Los_Control

Yes sir I agree completely. I also am building a daily driver. I am not looking to do a pristine restore, just trying to get all the rust covered with paint, grease where it should be and brakes would be nice to have. I live in a small town with less then 3500 people. It is a old town and has some neat history and dilapidated buildings. I drive 10 blocks one direction to the hardware store, takes me past the library, city hall, post office and police station. I drive 10 blocks the other direction, would be the gas station, auto parts store, liquor store, grocery store, freeway . And that is 90% of my driving. All in town and 35mph. The rest of my driving, walmart, napa, Dr's office , I take my newer cars ... that is a 30 mile drive on a two lane road, which would be fine for the old dodge. Problem is, West Texas, the 2 lane road is 75mph speed limit, which means everyone drives 80mph+. Even with a rear end swap, I think I can comfortably get 70mph from the dodge flathead, I am still going to get ran off the road from everybody driving 80+ I can still drive the frontage road along the freeway to the other towns, speed limit is 55 and where all the slow moving vehicles drive. Lot of farming and ranching, tractors on the roads.

would be nice if they had them for our little trucks, I only saw the bigger drums On the other hand, if someone is geared up to re-pop the power wagons, might not be that big of a step to add the others if there was a market.

Welcome aboard, curious which truck you bought? The one in the garage looks like a 48-50 and the truck outside looks like a 51-53

I guess I am kinda use to the deer in the headlight look, when asking for new parts at the local parts store. Like it or not, what you are up against. I actually find it easier to take part numbers to the part store, then order whats needed ...

3 to 4 inches is a lot, I see no reason to cut them that much, but maybe. You have to ask yourself what the purpose of the fan is? Generally, it only helps when you are parked at a stop light ... after you get rolling the cool air takes over. I would think maybe you need to cut it 1 or 2 inches, your choice. Different ways to deal with the same issue.

^^^^ there you go, My biggest point I think, just learn and understand the cooling system you are running. They did change and have different advantages over the years.

I am using a pretty serious linux os ... Gentoo and firefox. Usually things work out of the box, I suspect user error grabbing the url from the correct place when reposting.

Are you sure this is what you want? I think 9 pounds would be too much for my 1949 truck. And I think they had a 180 degree T-stat back then, although they were swapped out from 160 to 180 for summer to winter use. Back then they actually swapped the T-stat out for summer and winter use. But I think there was no pressure on the radiator cap, maybe Desoto was different? I would install a 180 T-stat and a radiator cap with zero pressure, go from there. If you are still overheating, I would suspect a clogged water distribution tube or other issues. Newer cars do have a 195 T-stat installed, this requires a sealed system and a radiator cap at correct #pound, these older cars did not use pressure in the radiator and larger T-stat. Just saying, your system does not look right at all to me.

https://video.fitchfamily.org/videos/watch/6af9741f-270a-4f63-98b9-f71edaba1f40 Grrr ... did not work either

If you weld the nut on, then the stud comes out, would be a perfect world. Good chance the stud may break when pulling it out. Did any of the others? either way, a good chance if it breaks, you will have the manifold out of your way. Now you can apply heat directly to the stud and break the rust free. 50/50 chance you may have room to weld another nut to it. Worse case you will have to drill it out and tap it. These nuts I believe are Brass, and would be a soft metal. As @Plymouthy Adams stated above. If you can find some way to get pressure behind the nut, and spin it off, maybe the threads would still be good. I still would want to replace the stud, So many heat cycles over 75 years, pretty sure my wife would replace this stud after 30 years if she had a chance.

IMHO, you going to want to replace that stud any ways. I think I could take my dremel tool in their and cut that nut off. I think the real goal here is to remove the stud, weld the nut to it and remove both. No way I would want to re-use that stud if the nut is spinning on it now.

Thats interesting, I had no idea and I do not know. That does open a whole new window for spares. Just a quick visual inspection, with the rear wheels mounted. The front wheels have the grease cup that keeps the dirt out of the bearings. The rear just has a cotter key and nut showing, that keeps the hub on. I suspect this one difference would be a show stopper, maybe could be modified to work, but not a bolt on.

I have never seen that, not for the front. I have seen the fix for the rear that @JBNeal posted. As far as I know, If my front drums were bad, that would force me to disk brakes at this time. Since they are useable, I can continue with drums as long as they last. Or buy used drums if they come up in the future. That brings up a good question, does any of the car front drums interchange with the 1/2 ton trucks? Just thinking if I were to keep my eyes open for spare parts, what would fit?

I agree with the others, trim it to what you need. And with any fan trimmed or not, make sure they are in good shape and not loose projectiles waiting to be turned loose. I would put the fan on the water pump because it fits, Then fabricate some tool like a nut or bushing that would fit over the shaft, then some threaded rod or anything welded to the bushing, then attach a marker to the rod at desired height. Then spin the fan by hand and mark it perfectly all the way around. Use your grinder with a cut off wheel and then smooth the cut edges. A little paint, nobody would know the difference. You just need to figure out a way to mark it properly and that would be the worst part of the job.

Thanks for the tip on Roberts, will check them also. Going to order parts Today or Tomorrow. This does bother me. I have them cleaned up this morning. And pretty happy with them. They have a lot of meat on them, I think would be no issue getting them turned. Also the bearings and races are in good condition. Because they are made of unobtainium, I don't want to touch them. The photo above is the worse one, it is smooth all except for the one ridge in the rear. Funny because it really shows up in the photo, shadows? I can barely feel it with my finger nail . If I had access to a brake lathe, I would try to shoot for 2 or 3 thousandths just for that ridge. I do have the 48-50 dodge utility trailer I bought, Hoping I may have spare rear drums there if needed. I soaked the master cylinder and just cleaned and honed it, put the old rubber cup back in. Only goal was to keep it together and throw it on a shelf. Now it actually works. If I was 20 years old, I would be jumping up and down yelling "I FIXED IT" I just have no faith in it lasting, even with a new kit. Then the wheel cylinders are step bore ... I never heard of that before, what they are selling is straight bore. I have to replace one ... not going to mix and match step bore and straight bore, so just replace both.

Have you checked with a full service truck stop? The one with the restaurant, showers, mechanic bays and sell tires? They work on tires with lock rings all the time .... if they wont do it, then there is something wrong with your wheels. A picture of them may give us a better idea to give better advice. As far as the axle swap, I have never done it. pretty typical to have to grind off the original spring perches, then weld new ones in where it is needed. Any place that sells trailer supplies, tractor supply for example, sells new spring perches. I would think a motor home axle would be a good donor. You need to measure the width of course. Old motorhomes are great source of parts, usually they have fairly low miles, big engines and transmission, They just spend so much time sitting, The gas tank rots out, fuel pump stops working ... carburettor sucks, the tire are rotting out ... then they get a leak in the roof and the interior starts to go to crap. Pain in the butt to strip one down to the frame and dispose of the garbage. I have seen many motor homes given away for free, just to get rid of them.

Happens often enough. We have a rebuilt transmission in a dodge caravan. It always shifted hard into 2nd since rebuilt. Then the new shift solenoid failed, and now shifts fine after replaced. Basically the switch was on life support when it arrived. No idea what circuit your switch runs off of, I recently found out on my chevy. Rear wheel cylinder failed, it is the small reservoir in the master that feeds the rear drums, while the larger reservoir feeds the front disk with the larger pistons. Wont help if you lost no fluid though.

Seems to be a pretty wide car. Thinking the rear will not work. Just have to measure from face of the drums where the wheel bolts, across to the other side. Do the same with the 52 and see what the difference is. If you get the magnum cheap enough, and you have room for it, grab it. I would only count on using the motor and trans though. Then you may be lucky and use a hundred other small parts off of it somewhere. The sheet metal would make great patch panels for the 52. You can probably source the rear end from a jeep cherokee, or ford explorer. They are plentiful.

Since you bring it up ... I forgot about it already. Yesterday while sitting in a waiting area waiting for my wife to have procedure done. The E-mail system was acting like a ******* laying in the yard. I was able to log into facebook, and then use that to log into P15-D24. I wanted to make a complaint, and all people should use the 24 hour rule, let the problem simmer for 24 hours and then address them again. Just saying, keep doing what you are doing, we appreciate it.

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.