Jeff Balazs

Yes....not much in the way of rain. But I sure needed the wipers a couple of weeks ago. I was headed down to Dana Point for a day out on the water......and it sure was foggy on the way down. The fine mist that collects is harder to see through than rain. Sure glad I rebuilt my wipers this spring. Jeff

I am not a fan of the inline pumps at all. They may be fine for a quick prime but I have seen too many fail in full time use..Just happened to a buddy of mine two weeks ago on the freeway. I am using a Carter rotary vane pump. More expensive to be sure but they have a very good track record as a primary pump. It has proven to be faultless in every day use. They are available in 6 or 12 volt.....+/- ground Hope this helps, Jeff

Those dirty rats!

The NOS one I have will work with 6 or 12 volt.....pos or neg ground .........and 4, 6 or 8 cylinder. It is supposed to even work on a CDI system but it has problems with the trigger once the revs are up. Jeff

Might want to take a look at the points. With the gearing you have in FEF I seriously doubt that 55mph and 2500rpm go together. Does your tach have a switch for how many cylinders it is supposed to be reading? My old Westach Universal does. Mine reads idle fine at 600-625 but dumps off around 1200 rpm because I have a trigger instead of points. I disconnected it and used a handheld digital to make certain of engine speed during testing. With a 3.55 rear axle I am running right around 2650 rpm at 65 mph. Hth, Jeff

Ya don't do the car show thing. Never have. Too many rolling Boom boxes.

There is a huge difference between want....... and need. I would venture to say that most of us don't need anything like that. What you are talking about is certainly at an extreme. I fully admit I have trouble understanding where you are coming from most of the time. From your postings it doesn't seem as if you like much at all about the way these trucks were built. I gotta wonder why you even started off with one? Jeff

You actually try?.........OMG! In the real world....... a 50 A single wire will easily handle anything you would ever care to have connected. Including a 4 speaker 200 watt stereo. These cabs are relatively small and if you do a good job of soundproofing 200 watts is overkill. I have every original accessory you can fit in one of these trucks plus a lot of modern upgrades. The Quality Power 6V alternator I installed keeps up with no problem at all. In my experience it is a fit and forget upgrade. Jeff

See there you go. Get um greased up and moving as they should and they are pretty darn sweet. Mine just keeps getting better all the time. Besides making sure that all the fittings are well greased I have been using PB Blaster Corrosion stop on the leaves. Can't say enough good about that product. This stuff really works great on these springs. Jeff

What harsh ride?

Correct. These are special grease type fittings. Roberts or VPW may have them. My originals are centered but do not have boots. They should be greased often. Contrary to some thinking they need to provide anchorage with a good range of movement. They are just as important as the rear mounts. I guess it isn't any wonder why some complain about ride quality and resort to removing leaves. Get this right and you might just have a truck that rides nice. Jeff

My truck manuals say 20# at idle and 40# to 55# at 1800 rpm or 30 mph depending on which one you look at. My engine is a '54 230 from a 1.5 ton dump truck and has always idled at right around 40# oil pressure. Perhaps this varied over time? and later engines ran with more pressure? Not sure but I know I would always prefer to see that gauge reading around mid range rather than nothing. Jeff

Yep. I'd be shutting that engine down just as soon as I spotted a reading like that. It gets real hot here and stop-n-go is the norm. The lowest I have ever seen in my truck was 35# at idle. And that is with an engine that was rebuilt at least 30 years ago and had 10-40 in it. To me 10# of pressure at idle means bearings are worn out and/or oil system is not working properly. Either way I would be tearing into it right away. Jeff

too funny!

I have a welder buddy who spot welded the sheet metal connections and made up a couple of plates that slipped up behind all this to reinforce the connection points. Other than the belts themselves you would never know it had been modified. Jeff

While it is in the body shop you may want to consider beefing up the B post attachments for your 3 point seat belt mounts. Not a huge job but one best done before paint. Jeff

Looking good Don. Doing things the old school way is so much safer. Not much chance of burning through either. Might take a little longer this way but the time spent on it will make you appreciate it more. Jeff

We probably all have stories like this one. You certainly hear them all the time. When pursued the outcome is generally not worth the grief and pain it causes you or those you actually care about. IMO the best solution is just to close that book once and for all and move on. Jeff

Sorry no real help with the iD on this. Maybe something from a special order civilian Powerwagon? Am curious though about the diameter of that spline section on the input. Jeff

You know you are right about that. And it is pretty hard to kill or maim some innocent bystander if you goof up on one of those baskets.

.Clearly you must be looking for the answer you want to hear. I am sorry the answer doesn't suit you. The books all say 8......and until someone comes up with something other than that in published form then 8 it is. Jeff

Well since you mention it Paul......... Those springs probably were overloaded often. No doubt there was a generous safety factor engineered and built into them to allow for this. But that applies to what the factory built and supplied to the public and does not allow for later owner "modifications". If you take a close look at photos of complete spring packs you will see that the specific length of each leaf in a full pack supports most of the length of the leaf above it. When you start pulling leaves out you alter this condition. Now maybe you can pull 1 or perhaps 2 specific leaves out of a 8 leaf pack and not seriously compromise this set up.......but that is because it was over engineered in the first place. Take 3 or 4 out of that 8 spring pack and you are at the very least playing with fire. And you of all people should know what can happen then. Unless you know for a fact that what you have done is perfectly safe don't discount what I am saying here. It isn't enough to assume that you started with a complete factory spring pack. Jeff

That is certainly possible. Could even be as Paul surmised? I just think it would be best to approach this very prudently. We have all seen the results of modifications like this gone wrong. Having say one side let go completely on something like this could get real ugly...real quick. Not saying it is sure to happen...only that it increases the possibility especially when you might be starting with less than a full compliment of leaves to begin with. Jeff

Paul; Do you have photos of your spring packs before you took them apart. I think it would be pretty easy to tell if they had been messed with. I very much doubt that your truck left the factory with only 5 leaves in the rear spring packs. There is nothing in any of the sources I have looked through to support your suggestion. Also considering the engineering and technology of the time it just seems quite unlikely to me. I could be wrong though......but I would not base this decision on a hunch either. Jeff

Davin; Your spring set up there doesn't really surprise me. Strength in numbers......isn't just a catchy phrase. Actually that is exactly what I would expect to see on a truck that was going to see as much unpaved road as paved. And I imagine that most of your UTEs saw a fair amount of dirt tracks in their time. I brought this up because I see some people down to 3 or 4 leaves which I believe is a dangerous practice. Especially if they are using leaves from the original spring pack. They just were not designed to work without the support of the adjacent leaves. Add to that 65 years and the very real possibility of metal fatigue and you have something that has the possibility to just let go without warning. This is one of those things that when I see it I just cringe and have to say something. To me it is kinda like when someone is driving around with bald tires or have some cords showing. Jeff