MBF

I don't know who thought of that design, but bolting the bell housing solidly to the frame of the larger trucks, and then requiring you to remove the flywheel to pull the engine with the bolts facing the crank to me leaves a bit to be desired. If they didn't have that front flange on the bell it would have been so much easier to yank the flatty out and reinstall it. I did a slant 6 in my pickup years ago and that was a piece of cake compared to this one! Thanks for the photos!

On my B2JA I removed the nose for the engine o/h and painted everything underneath. When trying to remove the right inner splash panel I couldn't get it to come out through the top with the nose still in place. I had all the bolts out but also couldn't sneak it past the heater lines. I walked away and it fell out through the bottom! So that was my lesson learned-installation and removal through the bottom eliminated the problem for me. Not sure if this works on the smaller trucks.

There are some very clever and talented people on this forum. Not to add to trying to divert the thread-this brings back memories of my project 2 yrs ago. I rebuilt the 251 in my 49 B2JA and while it was out sent my clutch out to have it overhauled early on in the project. It wasn't giving me any problems, but I was 70 at the time so to avoid a future teardown I sent it out. Had the flywheel cut to add to all the machine work being done right to only have to do this once. Got everything back together and running and the newly redone clutch slipped. This truck has the heavy 5 spd in it so pulling it apart again wasn't going to be a picnic this time either. Pulled the clutch sent pics to the remanufacturer and he said the company had been sold but to send it back. Turns out when they did the overhaul process they only put half of the springs in the pressure plate so it didn't have much clamping action. I pointed this out to them after taking pictures of their overhauled PP and an original I had out of a parts truck. Long story short-its together and running fine, but doing stuff twice is aggravating to say the least-especially with such a heavy trans. Thank God a friend was able to lend me a commercial trans jack.

Mine is an Iphone-I went into the settings-gotta look around more-didn't find anything like you folks are recommending.

I’ve got a bunch of photos of the engine rebuild and under hood work Imdid on my B2JA almost 2 yrs ago. Having problems doing an upload on them.

Boy this brings back some memories!

I’ve got one of those switch brackets in a parts truck.. never knew they fit in the center of the dash w the floor mounted parking brake lever. Thanks for the photo,

On these old vehicles I run redundant grounds. Batt to engine, engine to frame, and frame to body. I also fuse individual circuits instead of the original setup. Don’t forget that the headlight switch has a circuit breaker mounted on it and that may be the culprit.

Yes, we've eliminated the water and fuel pumps as the sources, checked the clutch mounting bolts, changed distributors and replaced the new oil pump w another new one. We've been inside the engine from the bottom and found nothing. The noise only appears at idle and goes away as soon as the engine revs up a little. It is getting noticably better. Strong running engine that I'm convinced would have come apart by now if it was going to. The saga continues............

I find this thread most interesting. Two years ago I broke the crank in the 251 at the number 6 rod cap in my ‘49 B2JA. After machining and rofessional rebuild by long established machine shop it ran fine. .030 over, crank turned, new main, rod and cam bearings. New oil pump, block boiled twice (before and after machining). 3 angle valve job, new guides and springs,, cut flywheel and head, new timing chain/gears et al. After clutch replacement it Developed a knock at idle as soon as oil pressure came up that went away as soon as rpm’s increased. No noise at run speed. Machinist dropped pan, rechecked all main and rod bearings all looked fine. Checked chamfers on crank journals, no signs of anything hitting inside block. Crank end play fine, depressing or releasing clutch has no effect on noise. Checked bypass valve and spring. Took fanbelt off and installed block off plate on fuel pump noise still these. Told to run the truck and if it fails he’ll repair/ replace at no cost. As of now noise is becoming more intermittent at idle and goes away above idle. When engine is up to temp sometimes noise will reappear at times after idling for awhile. Appreciate the article and input on this.

It's a short rod that pokes out through the panel over the windshield. Each motor has one as they're controlled individually. Has a rubber button/bumper that slips over it. You can control wiper speed by how far the lever is pulled (well somewhat). Must have cause a lot of forehead injuries in the days before seat belts!

Yup, but I've got the entire nose off the truck and the trans sitting on a jack. It isn't bad working over the fenders of my 49 1 ton, but this 2.5 ton is a bear, and it came off pretty easily. While I have the nose off I'm replacing the fender fillers and doing some cosmetic work in the engine bay. I'm going to put the bell housing and pedals in and leave the floor out so that when I install the engine I can easily get to those top two bolts that the accelerator linkage mounts to. I think the most aggravating part of this job was the pedal return spring and pedal removal. I can't imagine doing this job on a PH COE!

Thanks for the response. I did pull the trans w a trans jack (did it 2 yrs ago too when I did the clutch. I did pull the floors and pedals. Mine was a former firetruck and all of the original fasteners came apart easily. I think I'm going to mount the bell in the chassis and start buttoning up the pedals/floor. This was the longest engine pull I've done-did a Chevy 235 in less than an hour, and my slant 6 in less than two. Really appreciate the info and pics. Thanks again! Mike

I'll post some pics when I get them. I have the 251 engine out of my 49 B2JA. Crank broke at #6 rod journal. Pulled an engine out of a parts truck to salvage the crank. While I'm waiting for machine work I'm doing some of the stuff that wasn't done before like painting the firewall and inner fenders. On both engine pulls, I removed the nose assemblies, then pulled the engine with the bell housing still mounted to the engine. With the front inspection cover off of the bell, can I install the bell into the frame, and then when I get the engine back together install it into the mounted bell housing? I know the flywheel will need to be installed afterward as it'd be a tight fit trying to sneak it up between the front of the bell while hanging from an engine hoist. Anyone done it this way? Trying to use up some of the painted parts while waiting for the machine work to be done.

Make sure your heat shield is in place over the fuel pump. I covered my pump to carb line with some rubber hose to provide some insulation for it.