MBF

Another thing you can do to make it a 1 man job for a few pennies is to get a clear plastic container (small gatorade bottle), drill a hole in the cap and insert a piece of vacuum tube in the hole that will fit over the wheel cylinder bleeder valve. Put an inch or so of brake fluid in the bottle, and make sure that the end of the hose in the bottle is fully submerged in the brake fluid. Hang the bottle above the wheel cylnder you're bleeding, fill the master cyl w fluid and give it a couple of pumps. Until you aren't getting bubbles in the bottle. Close the bleeder, remove the hose from the bleeder and move to the next wheel. Start at the wheel furthest from the master cyl (right rear). This will also tell you what was lurking in your system before it was bled. Mike

Check around in salvage yards. You may be able to find a newer locking ring style wheel. These same bolt patterns were used on Fords and IH's up through the 60's and maybe even into the 70's. I'd steer clear of the split rim with the locking ring in the center as no one will want to touch these as far as mounting tires. You may even get lucky and find something of a drop center design.

Get a good quality striping tape, and make sure the surface you're attaching it to is clean and grease free. The twin stripes on my 36 Plymouth that I put on over 30 yrs ago looks as solid as the day I put it on. Wish I could say the same for myself. Mike

That town is about 100 miles from here-I know the area pretty well. Take a 0 off the price and you'd probably own it. But you'd still have to open it up. I bought a used slant 6 for my pickup last fall that was adverstised as running great-no noises-good oil pressure. Opened it up to find it full of sludge w more cylinder wear than my own engine. Only paid a couple of hundred bucks for it but it s still sitting on the garage floor-rebuilt my own. A buddy of mine bought an engine that was supposedly rebuilt from a reputable garage. We put it in his truck and started it and it smoked like a chimney and shortly after threw a rod. The seller forgot to mention that despite all the machine work that was done to it-that it was underwater in a basement for a short period of time. Live and learn I guess.

Rem-that's just what you've been looking for. Couldn't find and extra one. Sorry

You can try taking out the #1 spark plug and rolling it over with the key off. If you hold your thumb over the plug hole-you hear and feel #1 coming up on compression. The timing mark on the crank pulley should also be lined up with the pointer. Now that you know #1 is up on compression, w/o rotating the crank-pull you distributor cap and see at which wire the rotor is point to. You may be off a cylinder or two and have to remove your wires to put get #1 lined up with the rotor. From there you can continue on replacing the wires 5,3,6,2,and 4 and it should be close enough to time to start-although you may have to loosen the distributor housing and make fine adjustments if it binds when hitting the starter. Good luck. Mike

The threaded part that is broken off are so work hardened I can't get a drill to make a dent. I was going to try and find a left handed carbide bit as a last resort. Mike

I may be kinda in need of a good manifold set for my 230. The bolts holding the two halves together broke off in the intake, and I can't get them drilled out. I have a good manifold set that from a Chrysler industrial that I removed from a Worthington tractor. It has a much larger plenum under the carb w what appears to be a diffuser plate underneath the carb in the plenum, and the heat control valve is free and working!! Has anyone used these type of intakes on any of their projects? Thanks-Mike

I bought a complete gasket set from NAPA last week for my 230. $120 including shipping-has everything but the rear main seal. About 6 mos ago I bought the side cover gaskets from them as a separate set (before I knew I was going to have to replace valves and a guide. They are available-maybe not on their website (napaonline.com) but the counter guy should be able to look them up.

If I were you I'd go with a new or rebuilt mechanical pump. Installing an electric pump means you should also be installing an impact switch to shut off the pump in the event of a collision. If you're running the 6 volt sytem, you're going to need a 6 volt pump. I bought new mechanical units from NAPA a couple of years ago for both my 52 1 ton, and my 36 plymouth and kept the old cores for future rebuilds with newer materials if I even need them. Mike

Its the simplicity of these vehicles that draws me to them. Last year when my throttle linkage came apart on a road trip-there was no recall, no legal action, no engineering change or software update required-just a new cotter pin! Opened the hood-put it back together, and back out on the highway. The real question is how much of today's stuff will be around when the Y2K kids are looking for something to restore?

Hank-I think you may have a couple of things going on. I'd replace the oil fouled plugs or at least clean them in a blaster. I think you may have some fuel issues going on too (float hanging or some type of intermittant blockage in the fuel system). On my slant 6 pickup, I sometimes had a problem with it starting after it sat for a week or so. It turned out that the neoprene seat on the needle valve had a groove worn it it where the pointed part of the valve contacts the brass seat. A new valve and seat fixed the starting problem. You may also want to check inside your distributor and make sure that the small wire that goes from the points to the coil bridge isn't grounding out. Just some things to try. And by all means-if you enjoy this type of stuff-get your hands dirty and learn by doing. A lot more satisfying than paying someone to do work you can do yourself, and a lot cheaper too! Mike

My son gave me a model of a Dodge Little Red Express a couple of years ago-I did it up in the same color as my 78 halfton. I built a lot of these when I was a kid-wish that I still had them all. He into collecting diecast-even better detail than some of the older stuff w/o all the work or in my case enjoyment.

I did about a 18" glasspack with a 24" turndown pipe on the rear on my 52. Its pretty quiet unless she's pulling but it sounds nice. The /6 that I just went through in my 78 pickup has a really nice growl with a 14" glasspack and 2.5" tailpipe.

I had a 39 Dodge dumptruck that sat for a long period of time and hung all but 1 or two exhaust valves, and ran on 2 cylinders after a tow (not very well) but obviously had no power until we tore it down to get the valves moving again. Now I realize that only 1 or two exhaust valves are in the process of being open in any given position of the crank, but if she's been sitting w/o being turned over or choked off on a fogging oil, I can speak from experience that when some of those valves do open when the engine turns over for the first time-that they have no way of closing on their own w/o the head being pulled. Mike

There's a custom motorcycle shop in the area, that offers a two part painted on chrome for non metalic surfaces and you can't tell if from the real thing. The selling point is that its much cheaper than real chrome, and you're not limited to metal. I've seen some of their work-the bike guys are nuts about details. I'm in the Hudson Valley of NY, if you want me to get their contact information let me know. Mike

Pat-what Dave and Mike both said is true-its amazing the amount of experience on this board. I know from a very recent experience that you can buy ring sets for individual pistons from NAPA. Just this past fall I bought a single set for the slant 6 in my pickup. My intent was to use them to measure the end gap in measured placed of each cylinder to determine whether I needed to go the whole nine yards on the motor job w machine work. The differences in the end gap combined with the ridge at the top made the decision for me. All 6 were bored over .030, block boiled, new cam bearings, rod and ring bearings, 3 angle valve job, new guides, springs-to the tune of about $1800. This engine runs better than it ever did, even though I've only put 400 miles in it (its a cruiser and show truck) that I've owned for 29 yrs. I've got my 52 1 ton apart for a miss on #6. Pulled it down, #6 exhaust valve and seat was shot as was the guide. The same machinist is going to replace the bad seat and guide in frame, then we're going to replace all 12 valves and freshen up the seats. Whoever went through this engine 15+ yrs ago did a .020 bore, new pistons, ring bearings, timing, gears, chain, water tube, and then set the valves too tight. This motor has no ridge, and still has crosshatch marks in the cyls, but I've only put about 3500 miles in the 15 yrs I've had it. So, after this novel-in answer to your question, yup you can still be individual ring sets.

Hank-contamination on the brake shoe linings will definitely cause them to drag or lock up (grease, brake fluid, etc) and the hotter the shoe gets, the deeper the contaminent works into the shoe. I don't know of any way to removed anything other than suface contamination w/o relining the shoe. I'd also be looking to make sure that the shoe linings are tightly bonded to the metal shoes and not coming apart. Has the right front drum been cut or cleaned? Does it have any surface inperfection or greasy coating that would cause the shoe to grab? Since you replaced the flex lines, were they NOS or newly manufactured? I've seen these collapse internally and cause the shoes to hang up. What type of shape were the return springs in, and did the shoes on both fronts move freely on their anchor pins? Finally, and I'm only guessing here-is there a long shoe and a short shoe on your vehicle? Could you have both longs on the right front instead of one long, and 1 short (sorry I don't remember if these were identical shoes or of differing legnths. I'm sure other folks will be able to offer other suggestions. Good luck. Mike

Young Ed-in my 36 Plymouth, there are no vents, and by cracking the window open-it rolls back before starting a downward travel. That and my 52 1 ton are the only vehicles that I have ever seen of that vintage that you can drive with both front windows open w/o messing up the wife's hair. I personally like the looks of the ventless windows in the PH, its one less place to leak. Just a personal preference-everyone has their own. Mike

There have been previous discussion threads on this. With the PH trucks, you have to make sure that you have enough height clearance to get the hood sides fully opened w/o hitting the visor. Check ebay-they periodically have these style visors and some w hardware. Mike

What needs to be done to convert the window mechanisms from vent window to single pane glass. I have ventless style doors on my 1 ton, and a pair of doors from CA that I bought that has the vent windows. I want to convert them to the ventless style before I mount them on the cab. Thanks. Mike

I'd pull the side covers off and see if you have any valves that are hung or stuck. The old flatties were known for doing that. If that's the case the head should come off so that you can free them up. I'd also change the oil before I started it-there may be a lot of condensation in the pan. When you do go to start it, make sure your throttle linkage is free. Mike

Well-since you asked-if you build something that will run 55-60 mph on a steady basis-I think you're also going to need to do something with the steering and single loop brake system. These trucks weren't designed to handle those speeds. I left mine original. She's kinda slow w the 3.89 rear but I'm not past the limits of my steering or brakes. ... just my opinion.

Ed-you're going to have to look and see what kind of shape your pins are in once you get them out before you can make a decision as to whether you just need bushings. If they get mushroomed from pushing (beating) them out, or if they're pitted or worn they'll need to be replaced. Mike

Jim-if you go the diesel route, you're probably going to have to do something with the rear end too. Those old rears were geared low to allow the flathead to handle a good load. I had that same 5&2 setup in a 39 Dodge Dump. The extra gears were low-she topped out at about 45, but could almost pull a barn in low low. Mike