MBF

When we bought the 36 Plymouth back in the 60's MoPar's were junk- paid $90.00 for a barn find one owner car with 19K miles on it. When I bought the 52 1 ton in the 90's-I traded a 49 F5 flatbed-the owner couldn't wait to get rid of the PH as no one wanted it. Back then going to cruise ins with a MoPar it was like you were from another planet (park it over there in the back). Today, there are groups of us that convoy to antique truck shows with Dodge trucks. Cruise ins are another story too-rows of Mopars, and we now even have a MoPar mountain for our trucks to park in at one. I think we were all ahead of our time! Mike

Here's the actual link Ashes to ashes

Having the backup lights on a dash switch enables you to use them whenever you need them-like when some jackazz is right on your tail.

Ya better write yourself a note to remind yourself where you stowed it! I'm at that stage of life now. I went up in my garage attic the other night and was amazed at all the parts I've accumulated that I've forgotten about. Mike

Take #1 spark plug out and turn it over until it comes up on compression and is at TDC. Remove the dist cap and see if the rotor is pointing to the #1 terminal in the distributor cap. That will tell if its in time. If it isn't-you need to figure out what happened-could be the dist housing moveda timing chain or other. If that's ok, pull the coil wire out of the dist cap and put it near a ground (the block is fine). Open and close the points with the key on. If the wire fires to ground that verifies your coil is ok. From there I'd check to make sure the points open and close properly, and then gap them (actually you may want to do that first) Next step is to check to see if you've got fuel. Try giving it a shot of carb cleaner down the throat of the carb and see if it does anything. If it runs, you may have a plugged line, stuck float in the carb or bad fuel pump. Good luck-you'll feel good when you find what went wrong and fixed it. Mike

I believe I have one w/o the studs in it if that will help. Not sure how to use the PM function on the new forum. If you want to contact me-mfowler53@hotmail.com. Mike

Yup-staking the pin and rebuilding it with materials compatible with today's gas is key to a long life. If you buy a rebuilt vs doing it yourself-make sure that pivot pin is properly staked. I bought one from NAPA for my '36 that came apart shortly after installing it. Mike

3dodge: Go over to the slantsix.org site and search on lean burn-there are numerous threads and discussions on replacing the system. Mike

If it were me I'd ditch the lean burn system and get a regular ignition module, electonic distributor and a manual carb (no electrics). If you don't have to worry about emissions you should be fine. Mike

I converted the 52 to 12v several years ago and used an internally regulated alternator. I've been replacing or rebuilding the wiring harness in my 49 a piece at a time. As I recall, the heavy wire going from the batt post on the alternator through the ammeter is the feed for all of the accessories. Chrysler ran everything up through the late 70's through the ammmeter (for those vehicles so equipped). It sometimes ended up being the week link of the system and a modification using a shunt to bypass the guage is shown on another old mopar site. Paul: just because your ammeter is reading on the negative side means that it is working. I just went through this same firedrill with the 49-I had a no charge situation. I rebuilt and bench tested the generator-it checked out fine, installed it and still had no charge. I verified this by using a multimeter directly on the battery. I replaced the wiring from the reg to the generator-still nothing. The regulator looked fine and still had the cork gasket intact. Despite a polarizing-still no charge. I had the regulator I took off the 52 years ago and for the heck of it I swapped it out-voila! If your panel lights are dim, try removing the fixtures from the back of the guage panel and cleaning up the contacts and the glass part of the bulbs themselves. You may have a bad ground, or dirty contacts in the switch. Mike

Boy-that brings back some memories. I think I used silver solder on the studs on mine. That sure buffed up nice and the red really offsets the color of your truck. Nice job!

Scruffy-I have a set of parking light housings just like the ones you have on my shelf, that's why I did what I did with the 1 ton. I found 1 NOS brow, but the other one was beyond repair. I then found a stainless grill assemby on a 2 ton truck. The owner wouldn't sell parts off it, and then crushed it! I would have loved to have gotten at least a pair of rims off that before it went.

I used dynamat and painted it flat black. Cheap, not original, but it works well and surely is durable. It made a great deal of difference the cab head and noise. Mike

DodgeB4YA is that truck in NY and did it come from Maine? If it is, I remember seeing that when it was a firetruck not too far north of here. Sat by the side of the road for a good while. In any event, I really like your collection. Mike

Thanks Wally. I got my taillights hooked up-getting ready to put this on the road. Still haven't found tires or rims for the rear, but I have a couple of possibilities. Worst case, I'll dismount the outer rears, repair the damaged hoop where the rivets have pulled through and put new tires on it. I'm really hoping to find some decent rims with servicable tires on them. Scruffy: As far as the headlight rings-I believe one is pitted, but I think they're both the cast type. I honestly haven't look at them that carefully. I'm pretty sure I have a pair of stainless ones up in my attic. Mike

Well, I've got some more progress to report. I removed and sold the "too big" dump body, and started looking for a 50's era flatbed or stake body. A friend of mine has a yard a couple miles from my house full of old stuff. He had an early 50's Chevy 2 ton that had a 12' factory flatbed on it that had been sitting there for years. We made a deal, and I headed up with my old John Deere and trailer and brought it home the day before Thanksgiving. I've been taking advantage of whatever warm days we've been getting because the 2.5 ton won't fit in my garage. I got it mounted shortly before Christmas, waiting to make a decision how much to cut it down. I shortened it a couple of weeks ago, and I've been working on getting a headboard and some sideboards on it. The sideboards are the original fir stringers that I ripped and painted. I'm getting there. Going to hook up the rear lights today before the weather turns cold again. I'm going to be looking for some original stakebed stancions to make it a rack body like my 1 ton. Mike

Nice looking job. That is one substantial bed. I've been working on the bed of mine. When I bought the truck (originally a firetruck) it had an old dump body on it that didn't quite fit the truck. I took it off, painted the frame and went looking for a period correct flatbed body. I found one in a junkyard just before Thanksgiving. I got it mounted, but it was too long for my chassis. I cut it down, and started working on the sideboards. I want to get a set of stake arms for it and make it into a stakebed like my 1 ton. Your truck looks good! Mike

Does the RR tailight work? How about the right front signal light? If the RF works, I'd suspect a corroded joint someplace or a bad ground on the light itself.

If I remember correctly from when I rewired my truck several years ago. There is a constant negative feed (remember our trucks are positive ground in their original format-so this is the hot side) to the horn. The horn mount is isolated from the body/ground by the pheonolic washers in the bracket and the shoulder bolts used to mount it to the firewall. When the horn button is pressed, you complete the circuit by sending a positive (ground) to the horn or relay depending on which horn setup you have. If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will correct my statement. Mike

Paul, if you can't find one close by let me know. I had a 52 that I parted, and I may have 1. Both my trucks are 49'2 so if I have one, I won't need it. Mike

Are you talking about the tie rod or the drag link that goes from the pitman arm on the steering box to the right steering knuckle? If its the drag link, it is supposed to have a bend in it to clear the right spring on a hard left turn. I have a spare drum in my garage attic that I can take a picture of for you. I'll post it later today. Mike

My '36 Plymouth is like that, and so is my Dad's '35 Chrysler. I think way back when, the seats were so narrow and the doors so wide that it was just as easy to get in and slide across. It was safer in a city environment to enter from the street side, and having just one keyed lock on the passenger side encouraged that. Just my 2 cents

I'll second what 4852dodge said. If the rims run true, and the groove and lock ring are not dinged up or rusted and fit together correctly you should be good to go. I've been using these on my 1 ton for over 16 yrs now w/o an incident. I plan on doing the same with the 20" rims on my 2.5 ton too. Mike

We did an antique firetruck years ago. We rented a tow behind industrial compressor and used the Eastwood blaster. It took us about a day to to the frame, cab and body. We used a mild media, and had everything on tarps so that we were able to catch the residue from the blasting. We sifted this and recycled it through the blaster several times, but getting near the end, it was too fine to do any heavy cutting. Made sure you wear a good quality respirator rated for the operation, and of course good eye protection.

If you're not concerned about an original appearance under the hood, Gravely Tractors made a cast adapter for the Gravely engined L models that allowed replacement of their sealed oil filter with a spin on filter used in the Ford V-8's. It was tapped for the inlet and return lines, and had two ears on it to allow it to be mounted on the engine block or remotely. The biggest advantage was the convenience of using a spin on filter. The filtration system on the flathead 6's is a bypass system not a full flow system so there probably isn't much additional filtration. Mike