squirebill

From my parts book for "49 Plymouth P17/P18: the inner tie rod ends have right hand threads and the outer tie rod ends have left hand threads. My part numbers are same as supplied by YukonJack and my memory is same as Andydodge.

so I happened to be looking for a new hand brake cable for my 1949 Plymouth Suburban . Found one on ebay. They asked to specify whether the car was a P17/P19 Deluxe (with 111 inch wheel base) OR a P18/P20 Special Deluxe (118 inch wheelbase). Maybe this information applies to your car. My car has a 111 inch wheel base and the standard 3 speed transmission without the tail extension. The 1949 Plymouth Station Wagon (P18) has a tail extension on the transmission and a 118 inch wheel base. Regards.

I have to ask a question. What type of engine are you working on? I had assumed it was a Mopar flathead 6 but I am having a hard time figuring how the number 1 spark plug wire can be arcing to the exhaust manifold of a flathead 6. Did I miss it somewhere in a previous post? Please advise.

So your old fuel pump has the pump arm that basically comes straight out of the pump. The top of the pump arm sits below the camshaft lobe at the six o'clock position of the camshaft. You should be able to see a rub spot on the top of the pump arm. Your new pump has a pump arm that angles down in your picture. If you were to install the pump in the orientation you have it in the picture (with the arm angled down) I don't think the arm will make contact with the camshaft lobe. I think you will have to rotate the pump 180 degrees so the arm angles up and will make contact with the camshaft lobe at the nine o'clock position. Also pay close attention to the inlet and outlet ports on the pump when hooking up your fuel lines.

So I have two different types of fuel pumps that I use. One type has a pump arm that is pretty much straight out of the pump and rubs on the bottom of the camshaft lobe at about the six o'clock position. The second type has a pump arm that comes out of the pump and then makes a hard upward turn and would rub on the side of the camshaft lobe at about the nine o'clock position. If your fuel pump is of the second type and you have 2 or 3 gaskets the pump may be set back too far from the camshaft and not getting a full stroke from the lobe. May account for the fuel starving when running. Worth a check.

Recently came into a bit of money (sold the hunting camp) and looking to make my vehicle maintenance tasks a little easier. Currently use a small SUV service jack and jack-stands to get the vehicle up to work on the brakes and get under the vehicle. Too old and too fat for the constant getting up and down to place the jack, place the stand, then next wheel, place the jack, place the stand, etc,etc. Then still have to sit down on floor or on knees since not quite high enough to sit on rolling stool. Looking for something easier and quicker. Thought about a two post frame lift but not sure the garage floor is thick enough or properly re-barred for it. Also may be looking for something a little more portable in case wanted to work in the driveway instead of the garage. So I thought I'd put it out to you guys for your recommendations. What do you use? At this point I am leaning to the Quickjack 5000. I like the idea that I could lift one side only. Interested in what you guys use and what you would change if you could. Regards

So I have two different types of fuel pumps that I use. One type has a pump arm that is pretty much straight out of the pump and rubs on the bottom of the camshaft lobe at about the six o'clock position. The second type has a pump arm that comes out of the pump and then makes a hard upward turn and would rub on the side of the camshaft lobe at about the nine o'clock position. If your fuel pump is of the second type and you have 2 or 3 gaskets the pump may be set back too far from the camshaft and not getting a full stroke from the lobe. May account for the fuel starving when running. Worth a check.

Agreed. #1 wire may be correct and timed perfectly but two or more other wires may be out of sequence. My father in law once had the wires in the right sequence but in the wrong direction. He had the sequence correct going counter-clockwise but the rotor went clockwise. Car ran but only with idle set up to a high rpm. Sequence is 1,5,3,6,2,4, and rotor goes in clockwise direction. Regards. Title of your post "Fed Up" reminded me of this same father in law....he used to say, "Before I was married I was always hungry, ...now I'm fed up."

The block was rebuilt by a machine shop. It was hot tanked and pressure tested before any machine work was done. I intend to install a new Stant thermostat that I ordered and rec'd yesterday. Wii advise of progress. Regards to all. So I installed the Stant 160 degree thermostat. Fired off the engine and ran at the 2000 rpm. Made it to about 23 minutes, radiator temp was up to 190 degrees. Put engine back to idle , ran at idle for about a minute and ran out of gas. Go figure. Still think I have an overheat problem. Will try another radiator. The one I'm using now came with the car un-installed and sat in the back of the car for 10 years. No telling what kind of small critters may have set up a household in there. Looked OK looking in the filler neck but maybe the critters got into the far recesses of the radiator. Has anybody had any luck with flushing out a radiator? I think I remember something about reverse flushing. Regards So changed out the radiator with a spare. Solved the problem. Ran engine for 25 minutes at 2000 RPM. Radiator thermometer held at 160 degrees. All seems good. Oil pressure was at 40 psi @ 2000 rpm. When I backed it off to idle prior to shut down oil pressure went to 30 psi. Seems OK but my B1B reads 40 psi @ idle. Which seems more normal to you? Regards.

So it fired up. What's the saying..."you make plans and God laughs". Took carb, distributor cap, coil, and wires off my B1B and installed on short block. Installed a Walker muffler I got off amazon for $14 plus change and adapted to exhaust pipe cut off I had. Tried to fire off. Nothing. No spark. Pulled distributor from B1B and installed. Fired off but couldn't keep running. Fuel pump wasn't sucking. Pulled fuel pump from B1B and installed. Fired off and kept running. Set it to 2000 rpm. and let it run. For about the first 5 minutes got some blue smoke out of exhaust...profuse at first then settled down.. Figured it was assembly oil and rings seating in. Got to 10 minutes and radiator began to overflow. Radiator thermometer was at 190 degrees. Shut down. Note, did not have a fan blowing into front of radiator....my bad. Next morning, set up fan to blow on front of radiator. Fired it off and ran good at 2000 rpm. No blue smoke out of muffler. Got to about 18 minutes and radiator started to overflow again. Shut down. Radiator thermometer at 185 degrees. So all seems good. I'm a little concerned about water temp. Note: I do not have a thermostat in the engine. It is a new water pump. Any comments concerning this overheating would be appreciated.

Do you have an electric key start or the foot actuated type starter. The foot, through the floor starter was stock. I converted mine to a key actuated starter. Anyhow, you only need a couple electrical connections. Depending on the polarity of the battery you are using...whether you use the stock "positive" ground or have converted to negative ground it goes something like this: Your battery ground cable gets connected to a good ground point on the engine. Your other battery cable will be connected to the starter lug. This depends on the type of starter you have. If the stock foot start the cable can just be connected to the lug on the starter. If a key start type starter the cable goes to one side of a starter solenoid then another cable goes from the other side of the starter solenoid to the starter lug. If a key start then need a "hot" wire to the key switch and another wire from the key switch to the solenoid. The ignition system needs a hot wire from the battery to a switch then another from the switch to the Hot terminal of the ignition coil. Then another wire from the other terminal of the coil to the terminal on the distributor. So the start sequence would go like this: Put the coil switch to the "ON" position. Actuate the starter by the key switch or the starter lever. To shut the engine down put the coil switch to the "OFF" position. This setup does not have a charging system on it. I use the generator just as a pulley to tighten the fan belt so the water pump will turn. If the battery needs to be charged I use a "plug in the wall" battery charger. Regards.

Thanks all for your recommendations and photos. Through some deep rummaging in my parts bins/ boxes over the weekend I was able to find all the parts to accomplish an external bypass. Only real issue is that both the radiators I have have their upper hose connection coming out straight towards the engine rather than angled down as seen in Don's photo. Luckily during rummaging have both upper and lower flex hoses that I will use for the bench testing. Filled the cooling system today. Only leak was at the heater control valve at the rear of the head. The connection to the head was good but was leaking at the actuator rod on top of the valve. Changed it out and all seems good. Plan is to install oil pressure gage, fill oiling system, and pressurize through oil galley with a utility pump til I see pressure on the pressure gage. Will also transfer carb, distributor cap, coil, and wires from my '49 B1B since I know they are serviceable. Plan to acquire a discarded muffler from the local muffler shop and use it for the bench testing. Can anybody think of anything I am missing?

I'm currently building up a rebuilt 218 short block for it's first start. Sounds like your oil pump is installed correctly but the distributer is 180 degrees out. Verify you are at #1 cyl. at top dead center (piston at TDC and both valves closed). Pull distributor out and using a flash light look in the hole at the slot on the end of the oil pump. It should be horizontal going from 3 to 9 o'clock position. Turn rotor on distributor to 7 o'clock position and install. A little wiggle may be required to get distributor tang into oil pump slot but that should do it. Note that distributor rotor rotates in "clock wise" direction and verify plug wires are in proper firing order sequence starting with #1 at 7 o'clock position. Should be ready to go. Regards

Don.....thank you for the quick response. My gasket looks just like your gasket you have marked as "4267". My water pump has openings in it that match the gasket. My issue is that my engine block does not have a matching hole for the hole in your gasket that the phone number digits "-0863" can be seen. I assume this is the internal bypass hole since it sits under the hole in the head bump. So my head is set up for internal bypass but since I am missing this hole ,my block is only set up for external bypass. My question is what will happen if I run the engine with no bypass until I can find the necessary components to install an external bypass. Regards.

I'm still building up this engine. A slow process.....find a part, clean it up, test as best I can, paint if necessary, find hardware per parts book, and finally install. Slow and steady. Enjoying every minute of it. Came to the water pump. So the head is the internal bypass type with the bump on the front edge. Pretty sure the head gasket has the hole for the internal bypass passage as I can see where it comes under the bump on the head although it doesn't go across the full length/width of the bump. So the new water pump I have (from VPW I think) has the hole in the back plate for the internal bypass as does the gasket. Problem is, there is no mating hole in the block. So I think I have a block that requires a external bypass and a head set up for an internal bypass. Question is: can the engine be used with no effective bypass as it is now. If not I will be on the search for the necessary components for an external bypass, i.e. the cast iron housing for the head and the bypass elbow for the top of the water pump. What are your thoughts? Regards

Do you think it is wobbling on the shaft or that it is just bent? If bent might be able to straighten it out a bit with some careful prying with a suitable bar,screwdriver,etc. If wobbling on the shaft due to oversized pulley bore or worn shaft you have a bigger issue and probably need to replace some parts.

I guess I must be missing what seems to be obvious to others. Can someone explain to me how losing one quart of oil in 300 km is the result of the oil scraper rings on the pistons. I guess I'm just not understanding something. I agree that adding the "snake oil" to the engine would be OK. Some people do it every oil change just as a maintenance item. My problem with this situation is that once the snake oil is added and if the oil consumption continues the next step seems to be pulling the engine apart. So the result is to disassemble an engine that has good compression and oil pressure. Doesn't seem to make sense to me. You can buy alot of oil for the price of the new gasket kit that would be necessary to reassemble what seems to be well operating rebuilt engine . Regards.

Rebuilt engine with good compression, good oil pressure and 1000 km since overhaul. I would give it another 1000 km of driving to properly "break -in" the engine and let rings properly seat in the cylinders. Will probably see a decrease in oil consumption as engine components wear in. Just my 2 cents. Regards

Is the engine "freed-up" yet? With the front clip off I still recommend pulling timing chain cover and taking timing chain off. Biggest bugaboo here might be getting the crank shaft pulley off. Mine was tapped for 3/8-16 puller bolts but through the thin pulley. I would use nuts on the back side of the pulley also to prevent stripping out the holes. Then see if valve train, and /or crank shaft will rotate. If crank will not rotate, pull transmission and see what rotates. Then go from there. As I said above, in my case, others were convinced my engine was seized. Since there was no drive shaft installed the first thing i did was pull the transmission and got lucky. The trans was seized and the engine was free to the point was able to start it. My expeiriences and my 2 cents. Regards

Have a rebuilt 218 short block on a dolly. I am bolting on the ancillary components and getting ready for the first start. I would like to just see if it will fire off before I install in the vehicle. What are your recommendations concerning the cooling and exhaust systems. Could I just fill the block with water and leave the exhaust pipe and muffler off. I have seen farm "hit and miss" engines cooled with an open reservoir of water and I would wear ear muffs for the noise. Or do you recommend hooking up the the radiator and muffler? Regards to all.

I wouldn't jump to the conclusion of stuck rings based on your findings. Stuck rings would result in oil soaked spark plugs, blue smoke in the exhaust, lack of power. What is the oil pressure when idling and higher RPM ? Does your coolant look milky at all? Have you done a compression test? Regards

Sorry to hear it is still bound up. Here are my thoughts: Tapping on one piston is actually trying move all the pistons since they are all interconnected through the crank shaft. Also you are trying to move the valve train since it is connected to the crankshaft through the timing chain. Not to mention you are trying to rotate the the input shaft of the transmission if the clutch is engaged. I would try to separate some of these things and get things moving. For example: Front clip is off: remove front motor mount and remove timing chain cover and cam drive sprocket and timing chain. Reinstall cam drive sprocket and see if camshaft will rotate. Tap piston and see if crank shaft will rotate. You get the idea. Separate all the systems that are currently tied together and try to get them free, one by one. Regards.

Have you made any progress freeing the engine. Hope so, and if so, how did you do it?

Yep.....under the spring and to the rear of the spring hangers. Check the fittings on the old lines to your new wheel cylinders. The new wheel cylinders I got were actually front wheel cylinders for mopar cars . They were tapped to have hydraulic hoses running to them and not hard lines. Needed an adapter hydraulic fitting and crush washer to adapt the front wheel car cylinders to the rear of my B1B.

Sent my B1B to my nephew's brother"s body shop to have the four cab corners redone. They took the cab off and into the shop to work on it and left the rest of the truck outside. When I got the truck back was told the engine was seized. Said they had soaked the pistons to try to free them with no luck. They pulled the driveshaft so they could roll it around and get it on the flatbed to deliver it to me. I pulled the transmission and the engine was free, it was the transmission that was seized. Pulled top cover of trans and it was half full with water with gears rusted together. Rebuilt trans and was good to go. Recommend you drain the trans and look for water. Just saying.