Nat Angell Posted July 21, 2009 Report Posted July 21, 2009 I bought an old 50 1/2 ton Dodge pickup. It is all completly origional, but not in very good shape. The rear fenders were bent and broken at the bottom, back of cab had a good bit of rust-out, front fenders were a mess. I've been working on it for a few weeks now, and have the fenders fixed, cab repaired, and a general clean-up started. The truck has been sitting since 1971, partially in a shed. I removed the plugs and put ATF in each cylinder to soak not knowing wheather it was stuck or not. It soaked for 3 weeks before I tried to turn it. A new battery spun it right over. I removed the fuel tank and cleaned the varnish and gunk out, put gas in it , poured a little in the carb and it fired up easy. Had to replace the fuel pump, it leaked, and the rubber fuel line from the fuel line to the pump had to be replaced. It now runs sweet. It doesn't have any brakes, master cylinder was dry and full of gunk. I pulled the brake drums and the shoes and wheel cylinders look new and no scoring on the drums leading me to believe the brakes were replaced just before parking it. Now the problem is when I took the master cylinder off to rebuild it the spring and valve came out with a pile of gunk. I have cleaned it up and have a new MS kit, but don't have a drawing or a parts break-down to put everything back in the proper order, and havn't found a repair manuel for it yet. Can anyone show me a break-down of how the valve goes? I don't want to rebuild it incorrectly, it's too much trouble to take it back off if I've got it wrong. On a side note, when I took the seat out to clean out the rat nest and leaves I found a cigar box under the seat with the origional owners manuel in it. As I said it is all origional, correct wheels, even the spare tire carrier is there. I'm not a true purist, and doubt it will ever be a showpiece, but would like for it to look good and be dependable even though it won't be a primary vehicle, just something to play with. I rehab a lot of old tractors and this old truck will look nice beside one of them. Thanks in advance for any help you can give and will try to take some pics of it in it's present state. Later, Nat Quote
Reg Evans Posted July 21, 2009 Report Posted July 21, 2009 (edited) Welcom Nat, Sounds like you've done alot already. At your rate of progress you should be on the road shortly. Go here for an exploded view of the master cylinder. This was taken from the DPETCA web site found on the truck side of the forum. Tons of info there. Scroll down to page 15. http://dodgepilothouseclub.org/know/ph_parts/b_5.pdf Edited July 21, 2009 by Reg Evans Quote
buds truck Posted July 21, 2009 Report Posted July 21, 2009 welcome to the forum. please post some pictures and keep us in the loop during the process. Bud Quote
grey beard Posted July 21, 2009 Report Posted July 21, 2009 Welcome to the forum. I, too, am from an antique tractor background, and appreciate your angst. Sounds like you're on the right track. The sheetmetal can be a big hurdle. Mine was a mess when I started - fenders stick welded to the box sides, fender cracks stick welded, braces stick welded inside the rear fenders, etc., plus nobody home on the back ends of the front fenders where they mate to the doors. You could drop a six gallon bucket through my floor pan on rhe right side before I started. Some genius had pop riveted aluminum siding into the thing for a patch and put industrial carpet over the whole mess. You will discover that nearly every MoPar rescued from years of sitting has a bad master cylinder. I have never heard of one that sat for years and still had brake pedal that was useful. Mebby it's the lousy location, as you've already discovered. Having said all that, my suggestion to you is to bite the bullet and buy a new master cylinder. Many here have tried to rebuild them, 'cause new ones are over a hunnert bucks, but this recipe seldom works. NAPA sells one by Raybestos, and the two Massachusetts bandits listed in the links section of this forum - Bernbaum and Roberts - both sell a simijlar version made south of the border. A new master cylinder and, of course, three new flex hoses will go a long way towards future happiness in the brake depatment. Good Luck. Let us know how your progress goes. Quote
Nat Angell Posted July 21, 2009 Author Report Posted July 21, 2009 I picked up a head casket yesterday cause I wanted to see what the valves looked like. Remember this truck has been sitting since 1971, so I had no idea what to expect. Since I have the fenders off it's no trouble to get to. I loosened each head bolt and everyone of them screwed out by hand after initial breaking. It literally only took 15 mins to have the head sitting on the bench. The most complicated part was getting the lower rad hose off because someone had put the clamp on sideways so I had to find a real short screwdriver. The valves looked like new, clean, working easily. There wasn't hardly a ring ridge,I could feel a small amount, but couldn't catch it with my fingernail, maybe .001 or .002. I put the head back on, but havn't torqued it down cause I don't know how much it needs to be torqued. Does anyone know off the top of you head, pun intended? If I can figure out how to post pics you can see that I have the doors fenders,running boards, and the whole bed off. The drivers doors is more than I can fix myself so I have it at a friends shop, he's going to fix it, but the rest is within my meager ability. In the last pic you can make out the rear fenders under the welding table, the fronts are standing up and the bed parts are stacked on my welding bucks. Later, Nat Quote
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