jeffsunzeri

Like shooting craps, old cars are a special pleasure, but not when you need the rent money. Don't be disappointed. When it's meant to be, the right car and opportunity will find you.

Don't do it. Your Dad is right. All the conditions you state point to not doing yourself or the car any favors. Daily driver, out of cash, bad electrics, bad brakes, overheating, not a proficient mechanic.

Before going down the bunny trail of blame for the fuel system, eliminate any questions about the electrical system. When it refuses to start, pull a spark plug and visually check to make sure it is sparking. It only takes a minute or so, and can prevent unnecessary expense and headache. Condensers are life limited and many times we are given condensers that are incorrect for the application as replacements. A failing condenser can give all the symptoms of a plugged fuel filter. A failing condenser may be fine until it soaks up a bit of heat. They are one component that will work while cold, and fail due to heat.

The face of the valves should be about 1/16" above the surface of the block. You would be getting a case of recession if they were much lower. Your springs sound way too slack and due for replacement.

I just purchased and installed one of the tanks from Tanks Inc. in my 1942 WD-21 (2 weeks ago). I've put around 100 miles on the truck since. My comments: - The tank is well built and an accurate replacment. This is definitely NOT a cheap knock off as we experience with motorcycle reproduction gas tanks originating from outside the U.S. - There are only 2 ways to tell it from an original - the outlet is 3/8 NPT rather than female inverted flare, and the drain comes with a hex-head drain plug. - I have no experience with the modifications needed for a Dodge B1B. - No leaks, no rattles, no sloshing sound, fitted up perfectly, no problem installation. The reason I replaced my old tank was that the bottom had been dented over the years, and I believe I was losing around 2 gallons capacity. Also, even though I had the tank boiled and sealed, I had a problem with the pickup tube. The tube came with a soldered on filter and this had come loose for reasons I won't go into. From time to time, stuff in the bottom of the tank would plug up the pickup tube and cause fuel starvation. I'd have to back-blow the fuel line to clear it only to have it happen again from time to time, unpredictably always at the worst times of course. Until recently no reproduction tanks were available, and good originals were scarce and pricey. Running with an old tank with rust and goop inside is NOT a good thing, and despite boiling and sealing remains problematic. I will probably be replacing the tank on my '47 pickup as well now that the good reproduction tanks are available inexpensively. The price of cleaning and sealing an old tank exceeds the price of the new tanks. I would recommend replacing the tank and preventing the inevitable headache that comes from cleaning plugged filters and float bowls full of sediment, and replacing fuel pumps as they wear out prematurely.

I recently installed a Datcon unit, but slightly different from the one you purchased. The difference is in the length adjustment. The unit I bought allows you to adjust the depth of the unit by the addition/subtraction of a removable piece. I can see where bending the float arm would work just as well in most cases. This is what is done on many aircraft (bend the float arm to suit the depth of tank). The rheostat is submerged all the time, and it works fine.

The likely problem that results in a hard start after sitting overnight, or for longer spells is usually the fuel pump check valve. If the check valve is worn, it will permit all the fuel between the carb and the pump to leak back down to the tank over a period of time. The hard start results when you've only got gas in the fuel bowl, and none in the line. So on first start it catches then dies, and the pump has to work extra hard to fill the line again. If you find that the fuel has drained out of the float bowl overnight, then you've got a more serious problem (not the float level) inside the carburetor.

This is from a 1978 Rolls Royce manual: "...it has been found that cars wired positive earth tend to suffer from chassis and body corrosion more readily than those wired negative earth. The reason is perfectly simple, since metallic corrosion is an electrolytic process where the anode or positive electrode corrodes sacrificially to the cathode. The phenomenon is made use of in the "Cathodic Protection" of steel-hulled ships and underground pipelines where a less 'noble' or more electro-negative metal such as magnesium or aluminium is allowed to corrode sacrificially to the steel thus inhibiting its corrosion. Also the radiators of post war cars wired positive earth have a tendency to become blocked due to electrolytic deposition of metallic salts, particularly in hard water areas. For this reason it is important to bond these radiators to the chassis and bodywork with flexible copper braiding so that they are at 'earth' potential"

For an AC welder, polarity changes at 60 HZ (cycles per second). Most of the common stick welders in the small shop/garage/home are AC welders. Ergo, you don't get to select ground polarity. Industrial, commercial stick welding is done with DC generators, as is all ferrous welding via TIG (heli-arc). Generally, using a DC welder with the stick or electrode positive (DC reverse) and the work negative (grounded) results in deep penetration of the grounded material. Using DC with the electrode negative and the work positive (DC straight) results in fast and difficult to control electrode consumption. Some good general information on this is available from here: http://www.lincolnelectric.com/en-us/support/process-and-theory/pages/understanding-polarity-detail.aspx Your MIG welder requires electrode positive (DC reverse) polarity for almost all operations. Given all this, an electrical engineer considering DC circuit design might ponder whether he or she would prefer to have the frame or the connector erode quicker in the event of a corroding connection, or in the performance of various electrical components (like spark plugs). Ultimately in a circuit that is as robustly built as an automotive system, it doesn't really matter too much, as evidenced by the fact that Roll Royce 12 volt positive ground electrical systems are no worse than say an Imperial's with 12 volt negative ground.

You know for sure that the move to 12 volt systems from 6 volt were for either weight savings (as in aircraft applications going from 12 volt to 24 volt) or cost savings. Back in the '50s weight was not much of an issue for Detroit, so you can bet the move to 12 volt was cost savings. The British automotive industry didn't change to negative ground for many years after going to 12 volt systems, so they at least found an advantage to staying with a positive ground (earth) system. A clue to which is "better" can be seen with your DC welder. Look at the change in behaviour from welding with the electrode negative vesus the electrode being positive. The final decision (English went one way, Americans another) is based on what metal transfer behavior you were most comfortable with. In practice, at least in my somewhat extensive experience with both systems, both work just fine in the real world as long as you don't mess too much with the way the factory did it.

I wonder what they mean about "hotter spark". It's a term tossed about pretty loosely without much substantiation. At the normal 15 - 20 kv found at the spark plug, the difference between ground method is not even approaching neglibible. When going to a negative ground DC system on a car you should take the extra step of making sure all the chassis components are electrically bonded more than in a positive ground system Changing from a manufacturer's positive ground system to negative ground is not such a good idea IMHO.

"has anyone ever welded a leaf spring..." Yes, many times. A competent welder can weld the spring for you. If done properly, the spring will become annealed at the point where the weld was placed, losing all the springiness. By competent I mean a welder who understands rod/alloy selection, pre-heat and post-heat operations and annealing and heat treatment processes. Any weld would be considered a temporary fix until either a replacement spring could be fitted or the spring could be properly heat treated back to the full-spring condition (not likely to happen). And even if you won't load it enough to make the spring touch the stop, a well placed pot-hole will do the trick.

At least you can get it to turn over! A little checklist for you: 1. Pull all the spark plugs. 2. Make sure the battery positive (+) is connected to ground, preferably to the engine block. 3. Remove all the spark plugs. 4. Check compression on all six cylinders. A dead (0 lbs compression) cylinder is likely to be a stuck valve which is very common, and will keep the engine from starting. 5. If all cylinders have compression (50 lbs or more), you're good. Squirting oil in the spark plug holes is not good with this engine. It will only oil up the valve faces and maybe trickle into the intake or exhaust. 6. Keep your spark plugs out, and connect a wire from your negative battery post directly to the (-) pole of the coil (the (+) pole will go to the points). 7. Have someone turn the engine over while you watch for the plugs (grounded well to the head) spark. 8. If no spark, your problem is in the distributor. Check your points/condenser installation. 9. If you get spark at step 7, then your problem was between the ignition switch and the coil. Some assumptions are being made. They are: - Your coil is a 6 volt and in good condition. - Your distributor is turning when the starter is engaged and running. - The cap and rotor are correctly matched. Let us know what happens.

What part number is the air filter element you used?

No. It seems to run on just about anything else, though! It gets automotive pump gas, 87 octane, and every now and then avgas 100LL.

In addition to '41, '42 and '47 trucks, I also operate a '41 Clarktor 6 aircraft tug. This tug runs the Chrysler industrial 6, exactly the same as the Dodge 218. It operates at idle and just above all day long on the hot tarmac never going faster than 10 mph, with air temps commonly over 85 up to around 100 degrees F. If anything gets heat soaked, this little fellow does, and the water and oil temps stay put without fail. The whole point being, that if the mopar six is all in order, overheating is not an issue. The mopar flathead sixes operate in all sorts of applications from out in the noon-day sun in combines, to running flat out in the Arizona heat and they are among the most reliable and easy starters of any engine without any modification from stock. If you're seeing the temps rise to the danger range (over 190 F) and you're not crossing the Sierras at 7,000 feet on a 90 F day with a full load, something is wrong with the cooling system. Was the water distribution tube replaced? Block cleaned out? Radiator checked out ok? Why was the stock fan removed? Did it overheat when that was in place? Bottom line is that overheating and hard starting with a stock mopar flathead six in good operating stock condition is pretty rare in my experience.

I guess you get what you pay for regarding the Spectre regulator. I've had one in service for a few hundred hours and it seems fine. Better brands are available. Bottom line is that if the entire fuel system is not engineered to work together from the beginning, a pressure regulator is an essential component.

Before you re-engineer the entire truck, put a fuel regulator in line before the carburetor set at about 3 psi. Total cost for an adjustable unit made by Spectre is about $30.

I might add that your initial test of the generator's health by removing one battery cable while the engine is running, can be a good but crude test of the generator circuit, with some exceptions. First, generators (normally) don't produce enough voltage at idle to run the car. At idle, the battery is still being used to supply sufficient voltage to power the ignition circuit. If you rev the motor to around 1,000 rpm the generator should indeed be powering the ignition system, and if at that speed you remove the ground cable and the engine quits, you have a problem in the generator circuit. It may be the generator at fault, or it could be the regulator, or faulty wiring connections. One reason for the move to using an alternator is that alternators provide more voltage at lower rpms than generators, therby recharging the battery during times when the engine is only turning at idle speed. The movement on your ammeter when you introduce a load such as headlights, is controlled by the voltage regulator. Making sure this is the correct regulator for your generator and the intended usage (lights on all the time, never, sometimes, radio always on, no radio, heater motor, electric vs vacuum wipers, etc.) is one key to having a healthy electrical system. Too many people install 12 volt systems thinking they are 'better' when they never had a properly operating 6 volt system in the first place.

I had the stock rims on my WD-21 (1 ton) powder coated and fitted with modern radial tires and tubes. The rims are the lock-ring type, and most any truck savvy tire shop can deal with them. They are plenty safe as others have mentioned, and the modern tires help the ride and stopping a lot. Check your rear end type. It is likely that you can interchange the gears with those from an automobile (Ply, Dodge, Chrys, DeSoto) of the same vintage and get the gearing down (up) to around 3.2:1. I did this on my WC-15 pickup, and it's a great enhancement, and keeps it all stock, and lets me do 60MPH on the freeway with no sweat. The car rear ends are the same as the 1/2 ton pickup chassis, and perhaps your van. I've been using these old things as daily drivers for over 30 years. Six volt, everything just as it came from the factory except a good set of 7 wire turn signals added on. They are pictures of reliability.

An electric fuel pump may overwhelm the float and needle assembly if the pressure is not regulated to a low enough value. That excess pressure at shut down would account for the strong fuel smell and the hard starting.