspective: I used to be really involved with vintage British motorcycles. They had all sorts of imperial sized fasteners but there were many different thread forms. None of which were related to the forms used here. Not only did they employ different threads per inch counts but also a different thread pitch. Quite often I could purchase the correct taps and dies and even heli-coil sets here from specialty tool suppliers. Most of the time though I had to get the fasteners themselves shipped over from England. I bring this up because there is nothing worse than an unreliable supplier when it comes to working on something like this. You can wait weeks on stuff ordered from an over-seas supplier only to find they have sent you the wrong thing or worse....rubbish. It is extremely frustrating. If you have a local specialty company I would suggest you use them. If they are reliable then continue to support them even if it costs a little more. It will be worth it to you in the long run.....and they are not getting rich doing this. Stock like this can sit on their shelves for ages. If you don't have anyone local then a firm like McMaster- Carr or Travers Tools is a safe and reliable bet for a decent value on your purchases. Hope this helps, Jeff

No doubt top speed and acceleration isn't very high up the list......but the endurance thing is very interesting to me. I don't really care to go too fast in one of these old trucks but I sure would be up for an endurance test on a twisty road type course. Give me a chance to really test out the 4 wheel disc's I put on it. 2-3 hour stints behind the wheel would probably be about it for the armstrong steering though. Jeff

I still think you should have kept Paul's truck as a companion Smoker when you had the chance..... Jeff

You are very welcome. Like Don says get a good quality set. You will probably use them all. This is a very important bit of kit ....especially considering your location. I can't imagine that US type fasteners etc are all that common there. Besides....I have a soft spot for anything Africa......my wife was actually born in Ethiopia. She is a keeper even if she does get a bit fierce at times. I have had my old set for many years. It gets used fairly often. I have had to replace certain items and have added to it as well. Some good additions include a nutcracker, a quality set of easy outs and several different sizes of NPT taps. They all got a good workout on my truck. Since you are so far from the source you may also want to have a decent thread repair file and a thread gauge. Jeff

You will need NF (National Fine) and NC (National Coarse) with the Lions' share being NF. 5 /16" - 24 & 3/8" - 24 got the most use on my truck. Hope this helps. Jeff

Maybe.....but I think the combination of bad door gaskets and carpet had quite a bit to do with it. Shame too as it was a 1 ton with a 9' bed and factory Poly V-8 / 4 speed. Would have been a great truck if it were not for the swiss cheese. Dave have fun with your new truck. It is very nice and you hardly ever see one. Jeff

Joe; I had a more modern truck that developed a pin hole leak. I did what I thought was going to be a temporary repair in the parking lot at work that day. Self tapping screw and a rubber washer. When I sold it many years later it still had that "repair" and it never leaked again either. Jeff

DJ; I don't know how much space Tim has? But I am certainly game for a dirt track version. Honestly I can't imagine anything more fun than something like this. Jeff