Jeff Balazs

Interesting little mystery. I have run into a few things like this over the years.......and there is usually a reasonable explanation at the end. My guess is that it has something to do with the initial assembly process.....perhaps an indexing fixture or some step used to speed up assembly at the plant. I had a fascinating experience years ago when I was working on an antique British bike that belonged to a friend of mine. He had found a competition bike made by the factory back in the early 50's. When he got it ...it had been sitting for many years and would not turn over. When we tore it down we found some special witness marks and studs that were not part of the assembly on a standard road engine. This was in the days before the internet and I had to call over to England to get parts for this rare bird. In taking with the parts man I found out that we could determine exactly who had assembled this engine just by the way the witness marks were made. It turned out that we had an engine that had been assembled by one of the greatest trials riders of all time. Gordon Jackson won many championships and still holds the unbelievable distinction of being the only man to ever finish the Scottish Six days Trial with a one point deduction. Turns out that in those days when you rode for the factory you also worked in the factory. Because there were never more than 4 or 5 workers assembling engines in the competition dept. and they were all specialists it was pretty easy to figure out who built what. Jeff

Not sure if this helps but the parts book calls for 8 bolts all the same size. Jeff

Barry; Your truck is really going to be beautiful. And of course when you start with a 3/4 ton you have the best proportions of the whole lot. I have been watching your progress since I joined the forum and have always admired the build quality you have exhibited. Keep it up. I have heard from several people that the recovery time is 6-8+ weeks. I just can't do that......I would lose my business. I sure wish that the doctors would come up with a surgery that had a shorter down time........maybe I could get one to use quick setting epoxy. Jeff

Barry; That looks amazing! You are going to have one sweet truck when you are done. Jeff I have been working with a hernia for about 4 years now. Not fun. What is the recovery time like after surgery?

Joe; It appears that I may have spoken out of turn. I did not attempt to use an original M/C so my comments are probably not valid to your situation. What ever you end up doing make sure you do some panic stop testing under safe conditions. This should be done early on. Any time brakes are being modified it is important to make certain that you have a proper balance between the front and the rear. Jeff

Joe; I did not install residuals on the rears. I put a Grand Cherokee rear axle that has 12" discs with a M/C from the same model Jeep. I added a Wilwood proportioning valve and a pair of their 2# residual valves for the front end. The residual valves gave me problems from the get go. When I spoke with friends who build cars all the time they told me to remove the residuals as they were totally unnecessary and would cause the brakes to drag and wear prematurely. Just as soon as I removed them the brakes started working as I expected. The proportioning valve works fine and is a good idea. It is adjustable and is used to balance the braking between front and rear. Before I began making adjustments the rears would lock up well before the fronts. Jeff

Don; 218s were standard fair in the smaller Pilothouse trucks. Even the ones with a FD like mine. I am pretty certain Merle's truck is a 218 FD. My T-342 230 serial # traces back to a heavier 54 "F" series dump truck originally. As far as I can tell it would not have been coupled to a FD so some mods were done at some time. What all was done I don't know.......but I suspect the carb and manifolds,etc were just taken off the 218 and bolted onto the 230. I am not an expert on the subject but the truck engines (T series) were supposedly a little different internally than the auto engines. Jeff

I ran into this problem when I added discs to my truck. Get rid of those 2# valves and things will work just fine. Jeff

Hi James; I did go through the process of verifying that the jets, etc....that were in the carb matched what was spec'd. There are a few things that complicate this though. First off my truck is a fluid drive.......so it has a dash pot DTG1 Carter. I found some info on what jets were supposed to be in this and what I have match's this. But there is another wrinkle. The original engine a 218 was replaced with a later 230 which has been bored out. I don't know how much difference this makes.........but it stands to reason that the optimum settings could be a bit different for the larger engine. From what I could see the accelerator pump arm did not look as if it had been messed about with. The engine internals are in very good shape. It has good compression and runs very quietly. The one issue I have had with it is that it always seemed to be running on the rich side. Try as I may I couldn't find what was causing it to run rich.......until I read your posting about the potential issue with the step up piston hanging up. When I was addressing this I put the accelerator pump rod into the shortest stroke hole......thinking that might be beneficial. Fixing that step up piston has made a big difference. It no longer smells as if it is running rich and it definitely runs better when it is cold. I think now I will try the middle position on the accelerator pump and see if that restores the snappier acceleration I had before all this. I suspect that with the slightly larger displacement engine it might need a bit more fuel than it is getting on the lowest setting. Jeff

Hi James; As usual another interesting topic. One of your earlier posts helped me sort out a problem I had with the step up piston function. It seems to have been hanging in the up position. Thanks..... I was finally able to make sense of what was happening and get this sorted out. I recently reset the accelerator pump linkage to the shortest stroke hole on my truck. I did this because it has been so hot here this year and supposedly this is the summer setting. I have noticed that it definitely does not have as much oomph off the line now. I wonder if changing to this setting was a good idea? Where do you set this on your car? Is it really a bad thing to have it set in the higher position? Jeff

May the force be with you. Jeff

Honestly I would try a few applications of Corrosion stop on all those pivot points. I found that this stuff can wick into areas like this really well. At around 5$ a can it couldn't hurt to try it first. Jeff

Greg; Have you tried using PB Blaster Corrosion Stop? I really like the way this stuff works. Can't say enough good about it when used for this purpose. I used it extensively on my trucks springs etc. and got very good results. Try spraying it all down with this and take it out and really work the suspension. My truck had been sitting for many years so it took about 3 applications to get it worked well into the springs.....but what a difference now. I keep hearing guys complaining about harsh rides in their trucks but I think a lot of this is down to the old spring packs not moving like they should. This stuff got my springs freed up and they are quiet as well. Perfect stuff for the job. Jeff

Mark; Your story is very good. There are so many stories like it that help to paint a picture of what really went on. I am glad you found him. One thing that my father did not have trouble talking about was the conditions they had to fight under during the Battle of the Bulge. They had no winter clothes for most of the battle and little in the way of shelter. All the men suffered terribly. Experienced rifle companies were almost always way out on the perimeter ..... living and dying in holes they dug in the snow and ice. It was very desperate times. I have some of his letters home and even though they were censored some of the truth about their hardships and losses still come through. Dad hated being cold right up to his death. A couple of years ago one of my cousins came for a visit and brought some photos of Dad and his unit taken while they were deployed. Apparently they had been sent to some family member during the war. Among these photos was one that gave me a bit of a shock. It must have been taken as they returned from a patrol or some action. There was my Dad age 23 looking like he had just returned from fighting the entire German army. On the back of the photo was 'Hedgerows" and the caption "Gruesome Jim". I don't know who took the picture or anything else about the source but it really blew me away. I never saw it until after my Dad had passed away so it will forever remain a mystery. I am happy to say I never saw my father looking quite like that during my time with him. Jeff

I have definitely had a tough time with Memorial Day since Dad passed. It is not just his absence though. I knew a lot of fellows who served in WW2. My scout master Jim Heywood who was shot down over Germany and spent over a year in one of their camps. A big man when I knew him he said that when he was liberated he weighed less than 120#. Or my old boss and mentor Ernie Ramsay. 5 1/2 years on a Canadian destroyer escort making the run from Halifax to Scotland and then on to Murmansk. He once told me of being on watch during a huge storm in the north Atlantic and watching one another DE crest a monstrous wave and then plummet straight to the bottom with all hands. Then there was Ralph White the only survivor of the Subrmarine Wahoo. Ralph was an electricians mate and of very slight build. His job was to go under the decks on a trolley and check the batteries. Got caught in that position during a depth charging and when they limped into Midway for repairs he was put ashore and they went back out never to return. Ralph was a member of my wedding party. In the 80's while working in the engineering business I met and worked with on separate occasions 2 survivors of the Indianapolis disaster. These guys had stories that were almost too difficult to listen to. I was at least able to put the two of them in touch with each other. I doubt it helped them much but perhaps it may have. I had the good fortune to escort my Dad to the 60th anniversary ceremony of D- Day put on by the French Government at the Liberty ship in San Pedro in 2004. While there we met and talked at length with a medic with 101st Airborne. Dad's unit was among the first to make it into Bastogne to help relieve the 101st. They had no medical support and had to take their wounded to the medics of the 101st. As they spoke it became clear that they had actually met during this battle. I will never forget that conversation. All of these guys are gone now. Memorial Day has gotten a bit tougher with their passing. Jeff

James; You are right of course. Any obstructions or blockage and the flow rate could be quite a bit less. This is certainly a good case for maintaining the entire fuel system to a very high standard. It isn't just the age of our vehicles though that makes this important. Every time you fill up you run the very real risk of introducing all sorts of contaminants to the system. I have just seen too much of this. I have added a couple of large modern filter elements to my truck and plan on changing them often. Jeff

James; It would seem to me that this pump can more than handle things. I have a hard time imagining that these engines could even use a pint a minute under heavy load......let alone 3. Jeff

Amen; My dads ashes are sitting here right next to me. I had a long talk with him this morning. He landed at Normandy and went on to fight across France, Belgium and Germany. He was a First Sargent with a rifle company. Two Bronze stars and a Purple heart. He and his buddies will always be my hero's and who I think of on Memorial day. Jeff

Wilf; The compression readings you are getting do seem very low. But not so low as to necessarily keep this engine from starting. I suggest that if you truly are getting spark at the right time......and fuel..... that it should start. Try spraying some starting fluid (Ether) down the throat of the carb and then turn it over. If you get no indication that it is trying to start with ether in it then I put it to you that either the timing is set wrong or you have some other ignition problem. Years ago I owned a boat that had severe cold starting issues. It didn't matter what I did.....fresh plugs..... rebuilt carbs.. new ignition module... etc...etc.....It just wouldn't start when cold without a shot of ether. But when I gave it a quick shot of ether it would start right up. And then it ran just fine. No problem at all starting without ether once it was even slightly warm. I never did isolate the problem....but it ran fine that way for many years. I just had to make sure I always had a can of starting fluid on hand. Jeff

Well it was 104 here last week so yes there are concerns in my neck of the woods. A few weeks back I re-fitted the mechanical fan that I had ditched last year. That made a significant difference as it flows way more air than the pusher electric I thought I was going to be able to get by with. I need more time to be certain but I think the old fan is going to stay. I left the electric fan in place as a emergency back up if stuck in traffic. Jeff

Paul; Sure. It would be interesting to measure the differences you can attain with the sound levels in these cabs. I have ridden in enough noisy old vehicles to appreciate a job well done. A lot of what I have put into mine was done for very small reductions in sound. It all adds up and I really don't mind the extra effort it took. There are a lot of little things you can do. For example the area below the seat. In addition to several coats of brush on bed liner I also put a layer of hushmat over the entire area. Then I made a pattern and cut a double thick piece of foiled bubble wrap type insulation material to fit into this. This was then topped off with a fitted piece of rubberized carpet. Overkill? Sure but it all makes for a very quiet cab. And a great spot to store a tool kit and some spares which won't rattle around and add to cabin noise. It takes an extra minute or two to get to the fuel inspection plug but I can live with that. I pretty much used this type of approach to the entire cab. Lots of little detail stuff..... but it all adds up. Jeff

I can't say what was done on the models produced in Canada but the all 3 of the light truck models produced in the US had the difference I referred to. For example the 1/2 ton front axle rating is 2200# and the 3/4 is rated at 2500# and they do not share the same part #. They look similar and share many of the same dimensions but there are slight differences. This is the case on several chassis related parts of these trucks. The 3/4 ton frame rails really are thicker in cross section than they are in a 1/2 ton frame. Not a lot .....something like a 1/32" or so......but they are different. I was a bit surprised to discover just how much was different between these models myself when I started working on my truck. They really took the Job Rated thing quite seriously. This is especially true when it came to the springs and spring ratings. The various spring sets may share mounting dimensions and look similar but the spring rates are very different. Jeff

Hi James; I too have one of these pumps installed in my truck. It is mounted at the tank but I did not fit any sort of bypass. I did fit a Holley fuel pressure regulator ahead of the fuel filter and carb. The regulator is set at 3.5#. I have never measured the flow but it seemed more than adequate. 3 pints a minute if you think about it is probably 4 or more times what your engine could ever use under the heaviest load. Jeff

Paul; I did warn you ..... it isn't cheap. I am sure I spent over a grand on sound proofing materials. For me it was worth it. I am really happy with the results I got but then this is my daily driver. And I don't have any other vehicles to spend money on. You can probably find a substitute material that won't cost as much. I am very happy with the way the Hushmat stays in place and works so I have no problem recommending it. One thing I will mention is there are sound deadening techniques that use smaller strips of material adhered to specific locations on the cab which does work to some extent. You can get a decent reduction in sound using this technique using a lot less material. I started off by trying this method.......and it is not all bad. But when I decided to see what sort of results I would get by covering as much of the sheet metal up as I could I heard the difference right away. For me more was better. Jeff

They are all different.....heavier section on the frame channels for one. It changes from 1/2 to 3/4 to 1 ton. Also the axles themselves have a different weight rating as well as the springs. Sure they may look similar but they are not the same. Take a look at the frame drawings when you get a chance. Jeff