wallytoo

nice ride, robert! keep driving!

i have no idea how the 7.50s would be. my b1fa has 8.25x20s front and rear. never really thought it steered hard, though.

light work for the dodge the other day. i had dropped a big, almost dead maple from near my sap house, and didn't want to let the one decent log go to waste. so, i used the skidder to hoist the log onto the truck, and transported the log to the mill. compared to some of the loads i haul with it, this was a piece of cake!

for the zuk mod, the leaf springs and attaching points/shackles remain untouched, unlike ed's truck.

adding coils to a leaf spring suspension. it's a popular modification to 80s toyota trucks (rear leafs), using a coil that mounts around the spring rubber bumper. it was invented by a gearing dude who goes by "Zuk".

i see someone added the "zuk" mod to the rear suspension!

oh yeah. for whatever reason, this truck had a host of features that in subsequent years became options for most. it has twin sun visors, fresh air and mopar truck heater, triple bumper over-riders, extra fishbelly frame plates on the rear of the chassis, vacuum booster brakes, vacuum 2-speed eaton 1350, corner windows, hood ornament, etc. did not have a radio or ash tray, windshield washer, etc.

yeah, as bob notes, that's the factory firewall control. same one in mine, even though i have a smaller eaton 1350 2-speed.

hard to say, but it might be worth looking into. that's probably all related to the firewall control, and the adjustment of the cable there. fwiw, here's mine in low position...and the total movement up/down is only about an inch. again, could be all about the firewall mechanism adjustment.

rather than "J52", that shouid be "152", which is the nominal wheelbase. the truck in the picture looks to have a longer than "original" chassis, with a long bit of steel well beyond the rear wheels. can't help with the pattern, but i bet rob (dodgeb4ya) can!

no pics this time, but i loaded the last of the cordwood yesterday. turned out to be just over two cords. first time i've needed all 8 speeds available (4 & 2) to move a load. i never use 1 low, and rarely 1 high. same with 2 high. but, i needed them all to get it home. still stops excellent with all that weight; booster brakes are sweet! and i split that in two days with a maul.

mine are mounted like this....

used it today... loaded using the 2N "tailgate" ready to go home i'll dump it tomorrow and stack the cordwood in the woodshed. it's about 1.5 cords. if i'd filled the truck, it would be about 2 cords. also filled up with gas, and the tank returned just under 8 mpg, which is pretty good for this old truck.

you are positive you filled the tank? i've done that once (in my cj5) where i thought i'd filled it, but it was well short of full. ran out of gas later that day. on my b-1-f, i know it's full when i can see fuel in the filler neck. that's where i always fill to.

brent!!! glad to "see" you again! are we certain that the roof-top truck is a route-van? i can't tell. but i know that none of the 4 dodges in a row are route-vans.

sweet. glad you got to use it. my 1.5-ton handles the same way, rides better with a good load on, and you'd almost not notice that there is a load on. i couldn't really use it without the 2-speed; not enough horsepower, and too low gears for a "single". oh yeah, your truck will easily deal with 5,000 to 6,000 lb loads, too. i've had 4 tons on mine, which i noticed, but the truck handled it just fine. i wouldn't really want to carry 4 tons a long distance, but moving ice from the lake to the ice house, about 1.5 miles on a 25mph road was easy.

i "borrowed" the short oem starter from my '52 b-3-c fluid drive (truck was last on the road in 1988). installed it in the truck, and it works great. took the truck to a local "farm days" weekend event. hadn't driven it for a while because of the starter issue. one of the rear brake cylinders was leaking a bit. added fluid, bled brakes, and they work great. also, not leaking after putting about 70 miles on it in the last 5 days. seems the rubbers in the cylinders relax with non-use, allowing brake fluid to weep out. using the brakes seems to "stiifen" the rubber cups a bit, and the leaking stops/slows. just means i need to keep using it year round ....

nice job on the parade, and solving the running issue (points/condenser). i echo bob's thoughts on the 2-speed. it shouldn't be able to upshift unless you pull the button. otherwise, the default - and the spring at the "can" on the axle - should be to pull the lever into low range. i know my medium duty truck isn't the same as the big block in that, but i run 15w-40 and it seems to like it just fine. 40 to 43 psi at driving rpm, and about 35 to 40 psi at idle. i do drive it year-round, so it sees winter operation at -10F (and sometimes colder). hasn't been a problem, still starts very well at cold temps. keep up the good work, and keep putting up photos!

i wish i had notes. i believe i installed the gasket on the windshields first, then worked the gasket into the frame/pinch weld. not the way most say to do it, i know. let me dig around.....

jeff - i installed a new gasket in my '48 shortly after i bought the truck in 2007. did it myself. i don't remember having too many issues; pretty sure i started at the bottom, and worked around to the top, and from the center out to the sides. if not obvious, this all happens from the outside, not inside the cab. i don't believe i used either soapy water or any other spray/lubricant. hope it goes solid for you. an alternative might be to visit a windshield place to see if they might install it...

many of the bigger trucks got a "spacer" for the carb - a governor...i pulled the guts from it, so it now in fact IS a spacer.

eh, the mess was my fault. it is what it is. as far as motivation, the polished surface of #2 rod journal had a scratch in it from that initial deal. afterwards, i'd swap out the insert when that bearing got a bit noisy, which seemed to be after about 900 to 1200 miles. it was getting noisy on the last trip, and really got noisy when i downshifted for the steep hill. having the spare engine on a stand in my garage influenced my decision to just keep going, rather than getting it towed home to pull the pan and put in another insert. i was kind of ready anyway to stop having to do that. so far, so good with the 251 (which also has full-pressure oiling).

i'm one of the guys that spun a rod bearing in my flathead (truck 237) but it wasn't the fault of the engine, just the rebuilder (me). forgot to clean the oil passages after getting the block back from the machine shop, and after the first start, immediately made noise at #2. pulled the pan, cleaned up the crankshaft as best as i could, added a new insert, and ran it for about 4 years. pulled the pan about once per year and cleaned that #2 journal/insert. put about 7k miles on it, too. the last straw (or ****) was the 3-ton load of horse manure i was bringing back (the third trip of the day) from 40 miles away. going up a steep hill, dropped into 3 high (from 4 low), rpms hit 3200, and that bearing really started screeching. drove it another 6 miles with it screaming - it was already cooked anyway, and i had a spare 251 in the garage. well, it finally spit the cap, slammed the rod, and stopped the rotating mass. pretty loud noise. i installed a tach in the truck - a 1.5-ton - and i regularly run it at 2900 to 3100 rpm. both the original 237, and now the 251. the p-15 picnic crowd from last year saw how well my truck goes along on the twisty, hilly roads, too. having the 2-speed rearend is what makes it driveable on modern back roads. i wouldn't drive it on the interstate, since 55mph is at 3100 rpm, and i can't hold that speed up any big hill.

yeah, i dropped it off at a local rebuilder's. he rebuilt the starter for my skidder last winter. that one works better than ever, so he should be able to make it work.

always like pictures of your truck, rob. that's a beauty. jerry - i'm guessing the comments as far as the 7 mains or 4 bolt mains is that your 4 main might not stand up to the hp/torque that it will produce without the added components, ie 4-bolt vs the standard 2-bolt mains that were in your engine originally, or the girdle added. it is a magnificent looking engine and supercharger as it sits right now, however.