Los_Control

Being in a position like that before. can honestly say. When one door closes, another opens. And if I had not been released of my current responsibilities, I never would have had the opportunity to accept the better job waiting for me. I know it hurts, but trust with your experience, you will fit nicely in a better position.

Still puttering away on Molly the 49 b1c flatbed. And have been thinking about the bench seat. It has the custom ordered "air ride" seat? I cant remember the correct name of the option. But it has a tin tag riveted to the cab above the wind shield with operating instructions. Move the lever to the left for a softer seat or to the right for a firmer seat. I am trying to find any info on restoring/recovering a seat like this. The seat still has the original covering on the bottom, so cant see inside to the springs. While the lever is actually on the base of the seat that is part of the cab. Just wondering if any have insight or a link to the construction of these seats. Thanks in advance.

Just makes ya wonder what the 1948 title goes to

good looking truck, my avatar picture is a 49, you can see the difference in the grills. Yours looks newer and 50'sh to me. But I also suspect sme work has been done to yours over the years and who knows what transpired.

I dont see why not. I am sure I read on this forum somewhere, you could special order the body colours from the factory. Using the few choices that were offered at the time. I see no reason why you could not order all black.

Is a old trick I have used lots of times to guess if a car is charging, have used it on 60's, 70's, 80's models and you disconnect a cable and if it stays running it is charging. Have also started cars with a good battery, then remove battery while running and install the discharged battery. Just because I had no other better way at the time. And with modern cars, I would be afraid to even attempt such a feat, with all the computerized electronics. But yeah, I also questioned if a generator was strong enough to keep a engine running with battery disconnected. Probably but not sure ... a 65 chevy with a alternator? No problem.

You need to determine if you have a spark or a fuel issue. A squirt of starting fluid in the carb will tell you one way or the other. If it dont try to fire with ether, you have no spark. If it does fire or at least tries with ether, then you have a carb/fuel issue. It kinda sounds like spark to me with what I have read. Checking for spark at the plugs as another poster described above is a good place to start. I recently worked on a 1967 international no start. There was no spark at the plugs, but could see a spark at the points. I replaced the cap, rotor, points, condenser. It tried to start once and then again, same issue. No spark at plugs but points had spark. I was told from others on another forum to try the condenser. I went out to the engine room and grabbed a 20 year old condenser and installed it and it fired right off. The quality of these points and condensers you get now days is terrible. Points wear quickly and your lucky to get a working condenser out of the box. The 345 international engine had less then 3k miles on a complete rebuild and new tune up done at that time. The condenser was bad and created hard start issues from the beginning, then it failed completely, then the new replacement was bad, and a 20 year old condenser works great at this time. I am told that the motor starts and runs better then it ever has before, with the old parts installed. Reading stories around the rat hole, people generally have no issue running a points ignition. With the crappy quality of available parts today, they kinda lean to switching to electronic ignition to avoid the quality issues. I am leaning this way myself. Just saying, I already suspect your condenser is bad just because.

looks upside down from mine. But the goal is the same. The lever rides on a cam lobe, as the cam turns it moves the lever back and forth to operate the pump. If you find some resistance as you tighten down the bolts to the pump, that would be normal. If you rotate the motor a 1/4 turn or so, you may get less or more resistance, but will always be some pressure on the arm as you tighten it down to the block. You are moving the lever on the pump as you tighten it.

I probably should not have joked about it as I did. I hope to have not offended you iowa51. I honestly can not say anything bad about the product. I even remember when the local auto parts store would have one of those plastic cubed boxes with plastic gears inside and a crank handle like a egg beater. Was filled with stp on one side and motor oil on the other. You could turn the gears and see how clingy the stp was, it was used as a sales tool for stp. And stp has been around for a zillion years, if it was bad for your motor, it would have been run out of town on rails 50 years ago. I guess the debate would be, do you believe in oil additives as a preventive maintenance tool? I personally do not use them in that way, I use them after a problem has occurred as a quick fix. And have had good luck with many additives in that way. stop leak for coolant, trans medic for leaky atf seals, etc .... stp for certain engine conditions. Otherwise I just use what the manufacturer recommends to use.

I can add that my Father was a mechanic and he always used stp. Seemed he walked home a lot also I have one memory of him walking home and was carrying some car part that came out of the engine, probably a rod. I must say that he had some good looking cars, he would do body work and paint and wash and wax, but after turning wrenches all day at the shop, he had no desire to come home and wrench on his own cars. STP is thick like honey, seems it would be good filler on loose engines, but nothing I would use on a good engine either. Then there is Lucas oil. I just did a oil change for my cousin, he had a recent stroke and physically challenged at the moment. He added a quart of Lucas oil and thinks it is good. Again it is thick like 90 weight gear oil, nothing I would add unless the motor was garbage to begin with.

have to admit, the duct tape adds a nice touch

Hrm, saved it as a .jpg and then uploaded it

I wonder how many hours it takes to install another cam? I honestly do not know what would be involved with the engine installed. I do not think I would trust that repair, unless it was a trailer queen. Otherwise while driving and every hickup or cough I would be thinking about that fuel pump. Pretty sure I would wake up in sweats in the middle of the night, thinking about it. Maybe a electric fuel pump until is a better time to change the cam. Seems like a flat cam is a flat cam and adding build-up to the lever, does not change a flat cam.

I have also heard of others fabricating mounts, and going with cable all the way to the original brake handle. And then was a recent discussion with using line locks for parking brake. Just thinking there may be a few ways to go back to original or upgrade what you have. Might want to do some thinking before making a decision. Knowing what rear end is currently installed, may help getting the rest of the cables from a donor vehicle, then see if is worth making it work.

your truck originally had the hand brake on the transmission, what you show is the rear end has been swapped over to something newer. Need better photos, at least I cant tell what rear end you have by the photo you show.

the good ol prince of darkness, I drove the wheels off of a 69 triumph 650, was a fun bike.

tough market for these old larger trucks. seems they often get used up for parts for the more sought after 1/2 ton trucks. We recently sold a running 1945 chevy 2 ton for $500. Have a running 52 chevy 2 ton dump bed that I started and moved last week, needs tires and brakes and tlc, maybe worth $600. Have a extremely low mile 52 ford F-5 with a flathead V8, maybe $500. I refuse to sell the truck for $500 and let the low mile motor go with it. Will set the motor in the shop and maybe install another engine if get energetic, or just part out whats left. Have a nice 57 chevy 2 ton, old farmer installed a built 283 with after market cam and 4 barrel, power pack heads. 5 speed trans with a 2 speed rear end. Motor is worth more then the truck. Just no love for these older trucks out there.

The brushes had some obvious wear pattern going on. I am not really up to date on what they should look like. I am a carpenter and use to replacing brushes on my worm drive skill saws and other tools. But I will go ahead and replace them this time ... although I do have 2 more starters sitting on the bench to look at. hrmm I may clean another and throw it in there to see if it will start a engine. But yeah the spark I saw is a indication that may have a bad brush and grounding out on the case. Thinking that even though they looked close to 3/4" long, they are very old and maybe brittle and just broke while being re-activated into service after 40 years rest.

That was short lived. I have been really busy and not much molly time. Started with a 1967 international with no start, complete tuneup and get a bad new condenser fixed 79 dodge 3/4 ton starts wont stay running, carb gummed up with old gas and rebuild a lil holley 500 2 barrel fixed 77 ford 3/4 ton, bad starter, replace it, bad fuel pump bypass it, realize it has a old school distributor installed with points, file them and starts ... bad motor 57 chebby flatbed with a mild built 283 and farmer exhaust through the fenders, nothing but smiles here does run out of gas and that is good to be rid of the old fuel 52 chebby dump truck, 235 acts like motor is froze, is the generator, turn it with a pipe wrench and starts and sounds awesome, drive it 10 feet and the front brake freezes up The list goes on. Next up is a 72 chevy, 66 merc, 55 packard, 72 dodge But I make some free time and I say to myself, lets go tickle molly. Am running with a 12 volt battery, key off and turning it over to get oil pressure. starting off with what sounds like very little compression, I can hear the compression improving and see the oil pressure gauge move. I add a bit of gas in the carb, turn on the key and mash the starter button .... got nothin I check the connections, look at everything and seems fine, step on the starter and look through the hole for the gas pedal and see a spark at the starter when stepping on the starter button. Will get back at it next week, but seems to be a issue with the starter I took apart and cleaned up.

w00t! they look good.

I honestly do not know yet if my B1C brake drums are any good. My only plans for my 1949 B1C rear end is to yard drive it from the field to the slab to swap the rear end. I can let you know then if the drums are any good and maybe the brake shoes for cores if needed. Would rather see them go to someone that might need them then go to the scrap pile. My truck has already had the b1c front axle switched to a b1b, so the bolt pattern is different, I do not want to deal with the cleavlend u-joints or the low gear ratio, or deal with finding replacement drums if needed. PM me if you think you may want them later when I remove them, thinking cost of shipping and a cold beer for packaging.

Thanks for the tip. I finally did get it, I found a medium length 5/8 wrench, could use the open end and get 1/4 turn, then flip the wrench and get another 1/4 turn then turn the wrench over with the box end and get a 1/2 turn, rinse and repeat until tight. Was same way putting the top bolt back in also. The next challenge was installing the new floor starter button. The original piece was held in with philip screws, got them back in but want to exchange them with something with a bolt head instead. Just cant get a straight shot at the screws with the starter installed, screwdriver at a angle, you can not snug them up as tight as they should be. I had a special little smile, when I sat down and put my foot on the starter and she rolled over for the first time since 1978. I call it Molly time, is very therapeutic to my physical / mental state. Where I know everything is right with the world.

I am in the process of shipping some head lights to a member of this forum. I can appreciate the thrill of the project. Will be a lot of effort on Mr Bisquick's end, but to have a set of restored Bulls eyes is a worthy goal. My job is to do my best to see they get there and he has the opportunity to reach this goal ... *facepalm* I picked up a box today at the post office, said I wanted the $13 flat rate shipping box, the lady asked me the weight and claimed, if not that heavy you should not need the flat rate price. I said that they were just headlights and not that heavy, she said headlights? .... well I wouldn't .... then got the deer in the headlight look Then she just gave me a box and said try it and come back when ready and hollered NEXT! I have been negligent with my household recycling, I have plenty of cardboard around so I cut some strips and lined the bottom and all four sides. Then I took a couple strips and made dividers, cutting 1/2 way through each one so they will overlap each other. And of course I have a top for it . This is as far as I got, My next step is to pack every nook and cranny with balled up newspaper so there is no movement, And the box really feels sturdy with all the reinforcement. I think this just might work. I would like to take this time to ask others if they have any input on how to make this better or maybe even start over. And this thread would be a good place to put other tips and tricks you can share on shipping.

one part in particular that may be year and model specific, the chrome heater controls mounted under the dash. Kinda a poor photo of the controls, but wonder if these are generic or model specific, if you did not have a heater at all you would also need the controls.

Not sure of model number, I have only taken a few parts off of the car at this time, this week will be back over there and can take some photos and model numbers. The heater under the seat is just a caged fan pointing straight up, and I have not looked under the car yet, still need to get it up in the air on blocks for disassembly. Give me a few days and will get back with more information, maybe some of it can help you and we may find what years interchanged.