Jeff Balazs

Hey All; Anyone come up with a decent way to replace a broken inner cable on our control cables. Had one let go the other day..... fortunately I had a spare. I have a couple that have broken inner "wires" and would like to repair them for my spares. Not sure what material to use? Was hoping maybe someone here already has it figured out? Thanks, Jeff

I got mine from Roberts and they fit pretty darn well. Seems to me I read at the time that the Steele ones were not a great fit. Jeff

Jocko; I know I used Permatex........think it was brown. It has worked just fine on my truck. As far as pressure testing goes I borrowed a pressure tester from a mechanic buddy of mine and pumped it up to 12#. As I recall it held for 2 or 3 hours.....and I figured that was good enough. I did this with a freshly re-cored radiator and all new hoses, etc. It probably doesn't need to be tested that high.....I would think any leaks like you have had would show at 5#or 6#. Hth, Jeff

Mark; I would think whoever repaired would have pressure tested the repair. Should have? When I had my original radiator re-cored the fellow that owned the shop said it was tested at 12# and that I could run it with a 12# cap if I wanted. After I put it all back together I borrowed a tester and pumped it up to to 12# for an hour and it held. If you have a original honeycomb core then I would not go that high. I would think 4# or so would be fine. Fwiw I don't think I would be comfortable using it if it won't hold a bit of pressure......even if it is at zero most of the time. Jeff

If you have the stock fuel pump then you need a heat shield. You can either make one or buy one. They are essential when using these modern fuels. It is hot here in Socal. I ended up removing the stock pump and running a full time electric pump. I also made a shield that fits between the carby and the manifolds. Pretty much solved fuel issues I was having. With these newer fuel formulas and the way the manifolds are on these engines you may have to deviate a bit from the stock installation to solve this. Jeff

It should work Mark; I pressure tested mine and ran a 4# cap for a while. Without some pressure on the system Bars leak has little chance of sealing anything. Jeff

Mark; Think about this for a moment. The system needs to be pressurized for any of these products to work well. They need to flow into the crack in order to seal it. Doesn't need to 15#....4# would make it work. But in a 0 psi system there isn't much chance it is going to be forced through the crack. Jeff

Pretty sure Bars just works on small leaks in radiators. There is "better" stuff that is supposed to work well in fine cracks in steel and cast iron. It is a liquid that has some sort of ultrafine ceramic particles in it along with a heat activated bonding agent. Be damned if I can remember the name of it. Next time I see one of my mechanic buddies I will ask him. I know that he has had some positive results using it. Jeff

If it were my truck I think I would try a sealer mixed in the coolant first. Run it for a while and monitor it closely. A crack like this is likely to stop up with the sealer. The sealer will not work if the leak is stopped by external epoxy. The block sealer needs to flow into the crack when the engine is up to temperature in order to form a bond. Once this has taken place then you can do a external cosmetic repair. Jeff

I think there is a likelihood it will leak if it is not at least functionally repaired. You can get a FD type repair kit from Mikes that has a new plunger assembly. Jeff

Jocko; When the Felpro gasket on my truck let go I can assure you that I had white smoke in the exhaust and coolant in my oil. I was fortunate that it happened as I was leaving my house one morning. I just pulled it into the garage and drained everything immediately. I never bothered with trying to trace the path the coolant took to get into the oil. Instead I focused on the cause of the failure and a plan on preventing it from happening again. Because this truck is my primary transportation I keep a fairly comprehensive collection of spares. Including a complete new set of engine gaskets by Best. After removing the head I took it and the gasket to some mechanic and machinist buddies of mine where they showed me where and why it had failed. The consensus conclusion was an inferior gasket. I was back on the road later that day and have not had any further problems with it. That was a couple of years ago. Btw I took the precaution of running fresh oil in it for around an hour. Then I did another full oil change to be certain that there was no more coolant in the oil. Because of the design of this engine there are a few spots on the head gasket that have a very narrow sealing surface. My guess is that these areas are where 95% of all the L6 head gasket failures occur. Hth, Jeff

Jocko; I am going to say here what you probably already know. Got to be real careful with parts selection and fit for these old engines. There is a lot of rubbish out there and while a lot of it looks correct it just doesn't hold up. For head gaskets you really want Best brand. And you should probably plan on applying copper coat spray on treatment as well. I started off with a gasket set made by Felpro....a well known brand .....but their head gasket did not hold up. And believe me it was properly torqued down and re torqued a few times after a few heat cycles. When I pulled the head I a a few of my buddies who are full time mechanics look things over and their conclusion was the install was fine but the product was not. They run into this kind of problem all the time with inferior spares etc. The point I am trying to make is that it is not uncommon to find out the hard way that some of the stuff you end up using can be a real problem. Unlike most of the fellas on this site I use my truck daily and it is my primary transportation. My approach to keeping my truck on the road has been to use the very best quality stuff I can lay my hands on. When I had problems with the Felpro head gasket a couple of the guys on this site suggested the Best gasket as a better solution. It has performed perfectly now for several thousand miles. When I finally get around to rebuilding my engine another Best brand gasket will be part of it. I had to find this out the hard way but that is just part of putting one of these great old trucks into use again. We are all going to make some mistakes on stuff like this and that is part of the whole experience. Jeff

What brand head gasket did you use? They are in this particular case not all created equally. "Best" is only one I will ever use on one of these engines. Had issues with Felpro....... Jeff

Great story Tim! You know the thing is he beat you far and square. He probably just psyched you and your engine out. That happens some times when you least expect it. Makes things interesting for those of us that are big John Henry fans. You know what the best part is? That old flat 6 is probably still runnin Jeff

Don't know about the regulator thing or polarity of the generator. I run a single wire 6V alternator . 4 years of daily use and it has been totally carefree. If it was me I would be looking hard for either a loose wiring connection or a bad switch. What I do know is when it is a 6 volt system everything must be in very good shape or there will be problems. One of the main reasons that 6V was abandoned in favor of 12V was the frequency of electrical issues. The fact that the gauge jumps around when you tap it might be an indicator of some sort of failure there....... Jeff

Mark; Could be something moisture related. Maybe a bit of water got somewhere it shouldn't? It is a bear to get the leaks at the windshield stopped. I had a problem with these leaks getting to my headlight switch this winter. Went out early one rainy morning and about half the lights were not working. Gauges read funny as well. I ended up pulling the headlight switch and it was wet and was beginning to show signs of corroding. I took it apart and gave everything a good cleaning and low and behold all the problems were fixed. 15 minute job. Your problem might be something similar. . Jeff

Thanks T 120. It has worked just fine. I do think the addition of the pressure regulator is a must when using a pump like the one I am using. I have never had a situation when I could not get it to start. And it does get very hot here. These new fuel formulas are a problem for a lot of older vehicles. I have a buddy who is a true master mechanic. He see's it with all of his customers who have older vehicles. And especially with the ones that do not get driven on a daily basis. This week it was a very nice 240Z that sits for a week or two at a time. Then it is about impossible to get it started without wearing the battery down. The fuel just evaporates out of the carbs in that amount of time. That didn't used to happen. And it even happens with newer vehicles. Let um set and find out. To help prevent some of this I keep my fuel well dosed with MMO. This seems to work and is cheap insurance. Jeff

I ditched the mechanical pump and run a big 6V Carter electric full time. I like it and it has worked flawlessly for over 4 years in my daily driver 52 B-3-C. When I was building my truck I read a posting here about a member who had a recently rebuilt engine suffer diluted oil seizure because his mechanical pump had a partial failure into the crankcase while on a trip. That episode while extreme really resonated with my way of thinking about these old cars and trucks. After all I was building this truck to be as rock solid reliable as I could. I wanted to eliminate any chance of this happening with my build. The electric pump was mounted very near the tank with a large inline fuel filter just ahead of it. Lack of pre-filtration is the number one cause of failure for this type of pump. I blanked off the original pump mount. I also installed a Holley fuel pressure regulator and another sealed canister filter just ahead of the carb. This set up while not original...... has worked out great. If you are someone who wants to really use your vintage vehicle without constant worry I think this is the way to go. Jeff

Good deal Tom; I will be interested to hear if putting this one on makes much of a difference in how your FD equipped truck runs. Jeff

Really nice job on all this. I have Hemi-envy. ? Have fun with it! Jeff

Tim; I got to let you off the hook with that one........was thinking something a little more foo-foo. ? Jeff

Don't be surprised if he shows up with one of those tea cup size dogs .......in a shoulder bag!!!!!! After all that is a very slippery slope he is on. ?

Dude that is kinda .............. refined isn't it? And I thought i was being tricky with my heads up display speedo. Honestly I get tired of folks giving me the thumbs up all the time. It has actually gotten old. Still looking for a cloaking device..... Jeff

Well...well...well. ? Whats next? Daily driver status? Tim you crack me up. Regards, Jeff

Hello and welcome. These do come up on Ebay from time to time. I actually got an NOS one there for a very decent price. It had never even been bolted down. When you find one you will need the rebuild kit with the dashpot plunger from Mikes Carbs. Best of luck. Jeff