MBF

Don: They weren't MoPar 6's that slipped time due to the nylon teeth breaking loose. One was a Ford 302, and the other a Buick v-8. Just something else I thought he could check as I have seen worn chains on a flatty. Mike

You may want to go one step further and bring #1 up to TCD on the compression stroke and then pull the front side cover off to see if both valves are the #1 cylinder are fully closed with some clearance between the bottom of the valve stem and the top of the lifter. You may want to make sure all valves are moving and closing fully. If they are, with the timing mark lined up, see how far you can rotate the crank in both directions before the rotor starts to move. That will tell you if your timing chain is getting worn and has possibly jumped a tooth or more. Hopefully it is something simple, but I have personally seen two vehicles that I drove into the garage running fine that refused to start the next day because the timing chain had jumped when they were shut down. Mike

I think a fair amount of folks have done that as the wheel stance on the newer vehicles is wider than the B series (1 ton and under) and that the fender flairs compensate nicely for the extra few inches of width. Please post pics as you progress. Good luck. Mike

Yes X's 2

Bring #1 to TDC again on the compression stroke. Loosen the distributor hold down bolts and try to rotate the housing so that the tip of the rotor is pointing to whatever post the #1 spark plug wire is located in the cap. If you can't get enough movement of the housing to make it line up, move the spark plug wires 1 position at a time until you have movement enough to line up the rotor. From that point start going in a clockwise direction to relocate the wires in the cap. Firing order should be 1-5-3-6-2-4. Mike

Ok-I'll jump in. I don't think it would be possible w/o a ton of work. The front edge of the door will not line up with the newer fenders, and if you use the newer fenders, you'd probably end up using the entire nose including the hood which I bet will not be the same shape as the PH cowl. Anything can be made to fit anything else, but at what cost? I remember seeing a movie FANDANGO about a road trip in an early 60's Caddy. They had an accident, and grafted the nose of a 50's IH truck on it.

I think that the only rear you're going to find that will have the same bolt pattern is from a Mid 60's Ford F-350 with a V-8, or an IH 1 ton of that vintage. The Kaiser military Jeep of that period (I forget the model designation) does use the same bolt pattern, but due to its off road capabilities I would imagine in geared quite low. None of the newer stuff uses the bolt pattern of these 6 lug Budds. I know, I've been looking for several years. Another problem is that you may have to get the rear narrowed to match your current rear width. Mike

I don't personally have any experience, but I did talk to an owner at the Syracuse ATHS show about 10 yrs ago. He had a really nice setup, and I don't know what the final gear ratio was with the o/d, but I do remember him saying that on any kind of an extended incline that he had to drop it to direct because it couldn't hold it's own on a hill in o/d. I'm thinking back now but I imagine he'd also have to had relocated the original gas tank to make room for the unit wouldn't he?

My 49 1 ton has the 4.3. It cruises comfortably at 45-48 actual w 6.50-16's in the back. A 3.9 is going to give you about a 10% increase w/o changing the rear tire size. I'm going to 7:00's in the back which should raise it a bit more. I'd go to 7.50's but in a dual configuration the sidewalls would be touching. Mike

Paul, when you remove the center wire (the primary coming from the coil) from the distributor and manually open and close your points with a screwdriver blade you are in effect simulating the effect of the distributor shaft rotating and opening/closing the points as it turns. This test only verifies that you: 1)have battery power to the coil, 2) that your coil is good, 3) and that your points are in effect making and breaking the ground circuit that collapses the field in the coil to create a spark. If your distributor is in time, this test would confirm that you have sufficient spark to make the engine run. If you don't have a spark at the end of the coil wire, you need to start backtracking to make sure of the 3 items listed above. All the distributor does is as it's name applies, distributes the energy or spark from the coil primary wire to the proper spark plug at the proper time. I don't know that you'd need a ballast resistor to conduct this test w a 12 volt battery, but if you're going to run the engine for any extended time you may. Be aware if you're going to continue testing w a 12 volt through your ignition switch make sure you disconnect the power feed to your fuel gauge or it will smoke in an instant. Also do not turn on any lights or you'll make flashbulbs out of anything that lights. Hotwire this test battery in the same orientation as you had with the 6 volt before the fire (+ ground). Mike

Paul, if you pull the wire out of the center of the distributor cap, and hold it near a ground, if you manually open and close the points with the key on, you should see a strong blue spark at the end of the wire to ground. If not, try cleaning and readjusting the points. Mike

You could try soaking it i a Gunk type degreaser and then rinse with hot water. I've used the carb cleaner for this for this in the past with good results.

FgF: If you can mock up that receiver and it's close, there are hitches that raise and drop the ball height depending on what you need for your particular application. Hiding it behind the bumper would conceal it when you're not using it. Mike

I don't mean to be trying to overthink this, but if you taper the pitman arm from the other side to an hourglass like shape wouldn't you lose half of the support designed into the tapered fitting? How would it be tightened properly now that you have the large opening on the side of the pitman arm designed for the smaller part of the tapered ball joint. I say this because I had a similar problem with a Ford L800 I restored several years ago. The previous owner had put in a power steering box from an F series. The only available drag link required reversing the flat pitman arm on the output shaft of the box since the F series used a mirror image of the L model's drag link. This was really the only safe fix since it wouldn't pass NY inspection with a cut and welded drag link. Mike

One more thing to thing about, and I don't mean to be negative. The bore in the pitman arm is tapered. You won't be able insert your modified drag link's tie rod end from the other side w/o flipping the pitman arm over on the shaft. As far as lining up the steering wheel, I just leave it on loose so I can rotate it on the shaft and drive it in my driveway in the straight ahead position until I find the spline that lines that center spoke up with the 12 o'clock position, and then tighten down the nut. Mike

Go for it. The timing is never right-but it'll all work out.

Before you go buying anything you may want to mach this up to make sure that you don't have drag link clearance issues with and the right side spring or binding at the pitman arm going lock to lock.

I did that a few years ago until I could find a good one. Bought a new one on ebay about a year ago. Just copy the bend angle of the original, and the indexing of the ball joint ends. One thing: The diameter of the shaft of the drag link is thicker than the tie rod shaft. You may want to reinforce the bend. Mike

If you can get the steering wheel off, you can disconnect the steering box at the mounts, and undo the pitman arm and slid it out through the bottom (I did that this year w my 49 1 ton) so I know it will work. If you have another outer tube for the floor shift model, you probably only need to drop it a foot or so to slide the column shift tube off the box and replace it with the plain model. Mike

Judging by the damage in the photo it appears that your truck experienced a common failure of the door restraint coming off which allows the door to open too far and contact the rear edge of the front fender. I would suspect that if the door was repeatedly forced past its normal opening range that the area of the door (and possibly the A pillar too) where the lower hinge mounts has been tweaked pretty good. Judging from the amount of metal work your door requires it may be easier to find an undamaged door, or at least one in better shape. Mike

I wonder if this was a dealer promotional piece that someone got a hold of and modified? I remember my father taking me to the local MoPar dealer back in the late 50's and them having a Desoto bodies electric car about the same size as this. As a kid I thought that was pretty cool. Still do!

That extra lever with the ball on top is likely the manual shift for the two speed rear. (if it is there will be a rod running back to the rear and). My 1 ton has a syncrho 3 speed, and my 2.5 ton has a 5 speed w vacuum shifted 2 spd rear. The trans in the 2.5 ton, is way more than you'll ever need for the 1 ton pickup, the bottom two gears will rarely be used or needed. I think you're going to be hard pressed to find a rear center section that provides the gear ratio that you want to run highway speeds. I think I'd go w the T-5 in your application, but remember you'll then be beyone what your truck's steering and brakes were designed for. Mike

That's thinking on your feet!

I'd try welding a nut to the rounded off bolt head, and give that a good shot of your favorite penetrant and then rattle on it with an impact gun to see if that will back it out.

I've started off with much worse, in fact your truck looks to be quite solid. Patience and realistic expectations will go a long way to getting this to the point that you're very happy with it. Best of luck. Mike