squirebill

Can anybody shead some light as to why there are different types of brass nuts and washers used on these manifold studs in the various locations?

1949 Dodge B1B. The cable loom mounted to the center of the fire wall has 4 depressions in it. I know the throttle and choke cable use 2 of them. My truck has the water temp guage tube running through one of them. Does the remaining depression have anything going through it? On the military trucks seems the tube for the oil pressure also ran through this loom. My B1B has a rubber grommeted hole that the oil pressure line goes through. Is this correct or should it be going through the loom? Regards to all.

So I'm getting ready to build up the 218 short block I had machined and rebuilt. I remembered about the brass nuts and washers for the manifolds but not about their proper location. Did the research on this forum and hard copies of manuals I have and have the locations sorted out. What none of this research has told me is why do these Mopar flatheads have these brass nuts and washers. Not only that but two different configurations of the nuts and washers (regular washers, "conical" washers, regular nuts, and "conical" nuts). I'm thinking something to do with thermal expansion of dissimilar metals (cast iron block and manifolds and steel bolts and studs), but just a guess on my part. Any thoughts from anyone else? Regards to all

$100.00 for a piece of brass rod is outrageous. I would by some brass rod stock off Ebay or maybe a hobby shop and a set of new files and as we used to say, " measure it with a micrometer, mark it with a piece of chalk, cut to with a hacksaw, and, file to suit". Since you have two carbs you can use the part out of the other carb as a template. Heck, you're almost there.

Hardest pedal I ever got on my '49 B1B was by gravity. Short hose on each bleed fitting going into a jar, four hoses and four jars. Open all bleed fittings and add fluid to brake master cylinder. As you get fluid going into a jar, close that bleed fitting. When you have fluid in all jars, all bleed fittings closed, top off master cylinder and your done. Takes some patience but if working by yourself works great and costs little.

Reason I asked was as an 18 year old in the late 60s with a 50 Plymouth as a daily driver I had a situation with a brake pedal not fully returning. Since I had places to go and things to do, I got in the habit of looping the toe of my right shoe under the brake pedal and pulling it to the full out position. Problem solved?!?! But then my Mom asked me why my shoe was so screwed up. Explained the situation and immediately my step-Dad and I were completely rebuilding all the wheel cylinders and bleeding them with no change to the pedal return problem. Got to the point where we were getting ready to pull the master cylinder for rebuild or replace. This is where we discovered the brake pedal on it's pivot shaft was covered with dry rust dust. Sprayed the area liberally with penetrating oil/lube and problem was solved. No need for MC overhaul and probably rebuilding the wheel cylinders was unnecessary. Slim chance this is your problem but it is worth a check since the Dodge trucks have a similar brake pedal/shaft arrangement.

How did you determine the master cylinder was causing the brakes to drag? Does the brake pedal tend to stay down rather than return to the full out position when you release it?

Googled "impact sockets vs. regular sockets". According to Snap-On tech dept: Impact sockets have heavier walls and are heat treated to be less hard, less brittle, more ductile and "hand" sockets have thinner walls, are heat treated to be harder, more brittle and less ductile than impact sockets. Impact sockets are designed to be used on impact guns and will tend to wear out/deform but not shatter from impacts. "Hand" sockets, being thinner, harder/more brittle could possibly shatter if used on an impact gun. Bottom line, your impact socket used on a hand ratchet or breaker bar should be less likely to crack....although can't be sure of Mastercraft socket heat treatments.

Poptop....I can vouch for North West Transmission. Had dealings with them a few years back. Needed the cluster gear for my '49 floor shift trans in my B1B. I don't know how much this part would cost if I could find it some other place...I'm guessing $250-$300 dollars. They ended up trading me my part plus $50 for their part. Good folks to work with. Been a while since I was in this transmission but do remember it has two shifting bars fastened to the underside of the top plate. One plate would be for Reverse and first and the other for second and third. These bars have a 90 degree bend to them and the short arm of the bar fits down into a slot that is on the face of the gear. I'm thinking maybe the shift bar is defective or maybe it is not in the slot. Try to get a good look at these shift bars when you pull the top plate off the trans box. Maybe the first/reverse bar just has to be properly seated in the gear slot. Best regards

Folks....so I took my '49 B1B out for a test drive a few days before Thanksgiving 2017. Took it around the block (about 3/4 miles) making 4 right hand turns. Made three loops. It was all I could do to keep the truck going straight and returning to straight after making the turns. I would say I have close to 90 degrees free play at the steering wheel. Think I can get rid of most of the free play by adjusting the steering box. What concerns me most is the failure of the truck to come back to center after the turn. Been awhile since I drove this truck or any vehicle with manual steering. I do remember and understand that after making the turn you could let the wheel slip through your hands and the steering would return to center or close back to straight. With this truck I had to "steer" the wheel back to straight after the turn and with the excessive free play it was kind of exciting getting it back to straight and keeping it there. Also, I had 15" radial tires on the front and noticed the steering seemed exceptionally hard to turn. I mean back when this truck was my daily driver I used to be able to parallel park it using one hand pressed against the steering wheel. Checked the toe-in and although not to 1/8" spec, it's pretty close at about 3/16 . Any suggestions about the non-centering and hard steering would be appreciated. If anybody could give me an estimate of acceptable free play from your vehicles that would be great also. Note that my primary purpose of this truck would be driving it in parades and local car shows. I don't see myself ever taking it on a highway or above maybe 45-50 mph. Best regards to all.

Never heard of this either but it seems to make sense. The force of a spring depends on how much it is stretched or compressed....so if a thicker gasket is used seems like the fuel pump spring would be deformed less and result in less force and then less pressure.

So here is something I learned about rear cylinders for my B1B purchased from Bernbaum awhile back. Same as stated by Gary Roberts....what is being sold for the rear of the B1B is actually the front cylinders of mopar cars of the same era. Problem is, though, that the front cylinders for the cars had rubber hoses coming out of the back of them rather than the hard brake tubing as on the truck rear cylinders. The thread size for the rubber hose fitting is not the same size as the threads for the hard brake tubing. I got back to Bernbaum about this discrepancy and he advised they had been selling car front cylinders for the rear of trucks for some time and seemed a bit upset that I should be complaining about them. He advised I would need an adapter fitting and he didn't have them. I went on a search for an adapter fitting that would get me from the female hose threads in the cylinder and accept the male 1/4 inch tube inverted flare fitting on the brake line. I ordered Edelman Fitting #265400 from Summit Racing. Worked great.

Anybody using a portable fuel tank in their old vehicle? I've been using and 6 gal. outboard boat fuel tank with a quick disconnect on my 1948 B1B while working on it in my driveway. Liked the way it was working out. Only a small quantity of fuel dedicated to the truck. It has a manual vent plug that can be opened when running the truck and can be closed to help prevent air from getting to the10% ethanol in the fuel. Had a plan to purchase another tank so would have 12 gallons on board. When one tank got low would be able to disconnect from it and reconnect to the full tank. When I did Internet search for the new tank found out these poly tanks are not DOT approved. Guess they're OK for running boat motors on the water but not vehicle motors on the roadways. Anyhow, started an internet search for DOT approved fuel tanks. Seems that manufacturer supplied tanks supplied on the vehicle are approved. Then there other regulations for tanks that are used to transport fuel that are not supplying fuel to the transporting vehicle, i.e. if you are transporting fuel in portable tanks in the back of a pickup truck for example. As can be expected these regs will make your head spin, but know if not followed correctly the fines involved would likely spin your head right off. I checked on buying a new replacement tank as seems to be recommended by this forum but was wondering if anybody was using something other than the stock fuel tank. Regards to all and enjoy the upcoming 4th of July holiday.

Anybody using a portable fuel tank in their old vehicle? I've been using and 6 gal. outboard boat fuel tank with a quick disconnect on my 1948 B1B while working on it in my driveway. Liked the way it was working out. Only a small quantity of fuel dedicated to the truck. It has a manual vent plug that can be opened when running the truck and can be closed to help prevent air from getting to the10% ethanol in the fuel. Had a plan to purchase another tank so would have 12 gallons on board. When one tank got low would be able to disconnect from it and reconnect to the full tank. When I did Internet search for the new tank found out these poly tanks are not DOT approved. Guess they're OK for running boat motors on the water but not vehicle motors on the roadways. Anyhow, started an internet search for DOT approved fuel tanks. Seems that manufacturer supplied tanks supplied on the vehicle are approved. Then there other regulations for tanks that are used to transport fuel that are not supplying fuel to the transporting vehicle, i.e. if you are transporting fuel in portable tanks in the back of a pickup truck for example. As can be expected these regs will make your head spin, but know if not followed correctly the fines involved would likely spin your head right off. I checked on buying a new replacement tank as seems to be recommended by this forum but was wondering if anybody was using something other than the stock fuel tank. Regards to all and enjoy the upcoming 4th of July holiday.

Gentlemen....Thank you for your quick replies. Looks like I will be able to drive in the 2 hour long 4th of July parade with or without an operating genny system. Will take an extra fully charged 12 volt battery just in case. Don, thanks for warning about the points. Further research indicates adding a ballast resistor (1.6 ohm) in series in the coil input line will extend point life when used with -12 VDC input, same as I had on my '64 Plymouth Valiant. In fact I found a 12VDC ballast resistor still in the original packaging in my "old car parts box" in my garage. Best regards to all.

Looking for a guesstimate of how long a B1B will run without an operating generator system. Would like to drive the truck in the upcoming 4th of July parade and not sure will have an operable genny system by then. Have been currently running the engine off a 12 volt battery, positive ground with a switched lead to the coil. Maximum run time has been 15 minutes or so to check operation of cooling system thermostat, etc. Anybody have a guess or experience with a failed generator system and still able to drive running off the battery only?

My '49 Plymouth parts book lists this big end conn rod lock washer as .387 I.D. X 17/32 O.D. X 5/64 thk. My Machinery's Handbook 25 has a table for American National Standard Hi-Collar Helical Spring Lock Washers (ANSI/ASME 18.21.1-1990) and for 3/8 size it would have .385 ID max. X .550 OD. max. X 0.125 thick. These are about .020 Larger in the OD and almost .050 thicker but may work as replacements. In my past life we would use these Hi-collar washers under the smaller round heads of socket head cap screws (Allen or Unbrako).

Don....your car looks spectacular. Great job. I am just beginning a 1949 Plymouth Suburban. Bringing it back to "stock". Engine is currently at machine shop to be bored, decked and valve seats. I see your glass guy is going to start soon. I would be particularly interested in how he handles the sliding side windows. My window channels are shot and I seem to be having trouble finding replacements and instruction/directions on how to remove and reinstall new channels. Looking forward to seeing how you and your glass guy handle this. Best regards.

I have a '49 B1B with a floor shift and if your looking for someplace to send that transmission, I could use it as a spare. On the other hand, I think I have the floor shift assembly that would mount to the top of your transmission. Haven't seen it in years but pretty sure it is tucked away somewhere in my shops. Will look for it and if I find it and you have a use for it, we can talk. In either case, don't scrap what you have. May be able to part it out for the gear sets. A few years ago I was on a search for the lower cluster gear to rebuild my current transmission. Got it done but it wasn't easy finding the part. Best regards.

According to SAE specification J512, Fitting thread sizes for inverted flare 1/4 inch diameter tube is 7/16-24. For 5/16 diameter tube the inverted flare fitting thread is 1/2-20. I just did the brake lines on my B1B and purchased some fittings from Summit Racing. The poly bags the fittings came in showed "Edelmann" as the manufacturer. Regards

Let's just agree to agree there is more than one way to skin a cat. One man bleed with just a jar and a hose, one man bleed with a modified garden sprayer and adaptors to get it hooked up to the master cylinder and a jar and a hose, two man bleed with just a rag to catch the fluid, two man bleed with hose and jar, and a vacuum bleed with an apparatus to develop a vacuum. I'm sure there are probably others. My comments about removing the cylinder from the backing plate and holding it in hand with the bleed fitting facing up and bleeding the air out of the cylinder had to do with a cylinder, that at the time, was thought to have only one port going into the cylinder at the three o'clock position. This was to avoid 1949 Goat from putting his car in a ditch and trying to bleed the brakes on the low side wheel cylinder. This somehow went from bleeding the brakes to forming the brake shoes to fit the drum. In my experience the classic sign of air in the system is that the pedal can be pumped up to a higher position from the floor. Brakes that need adjustment is characterized by the brake pedal going towards the floor to the same point each time they are applied and cannot be pumped up. Of course if the brakes need adjustment and there is air in the system, you have to take care of each problem. Since 1949 Goat reported a system that could be pumped up and a wheel cylinder that supposedly only one port at the 3 o'clock position, I was trying to offer information to get the air out of the system. Didn't intend to offend anyone and no offense was taken on this end. Best regards to all.

Just a comment......bleeding the brakes in the "traditional" manner, using two people, may be the way most of us are used to doing it but it is not the only way. The 1954 "Chilton's Automobile Repair Manual", on pages 235 and 236 discusses brake bleeding by two methods. The first method is the one man method and according to them "the advantage of this method is that it requires only one man and it is cleaner." The second method is the method most of us have used and according to them "has the advantage of being much faster, needs no special equipment but requires two operators and is not so clean or positive." The "special equipment" they are referring to in the first method is a hose going from the bleed fitting and a jar to collect the expelled fluid. Since the one man method is presented first it might be inferred that this would be the preferred method according to Chilton and the two man method a close second. I do most of my work alone and don't have a "second operator", have used the one man method numerous times with great success. Just saying.

Just a consideration.....make certain the metal clip inside the plug wire is clipped onto the metal nipple on the plug. I replaced plug wires on my daily driver Chevy and the rubber caps were pretty tight and snapped onto the plug ceramics but I later determined I hadn't pushed them down far enough to have the clip of the wire actually clip onto the spark plug nipple. The dielectric grease on the plug boot made it mush easier to slip onto the plug and get the clip engaged. Just saying

Thanks everyone for the kind comments. Good to learn things from simple efforts. What really surprised me was when I cut the hoses. I was surprised at how small the ID was. The largest was only .110 inches ID. Having seen the 1/2" OD I was guessing the ID would be something like 1/4" or even 3/8", something like a fuel line hose. Now in the past I had heard of brake lines "ballooning" but now having seen these IDs I wonder how much ballooning could occur. I cut my hoses up so I can't test this. But if we take the largest hose ID (.110 in.)I had and figure the volume for an 18 inch long hose we get 0.685 cubic inches. If the hose ballooned to twice it's original volume, it would be 1.37 cubic inches. This is a considerable volume for this brake system and when you figure there are 3 such hoses, that comes up to a little over 2 cubic inches of fluid to cause the ballooning. This 2 cubic inches coming from the master cylinder that has a reservoir volume of 11.5 cubic inches could require the brakes to be pumped in order to come to a stop. Anybody have any thoughts on this.

OK....so I recently rebuilt the brake system on my B1B Dodge truck. This left me with a bunch of non-useable parts. I dissected the three hoses and the one old brake line. This truck was my daily driver in the early '70s and I mothballed it I think '74 or '75. It's been sitting for awhile. So I took pictures of these items and will try to attach them to this post. There is a photo showing the outside of the hard brake line and the degree of rust on the OD. I cut this tube lengthwise for an inch or so to see if it was rusted on the inside. I can't say it looked rusty but it certainly had a black coating on the inside that didn't seem to wipe away but could be scraped off. At this point I tipped the line and was surprised to see that there was still fluid in the line. I dumped the fluid onto a white card and it can clearly be seen that the fluid is contaminated with particles of rust of various sizes. Then cut the three hoses and found they all had different IDs. IDs were .070", .090, and .110 ". Must have been individually replaced at some time and all came from different sources The end of one hose fitting was completely pinched closed so I cut this fitting in half lengthwise and rolled the hose out of one half of the fitting. Looks to me like the inside of this hose fitting rusted and as the layer of rust grew it reduced the ID of the fitting and pinched the hose to the point were it was completely closed off. So what I learned from all this was that although the OD of the hose is about 1/2 inch, the ID is small enough that it could be easily closed off if it got clogged with debris like the rust particles from the hard line. Having the lines rust on the inside even though they are filled with hyd. fluid is possible. The ID of a rusting component can be reduced as the rust layer grows. Also, I once had a '65 Chevelle were the right rear wheel would lock up and skid when the brake was applied. Checked the brake on the right rear and all looked good. Pulled the left rear brake and found the friction material was contaminated with oil from a leaking axle seal. Recommend you check your other brakes for contamination as the right front brake may be trying to compensate for other non-effective brakes. Also, my daughter had a '87 escort where the left front wheel would lock up after the car had been driven for a while and making multiple stops during the trip. This was a disc brake situation. Traced it down to the brake hose going to this brake. It had a 1 inch wide steel clamp that wrapped completely around the hose at about mid length and held the hose to a bracket on the front strut. This clamp had rusted to the point where it choked off the hose ID. The thinking was that pedal pressure could go to the brake but once pedal pressure was released pressure would not be released properly because the hose was constricted. Maybe some of this will help you diagnos your situation. Regards Attachments (43).zip