ascinder

I have the 39-47 Dodge truck service manual at home, and I am almost certain this information is in there.. Unfortunately I am stuck at work in Afghanistan for another two months before I can get home and take a look. Can anyone get me a scan or picture of the frame dimensions sheet or point me to where I can find one? My truck is a 1947 and (I think) a WF-32. So the very heavy frame version. I am looking for something like this:

Well, the trick of the matter with the axle is that whoever had it before me dropped the truck as you can see in the photos. To do this, they took the normally very long frame rails and cut them in half, then took the frame rails with leaf springs and axle still attached and set it up on top of the remaining frame rails which are still attached to the rest of the truck. They then welded vertical risers to hold everything together. So end result is the frame is now completely boxing in the axle, so hanging the axle is trickier than you'd think. It is also bigger and heavier than almost any rear end I have ever seen. The thing is a monster, so getting it up in the air is next to impossible without heavy equipment. I don't have any current pics because just after I got the truck, I headed over to Afghanistan for work and have been there since. I am due for a month rotation home in March and am trying to get everything ready to be able to get some work done on this.

So a bit of an update to this aging post. I was able to get the octagon front hub socket and was also able to remove the rear wheels to get at the brakes. The brakes are super huge and appear to be in good shape. After I removed the suspect leaking cylinder(which was the actual culprit) I discovered that the piston had developed so much rust in the bore that it wasn't even able to be honed out. So I was able to find and install new cylinders, but what I would really like to do is clean out the years and years of accumulated brake crud. You know that stuff that is a combination of brake fluid, grease, dirt, dust, grime and probably a great many other evil substances that combine into a devilishly persistent, almost tar like sludge that stubbornly clings to nooks and crannies. How do you clean that off? It is stuck on THICK in some places, and immediately clogs up any wire brushes I use to try and get it off. I can feebly scrape at it with screwdrivers and such, but it is painfully slow and ineffective at best. I would ultimately like to deep clean and repaint the brake components chiefly for the ability to be able to more easily clean them in the future. The clincher is that they are riveted to the axle, so removing them to solvent tank is out of the question. I don't think abrasive blasting would work all that well either. Any ideas or insights would be really appreciated. On to the wheels. I have decided I wouldn't mind keeping the stock vintage goodness of the wheels, and having removed them, I had no problems removing the retaining ring and even unseating one of the tire beads, I am now stuck on trying to(in vain) remove the tube and other bead. It is kicking my butt. Should I just take these to a medium truck wheel and tire shop to have the demount them or is there some secret trick to these? I was also able to get some collision repair achieved on this bad boy. It had been previously used as a logging truck and way more than once, a log had slid forward and bashed the living bejeezus out of the rear/top of the roof. I have straightened out many of the most grievous dents, but there are still many smaller offenders waiting in line to be battered back into some semblance of straight. I have also gotten ahold of some copper slugs to use as backing to weld fill holes left where truck mirrors used to be mounted.

Sooo soooo jealous......... That is one cool find, congratulations!

You may want to run the engine a bit too. I replaced my pump due to a static leak as well only to discover that a bit of grease in the fitting and a couple of RPMs woild have fixed it up.

I was reading some old threads that were saying that old dodge truck cabs and powerwagon cabs were identical. Since they seem to have many similar if not interchangeable pieces/parts, would I be able to use a powerwagon hood and grill in place of the stock dodge truck equipment? If not, how much of a deal would it be to adapt it. My truck is already pretty butchered up by the previous owner and I have always like the power wagon look more than the civilian version.

I think my cups are actually ok. I think my leak was coming from one of the pistons being frozen in the bore and causing the other one to come out too far. I am going to try out the 1-1/2" non stepped bore since they used those on later trucks anyways. Someone on the yahoo groups message board said they used different sized bores because the front brake shoe would force itself into the drum because of the direction of rotation while the rear shoe would tend to want to "slide" off. Using the larger bore in the rear half of the cylinder was supposed to make up for that. They said my front shoe would probably wear out quicker using the larger bore in the front as well, but I am betting it will be negligible.

NAPA was able to cross reference the cylinder over to part number 17786. The only difference he said was that it was 1-1/2 all the way through. I ordered two today and will report back here if they work out OK. I am keeping the original cylinders as spares just in case though. They were about $50 each but I found the same part number online elsewhere for $25 on sale. Probably some cheesy china stuff though.

I just measured the bore again with a dial indicator and one is definitely 1-1/2 and the other 1-3/8.

I have a 47 WF-32 truck that I bought with a brake problem(among others). I located a leak at the left rear wheel cylinder and after some learning experiences, I got the cylinder off only to find it had one of the pistons frozen in the bore. I persuaded the piston out of the bore with some penetrating oil and a hammer and brass drift. Stamped onto the back of the rubber seals was 1-3/8 on one and 1-1/2 on the other. This was verified with a dial indicator as well. I have searched quite a bit And have yet to come across any info for this size. Everything seems to reference 1-1/8 and 1-3/8 on here. I have also seen some stuff about resleeving, but at least at one place they only go up to 1-3/8 max. The bores of the cylinder really dont look bad at all, but it looks like there is some pitting on one of the pistons which also appears to be made of aluminum while the other is steel. Anyone ever hear of being able to just buy one of the pistons?

No Isuzu VehiCROSS, what gives?

That's actually the reason I was asking I was hoping to be able to at least somewhat take advantage of their broad selection of stuff for sale, but I wasn't sure what might fit and what might not. It's pretty nice to be able to pin down one stop shopping for many of the parts I'll be needing so I won't have to pay so much on separate shipping, but I don't want to order stuff then have to send it back if it ends up not swapping correctly.

Can anyone tell me whether or not similar year power wagon parts are interchangeable for normal civilian trucks like my WF-32? I searched and didn't really find anything that answered this. I just wouldn't think dodge would go to a lot of trouble to make power wagons and trucks produced the same year all that different.

Sorry for the somewhat repeated posts, but for some reason when I view the forum in certain formats, it hasnt been updating with the latest posts. Below are the water pump and bypass thermostat housing pics. On the newer water pump, the small hole allows water through at a very small rate while the large hole in the same location on the older pump is totally clogged up with RTV save for a similarly sized hole in the same loation. As for the front hub nut, that is stellar news! I was about to fire up the plasma cutter Also great deal on the rear axle. I am just waiting on the socket to show up and I'll be popping off the wheel so I can change out the leaky wheel cylinder.

The eight sided hubs are on the front, the rears come off pretty easily I believe. They are a full floating type axle, usually you unbolt about eight bolts, pull out the axle shafts, then take off a locknut or two and the drums come off. As for the actual eight sided hubs up front, I havent been able to track down a 2-1/4" octagon socket anywhere. I am just going to plasma cut one out of 1/4" or 3/8" steel and weld on a 3/4" socket. Thanks for the tip on the pipe fitting too. I was able to look into the drums up front through an inspection hole and determine that the shoes have quite a bit of life left in them, which hopefully means that I just have to make up some brake lines for the front and try them out.

These special octagon nuts are up front. The rears I was referring to just have the budd style dually nuts which are 13/16 square drive. I have a socket on the way for those already. So another thing to mention for the water pump is that the old one was all plugged up with rtv on one of the holes on the back plate while the new one has a very small hole in the same area. Was this for restricting flow for some reason? I can take some pics if no one knows what I'm talking about.

Thats a good point with the overloads being put into good use. Right now I have the water pump off since it had a static leak. I already have a new one, but after reading a little more on this forum, I bet all I probably had to do was throw a little grease in it. Unfortunately, the old one has a cast in place bypass elbow, while the new one requires a removable elbow which of course was not included. Also, I was going to convert to a 180 degree thermostat since I hear it is recommended for less sludge buildup. The problem is that the thermostat is pretty well stuck in the housing. Anybody know any tricks to get it out? I already tried heating the housing up with a torch but all that did was melt some solder in the thermostat. I was also able to get the 1-1/2" lugs off up front(after breaking a 3/4" drive breaker bar). I am still waiting on the 13/16" Budd wheel socket to arrive so I can remove the rear dually stud/nuts. The place I am stuck at is for lack of a better description, the hub nut. It is a huge 8 sided nut which I believe is holding the drum on. Where do you guys find all the oddball old tools for these trucks? I am having a fairly easy time finding parts, but all these specialty tools have become pretty elusive over the years.

That looks like just the ticket! I'll have to call that Posies place today and see what weight capacity is on those.

I'm really not all that familiar with how the suspension systems on these older vehicles are normally set up. With the axle being pushed way out in front like that(which I'd like to keep) I don't see an IFS setup working out. So I am kind of leaning towards maybe a coilover setup where I'm thinking I would have to tear out the air bag system currently in place and fab up some shock/coil hoops. Does that sound feasable? Any other ideas? I'd like to keep the solid axle, but the steering is just awful. Any thoughts on running some Dana 60 steering knuckles on just a length of straight tubing? I'd also like to extend the nose of the engine compartment to cover up the stuff out in front.

Yep, it is set up as a dually, which is what has got me in fits. I am trying to get the wheel off so I can get the drum off so I can try and match up the wheel cylinder. Thats where I'm stuck. The dually lug nuts for the inner wheel have the cone for the inner wheel to seat, then a threaded portion for the other wheel and nut, and then the tip which is a square shank for something to grab to loosen the inner nut. Long story short, I am now trying to track down a 3/4" square lug wrench......oh, and the rear wheel drums are 18" and the fronts 16" so sounds like more oddball

So after a bit of playing with the brakes last night I think the booster may be good, but still have absolutely no pedal feel and saw a small trickle begin to come out of the drivers side rear drum, so probably a bad seal on the cylinder I'm guessing. I have seen some kits up on ebay that come with all new cylinders and a set of lines for the fronts, anybody tried them? And does anybody know for 100% certainty that they will fit the large truck stuff? I would much rather get a rebuild kit for the cylinder if anyone knows where to source one.

I'm leaning towards something more like this: and less like this: I am just looking for the rat rod configuration I would say(chopped, bobbed, bigger skinny wheels, etc), not the decor. The fronts are 7.50-20 and the rears are 8.25-20 which both come out to be about a 38.5" diameter tire. I would really like to somehow convert them to a "standard" modern 10 bolt semi wheel since you can get aluminum rims for those that run 22.5 radial tubeless tires which I think would be lighter and safer. I'm not a huge fan of wood simply because here in Nevada they tend to get really dried out and crack. Where I live we routinely have huge daily/overnight temperature swings which I'm pretty certain causes this. I was kind of thinking of going with some synthetic wood like trex decking simply for the low upkeep and weatherability. So, any names to look for? Manufacturers? I think the cam might have already been done since the engine has a really nice choppy/lopey rumble to it. I bet the engine'd start right up. I have a 1967 Nissan Patrol that was sitting for about a year and a half while I was overseas. I charged up the battery, got out the crank, gave the fuel pump a couple pumps and it fired right up the first time out. These old engines are amazing when it comes to that stuff.

Nope, that wasn't me. I'll have to look into that though. Probably going for a clean rat rod if that makes sense. I'm not going to leave it all rusty and beat up if that's what you're asking. I'd like to maintain the ratrod/lake racer style but have a nice paintjob and probably a bit of an industrial look to it. My intent in this was to just have a vehicle to beat around in. Go to coffee on the weekends, maybe run it down to Hot August Nights once a year. It's really a vehicle to practice working on and trying out new ideas. I already have several other projects so I'm not trying to restore this to factory new. I'd just like to have everything work and be safe. I don't see ditching an already overbuilt system in favor of a weaker one to be to any benefit. I am more concerned with fixing the obvious safety points on this such as brakes and steering.

So any info about the booster? Sources for parts or a rebuild? What about eliminating it from the system entirely-thoughts? I think it is what is leaking and causing me to have no brakes. The PO disconnected the front brakes completely and I haven't had a chance yet to crack any drums off and see the current status of the shoes or drums. I also think these had larger brakes since they fill out the 20" wheels pretty well. Any leads on where to get these larger parts? Where would this governor be located and what should it look like? I do have 7.50-20 tires up front, but the rears and the spares are 8.25-20s. I can't haul anything with this truck as the PO did some pretty serious(and somewhat scary) things to the frame/suspension/steering. Mirror(singular, lol) is adjustable, but the only thing there is the mount. I believe I have vacuum wipers, but I am willing to convert if necessary. I am pretty certain that everything is original 6v equipment. I'd like to change over to 12v so I can run some HID headlamps and install some modern bells and whistles without fighting the electrical all the time. This truck is way too far gone to ever be restored to period specific gear, so I don't feel to bad about modernizing, and anything that comes off will be offered up to anyone trying to keep their rides classic. I'll have to check back on the headlight rings though, all I noticed was that one was missing:D Here's some pics so you guys(and gals) can see what I'm dealing with:

Sorry about that, good point. I am in Reno, NV.