Jeff Balazs

Oh boy.... another Pilothouse in the OC. If you need a place to work on it I have a small warehouse in Irvine that is available from time to time for a few days. Weekends? I would suggest you drive it a bit to figure out what it is going to need to be a daily driver in our part of the world. I did a Grand Cherokee rear axle swap to get 3.55 and rear disc's. Added front discs and a Cherokee M/C. 3 point seat belts and improved the night time visibility with better lighting. I have even added a third brake light to the rear window using a 6V LED from a Model A site. Once you have driven here for a while you will know for certain what needs the most attention. Have fun with it, Jeff

Hank; So? No luck backing off the pedal adjustment? I am pulling for you. This was probably too easy to have worked, I am just about done with my truck. Couple of relatively small things now. Been super busy so time has been at a premium.......but have been getting things checked off the list. Jeff

Yes......but the truck is sooooooo much quieter with it......I am not really sorry I did it. I will actually be able to enjoy a stereo when I get around to putting one in. I will deal with the fall out of this installation as I have no choice at this point. Once Hushmat goes into place it isn't likely to come off. Jeff

Mark; Sorry for hijacking your thread. I suppose you are correct....this forum shares at least some aspect of social media. I just find the importance placed on social media a bit overblown. Other than this forum I find I get by just fine without it. My business hasn't dropped off without it as some "experts" predicted and I manage to stay in contact with all the people who are important to me. But I suppose what works for me doesn't necessarily work for everyone. Jeff

Boy ain't that the truth! But my theory on all the s/m stuff is that they are actually afraid to speak face to face. This generation seems to have used this media to become experts at hiding the truth for as long as they can as well. Just my opinion mind you. But then I am a "what you see is what you get"....and a "I am what I am" kinda guy. Tim......I think there must be a world of difference between ages 50 and 59. I like the internet just fine......but I can't see the need for all these social media sites. Seems a poor substitute for the real thing. I think the real idea behind it is to avoid face to face rejection. One of life's most important lessons is ....not everyone you come into contact with is going to like you. The truth is people have to face these things.....eventually..... and learn how to move forward. Hiding behind an on screen persona is just putting off the inevitable. Jeff

I had to think about that too...... social media???? oh ya Facebook. All these s/m things crack me up. What do you call someone who twitters all the time? A twit..of course we are in a time when most people meet their spouses online...who'd a thought? Jeff

Well you know Hank it is just possible that a gasket like that could make a difference. I could easily see it working better in regards to heat than what I have in place now. And after all we are talking about the boiling point of fuel.....and a few degrees will make a difference. I have been thinking that I probably aggravated this situation with another "modification" I have made as well. I have insulated the living daylights out of this truck. And it would not surprise me at all if the under the hood temperature is higher as a result. I used Hushmat Ultra on the both sides of the firewall and on the underside of the entire hood assembly. One layer on the engine side of the firewall and 3 inside the cab. That was followed by 2 layers of doubled foil insulation and a rubberized sound mat and then the upholstery panels. Pretty much no heat is getting into the cab from the engine bay. With all this insulation I might win the prize for the coolest and quietest cab......but the heat that was normally going through the firewall has to go somewhere. This may be a case Dr Frankenstine being bitten by his own monster. jeff

Hank; You might try backing off the pedal adjuster. It is just possible that the pedal adjustment is preventing the rod from fully retracting. I ran into this condition when setting up my new Cherokee M/C. hth Jeff

Mike; That is exactly what I was thinking of doing. Carlos and I were talking about it when he suggested this composite material would probably do an even better job. Again we will see. If for some reason it doesn't then a combination of aluminum and phenolic material will probably be my next option. From what I understand this composite stuff does not hold the heat like metal will which may be beneficial? Either way I would be surprised if this installation does not make for a substantial improvement. Don; I think you are exactly correct......I am certain being directly above the heat riser contributes to the problem. Jeff

Wow! Very cool. That is one clean shop. I don't think you would ever see a shop floor like that here. Jeff

Hank; I will let you know if this modification works. I have a feeling it will.....but it will need to be road tested to be certain. I have essentially eliminated all the other possibilities by removing the mechanical fuel pump and rerouting the fuel line. Makes you kinda wonder if the problem others have had was actually heat sinking into the carb all along? Perhaps the old clothes pin trick acted like a low tech remote heatsink and lowered the temp just enough? My friend Carlos assures me that this composite material has much better properties than phenolics. It is my intention to have this spacer extend out past the base of the carb flange a fair amount......maybe as much as 3" or so forward of the carb. By doing this it should act as a heat shield under the float chamber much in the same way the fuel pump heat shield works. The combination of an effective insulator and a heat shield should do the trick. That is my theory anyway. We will see if it actually works. It is sort of funny as I look back at this build. When I first got this truck I considered repowering it. As I got further into it it seemed as if the only way I could preserve the true character of it was to stay stock. I started going straight down this path......but then as I began to consider how I really wanted to use it I started making mods. Those mods have continued throughout the build to the point that now it has many difference's from the stock beast. Just yesterday I added a third brake light to the back window. I feel like I am slowly dragging this truck into the 21st century. Hopefully this final mod to the fuel system will once and for all eliminate the hard starting condition I experienced last week. If not.....I sure like what Charles is doing to his woodie. If only I had the bread...... Jeff

Yes sir that works just fine. Jeff

Charles; That really looks top cabin. You will have the envy of all. Jeff

Mike; I feel it is almost certainly caused by these conditions. I had already eliminated the chance of heat effecting the fuel before it enters the carb by using an electric fuel pump and rerouting the fuel line. It was my hope that these changes would have been enough to prevent this from happening. Obviously that didn't quite work as planned. I am going to see if I can eliminate this condition by the use of a composite spacer and heat shield. I do know I will have to make a modified arm for the throttle linkage to accommodate the thickness of the spacer. Other than that it should be fairly straightforward. It is looking like we are going to have a very warm summer and I want to do whatever I can to prevent this from being a regular occurrence. Jeff

Tod; It is not stuck and moves freely when the throttle is applied. It could however be contributing to the problem as I have a feeling it channels more heat than necessary to the manifold at slow engine speeds. I have thought about just eliminating it as it is certainly not needed in this climate. Jeff

Ditto. Jeff

Hank; What I am shooting for is a permanent solution or fix. Hopefully the material my friend is getting me will do the trick. If it doesn't I will look for something else. In my opinion these manifolds seem to get much hotter than they actually need to. A few of the aftermarket manifolds I have seen have some provision to be tied into the cooling system. That might do wonders to keep things from getting too hot. Either way I am going to keep at it until I find a way to eliminate this condition. This type of issue may be tolerable in a truck that see's only limited use but it ain't going to fly in my daily driver. I have nothing at all against keeping a can of WD40 at hand ...... but having to rely on it as starting fluid is a band-aide and not a solution. Jeff

There is no insulating spacer on my truck currently. Just a gasket between the manifold and the carb. The fuel line to the carb is a flex line routed over from the filter which I have mounted on the inner fender. The fuel supply is cool and well filtered right up to the point it enters the carb in this current arrangement. In the original arrangement there was a glass bowl type filter mounted directly ahead of the carb. When warm I often observed the fuel in it percolating after shut down. This is not surprising as it was directly above the manifold which get's too hot to touch when the engine is up to operating temperature. Based on this I think the same thing is happening inside the float bowl. Yesterday when this event occurred I could really smell raw gas as I tried to get it started. Honestly I have never smelled it like this before. I tried using the choke, wide open throttle, etc but it took quite a while before I could get it to start. Once it did it ran just fine. I would add that the engine is in a very good state of tune.......excellent compression....timing and vacuum readings are perfect. It is not prone to stalling either. I don't really think it has anything to do with the coil in this instance. It is a new item and has never given any cause for concern. I have a 6 volt alternator on the truck and it does a great job keeping the system charged up. Here in Southern California our fuel supply is regulated by the State and the Air Quality Management Districts. We actually have different formulations for winter and summer. I have spoken with several friends who own garages and are professional mechanics and it is a consensus opinion the the winter formulations are rubbish. This may have quite a lot to do with this incident as we are in the middle of the warmest and driest winter on record here. My plan now is to make a spacer from this composite material I mentioned. My friend Carlos assures me that it is a much better material than phenolic for this application. I am going to shape it to extend out over the manifold some to act as a heat shield under the carb body as well as act as an actual insulator. Once I have had a chance to road test it for a period I will update this posting with pictures and particulars. Jeff

I can't speak for others.......but I would say it all depends on the individual. In general I prefer to use the term "our cousins" but then I have had a lot of friends from and in the UK. My view of the term "limey" is that is often mildly derogatory when used by us. If there is someone in or from the UK I really dislike or find annoying ..... I prefer the term "teabag" to get my point across. Jeff

Just had an experience I was hoping I was avoid. Had the truck up to operating temp shut it off and then 10 minutes later it gave me fits trying to get it restarted. It was around 75 degrees today. This is the first time this has happened but I have been aware that it was a potential issue with these trucks. I have eliminated the mechanical pump and the fuel line has been rerouted over to the fender well. Fuel supply is nice and cool. I have considered making a spacer to go between the manifold and the carb. That chore is now going to the top of my list. These manifolds get way too warm IMO. As luck would have it a friend and neighbor of mine was present when this occurred. He is brilliant guy......two engineering Phds......and designs machines that make components for the medical field. We discussed it for a few minutes and he made a phone call to a supplier. He is getting me a piece of a special composite material that is used to insulate dies from heat in presses, etc... It is less than 1/4" thick and is easily cut and shaped. The plan is to use this to make a combination insulator/heat shield to fit between the manifold and the carb. I will test this out and if it works as I hope it does I will keep any of you that might be interested posted. Jeff

And Hank could just be slang for Henri.

48 thru 50 is the first design. 51 thru 53 is the redesign. 54 is not a B series truck.....it is a newer design and is the first of the C series. Hth Jeff

Not the first time I have seen that bike......but it never fails to amaze me. And the story? Wow! what a mystery. Really makes me wonder what could have been. I have always been fascinated by the technological advances that landmark designs like this spurred on. It is a real shame that this USA built jewel was taken out of circulation when it was. In the early days of motorized transportation motorcycles were a much more significant part of the picture than they became here after the Model T was developed. They remained highly significant in the UK all the way through the late 50's. Britain was the supplier of motorcycles to the world for many, many years. There was a huge pool of manufacturers and parts suppliers that greatly exceeded the output of the relatively few US makers. Some of the technology and ideas that were tested by these M/C manufacturers was and is truly mind blowing. As an example the first monoshock rear suspension actually dates back to the 20's ...shaft drive same period...oil and watercooled M/C engines even before that. Pressed steel frames in the late 20's......same for hotted up OHC roadsters. And then there was the mighty AJS Grand Prix racer of the late thirties.....a supercharged water cooled V4 that is considered to be the forebear of all superbikes of today. If you enjoy this sort of history treat yourself to a good read up on this topic. I am pretty certain that most of you will be amazed and impressed by quite a lot of what was done over there. Jeff

I would doubt very much if you could get a reliable 200 hp out of one of these engines. You would certainly have to spend gobs of money to get close. And the basic design and metallurgy probably won't support it for all that long. I think a 35% to 50% boost in power is something a lot of us might appreciate and is probably an attainable dream. Honestly 25% more power would be easily noticed. I would be very happy with that if I could do it without changing the sweet running characteristics of the engine or creating a potential grenade. When I first built the old motorcycle engine I mentioned above I had to learn some valuable lessons. Initially I used later aftermarket parts and it ran but did not perform as I expected. One of the main characteristics these engines were known for was their ability to produce good usable power at throttle settings below 200 rpm. My initial build did not want to play nice at that sort of engine speed so I started researching the issue. I went through everything I could find that was published at the time these bikes were produced. Thanks to the Brit's great tradition of documenting the crap out of things I was able to find dozens of articles and even a few videos of them in action at the Scottish 6 days trails and the like. This whole process was very enlightening. I came to understand what was truly needed to get one of these engines to run like it was supposed to. The bottom line was that in order for it to behave like it was designed to it needed a very specific wire wound piston that had not been made for over 50 years. All the aftermarket pistons were of different designs than the originals ....different weight....different c/r.....different rings.....and designed to run at higher clearances. I really wanted to do this right......and I was able to find a NOS piston and rings. That combined with a re-sleeved barrel machined to the .001 clearance that these piston were designed to run at......and Bingo! the engine was transformed back into what it was designed to be. I am sharing this with you because I think these engines were designed to behave very similar to that old motorcycle engine. Simply put they are plodders.....beasts of burden if you will. Plenty of low end grunt......and never created to be speedsters. Jeff

Paul; I have some extra handles and escutchions as well as a drivers door latching mechanism you can have. I also have an extra inspection panel. I hate to ask this but is there any chance the fire started in the truck? It looks like the drivers side firewall got pretty hot. Jeff