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'53 B-4TA-190 Fire Engine


E37Bruco

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Wally...You have a nicely optioned truck. It's a really good original truck too that gets plenty of use.

Glad there's a few of us into the bigger trucks who can handle driving them...which isn't difficult....actually fun driving them!?

 

 

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55 minutes ago, Dodgeb4ya said:

Wally...You have a nicely optioned truck. It's a really good original truck too that gets plenty of use.

Glad there's a few of us into the bigger trucks who can handle driving them...which isn't difficult....actually fun driving them!?

 

 

Lol I'm not there yet. Can't get downshifting figured out yet. I'm doing a lot better moving up the gears tho. 

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  • 1 month later...

We are pretty focused on body work here now. Took some work to pull the rusted water tank out. 

 

I'm taking this opportunity to replace the rubber vacuum hose for the rear axle shift. When I pulled it I found gear oil inside it. I removed the little plug on top of the vacuum actuator and you can see everything in there has a residue of oil. Is this normal?

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Looking at the factory shop and parts manuals, there is a gasket between the vac.actuator and the sleeve that bolts to the carrier, but no oil seal on the actuator rod.  So I reckon that some gear oil is allowed to lubricate the rod at the vac.actuator.

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There should be no oil getting into the rubber shift diaphram.

It will cause damage the hose and to diaphram. 

There is no servicable seal in the shift rod. I have never had that rod apart or seen a seal in it.

If there is excessive oil and it has damaged that diaphram you have a bug priblem.

I definately would check the shifter rubber diaphram for oil contamination and possible swelling or splits.

A compromised rubber diaphram will cause axle shifting trouble...which you have had trouble with.

You might want to remove the 12 screws to be able to be sure that diaphram has no holes or cracks from oil damage.

It might be A-ok too.

Edited by Dodgeb4ya
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Okay next time I'm there I'll pull that apart. The condition of the rubber hose and what I saw from that little inspection plug on top look like there was a good coating of oil all through the vacuum diaphragm assembly.

 

If this is an issue do you believe I'd be able to send this shifting diaphragm to white post?

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On 3/22/2024 at 1:24 PM, E37Bruco said:

 

I doubt Whitepost could supply or replace the diaphragm.

The diaphragm's and base mount  were sold as a complete assembly...no separate parts from MoPar.

This is what the leaky situation probably will be....there is a very strong spring in that vacumn chamber....

Once the 1/2" nut in the hole of the outer cover and the 12 screws holding the diaphram are removed....those parts are likely to go flying.

Use two 2" long safety screws to control the cover and diaphragm's gradual release off the shifter rod.

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Oh fun hahaha 

 

But is oil present on the axle side of the diaphragm normal? Just seems weird if there's nothing preventing engine vacuum from pulling gear oil 

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There shouldn't be any  oil on the axle vacuum side.

I have never taken apart the shifter shaft and sleeve assembly in one of these Timkin rear ends.

I'm sure there are one or more oil seals in there.

No service information anywhere that I could find.

The rear end pictured pictured above worked flawlessly with the oil in it.

Shifted great.

I was suprised to find the oil in it.

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That diaphragm was FULL lol but after cleaning everything up the rubber looks great. Sprayed it with some wd40, gonna eat it sit then some meguiars rubber conditioner

 

There's a race that the shaft slides on. But I see no remnants of a seal on this side of the setup 

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AFAIK the seal is inside that housing the shift rod operates in and out of.

There is a snap ring to get into it....but if you get into trouble guessing on trying to get at a seal you might end up pulling the 400lb diff out!😫

Clean it up and run it....had a lot of 80/140 gear oil in it!

 

 

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Edited by Dodgeb4ya
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I'm not sure when I'll be at the truck again but looking at the diaphragm cleaned up I found a seal where that barrel slides. Ordered a new Timken version of it 🤞 (480356).

 

I'll still look to see if there's a seal between the shaft and that barrel. 

 

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On 4/3/2024 at 3:20 PM, E37Bruco said:

I'm not sure when I'll be at the truck again but looking at the diaphragm cleaned up I found a seal where that barrel slides. Ordered a new Timken version of it 🤞 (480356).

 

I'll still look to see if there's a seal between the shaft and that barrel. 

 

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The seal shown is the only seal...

There is only an extremly strong bottoming/over travel diaphram spring behind the snap ring and washer in the barrel part...

 

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Ok thanks. That seal should be here later next week. Then I can throw this all back together and road test it again for rear axle behavior. 

 

Otherwise we dive into body work!

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  • 1 month later...

I have been swamped in other projects. Finally got out driving today since redoing the rear two speed diaphragm shifter. 

 

Was probably the best I ever drove it. It shifted smoothly between the gears and the high-lows. Did not have any instances where it was trying to shift itself into high. 

 

We have begun disassembling everything to prepare for sandblasting.

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That's excellent update news.

You will like shifting that 2 speed axle now that it's working like it should.

Wish I was closer...I'd love to see and drive that fire truck!

I had Big Red out a couple weeks ago..

 

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  • 3 months later...

Hey everyone, hope you all had a great summer. I really didn't get a whole lot done it was so nice so I enjoyed it on the boat instead of in the garage. 

 

Back to work on the body now. I'm starting to notice an issue getting her started. Not that she's been running a lot over the last 2 years but I never really had an issue cranking before. I have a grounding wire straight to the starter bolts. Both positive and negative are large gauge. The analog meter is still reading six volts but she will not crank. This truck remains on a battery tender 24/7 so I don't know why it won't crank. The starter was not rebuilt yet. 

 

Is there a way to load test a 6 volt battery? I didn't have a multimeter with me today to get a better reading but like I said the last two times that she would not crank she had at least six volts in the battery. Maybe a rebuilt starter would be less amp draw since she's not running long-term to recharge through the alternator. Yes it has an alternator not a generator. 

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Starter contact switch should be able to be removed without pulling starter...remove batt.cable and wiring, should be two slotted round head screws attaching switch body to starter body...if contacts are dirty, shine'm up a tad; if worn badly, replace; if arcing present, contacts need to be adjusted, as they are not fully mated when switch bottoms out.

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Battery volt reading needs to be 6.6 volts for a fully charged battery.

While cranking voltage should not drop much if any  below 5.00 volts.

Get these readings before doing anything.

The engine is fine..

I'm sure of that.

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