Los_Control

It is very realistic, depending how high your standards are. The same old rules apply, buy the best truck you can afford to start with. Your "want list" looks fine .... not sure why you want to replace the leaf springs though. You might be better off to just disassemble, clean, grease & replace bushings on the existing. I expect I will replace my rear end at some point. As long as it works as it should .... I will be fine with it with around town driving. New drums are $400 each. I will rear end swap first .... All my drums/brakes were replaced before it was parked though. I chose to go rustyhope on disk brakes on a old project I never finished. Moved out of state. Gave the truck away for free so I kept the new parts for it. Now with my current project, I inspected my front end. Kingpins, tie rods, brakes & drums are all are in good-excellent condition. The steering box has no slop, is full of oil & no leaks. I cleaned, painted & greased everything .... had to replace several zirk fittings as old were plugged. I replaced all the lines, wheel cylinders. Tried to fix the master cylinder & failed. Replaced it with a 1991 Toyota Camry unit .... easy swap. New fuel lines & fuel tank. I'm only replacing what is worn out & needed. When it is a driver, I will pick & choose what to change or modify next. Toyota master cylinder. 12 volt GM alternator. I bought a $50, 12 circuit wiring harness .... still on the fence about using it though. Every switch, cable, gauges, door latches, window tracks needs attention .... window rubber needs replaced. I need a seat, thinking I will browse the wrecking yards .... many newer vehicles come with seat belts built into the seat. I have newer steel wheels 1960's-70's, 15"x5" with 235 75R 15 tires. The bed wood needs replaced .... I'm thinking 3/4" treated plywood painted. West Texas sun, it will sit outside often .... I cant keep nice wood here. While the treated plywood is available local in my small town, used for wheel chair ramps holds up well with no sealer at all. I am taking everything apart & painting it .... my choice. Am using Rustoleum rusty metal primer & single stage enamel from Tractor supply. This is my first project, my standards are low. I'm leaving some dents for character, removing some according to my skill level. My end goal is a truck in good working condition for daily driver use around town .... wont be pretty, wont bother me if I drive through a mud puddle or I get a scratch on it at the lumber yard. A beater with a heater. Still a big project though. I have been disabled unable to work since I was 48 years old .... 60 years old now. I bought the truck in 2018, been calling it therapy with lifting, bending twisting .... thinking. Took a year off to teach myself how to weld. Then several months to work on the wife car. Life gets in the way. My truck sat in a field for many years after being parked though .... Depends on what you buy. The better truck you start with the less work you need to do.

It was a 1/2 moon key is what I have always called them. Was very stuck in my case. Tapping down on it from one side to the other allowed it to rock back and forth to loosen it.

Seems not a lot of info on these old mopars ..... we might need a video of @keithb7 replacing king pins ... Same time the videos I watch like iron trap garage shows replacing king pins on old Fords. They do not fit out of the box, you either need to ream out the axle or the spindles .... just saying you need to fit them to your needs. They are oversized so they can be machined to fit. King pins really do need to fit precisely, .... If you can get any movement in your spindles 1/16th of a inch .... they are shot & should be replaced. Yes you can do it, not really a afternoon job for the first timer. ..... I doubt I could do it ever.

How much storage space do you have? ??? If the brake drums are any good you want to save those, any decent hardware, springs, shoes. Good chance the axles will interchange if the rear ends are same width. The drums for new replacements are $400 each .... Springs and brake hardware are kinda unique .... you can order online new ones at a premium price. .... Never know when you need a axle. Too be honest with you, depending what your end goal is ..... When my rear end gives me issues, I'm going to replace it with either a jeep cherokee or ford explorer rear end. I want 3:73 gears for highway, I will have modern brakes I can buy at any local parts store, I will change the u-joints & drive line to fit. My current u-joints on my truck are hard to find & $80 each. I'm just saying, if the hogs head was bad on my truck I would not mess with installing another just like it, I would swap the complete rear end. So I would not bother storing it. Good brake drums ... yes ... small hardware, springs & shoes ... yes. A axle .... maybe. The leaf springs throw me off. .... They generally are vehicle specific. If they are bad on your car you want to build .... I have no idea if the ones from your parts car will fit. There is a really good chance they can help you repair yours ..... if you take both spring packs apart and assemble with good springs ... no idea if they just bolt on. I would save those if yours are a issue.

I think someone somewhere can give you the exact answer .... Long story short, you just need to try it & see. @Booger makes a good point on counting the the bolts to see if they are the same. Another issue could be the axle shaft diameter & spline count ..... Possible your axles will not fit this hogs head. I remember back when I was 25 years old, swapping one out in a hour or so on a 1960's dodge truck without a tapered axle in a hour or so. Only suggesting it is very likely it will work because how close they are .... small chance it wont work .... in 1 hour or so you can find out. No idea why you want to change them. 4.1 is what my truck has, great around the town or farm, 50mph probably top speed stretching it. Good for a race car in a 1/4 mile track. The 3.9 is better for highway use .... maybe 60 mph? .... I dunno but more highway friendly then a 4.1.

I hear ya, I make it sound a little crude. I have my wood stump ... several actually. I will use a grinder with 36 grit paper .... or possibly my dremel tool to carve out a small mold for the indentation. Then carefully use my body hammer and form the panel to the mold .... probably take me a hour to make the mold, another hour to pound & smooth the panel. Just more fun to say .... Smack that thing with a hammer it will be fine! To be honest it is probably a waste of time for anyone to do it. For me I want to do it for a learning experience. What better place to practice then the floor that will never be seen. Someday I may want to do the same thing on a exposed panel that we will see. Also I'm not changing my mounts at this time .... they look fine, may be a mistake .... a little extra clearance for me is not a bad idea. Glad to see you are making progress. It is all looking great. My time right now is taken up by the garden. Kinda sucks that it takes all my time for a couple weeks in early spring. But once all is in place it only takes a few minutes a day to keep things going .... no complaints. Thought I was going to get my alternator delivered today. It was in Lubbock yesterday ... should be out for delivery today. It currently is in Indiana ?

I will add that my engine had a overheating problem .... went straight to overheat. I will add that my water distribution tube was plugged with hard water deposits. Once I cleared it & flushed out the block, it would not warm up with no T-stat. With a 180 T-stat installed, it would warm up & maintain steady temps for long periods of time. I also pulled all the soft plugs & replaced them while working on it .... flushing the block at same time.

I'm going to play stupid here. Point being, if a generator was putting out full output ....it can fry a ammeter gauge. More commonly seen with a 12 volt alternator conversion .... My alternator is 65 amps ..... many are over 100 amps. Same time it is possible to burn out a ammeter gauge on 6 volts depending on the load you send through it. Probably more common on a 12 volt conversion with a high amp alternator ...... Just as possible on a stock 6 volt wiring harness with too many amps being pulled through the gauge. I'm only suggesting it is what goes through the gauge, 6 volt or 12 volt .... Some people have ran 25 years with no issue using a ammeter gauge on 12 volts. .... The next guy needed headlights, heater, radio, fan .... burned the ammeter gauge to the ground. While more common on 12 volts, is just as possible to do the same on 6 volts. ..... Not likely .... but possible. @harmony has a honest question here. While I do not know the exact answer here, I think if you run the headlights or other heavy loads after the ammeter .... the gauge simply reads the battery & current charge.

Exactly .... your engine does not represent the standard engine in the manual. As long as you are getting adequate oil pressure at idle .... 10-15 psi? Some get worse. Just will be a tuning thing where you find your engine likes to run. You want a quick response with the gas pedal & a low idle .... you will have to search for that. I need to apologize for a earlier post .... I said I never removed my doors. Actually I did remove them after I installed the front fenders.. .... Just saying I matched the fenders to the original doors ...... Then later removed the doors & worked on them .... yeah that again is a future Fred problem .... I will adjust them better then. Exactly, set the doors to the cab .... it does not change. Then the front nose/fenders. ..... you will know what spacers you need. .... If any. Really seems like in the best of situations that throttle linkage is really close to the original toe boards. I'm going to clearance it with a hammer & never think about it again .... My decision not yours.

Kind of common to want 500 rpm idle for manual transmission .... 700-1k for a automatic transmission. The cool thing on these old motors, the slower you can run them at idle, the cooler they sound. Just depends on how well your carb is setup & condition of your motor. Kinda like doing one of the old dances to see how low can you go to get under the cross pole. 350-400 rpm will sound really cool at idle .... if your engine can handle it. Maybe you would be better off at 500-750 .... get straight to work. Just thinking the manual does list specific rpm at idle .... Not everyone follows them ... key is, how low can you go? Assuming you still have good oil pressure, you choose your idle speed.

There you go .... Those gears break while driving .... You may as well remove the steering wheel & hand it to your passenger .... you drive awhile. I wonder how interchangeable the truck & car steering boxes are? .... I have no clue. There is a guy on Face Book named Douglas Crozier that is very active in buying pilothouse trucks 48-50 and selling parts from them .... and shipping them. He is located in Kansas. Typically, a old farm truck may not get as many miles on it as a car? ..... It might be a good solution, If the accessories like wheel & column cover can be swapped. If interested & you can not find him, pm me and will dig up his info.

My limited steering box skills comes from driving Ford trucks. They all needed adjustment. Proper way to adjust them is to loosen the lock nut then tighten the adjustment screw 1/4 of a turn .... thats all you get .... tighten the lock nut. The gears are like a wedge, they wear equally together. 1/4 turn will usually take the slop out & drive very decent. If that 1/4 turn is not enough .... you are stuck with it for awhile & let the gears wear down .... depending how often you drive it 6-12 months? Then give it another 1/4 turn. ...... On a 1987 Ford work van I bought it very cheap $1k with a rebuilt transmission & crate engine installed. The contractor traded for it, because it drove like a shopping cart his employees would not drive it. I bought it & drove it home .... did 1/4 turn & it drove beautiful for the next 12-15 years .... thumb & finger to steer it. I had a 1969 Ford 1 ton that was pretty bad. I adjusted it same 1/4 turn and it was much better ..... not great. Then after several months of daily driving I adjusted it again & was really good then. I drove it daily for 3 or 4 years, one day on my way to work the steering box gear broke. Lucky I was still in my driveway heading for the road. It was incredibly difficult to back up the driveway to the house .... took 1 or 2 full revolutions of the steering wheel to make the wheels turn .... would have been death on the freeway. I'm only suggesting when you adjust a steering box, you do it in very small increments. Because of the wedge shape of the gears if you make them too tight will be difficult to steer .... but also may cause irregular wear. They will wear .... there is only so many adjustments available .... too many adjustments & the gears will wear too thin & break. Only advice I can offer is to loosen it up where it is easy to turn & drive-able. Then adjust a 1/16" or 1/8 of a turn ...... Because you have change the adjustment soo much already, a 1/4 turn may be too much. If these small little changes does not fix your problem, you may need to rebuild the box and change the gears

Sorry for being sarcastic, I just wonder if we are over thinking this. In another thread you asked about body installation order. .... I did skip doors because I never removed mine. They are the true starting point for you. ... You want a decent gap at the top and rear. You want them to open close latch properly. My truck took a decent hit in the rear fender, lower cab .... I'm thinking the hinge at the upper cowl took a hit .... I'm going to need a hammer to fix this. Just pointing out, you get the door set first with the cowl, roof, cab ..... then you can adjust the fenders to it. This door is not correct at all, it is a truck 70 years old .... needs some tlc & a hammer. ..... That is a future Fred problem. It opens & closes ... I will repair before paint.

OH MY!

Just thinking with my fingers here ..... you really need to take it apart to inspect what you have first. These older pressure plates can be rebuilt. This is a unfair comparison, this is a 1951 Ford flywheel, clutch disk, pressure plate. It would not bolt to your mopar, but the mechanics are the same. Looking at the clutch disk you can see it is riveted together. If you wear the disk too thin, the rivets will grind grooves into the flywheel or the pressure plate or both. The 2 concerns of the pressure plate is the smooth disk surface & the spring length. I lined my springs up in a row and used a straight edge to check they were all same length. .... Just saying it is not rocket science to go through a pressure plate. Same with the flywheel, you want to check your ring gear & that you have a flat surface ..... any shop that can turn the flywheel can also turn the pressure plate. Looking at the clutch disk, I have had a spring break & fail .... part of the spring tore up the disk & grooved the flywheel, but the pressure plate side was fine. Just another point of failure. While in there looking, a new pilot shaft bushing , throw out bearing, clutch disk is always a good idea. Pressure plate & flywheel depends on inspection.

You are 100% correct, best example I have ever seen was a 1951 Suburban that ran the tail light wires up in the head liner. Was cloth covered wires with a tracer color on it & looked brand new because it had been protected over the years. I was just being sarcastic because the "Wire looked like Radio Shack quality and only 4 colors" A guy could spend $5 & buy 1 roll of wire & fix the problem back in the 70's-80's .... Or go big time & spend $20 for 4 rolls of different colored wires. I would be the guy to spend $5. ...... @OUTFXD got lucky because previous owner did things first class.

@andyd you just need to drive a truck .... they did not have a bushing.... I was going to report this in this thread ..... those rascally Chrysler fellas did add a clutch pedal bushing. Andy just sell your car & get a truck, you will be a happy camper.

I agree 110% with that. I always think of a leak as pushing fluid out when stepping on the pedal .... sucking air in as you release the pedal. I'm thinking when I weld in the new floor pan, I can fabricate a bracket for a mechanical switch under the floor. Right now I have a option to go pressure or mechanical. Choices are good. I am hoping to use the original switch. Just might not happen .... I would much rather have a mechanical switch fail then a pressure switch fail. Good point Ken, thanks for reminding me of the quality of after market parts available. While I did swap around the clutch adjuster today on the shaft ..... A closer look at it and it is pretty neutral any way you put it on. ..... I honestly look at it, the adjuster bolts are in the middle & do not think it ever has been adjusted. While my real issue was the linkage rods, I took them apart and cleaned/greased them .... they needed a adjustment to get into 1rst - reverse. Now the rod is at the end of it's adjustment ... there is no more. The pedal still has plenty of adjustment. So I can get some more from adjusting it there. .... probably where I should have adjusted it in the first place. Clutch is approaching the end of it's life cycle. Just saying, let the clutch pedal 1" off the floor & is fully engaged. Not slipping, she likes to spin them tires. Just difficult to manage with no floor or gas pedal. Only thing I'm missing is a 5 gallon bucket for a seat. Only job for today is to clean up my mess.. Seems like that did not happen Just one of those days .... I had to rest up before going to walmart for shopping. I did get walmart done yesterday. Typically I need at least 1 day to recover from walking around the store. Sometimes 2 days. I did manage to weed eat & mow the front lawn today. March 11 .... earliest time I ever mowed the lawn ... wonder how the rest of year will go. .... I have the garden to work on .... just not sure when will be back on the truck. There is a swap meet close by, Fri, Sat, Sun .... While I physically could not make it today .... We will go tomorrow morning early. I figure whatever is left they will want to sell cheap just so they won't have to bring it home.

Thats pretty custom to have 4 colors ..... usually back in the day they used one color with one size. I'm impressed they actually used 4 colors ??? You know what you need to do to make yourself happy. ..... Honestly there is no other way to make it correct. While at the same time ....I might use the existing wire if it worked ..... Yeah I doubt it. Yeah while it sucks, just not unexpected.

I once had a 1949 chebby truck that color. I loved that truck .... I never did drive it. What I thought was cool, I bought it from a Boy Scout troop leader. It was a official Boy scout project where they had painted it and used it to go camping with or other projects. ..... When the old tired 216 engine spun a bearing. The troop with guidance of the leader .... pulled the head and removed that piston & rod. They continued to drive the truck on 5 cylinders until the valves needed attention. Then I bought it for $50 .... Back then you drop a head off at Napa for a valve job was maybe $75 .... + gaskets. I sold it to a mechanic as a running 5 cylinder engine .... it ran smooth. I think as a 18 year old kid I made $100 off the deal. That sumbbeach was pumpkin orange with black fenders .... just like @Young Ed truck.

I know enough about automotive electrics to get into trouble. I think you already got your answer. I do not see any reason why you could not run the engine 6 volt negative ground. Take away any guess work. Same time if you did have a spare 12 volt battery you could run the engine 12 volt negative ground. Only advantage is when you do find a home for your spare engine ... you know you are shopping for another project Your engine run stand will be more versatile for the next engine you set on it.

Possibly it did not damage the rod. .... I'm guessing the bearing did spin. Speed limit on the freeway is 75mph ... so imagine driving 80 mph down the freeway and everything is perfect. Just barely have the foot on the gas pedal .... plenty of power. No engine noise, no warning lights. Then the engine starts to lose power, you need to press on the gas pedal to maintain speed, then the oil light comes on & next a rod starts tapping. Seems like the bearing failed or spun on the rod first. Acting like a clamp on the crank shaft causing the engine to work harder to maintain speed. ... then 1 mile down the road the oil light came on, another 1/2 mile the rod started tapping. At 80 mph, 1.5 miles goes by pretty fast when you are wondering if you have a fuel delivery or spark issue. I just can not see a cam or valve train issue causing it .... I have been wrong before. I probably should wait till I have the engine torn part on the stand.

Mine did not have a radio .... I did buy one for it a few years ago ..... Then decided to go 12 volt. Now I'm not decided if I will install it non working & just for looks .... or just pass it on. Thing about my truck is it's special ??? The serial # ends with a X, that means it is a 1949 truck that was built for Dealers to put on the show room floor to display next years model. 1950 .... was a lot of changes. I have the air ride seat, wing windows with the chrome strip attached to the door windows, the low side bed for delivery trucks. There is no question it is a 1949 ....I have the 3 on the tree & E-brake under the dash .... A 1950 engine/trans ..... Just a floor model too show off next years trucks .... Not special, just rare. ..... It did not come with a radio. They did not think in 1949 that a radio was a worthy option in a truck to include in a floor model.

I'm with Ken .... never heard of a solution other then sending your radio off to be rebuilt with all new modern components. Looks stock, but is modern. One regret I have going to 12 volt is losing the original radio. I figure that is ok considering all the other benefits I will get from 12 volts .... All a matter of opinion though.

Good question. I have looked in the past at a few different suppliers .... I thought it was a new crank. Same time I swear Rockauto had more then 1 choice with different prices. .... I thought I was getting a brand new one. I see it is a reman from RA for $247 includes bearings & no core required. I actually need to put it in the cart to see what shipping will be. May be cheaper to get it from a local store. I'm still guessing A reman crank & bearings would work in a block with no machine work .... assuming the block is good. Or does the block need to be machined to match the crank? ..... I'm guessing the crank & bearings are matched to work with the block. ..... Also to work with stock rods. For the rod replacement .... I'm not sure how the wrist pins are installed ..... I think they are press fit .... I'm not qualified to remove a piston from this engine and press it onto a new rod .... I do not have the equipment. I do have 5 good rods/pistons from the old engine .... measure & inspect, pick the best good one & use it with new rings/bearings. My worst fear right now is opening the engine up, dissecting it like a detective at a crime scene and not find the cause of the bearing failure. My first thoughts was sand blown into the engine while sitting .... I think that is wrong. Now I'm leaning to crap in the oil & plugging the oil pump ...... Just hoping at some point I can find the failure and feel confident when putting it back together ..... A new oil pump is a must.