Los_Control

Looks like I will need to replace everything, not surprising. I told myself, if it comes to this point, just go ahead and do the disk brake conversion. I dunno, I just cant do it. Sometimes I think of this old truck as therapy, the basics and simplicity of it. Today I was able to get all the original brake lines off and can use them as a pattern to make new ones. We are talking easy peasy complete brake replacement. Just straight and basic mechanics to do the brakes on these old trucks. And relaxing. No hair pulling trying to fab a master cylinder bracket, or figure out proportioning valve , get the rod length correct, buying new wheels to fit the rotors. Basically this was a bridge I needed to cross. I am at the bridge, I just refuse to cross and do the disk brakes on this truck. So I am looking at different suppliers for parts for our old trucks. Would like any input. One example, Rockauto sells the brake shoes to fit this truck for $35, The photo they show does not fit the look of the actual product. Another example, cost a bit more, but are they selling better quality? Just curious where others are happy to deal with.

pretty interesting rear axle

Where do the movable hinge plates disappear when the doors are off?

My goal is rebuilt or new hydraulics, new shoes, then run the existing drums. Then if needed to upgrade to disk brakes ... I really do not think I need disk brakes. Same time, I already bought and own the rustyhope kit ... just going to try and squeeze a lil more out of the drums first.

So far just gum and goo, I can scrape the goo off of the wheel cylinders with my finger nail. Will only be after honing to see if they are rebuiduble. The shoes are bonded, paper thin and need replaced. The drums have some wear on them, Just scared to take the drums to be turned, if a guy could just take 1 pass and clean up a couple grooves, would not be bad. This photo is the worst drum, the other is much better. I just doubt I know anyone qualified to clean up the drum. It will work as is until I make a better decision.

Yes sir you are correct ... The cups installed are 1.1/4" I have no clue if that was stock. Maybe somebody already bored them out. At the gas station, we had a cabinet on the wall that had all the different sized cups. I think there was a limit on how big you were allowed to go for a oversized cup. For example, if I have a 1.1/4" cup now, I would hone it and then install a 1.5/16" cup. This should be a nice fitting cup and work well. I do not know if the 1.1/4 cup I am removing is original, or if some kid from the gas station already honed and replaced. Guess I will go ahead and replace, but keep the originals in a box for future rebuild if needed. ... you know when I get bored.

I have a bucket of carburettor parts cleaner here. Thinking to let the cylinder and pistons soak over night ... anyone see a issue with that?

I am curious if any have had luck rebuilding the existing wheel cylinders. I really question the quality of the new replacements available. If I thought they were great, I would not even ask, just replace the ones I have. Something is telling me to try and rebuild what I have. They are crusty, not see'ing any real pitting in the bores. They still need to be honed out and will pickup a hone tool tomorrow. They really are questionable after sitting 20 years. Back in the day when I knew everything, was 16 years old and worked at a Texaco gas station. I would leave the wheel cylinders on the car, gut and clean them, then hone them and install new cups. If they needed a lot of hone'ing to clean up, just installed the next larger sized cup. Pretty sure this is what I will need to do with my wheel cylinders. They do not have rust or pitting, just old fluid and gum .... I want to see if napa has the parts I need to rebuild them tomorrow, same time wondering if would just be better off ordering new chinese junk.

Thank you, and all is good. Wife is getting a minor surgery on her back. Nothing life threatening, just a 2 hour trip one way to get to the Lubbock spine clinic. Since I will be in town, trying to get my wheel cylinders off on the B1B to pick up parts while in town

Many cars have been built starting from less

I agree with you. I think that this is a modern way to correct a few issues that the older charging systems had. I would think it to be a upgrade like disk brakes over drum brakes. Still not original and depends what the owner really wants. I thank you for the link and did bookmark it for future reference if needed.

It will take a bit of time to really tell. Driven it as much as I can the past few days. Friday it was still putting out a few wisp of smoke, I was thinking that it probably does have bad valve seals at this point. Was going to report back that info. But then today and Saturday, I hot rodded it around a bit and can not see any smoke again. Watching at the first start in the morning, nothing ... rolling down the highway and just nail it to the floor, nothing.The oil looks nice and clean. This is normal for this truck in the past, the only time it would smoke is at extended idle. Then a day or so of normal driving and clear back up. I honestly was confused as what was causing it. The only test left to do, is let it sit and idle and see if it starts smoking again .... Jeez I am such a chicken It runs fine as is leave it alone. Going to give it a week or so, clean the fresh air return line out and then try again. I just have no clue what permanent damage could be caused from running the motor that way. Got a few 4 hour road trips coming up, minor medical procedure for the wife, tomorrow we take her car for the AC, next month be taking the truck.

are you referring to hog rings? If so you can find them at Lowes, home depot tractor supply etc...

A big difference between a 1/2 ton and 3/4 ton is the brakes. The 3/4 ton has 11" brake drums with a 5 on 5 bolt pattern for the wheels. The 1/2 ton has smaller 10" brake drums with a 5 on 4.5" bolt pattern. I have no clue if the spindles would be the same, the backing plates would be different. My 3/4 ton had a 5 on 4.5" bolt pattern on the front .... I just assumed the farmer installed a 1/2 ton axle on it. The rear end besides the bigger brakes and bolt pattern, also had larger lug studs 9/16" that took lug nuts, instead of the 7/16" lug bolts the 1/2 ton uses. I did have shocks, not sure if it had more leafs then a 1/2 ton though.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Wilton-Bullet-Vise-4-5-Jaws-9450-Completely-Restored-And-Polished-1968-Vintage/174041515892?hash=item2885aec774:g:AwsAAOSwNhJdiWE1

What condition is the tank in? You did not mention it, but if lines are due for replacement I would imagine the tank needs some attention. Could be a piece of crap floating in the tank, and getting sucked to the line and plugging it up.

nothing wrong with experimenting with the wires. I learned the hard way to put it on TDC and then check. Mine actually would not start when rotated one position either way. Is actually pretty easy on these engines, Pull the pipe plug over #6 cylinder, rotate engine by hand, when compression comes out ... then use a wire to get piston at TDC. Now you have #6 on TDC, your rotor should be pointing at #6 wire. Just start wiring it from 6 instead of 1. Just simple on these engines, just pull the 1/8" pipe plug and use something to tell where the piston travel is. Do not even need to pull a spark plug. Just my experience, maybe your engine is in better condition and will run if the wires are rotated one position off, mine wont.

Looks great, sure you know the original comes with a dab of red paint. And yours looks good without it. Then I was wondering what it would look like if you had some left over paint from your truck and painted it same colour? either way it looks great!

I like what you are saying here ... I have a reproduction floor board for my pilothouse ... is so thin I cant use it as is, Think I will add support and then screw it in for future transmission access. Given a choice, I really want it to be removable.

Los raises his hand and offers to weld. Like I told my neighbour when I fabricated a few parts for his 1954 shoe box. My welding sucks, rather practice on your car then mine

I pulled the steering wheel back off and replaced the horn thingy, took the dog for a drive. Got home and let it idle some, issue came back .... I really think that a engine is a air pump, and obvious my air pump was not getting correct air intake. Trying to figure out in my mind what damage that would cause? I am going to go ahead and add the mmo to the crank case, take it for a good drive 45 min ... Fill the gas tank and add the sea foam there.GTX 10/40 come home and change it while it is hot. Then I will have my own opinion about the snake oil. Still scratching my head and wonder how this thing even ran. Makes sense, it had been parked in a storage shed for over 2 years when I bought it. Why the exhaust was coco brown when I bought it. But while stored, rodents moved in and clogged the air delivery system. What I do not understand, how it ran so good when it was not getting proper air delivery. The truck is not special or a built engine, but it is a challenge to keep from spinning the tires in 1st gear, The next goal is to not spin or chirp them when hitting second gear. The chirp is just to easy and happens often.(I paid $550 for these tires, want them to last) It cruises at 80 mph in 5th gear just barely touching the gas. It may just clear itself out with some drive time, since I already have the products and 1.5 quarts low on oil, going to try them any ways.

And for a quick test, I can already tell a difference. Will it solve it? I dunno. With it idle in front of the garage, it was real rich and gas you out, I have to turn on the fan and pull fresh air in. Running as it is now, I do not need the fan to clear the air. But not able to drive it on the freeway to clean it out yet, I need to fix the horn issue I created when I fixed the turn signals ? But letting it idle in the driveway should clean it out if that really is the cause.

That is a good question, and it brings up a bit of a mystery. My first thought is no, it looks like it is brand new Now the question is, why does it look brand new? That air filter is close to 2 years old, looks like I just pulled it out of the box. With the amount of miles I drive, not a lot but several road trips. There should be at least a little bit of dirt on it. There is not a spec of dirt anywhere on it. There should be some. A second photo shows the air cleaner housing, how it connects into the fender and has a duct system to the front grill area, I wonder if this is clogged? And causing the issue?

I should have but did not, a new one cost $1.99, and if it cured it would know ... I also wanted to show a short vid, why I am not thinking valve seals. While being concerned with the pvc side, I have not checked the other valve cover. Looked at it this morning. It has a straight tube with no valve coming out of the valve cover and connects to the top of the throttle body. This hose is full of oil. I assume it may be my issue. In my twisted thinking, I would think that hose to connect to the air cleaner housing, not below the air cleaner. If this is correct, then possible I have the wrong valve cover with no baffle? It should have a pcv installed? I never seen a car with 2 pcv. But I think I am going to run it out on the freeway to clear it out, plug the throttle body hose and try again.

Then today, because I let it idle in the driveway, you can see I could rent myself out for mosquito control. As long as I dont let it idle, it never smokes ... let it idle and it is pumping oil quickly into the cylinders. I think the smoke may be to much for just leaky valve seals ... I could be wrong though, if one completely failed. I now just need to take it out on the freeway for a short time, will clear the motor and I will not see any more smoke, until I let it sit and idle again. With it smoking as it is, I pulled the new pvc and was watching for blow by, There was a very small amount. But because of the extra oil in the cylinders burning at the moment ... ???? I need to take it on the freeway and clear the motor, then check for blow by again. At this point, kinda thinking to pull the intake, then the heads at the same time and have a machine shop go through them. .... assuming no blow by when it is cleared up. The amount of blow by at this time is hardly detectable, does not increase with throttle response. I wonder what the machine shop will suggest?