51 B3B build thread - after all these years

[bkahler]

10 hours ago, JBNeal said:

#3 spacer keeps the spring off of the manifold...a flat washer or piece of aluminum could be substituted...I won't tell anybody if you won't...

 

That was what I figured.  I also noticed the Offenhauser intake is a little wider than the exhaust manifold so a spacer would help keep the spring from being forced diagonally towards the exhaust possibly putting in into a bind.  I'll fabricate a spacer to take care of that issue.

 

10 hours ago, JBNeal said:

The dual horn setup I found was purely by accident 8 years ago...answering a CL ad, I crossed the border into Oklahoma and headed to Kingfisher to go look at a '49 1-ton, then was told it was actually in Hennessy, then was told it was at a wrecking yard north of town...the truck was in much worse shape than advertised, and for the $$$ he wanted, I expected to drive it back across the border with a warm bucket of chicken by my side...we came to an agreement that I could buy as many parts as I could pull off of it before they fed it into the crusher 100 feet away, so I had to hustle to get little stuff of that hulk...them turkeys didn't even wait for me to crawl out of that filthy cab before the big loader started scooping it up...and they mashed that thing into a brick right in front of me, like they enjoyed it...it had salvageable stainless grill bars, fenders, doors, even the cab was ok (still had the corner glass in it)...se la vie, I reckon...so ya might be able to find an example with less drama involved on eBay 

 

I miss having the opportunity to wander through junk yards looking for parts.  I'm going to have to make real effort to locate some older yards around here.  Back in Nebraska I had no issues finding places that had parts that I needed.  Of course that was 20 years go so who knows if that's changed.  

 

Brad

 

[bkahler]

I have original copies of the factory parts book and service manuals.  I find that the service manual is not all that helpful to the point I don't really think it's worth looking at it any more.

 

I was looking at it this morning trying to find information on the transmission rear bearing retainer and couldn't find anything about it in the manual.

 

Any suggestions on a good manual that would have better detailed information?

 

Thanks, 

 

Brad 

 

 

[bkahler]

It turns out the shocks purchased at such a good price on ebay weren't quite the deal I was expecting.

 

The first box I opened the shop was obviously used and worn out.  I then opened the other boxes and while the shocks looked new they have issues.  Mainly when you depress them only one of the shocks rebounds at a reasonable rate.  All of them take some effort to depress but as you can see in the picture the bottom two take their sweet time about extending.  I contacted the seller who while surprised at their condition provided me with a full refund.  He told me he is selling parts from a closed auto parts store.  There's no telling how long the shocks laid on their sides.  

 

These are gas shocks and I would expect them to be difficult to depress and extend rather quickly after doing so.  I've placed the three new ones in a vertical position and am going to see if they recover any.

 

It will be interesting to see if they do recover.  At least the seller was great to deal with although I'm sure he wasn't happy.  

 

Brad

[bkahler]

After nine days without internet service, four service calls, dozens of phone calls to various departments, it turns out AT&T's finest were bested by a mouse.....!

 

Back to Dodge stuff

 

A number of years ago I found one of the large service desk binders on ebay.  It covers the B series pickups, power wagons and route vans.  It has one section my other oem parts book doesn't have and that's a Standard Parts section.  My smaller book has the Standard Parts listing but only has one page with a reference to a different document.  The big book has a half dozen pages or more covering standard hardware and their associated parts numbers.

 

Pretty cool.

 

Brad

 

[bkahler]

Back when I set the engine on the frame I knew at the time that I needed to address the grooves in the crank pulley hub.   However I didn't want to leave the front of the engine open so I installed the crank pulley to fill the hole in the interim.  Plans are to install a speedi-sleeve to correct the problem.  Today I pulled the pulley and noticed something I wasn't expecting. Just from hand turning the crank the paint rubbed off the pulley and the engine support frame.  I think I now know the reason why the crank was so hard to turn without a cheater bar on it!

 

Looking into the problem I removed the two bolts holding the support frame in place on the frame and found that it's adjustable and I had basically set the support frame to far forward.  I believe just moving the bottom of the support frame towards the rear will resolve the rubbing issue.  

 

I suppose it's a good thing I'm dismantling things right now.  I did a lot of work in haste 20 years ago and I think it's paying off to double check things now 

 

Brad

 

[Dodgeb4ya]

That pulley looks like someone used a drift or wedge to try to remove or straighten the pulley...you might want to check that it's not bent and wobbly.

[bkahler]

2 hours ago, Dodgeb4ya said:

That pulley looks like someone used a drift or wedge to try to remove or straighten the pulley...you might want to check that it's not bent and wobbly.

 

I was wondering how those marks could have been made on the back of the pulley.  Makes sense.  I'll have to figure out a way to check for out of round.  

 

Thanks!

 

Brad

 

[ggdad1951]

I have the same book you have, great source.

 

As for out of round/wobble on your pulley...you can just roll it on a long flat surface and watch the center to see if has any movement, about as simple as you can get for a check.

[bkahler]

2 hours ago, ggdad1951 said:

I have the same book you have, great source.

 

As for out of round/wobble on your pulley...you can just roll it on a long flat surface and watch the center to see if has any movement, about as simple as you can get for a check.

 

Hmm, I think I can do that ?

 

I'm sure my cat will want to get involved once he see's it rolling across the floor.......

 

Brad

[bkahler]

Here's a short video of the Pulley wobble check that I did last night.  i couldn't get it to roll on the floor, it just wanted to fall over so I chucked it into my lathe instead.

 

I've seen worse on other vehicles so I'm going to go ahead and use it unless someone can convince me otherwise ?

 

Brad

[bkahler]

I've been working through the dual carburetor installation with the Offenhauser intake manifold ran into one issue I'd read about, another that I hadn't considered and made a decision on fuel filter orientation. 

 

I've decided to locate the filter at 90 degrees relative to the carburetor.  I was going to have it pointing forward but didn't like the long overhang that it created.  It seems a little more compact with it rotated 90 degrees.

 

The issue that I had read about was the parking brake mechanism interfering with the rear carburetor choke linkage.  It does in fact interfere!  so I swapped the carburetor with the choke linkage to the front and moved the one without the linkage to the rear.  I believe that should solve the problem.

 

And finally I had always planned on using the original oil bath air cleaners on the carburetors and finally found last night that they are too large to both fit ?

 

So now I've got to figure out what to use for air cleaners.  Suggestions anyone?

 

Brad

 

 

 

[Young Ed]

On your filter isn't the idea that the filter threads directly onto the needle and seat fitting rather than having a T or a union? 

[bkahler]

Normally yes but with dual carburetors there isn't room to mount a second filter on the rear carburetor so the filter needs to T off to the rear carburetor as well so both carburetors receive filtered gas.  I've seen similar arrangements on dual carburetor setups although I don't recall seeing one rotated 90 degrees.

 

Brad

[Young Ed]

8 minutes ago, bkahler said:

Normally yes but with dual carburetors there isn't room to mount a second filter on the rear carburetor so the filter needs to T off to the rear carburetor as well so both carburetors receive filtered gas.  I've seen similar arrangements on dual carburetor setups although I don't recall seeing one rotated 90 degrees.

 

Brad

I see it now. I completely missed that it was the same T fitting on the straight ahead shot. 

[bkahler]

I spent a bunch of time trying to come up with a combination that used the least amount of fittings.  Now I have to hope none of the fittings leak!

 

Brad

 

 

[ggdad1951]

4 hours ago, bkahler said:

Here's a short video of the Pulley wobble check that I did last night.  i couldn't get it to roll on the floor, it just wanted to fall over so I chucked it into my lathe instead.

 

I've seen worse on other vehicles so I'm going to go ahead and use it unless someone can convince me otherwise ?

 

Brad

 

oh ye gots a fancy lathe do ye?!?!?     much better test, but more complicated to set up.  Drill press would work as well, didn't think about it tipping over!  LOL

[bkahler]

11 minutes ago, ggdad1951 said:

 

oh ye gots a fancy lathe do ye?!?!?     

 

If you want to call a lathe built at the start of WWII fancy then yeah, I got a fancy lathe ?

 

11 minutes ago, ggdad1951 said:

much better test, but more complicated to set up.  Drill press would work as well, didn't think about it tipping over!  LOL

 

Yeah, it tipped over like a drunken sailor.  That's when I opted for plan B.

 

 

[bkahler]

I'm looking for a source for the nuts and star washers that fasten the factory option heater to the firewall.  Over the years I've either lost or misplaced three of each.  

 

The nut is 3/8"-16 but has a shoulder to shoulder width of 11/16".

 

The star washer has a 3/8" id and about a 1-1/4" od.  I've searched various places including McMaster Carr for the star washer with zero success.  I've yet to start looking for the over sized nut.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks!

 

Brad

[ggdad1951]

GIANT CAT NOSE ALERT!   Drop me a PM, I might have some laying around.

[bkahler]

1 minute ago, ggdad1951 said:

GIANT CAT NOSE ALERT!   Drop me a PM, I might have some laying around.

 

I figured his nose would provide a good reference for scale 

 

PM coming shortly.

 

Thanks!

 

Brad

[bkahler]

Rainy day today so I stayed inside and played 

 

Even though my truck is a 51 I've always preferred the 48-50 style of mirror arms.  So with that in mind I went ahead and ordered the repops from DCM Classics in Michigan.  Overall the quality seems to be pretty decent.  I don't know how thick the metal is on the originals but these seem to be sufficient.  I do have to drill and tap a couple of holes in my door hinge brackets but that shouldn't be to much of a problem.  

 

Years ago I bought a pair of tail lights from Roberts Motors and was really disappointed in their build quality.  Worse, they didn't come with screws or the socket internals.  When you put  them together it seemed that the cover went down to far onto the housing and didn't really seat well.  So today I cut out two new cork gaskets from 1/4" thick cork.  Next I scrounged up some stainless screws and assembled the lights.  To me they look and feel a little better with the thick gasket.  I went ahead and ordered the socket internals from DCM as it appears what they sell matches these housings.  I guess I'll find out next week.

 

And finally a while back I mentioned I would like to have a dual horn setup so I started browsing ebay to see what was available.  On ebay I found one shorter Auto-lite horn that matched the horn that came on my truck and won the auction for it.  It's actually in better shape than I expected.  It needs to be taken apart, sandblasted and painted which I hope to get to in the near future.  The only difference seems to be in the mounting tabs but I don't think it's enough to make a difference.  I plan on copying JBNeal's mounting bracket.

 

Brad

 

Edited December 14, 2021 by bkahler

[bkahler]

I've decided to go with a PCV system so I made an adapter out of a spare breather tube similar to what others have done.  I tapped the plug that I made for 1/8" NPT and will use an adapter to 5/16" tubing up to the intake manifold where the PCV is located.   The PCV is a Fram FV333 as recommended elsewhere in the Forum.  

 

Brad

Edited December 14, 2021 by bkahler

[bkahler]

Last week I took the heater core to the local radiator shop, one of those good old fashioned shops where they still do it right and build street rods on the side!

 

Unfortunately the core turned out to be totally shot.  Not just the core but the tanks as well.  He said it's as bad as he's ever seen before   

 

I got on ebay and found several and made and offer on one that was accepted.  I should have it sometime this coming week at which time I'll take that core down and have it checked out.  On the plus side the new heater assembly comes with the large oversized nuts and star washers.  So I guess if the core ends up bad at least I'll get a little something out of the deal.

 

Brad

 

Edited December 14, 2021 by bkahler

[bkahler]

When mounting shocks what hardware is used?  When I dismantled my truck years ago I seem go have ended up with a total of eight shock mounting washers.  Enough to do the rear axle or the front axle.  However when I put the inner washer on the stud along with the shock and then the outer washer there is very little room for a nut.

 

I'm thinking I should just mount the shock and then use a regular flat washer and a nut to hold it in place.

 

Suggestions?

 

Thanks,

 

Brad

[JBNeal]

one of the interesting pieces of information I found doing the shock absorber research was that the mounting guide for the Gabriel 82605 listed the bushing free length of 1.72" and compressed bushing width of 1.55"...so that's the target width to figure on the mounting studs...each of the trucks I have with shocks in the yard have the shock bushing sandwiched between flat washers and 1-3 threads showing on the mounting studs...I didn't have a caliper to measure but the washers on the trucks looked a shade thinner than a beefy hardware store flatwasher...