MBF

Doesn't SOFTSEAL (sp?) offer a wider replacement? I thought I had seen that posted here somewhere? Mike

I've stripped a few differnet parts trucks. I've saved interior and exterior fasteners and washers. Everything was separated by use, labeled and packaged and put in separate containers on the shelf. I've done this with wheel bearings, drums, rims, seals, spring bushings, univeral joints and clamps, knobs, switches, linkages, etc. This took some time, but when I need something, I can easily check my inventory and usually find what I need. I've thrown some stuff out that wasn't going to be usable or safe. Mike

Tonkaman that's great news that she runs. Do yourself a favor and get the single piece windshield rubber from Steele. Mike

Oh- I get it now. I assume the choke button is a backup if the head fails?

That's why bondo comes in gallon containers. A neighbor's kid had a so called body man fix a big dent on the roof of his pickup with a ton of the stuff. It looked good-well for awhile anyway. He hit a big bump at speed, the stuff cracked and eventually came loose with big chunks falling into the pickup bed!

The plug marked with the yellow arrow has a wick inside. Unscrew the plug and soak the wick with a light oil. If you have an old speedo cable you can put it in the drive and turn it with a drill chuck in a variable speed drill. It won't measure the accuracy, but it will spin the internals. Does it make any noises when spinning? Mike

On my slant 6, my machinist hottanked the block, bored the cylinders, shaved the deck and then give it another bath before installing the cam bearings. He builds race engines for a living, and that his is SOP. Mike

I thought they were off a Jeep M715 military vehicle, but they look like they're drop center. Mike

I used Eastwood's brand of Dynamat for the firewall and roof, but I took GB's advice and used a double foil backed rolled plastic insulation that I got at Lowes for the back of the cab and around the rear window. I attached it using an industrial adhesive. Easy to work with, and worked well. What a difference that made in the cab decibel level. I don't drive this much in the winter, but I took it out last week, and could hear my heater blower running, and actually felt some heat! Mike

I swapped a 49 Ford F-5 even for my 52 1 ton back in the mid 90's. I had it running the day I brought it home, and have been working on it since. Not a ton of money invested, but time-well that's another story. Had a lot of enjoyment and fun with this old dog. Mike

If that's a 1 ton let me know. I just bought wheel cyls at NAPA. If that's what your looking for let me know, I'll look up the receipts for you. They had the front rubber brake hoses too. Mike

Well, it has worked for me, and I'm going to do the same for my 36 Plymouth-the oil stays noticably cleaner for a longer period of time, and I don't have the drippings on the garage floor from the draft tube. The advantage I see of a PCV system vs road draft is that you don't have to rely on vehicle movement to evacuate the crankcase gases and vaporized moisture once the oil is up to temp. I think you'd be sucking a lot of oil splatter drafting from the valve cover because you're right alongside the lifters Mike

Welcome to the madness. That is one hell of a find! The price is unbelievable too. What a great platform to start from. I've seen these flatties stick exhaust valves so tight from sitting that the guide had to be d reset, and then replaced. I don't mean to be a pessimist, but you may end up pulling the head. Spray liberally at the center of the valve through the plug hole. If I remember, the quide protrudes slightly above the bottom of the port. What doesn't go on the stem will end up running out the port to the manifold. While you're working on each valve, make sure the lifter is in a position that will allow the valve to return to the seat so that you don't waste time tapping on a valve that the lifter is at the top of the lobe -you'll need to pull the side covers to do that. Depending on how long she's been sitting, and what the humidity was will determine what you've got to do. You've still got a great starting point, and it sounds like she's trying to meet you halfway! Please keep us posted. Mike

DD that looks very nice! Mike

I haven't heard from Dave for awhile now I hope he's ok. As far as the PCV system, I did one similar to what Dave did. I removed the road draft tube and cut off the tube, and welded a nipple on to the fitting and installed it back into the block. I then took a heater hose and went from that nipple up to the right front corner of the cab and mounted a PCV valve from a MoPar slant six. I chose that because the orifice in the valve was designed for a 225 cu in block, so I figured the diameter was about right for a 230. That becomes important-because by adding the PCV sytem, your basically adding a controlled vacuum leak that needs to be compensated for to avoid running overly lean. From there I went to the vacuum port on the intake with a piece of vacuum tubing. I t'd the vacuum pickup off the PCV line because the line for the wiper was too small to T into. To filter the intake air, I used a cap (again from a slant six) with the sinterred filter to replace the original filler cap. I've had it on there about 4-5 yrs now, and it makes a difference in how clean the oil stays between changes. When you're doing this, you'll probably find that you have to richen up your idle mixture a bit, because of the vacuum leak that has been added. The vacuum wipers work fine with this setup (well as good as they ever did). To make this even more efficient, you need to make sure that you're running a hot enough thermostat (180 minimum) to allow the oil to get hot enough to vaporize the accumulated moisture so that the PCV system can do its job. Mike

I did the same with my 36 Plymouth. I mounted a ballast resistor on the outer firewall away from anything flammable (did the same on my 52 Dodge truck). The original switch is working fine. I even have a 6V rubber bladed fan mounted to the steering column on that same fused circuit. I did the conversion several years ago-no problems with accessories in either vehicle. Mike

I know that a common thing to do in the old Chevy 6's was to slightly pinch off the oil returns on the rocker arm shaft. The intent of this was to create addtional oil pressure in the rocker shaft prior to the excess being returned to the pan. I would imagine pinching off the end of the chain oiler would be similar in that it would increase the amount of pressure in the line causing a better spray pattern. The restriction would also very slightly raise oil pressure. Mike

I had the local Midas shop mandrel bend me a header pipe with a single 90 degree bend. I think that cost me about $40.00, and then bought a standard type muffler from NAPA-the glasspack I had on it was too loud. On the output side I added a 15" turndown pipe. I have a 9' flatbed so I wasn't concerned about going all the way out under the body with a tailpipe. When I did my 12V conversion, I switched to a 12V coil, and left the standard ignition point setup in place. I've never seen a shroud on a PH radiator, but that doesn't mean they don't exist or couldn't be made. I'm running a 4 blade fan for many years now w/o a problem. I have a 6 blade fan hanging on the wall that I was going to try, but if it aint broke, I'm not fixin' it. Mike

Took my 49 in for an alignment today. It was right on the way I had it, but I found I have a bad bias ply tire that is coming apart causing part of the problem. The tech said the left frame rail was flexing near the steering box mount when rocking the steering wheel back and forth. I know in later years they changed the design of the way the box mounts to the framerail, and the front bracing. I did see a larger truck with the ring type brace around the steering box sector shaft casting. Did they make these for the 1 tons? Has anyone hear had to deal with this issue? Nothing is broken or cracked. He suggested fishplating, but that's not my first choice. Mike

I'd check to see if there is any wiring near the pedals or their linkages that may be making contact with one of those pieces when the pedals are depressed. Check the routing of your battery cables too.

When I did my conversions, and old mechanic (actually a certified FAA tech) told me to make sure that I switched the wires on the coil, that there would be a noticeable difference but I forget why he said that would make any difference. I didn't argue with him and did the swap, and on the back of the ammeter too. I don't drive my truck a lot during the winter, but I did put a ballast resistor on the blower motor for the heater, and on the dash mounted 6 volt fan. Been running both the 36 Plymouth, and the PH for several years like that now, and all of the motors still work fine. I don't think there's a need to do anything with the switch wiring-its just a gate . Mike

Today I finally finished insulating the rear of the cab, installing my new panels, and repadding the seat cushion. I'm pleased how this came out, but this was my first stab at upholstering.

Its been awhile, but I remember switching an oil pump. It unbolts from the passenger side, and should just pull out if I remember correctly. Since you're going to tear it down completely, rotating the crank shouldn't matter-you'll need to retime the distributor after you go back together. Mike

Amen to that. Spoda be mid forties here in the Hudson Valley of NY today. No snow! Two years ago today we got 18" of the heavy wet stuff, w/o power for 4 days-I'll take this anytime. I'm almost two times 31, and this is the best one yet!

I'd do both. If its been sitting that long you may have some stuck valves that need to be freed up. When you're done with the top end, I'd drop the pan before you flip it upside down to check a rod and a main bearing, and clean up the oil intake if it is sludged up. Mike