Los_Control

Just looked at my 49 pilothouse and not even close to what you show, probably from a car

115 60 75 85 75 90 Not exactly what was hoping for, does run and maybe with a long drive in the country will either go up ... or down. settled on a 6" wilton vice from sears, free delivery ... ordered this morning and still not shipped, see how it goes.

I trust your opinion Merle .... I got to put it back together and see if I already fixed it. First I had to pull the ss grill bars before putting the radiator back in, that is done. When I first started, I sprayed water into the distribution tube and it poured back out the front of the tube. Now it goes right out the back around the corner and out the welsh plugs like it should. I really may have fixed it already, just fretting over nothing ... I am pretty good for that. Spent my whole working career the same way. As a remodel carpenter I would fix things, then fret for days on how I could fix it even better. I still have 2 gallons of vinegar to soak it some more once put back together. I can at least put it back together with the distributor installed and run a compression check while it soaks in vinegar, new coil wire came in the mail yesterday the plug wires may be here tomorrow and start it back up again ... old ones are to bad to put back on. that would probably work just fine, I checked shipping and only $20 to my door, I expected the weight to cost more. I only have a Ace hardware and sears outlet in the town 30 miles from me. Otherwise is a 70 mile trip to Abilene where would have most of the big name stores available, but Ace is pretty big store and well stocked, same with sears so I have hope there.

I have been told, on a 1949 pickup, the fuel gauge does not care if you are 12 volt or 6 volt, positive or negative ground. I bought a new gas tank and sending unit, http://www.tanksinc.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=81/category_id=68/mode=prod/prd81.htm I talked with them over the phone and specified I was going to switch to 12 volts and needed sender to work with it. Is 10 years difference between yours and mine, yours may not be the same. They were pretty specific that I did not need anything special for the original gauge or sending unit to work with the 12 volt conversion. It was all handled through a resistor in the gauge iirc. Your 6 volt heater motor will run pretty fast on 12 volts, but it will work until it burns out, probably best to just replace with a new 12 volt now. But my uncle switched his old international truck to 12 volt 10 years ago, drives it so little in the winter that he never bothered to change the heater fan motor and still works.

I think 6" would be fine, what am looking for., settle for 4" but hoping not needed to settle .... just hard when you live out in the middle of nowhere. I wish I bought a 6" bench grinder. I shopped and baught the 8", I bought a pedestal for it to sit on, that way can push it in the corner and pull it out as needed. The 8" was a total mistake, it has so much torque, I cant keep it in one position ... unless I bolt it to the floor, that negates the use of the stand to push it in the corner. When I shut it off, I think it takes a full 5 minutes for the wheels to actually stop turning. Great grinder but a little bit more then I need in a small shop.

I have a question on the distribution tube, as far as I understand it, is just a hollow tube and should be able to slide a piece of flat bar all the way to the end? I am getting about 16"-18" in and seems pretty solid with crap, can just whack it some more with a hammer and get to the end. While at the same time, I can run a hose sprayer set on jet, and the water goes straight through and comes out the welsh plug openings. Seems pretty clear and ready to put back together, feel better if got the flat bar all the way to the end. I guess I just feel uncomfortable beating the crap out of something, all I can figure I am destroying is mineral deposits? Spent some more time on the rest of the grill bars, may have lost some sleep over how the bottom bar would turn out .... not perfect but getting closer to polish, will sleep good tonight Now I need to drive to sweetwater tomorrow and buy a bench vice. I am not sure how I keep getting away with working on things and not having one. Now I need one to hold the dolly, then would have 2 hands to hold the metal and work the hammer. Soon will need to bench bleed a master cylinder .... sigh ... if I had a bench vice, would have used it 100 times already.

I have questions myself about the construction/placement of the 3rd rail. I have a photo below of mine as is .... as far as I know, the only thing missing is the wood. That leaves the 3rd rail swinging in the breeze hanging off of the wood flooring. You also have the center support for the tailgate mounted to the 3rd rail there. Simply to much weight on the wood with no support, in this old carpenters opinion. Hoping you find out some more info and come back and share it, I chose to follow this thread in search of info. You see in my photo, I can stick a 4x4 under the brace and just right to add 3/4" flooring ... imho your rubber bumpers are to short. What supports the 3rd rail so it is just not hanging off the wood floor?

Was actually 37 in the morning and warm up to 45 in the daytime. More like a MN spring Starting to warm back up to the 50's and a few days back into the 60's Jomani Be sure to share pics of the stainless trim when you get it straight. When I straightened mine, I found that I had better luck using hardwood as the dolly - less chance of stretching the stainless. Do you plan to polish it out or just going for straight? I found out the hard way that you can’t skip any steps in sandpaper. I ended up starting with 100 grit paper and progressing through 2000 grit (wet/dry when available) without skipping any steps, then three different polishing compounds. Lots of time but worth it in the end. Honestly just flying by the seat of my pants. My goal is to take what I have, and put it back to original running condition and looking it's best, without doing a full restoration. I have never done this before and simply learning as I go. I wondered about polishing, this is where the first piece is at, I can work on it some more, but I wonder how much polishing will take out also. And I also have some blue'ing going on to the left, think polish may be the only way. 2nd photo is what it looked like, top piece under the hood. 3rd photo you can see the bottom piece is going to be a job, hopefully will be up to par by the time I get to that one.

HAH! be my luck they would proceed to tell me .... no thanks, (gender don't matter)

weather sure changed quick, guess 1/2 the country is under a cold snap though. Gave me a chance to see how easy it will be to heat the lil garage. I can take the chill off. I am trying to get a few things done while I have the , dizzy and jenny out. I did rework the coil bracket, now that I have the welder working right. I had a kit to rebuild the carb, when I tore it apart, all the gaskets and most important the accelerator pump was like new. I did a good cleaning and oiling and put it back together. I feel I should put new brushes in the generator while it is out. I checked the voltage output while it was running at idle, is only 1.98 - 2.03 volts. This is coming right off the generator and not voltage regulator. I know generators do not put out much at a idle, 2 volts seems low to me, but waiting til I finish wiring and check again. I got to try my new el-cheapo hammer and dolly set to straighten some ss trim. I had to put a smooth finish on the face of all the tools, was pleased with my first attempt of removing a large dent in the grill trim, still several dents to go. Had to order some plug wires from rock auto, they had something that looked like it will work. Some "get me by's" for tuning until I make a proper set. I have a new set for my chevy to donate to the dodge, but they have same ends as the spark plugs on both sides. So order some new ends and boots and cut to fit. I still have a little more cleaning to do on the dist tube, My steel bar gets inside the block 14" before it gets in a cock eyed bind and hangs up going through the grill, need to cut the 3' bar to 26" and try some more ... should be simple I also picked up a compression gauge. Really interested in what it has to tell me. The motor seems to run fine, has a fair amount of blowby, and goose the throttle and will produce a puff of smoke, goes away at fast idle though. Still only has maybe 2 hours on it at idle since was sitting for many years .... maybe will clear up. Got several more pieces painted .... just taking her one bite at a time, but been staying on it

One thing I did was take extra time with carb cleaner and small brass brushes, got all the loose dirt from the outside, before opening it up. When I built my workbench, I put in a toe kick and a lower shelf, no space for things to roll under. And yes I was down on my knees searching for a ball, but it was not under the bench

Give it a shot, I ordered a kit from rockauto, here is a couple short videos you can watch to see whats what. They are a real simple carb, I did mine yesterday, it ran ok and did not leak but thought would go ahead and rebuild it as I just bought the truck. It was very dirty and gummed up, but everything was in such good condition, I ended up just disassembly and clean and reassemble. Carb rebuild part 1 https://youtu.be/Qg19Cz2dWAI Carb rebuild part 2

1953 was when America started getting fat, the title on my 1949 states the vehicle weighs 3200 pounds. While tag on the A pillar claims you can load up to 4850 pounds ... I assume that includes vehicle weight

looking at napa, they have universal clutch alignment tools, comes with several sizes to work with almost any clutch. They want $56 for the set but is of some quality. I have seen the same basic sets in plastic, if you only going to use it a few times would work great and be cheap. Or autozone sells individual tool for $5, just bring in your disk to match it and get right size tool.

That is a pretty good video, seems like a bit over kill to me. Why do you need to center the wheel before you adjust the box? Just saying, when you adjust the box, it does not care where the wheel is positioned. I will tell you my approach on adjusting the box, and I have only done it on Fords, never a old dodge. You loosen the lock nut, then turn the screw 1/4 turn clockwise and tighten the lock nut back down. Will this be enough? maybe, you just need to drive it and see. Point is, these gears mesh together and wear over time, if you tighten it to much the gears will no longer mesh right and cause bigger issues. So you only turn it in a 1/4 turn, then you drive it for at least a few hundred miles and let the gears mesh, then you can attempt to do it again. But a 1/4 turn, you should notice a huge difference in the slop and may be all you need. This is my experience adjusting Fords from the 60's to the 80's I adjusted a 1969 Ford 3 times, and the gears fell apart on me in my driveway (thank God) If you need to go more then a 1/4 turn twice, you may have bigger issues to deal with.

before I pulled the jenny and dizzy, I did one more real good flush with the garden hose and flush T. I could really tell the difference on how long it was able to run at a idle. I was thinking to myself, probably put in a decent radiator and would be able to drive it. I pulled the welsh plugs and boy oh boy, what a bunch of crap I am digging out of the block, this will keep me busy for awhile getting it cleaned out. Thats fine, Now I need to shop for a radiator, curious where others have bought their radiators. Just no question in my mind at this point, if anyone in the future reads this and have a similar issue, do not hesitate to pull the freeze plugs and jump in. Next time is probably the very first place I would start.

well I'll be dipped, the other parts store had the freeze plugs and brass even in stock, less then $5 out the door for 5 of them.. Good parts store, last few times I been there not to happy with the service. They got this one guy who is close to 80 years old running around helping people, thats pretty cool. But he does not even know what a spark plug socket is. I tried to explain it to him, he came back with a deep 13/16 instead. Next time I went in looking for some parts to a throttle body and he had to ask me twice for info, finally the 3rd time he wrote it down. Then they got this other kid getting me some hose in the back room, took forever for him to come back with it ... could not find a knife to cut it, and looks like he chewed it off the roll with his teeth ... was six months ago and I left with my tires squealing while they were still looking up my throttle body. Same time, the manager and 2 other employees are top notch and know what they are doing.. And is a well stocked store and sell quality tools.

Thank you very much for that tip, would be a rainy afternoon drive for me also, about 150 miles west of him.

Interesting point, I bought my kit for another project and the king pins needed to be replaced. Current project the king pins are good and not going to be replaced, I assumed drilling the holes with the spindles on the the axle ... now I wonder? Same time, different project different goals, I have no plans to use them on this truck and to stay with drums. Kit may be for sale in the far future.

I guess I know what my project will be today I have been holding off on pulling the welch plugs until I have new ones in my possession. I put the radiator back in yesterday and re-filled the system with vinegar and let it run a bit, after cleaning the dist tube now am sure the radiator is plugged again. Thats ok I can pull it and reflush the crud out of it, it already is leaking in several places after all the flushing I am doing, will have to be replaced once the block is cleared. Yes, pulling the pet cock from the block, is brown sludge dripping from it. I cant imagine 1-5/8" plugs being that hard to find ..... we actually have 2 auto parts store in this town, I can go to the other one and see if they have them in stock, or take the wife for a ride to sweet water and stop at napa. I received the new water pump and carburetor rebuild kit yesterday, I even treated hound dog to a new set of plugs. Today the wiring will be coming in, I ordered a assorted sizes of wire, 400' total, will be to much of one size and not enough of another size, but a good start on the wiring.

flame thrower exhaust I bet, think you would mount a spark plug in the tail pipe, then when you goose the throttle and flip the switch to provide power, would shoot flames out the back. Sounds like yours is not complete system but likely what it was used for.

Yes sir, you are correct. I bought it to clean some galvanized metal before welding it, I had it sitting in the shop on the bench ..... rusted every tool in the shop, still going through and cleaning oiling tools as I find them. I did one soaking with vinegar in the block, will continue to try it then. Thanks for your advice.

The block is pretty clogged, what I have done so far is, pulled the water pump. The dist tube was clogged with minerals, I poked some 3/16" x 1" metal in it and cleared it out some. The metal itself seems solid, just full of minerals. At first when I ran water into the block through the heater hose connection, there was no water coming out of the tube, just out of the round hole next to the tube. After poking it some, now have equal flow coming out of tube and the hole next to it. I pulled the petcock out of the block, only getting drips from the block while running water into the block, been poking around with ford repair wire, not much luck. I have read in another thread, these engines use 1-5/8" soft plugs, yesterday at my local parts store, Charlie looked them up and claims he can not get them from his warehouse. I put the old water pump back on yesterday, blocked off the lower radiator hose opening, plan to fill block with something and let it soak a few days, just not sure what I can find here in my small town. I do not think radiator flush will be strong enough. I have some murratic acid, man that stuff is nasty, not sure if I trust it. In another post someone said they used molasses to cure this problem. I am a firm believer in molasses in removing rust on metal without harming it, will it really remove mineral scale? Tempted to just connect the radiator back up, see if cleaning the dist tube helped, go ahead and use a off the shelf radiator flush and see how it goes. Went down yesterday and got the title in my name, was no problem at all, have wiring ordered and on the way, looking at Rock Auto master and wheel cylinders, going to cure overheating before spending money on the brakes.

I was thinking of you and praying all went well, sounds like you came out ok

Not what you asked but it might fit what you want. Check out Rustyhope disk brake kit, they are cheap and consist of the mounting brackets you need to make for the calipers and some misc bolts you need. Then it provides you with the parts list and napa parts numbers of what you need to assemble everything. I have not used mine yet, but off the top of the head, think you use mopar rotors, GM calipers, combo of mopar and F150 wheel bearings ... For the price and all the headache it will save you, I say is money well spent ... and you need to be a decent fabricator to make the mounts, then the proto model then redo them to something more refined, then make something that really works .... save yourself the trouble.