jonny

Oops, I probably wasn't clear enough about the thread I mean. On my truck there's an adapter whose male thread (tapered as I recall) screws into the master cylinder, and the female thread accepts the brake line fitting - a 5/16" pipe and 1/2" 20tpi fitting. It's the male thread of that adapter which I need to know; my eventual aim is to convert the outlet to the 3/16" line which is what the remote servo units will accept.

Made a schoolboy error... I needed to measure the thread of the outlet port of my C3B's master cylinder while I had my brake system stripped down, for a future project of adding a remote servo. I remembered this, somewhat inconveniently, just after filling the system with fluid and spending an hour thoroughly bleeding the brakes... ??? Does anyone happen to have a C-series master cylinder on the bench, and if so would you mind measuring the outlet port thread? (The thread cut into the steel of the master cylinder itself, where the arrow is pointing in the photo). Hoping I can avoid draining the system down again to take that measurement! ?

I did think about that, but was concerned about taking too much material out of the drum face. An extra set of holes would mean twice as much metal removed, potentially weakening the drum. To keep the drum centred I had them machine the centre bore to be accurately concentric with the friction surface, and sized to just fit on the centre of the hub. This is what keeps it centred, rather than the wheel studs.

Here's what lies behind those drums. Much nicer than the rusty, half-complete, seized, leaky and generally broken brakes that the truck arrived with.

My '56 C-3B needed new rear drums, one having been welded by a previous owner and consequently cracked. Anyone who's ever tried to find drums for a C series will know that they're rarer than hens' teeth, and there isn't a direct substitute. I've come up with a solution that might help. After much measuring of my old drums and digging around online, I found a drum intended for the rear of a '59 Chevy Impala (and possibly a few other vehicles besides), which had broadly similar dimensions and, with some machining, could be adapted to fit. The drums are a Centric 123.62000, which cost a mere £20/$26 a piece from Rock Auto. (Shipping to the UK and import charges were another matter...!) They have a slightly too small centre bore, the bolt circle is 4.75" rather than the 4.5" of the Dodge, and the drum is a little too deep - only by maybe 1/8" or thereabouts. But crucially, they have the correct 11" internal diameter. I took these drums, plus an old drum and hub for use as a template (separated by drilling the rivets out) along to a local machine shop, who slotted the bolt holes, enlarged the centre bore and trimmed the back edge of the drums for me at a cost of £100 (about $130). I also replaced the old wheel bolts with M14 studs, which are knocked into the hub. The drum now slips on to the hub and is clamped in place by the wheel studs, as on a lot of more modern vehicles. End result was a pair of drums that fit perfectly over my rear brakes, which I fully refurbished while the drums were at the machine shop - new shoes, new cylinders, all the fittings thoroughly cleaned, and the backplates cleaned and painted. Once I've finished replacing all the brake lines with cupronickel ones, I'll be able to tell you how well they work! https://www.rockauto.com/en/parts/centric,12362000,drum,1744

Found it! Lubrication section. D'oh. That'll teach me... something. Cheers JBNeal. 3 and three-quarter pints, or 1.77 litres, of SAE90 hypoid gear oil.

Does anyone know approximately how much oil is needed to fill a 1956 C3-B truck's rear axle to the correct level? I believe it's the standard rear axle, 3.73:1 ratio, semi-floating 4-pinion version. I have the workshop manuals and parts list for the truck, but while it tells me how to fill it and what grade of oil to use, it doesn't give a capacity - so I don't know how much oil I need to buy in the first place. The axle has been drained and flushed so it's getting filled from completely empty. Thanks! Jonny

*should have posted this in the truck section, apologies! - mods/admins, please delete, thanks*

My '56 truck has a crack in a rear brake drum, which a previous owner has tried to weld up with minimal success. It seems that the 11" drums for these trucks are like gold dust, but I had an idea... The drum is held to the hub by five meaty rivets, which means the wrecked drum can be separated from the serviceable hub. So, I am thinking along the lines of finding a drum of the same dimensions (11" dia, 2" width) that has the same 5x4.5" bolt pattern as the hub, along with a big enough centre to clear the hub centre. Slide the drum over the wheel studs, wheel on, bolt up and Bob is your metaphorical uncle. Any thoughts on this? Anyone done something similar? I can see a potential snag being the "offset" of the drum, i.e. distance between the inner face that meets the hub and the edge of the friction surface. I'll put up some pictures later, on a smartphone currently which makes posting photos an excruciating experience!

Thanks for the welcome everyone! American trucks are pretty rare in the UK, Fifties ones even more so, and 99% of those are Ford or Chevy... The only Dodges I ever see here are enormous modern Rams or those odd small SUV type things (Nitro?). Once it's roadworthy and painted this one should generate a few "WTF" reactions! Work progresses slowly, I've got the bed and box off the truck ready to clean up, repair, paint and build a new wooden bed. And I'm curently compiling a list of service items and spares that I'll have to import in order to fix the back brakes, suspension, cooling system etc. The engine is an interesting one... The block is stamped VT334, which I had previously read was a 241 Poly, but based on William Davey's post and some further research it does seem that it could be a 241 or a 259... I don't think it's a Hemi, it has the rocker covers with a scalloped shape along the outer side which allows access to the plugs above the exhaust manifolds.

Hello all! Thought I'd better introduce myself rather than continue to "lurk". I'm Jonny, I live in the UK and a couple of weeks ago I bought a freshly-imported C-3-B truck as a bit of a restoration project. It needs a fair bit of work, but does have the advantage of a solid body and chassis and a good drivetrain. When it arrived it had no brakes and incredibly loose steering, but I've fixed these and now plan to set about fully rewiring it, tidying up the odd bits of bodywork that aren't right (such as a couple of cracks in the rear wings fenders) and painting it in a suitably Fifties cream-over-red colour scheme. The truck is one of the later C-3 models, have found a few places that call them a "C-4" and the Dodge shop manual refers to them as "C-3 After". It's got a 241ci Poly V8, originally it should have had the 270ci but there are a few quotes in the service history for replacement engines at around 150,000 miles. It's a fairly basic version, no fancy optional extras such as a heater or radio and it has the 3-speed column shift manual transmission. My plan for the truck is to restore it rather than to modify or hotrod it. I'll modernise certain aspects, for example by adding a heater, seatbelts, UK-spec lighting and new electrics, but I'm aiming to keep the looks and the drivetrain as original as possible. Have found a lot of useful info on here so hopefully I can contribute something of use as well!