Jeff Balazs

Karl; Me too. I was trying to put some of the "challenges" in a nice way. Once you get it home...... get yourself some good penetrating oil and soak every fastener you can find.........then spend several hours reading through the past threads here. Learn how to use the search feature. Darn near every item you will need has been well gone over. This forum is by far the most valuable tool you will come across. Jeff

Karl; Oh ya.....there are some fun little surprises waiting for you with one of these old trucks. It is best to treat them as character builders. You have discovered your first one. Rear hubs. Fun stuff....need the correct puller and most likely heat. Count yourself lucky if all of your wheel studs are intact. I had 3 broken ones on one hub......try using the correct puller then. Some of the other choice items you may (are likely to) to run into include: removing a badly corroded water distribution tube.......removing the steering wheel.......broken or frozen manifold studs.....and the list goes on. And on. If you are a Mopar newbie like me then there are some.... let's call it "unusual" construction methods employed in certain parts of these trucks that take a bit of getting used to. Don't get me wrong, these are very cool trucks..... but I would be very surprised if you don't find yourself scratching your head and wondering what they were thinking?.... at least a few times a month. Oh ya......the parts situation is a bit more "involved" than let's say a GM or Ford product of similar vintage. Not horrible but not quite as easy either. Don't worry you will get it. Take your time (when you can)...ask lot's of questions....someone will help. And have fun. Jeff

Heyyyyyabbot Dang it I have to change my disguise again.....and I was just getting used to the hat! Karl; Now you can see how Hank is.....but don't worry he can be helpful. Jeff

Hi Karl; Welcome to the group. I think you will find this forum the most useful tool you have for getting your new truck going. A really great bunch of very helpful guy's. One word of caution though about off topic postings........whatever you do..... don't mention Kirk Gibson to 48Dodger. Contrary to his very misleading screen name he is definitely not a fan. Thanks to Hank (and one of his off topic photos) I have had to change my appearance and have been banned for life from the Pilothouse BBQ Jeff

Todd; Glad to have been of help......even if it was in a round about way. Jeff

Paul; Yes.....internal corrosion in tubing (and pipe) is a wicked thing. You can cut ten coupons and they may all look fine.....but move 3" down the line to another spot.... maybe near a fitting or a bend...and cut another. Bingo! there it is. If any water has made it into the lines and sat for a long time then for sure you will have some form of corrosion there. And all it takes is one weak spot. In my former career I spent quite a bit of time tracking down and repairing corrosion damage to underground petrochemical pipelines. Internal corrosion (and erosion) is particularly nasty and very hard to pinpoint. I once had a pipeline dug up at an intersection of 2nd Street in Long Beach. The City inspectors had a fit because of the traffic issues this excavation caused. When we cut a coupon out of the affected area and I tore the bottom out of the pipe with a pair of needle nose pliers they shut up real quick. The pipe was a 16" OD .375" wt. gas gathering line and the defect was located right under the crosswalk. Jeff

Paul; Frankie is right. I would say with a high degree of certainty that reusing your old brake lines is just asking for trouble. I am sure that there are many others here that will echo this. When I got my truck last December I thought great it is 99% intact and it is dirty but not rusty. I thought I would just have to clean things up and it would all work. Well that was wishful thinking. Of all the various components of the truck the braking system and the fuel system have proven to be in the worst shape. The lines all looked intact and Ok from the outside......well not so. I doubt whether they would have even held the pressure. Upon close inspection they turned out to be full of rust and corrosion. Trust me ... no amount of flushing would have kept contaminants out of the system. Do yourself a favor and change out all the brake and fuel lines and hoses. I am 100% certain that this is time and money well spent. Jeff

Mark Man oh man that is looking good. It won't be long and you should be able to smell that "new truck" smell. My only criticism (and it isn't really) is that you have set the bar way too high for some of us. I'll be happy if I can get mine to look similar to the dusty old ranch truck in the "Rounders". Were you able to get the passenger side door adjusted OK? Jeff

John; Bummer. I hope you have an easy time of finding a replacement. Jeff

Tim; I thought you would get a kick out of that. Harpys ?.....not to be confused with herpes although you could get one from the other. I understood your response. And there is no question that the antifreeze we can buy today is far superior to what was available back in the day. I know it works fine in a clean or new engine. It will probably work fine in mine as well. I have it as clean as it can get without removing it from the truck. I have left to two lower welch plugs out and will flush one more time before I finish putting it all back together to run it. Jeff

Here I was thinking the "hot ticket" would be Capsaicin oil and Vichy water..... Dodger guy Ware did yer go to skool boy? Everyone know's it is spelled Cooties And that all girls have them I am pretty certain they didn't get them from drinking the water. I really can't say that it is a good idea to make your own coolant. I was skeptical when my friend told me about his mixture..... but then we have Jim's experiment that seems to have been relatively successful. It is something to think about. Not saying that the chemist's don't make a good product.....but my guess is they are not making it specifically for the old rusty engines that some of us are trying to revive. Jeff

Hi Jim; Well that pretty much confirms what my buddy Vic was telling me. He is a precision machinist (heart valves these days) so I think that is probably the same mixture he is using. I will have to ask him more about it and his hoses.....although I am not adverse to changing them out fairly often. That is easy and cheap insurance in our climate. He had the same comment about the water pump. I may be slightly paranoid about this as I flushed and fished a couple of pounds of rust out of my engine. And the old water distribution tube came out in about 15 pieces!!! Hard to say if it had ever been changed. I know the engine was probably rebuilt twice....I suppose they could have left an old one in? But I don't think it likely. What I do know is that I would like to avoid going through that whole process again. Jeff

Moose; Really nice truck. Does your truck have a 116" wheelbase? Jeff

Well I thought this was an interesting topic. And might even have some application for some of our trucks...... I know there were many true oil cooled motorcycle engines in the UK during the pre-war years. This is not really the same as those as water is actually by percentage the main component of my buddies coolant. I think Redline has a track approved product called wet-stuff or something like that. Supposedly it is much safer on the track than glycol coolants as it is actually less slippery. Don't know what is in this stuff. What my buddy said was that the cooling passages in his engine looked sort of glassy and that it had totally arrested the rust. I do know that his truck does not run hot as we have used it to haul our bikes to the desert several times. Jeff

Hi Hank; Well it had been rebuilt and only run a short time (certainly less than 100 hours) so I cleaned the valve gallery and oil pan up (sludge no metal) and put it back together. There was literally no wear on the 40 bore. Only item that really needed replacing was the timing chain. I am pretty certain it will run fine. Will know in a month or so. The frame still needs attention but there is a frame machine across the street....just need to work a deal with the shop manager. Jeff

A buddy of mine has an early 60's truck that he "rescued" about 15 years ago. The engine was sound but the cooling system was a rusty mess. He got it as clean as he could with the engine in place and started using water soluable oil mixed with water as coolant. He claims that this has worked flawlessly. He had the head off recently and said the cooling passages were clean and looked like they had been glazed or varnished over. Anybody out there have any experience or knowledge with this? Jeff

Thanks. Found what I needed. My engine is back together and just needs to be plumbed up and wired. Jeff

chargerdave; Well then it is probably not the coil. You do know it is likely going to be a "gotcha" thing.....like a bad piece of wire or a faulty connection. I am curious though....did you actually try running a jumper directly from the battery to the head to make certain it is not a grounding issue? I learned a long time ago that you can never take ground for granted. Keep at it. Jeff

ChargerDave; I would try replacing the coil.....sounds like it is producing a spark that is breaking down to me. I have seen this a few times. Hope this helps, Jeff

Wallytoo; Thanks for pointing that out. A quick look shows that it has some pretty decent images to go with the text....... and that helps quite a bit. Jeff

Tim; Yes something like that might be good......the photos and illustrations in my reprint are pretty poor quality and some pages are put together out of order. I have seen a title: Chrysler Industrial engines....has anyone used this? I think VPW sells it. Jeff

What is the best manual for these engines you have come across? I have a reprint of the Dodge truck shop manual that Roberts sells but I can't help thinking there must be a better one out there. Thanks for your input. Jeff

Hi Guy's; Came across a Pilothouse on Craigslist the other day that had a throttle body injection unit on it. What is that all about? I have not heard of this mod. Jeff

I got one from Vintage Power wagons along with their PCV system. They both are nicer than I expected. Will post photos when they are mounted. Jeff

Mark; I think all you have to do is loosen the 3 steering box mounting bolts a bit and the column will swing into place. Snug up the dash collar and then tighten those three bolts back up. At least that is how mine is. Jeff