Throttle? and turn signals

[Dodging Work]

My dashboard has a pull out throttle "cable". What was the purpose, just to adjust the idle? 

 

Also, I have seen many pictures of Pilot House trucks with turn signals mounted on top of the front fenders, and just as many as without fender mounted lights. Which is correct?

[Robert Harrison]

39 minutes ago, Dodging Work said:

My dashboard has a pull out throttle "cable". What was the purpose, just to adjust the idle? 

 

Also, I have seen many pictures of Pilot House trucks with turn signals mounted on top of the front fenders, and just as many as without fender mounted lights. Which is correct?

 

[Los_Control]

The pilothouse did not come out with turn signals, so all were put on by owners where they chose to put them.

 

The throttle could be useful for a farmer to work the truck in the field and walk beside it to load or unload .... or 100 other purposes that would not pass OSHA rules today.

[Robert Harrison]

Some of the uses of the throttle cable.  To regulate a fast idle when starting up this mostly in conjunction with using the choke.  It was thought at the time that manual control of trucks was the way to go where as the industry was turning to automatic chokes and methods of running fast idle on carbs mostly in cars.   Also some farmers used them for controlling the speed in a field to facilitate loading of farm products such as hay.  A loading capable piece of equipment would travel next to the truck and dump product onto the truck.  Lastly although there were no freeways and not as many long straight roads at the time (freeways came in really after the war) as America realized beyond commerce they needed to be able to move military equipment around the country people could use it as a sort of speed control and take their feet of the gas pedal.  Better highways really started to evolve during the Eisenhower presidency.

 

[Tony_Urwin]

I've been considering the fender mounted turn signal lights for my truck (my fenders already have the holes). As I get closer to painting the fenders, I been looking on eBay. They all seem to have yellow lenses facing forward and opaque backs. It seems to me that the visibility of yellow lenses on both sides would help in traffic.

 

Has anyone seen signal lights like that? Or would it be a bad idea for some reason?

[Dave72dt]

I've seen them on farm equipment, usually as full time flashers warning of wide or slow moving equipment.   You might want to check DMV laws regarding  yellow-yellow.  It can vary from state to state.  You can get or order at parts houses.

 

I had an old Studebaker  1 ton that had yellow on the front and red on the back of the front fender mounted light.

Edited December 13 by Dave72dt

[rustyzman]

I absolutely love vintage truck lighting.  

True, these vehicles did not come with turn signals installed.  They were not required by law at that time for Trucks and got added on afterwards as the laws changed.

The older ones only had one taillight on the left hand side and no reverse lights.

Parking lights also turned off when the headlights were on.

 

I just recently restored a pair of very old arrow style, double sided lights with visors on the front facing lenses, for my fenders.  Previously I had a NOS pair of Peterson amber/red double sided ones that I moved to the old RV instead.  I've wanted a pair of these arrow lights for a long time.

 

There are many options for double sided turn signal lights.

New stuff:

https://petersonlightsandharnesses.com/

https://www.truck-lite.com/

 

Old stuff:

Peterson, DO-RAY, Signal Stat and KD are just a few of the popular old makers of lights.  Usually, they have an amber light to the front and a red light to the rear. 

Farm Tractors used them all the time.

 

I have bought many NOS lights at very good prices over the years.  You just have to be patient and search for them.  Ebay and swap meets are the best I have found.

 

Hand throttles are also very useful if you have a PTO on your trans.  RPM up for the load of whatever you are running off the PTO when it is engaged.

[Ivan_B]

The manual throttle cable is great, just like a gas tank dipstick 😉

[Tony_Urwin]

Rustyzman, I'm envious of those arrow lights.  Sounds like a perfect solution to the fender light problem.  I think I will look for a pair myself.

 

Unfortunately, the previous owner solved the turn signal issue with a pair of those 4" lights from Harbor Freight or Tractor Supply.  He cut huge holes around the original park light holes and screwed on his new lights.  Steve at DCM had a smashed grille panel and cut the ends off for me.  One of my upcoming chores will be fashioning patch panels and restoring the original parking lights with yellow bulbs for turn signal/park lights. I think those bulbs are available in LED.  Just need a different flasher module.

 

Another question is what to use in the rear. When I was still driving my truck, I installed the large late-model combination brake/back up lights back there. (Not much better than the PO, huh?) I felt better knowing that other motorists might see my signals!  I have seen vintage-style brake lights on eBay with LED bulbs.  I suppose they are Ford style, but they resemble our Pilothouse lights. Maybe they could be adapted to Dodge light brackets.  I like the idea of having brighter lights back there.

[ggdad1951]

There is a guy on EPAY that sells lights, I visited him to get TODDs roof markers and he has a pile of them.  Seller name of "dsiceman".  He has quite the selection in his shop.

[JBNeal]

The temporary brake lights that I installed on the '48 and '49 for road testing were utility trailer lights that I sourced from a local trailer dealer.  These were the round lens buckets that were very close in size to the B-series tail lights, even the mounting studs lined up and fit nicely on the bracket.  This style is still around, but is not sitting on store shelves as much as boxed up in a warehouse these days.

 

When I was fiddling with LED upgrades, I accidentally found out that the old-style flasher works fine if there is at least one incandescent bulb in each LED circuit, even if it's only a small dash indicator bulb.  This was back in 2008, and old style flashers were about 5 bucks while LED flasher modules were about 40...prices may have changed since then 👀

[rustyzman]

In case you want some ideas, here is a couple shots of the restoration of the Signal-Stat arrow lights I did.

 

Nice link there ggdad1951.  That is a good selection.

 

[Tony_Urwin]

Nice work! I just bought a pair on that ePay site you recommended. Need sandblasting, painting, and new wiring. Maybe a new socket, I suppose.

Edited Monday at 02:55 PM by Tony_Urwin

[rustyzman]

Nice.

Put up some pics when you get them and as you restore them!

[Tony_Urwin]

OK, very similar to yours, but they have the visor front and rear.

[rustyzman]

Nice!

 

[TodFitch]

On 12/12/2024 at 8:37 AM, Dodging Work said:

My dashboard has a pull out throttle "cable". What was the purpose, just to adjust the idle? 

 

Also, I have seen many pictures of Pilot House trucks with turn signals mounted on top of the front fenders, and just as many as without fender mounted lights. Which is correct?

 

Cars and trucks generally had hand throttles when they also had provision for using a hand crank to start the engine. It is awful hard to start a cold, probably worn and slightly out of tune engine using a hand crank. Being able to set a hand throttle moves the task from nearly impossible to merely horrible and very tiring.

 

I am not an expert on the truck side but I wouldn’t be too surprised if there is a small hole through the grill or front sheet metal that lines up with the crankshaft pulley and if the correct nut is used to attach the pulley you can turn the engine over with a crank.

[Young Ed]

1 hour ago, TodFitch said:

 

Cars and trucks generally had hand throttles when they also had provision for using a hand crank to start the engine. It is awful hard to start a cold, probably worn and slightly out of tune engine using a hand crank. Being able to set a hand throttle moves the task from nearly impossible to merely horrible and very tiring.

 

I am not an expert on the truck side but I wouldn’t be too surprised if there is a small hole through the grill or front sheet metal that lines up with the crankshaft pulley and if the correct nut is used to attach the pulley you can turn the engine over with a crank.

The 41-47 trucks certainly have a hole in the grill for the hand crank 

[ggdad1951]

11 hours ago, Young Ed said:

The 41-47 trucks certainly have a hole in the grill for the hand crank 

 

B series trucks should have the allowance as well.  I know there are a few videos floating around of memebers showing off their expertise!

[Young Ed]

2 hours ago, ggdad1951 said:

 

B series trucks should have the allowance as well.  I know there are a few videos floating around of memebers showing off their expertise!

The interesting thought to me is the 39 trucks don't. So were there so many complaints that it was brought back?

[greg g]

Hey my october built . 46  has a fitment for a crank handle but no access through the grill just another of " use these till they are gone" things we find with change over models. 

If I remember,  it was find a compression stroke as felt through the crank, retard the spark, pull out the throttle about a quarter of its travel, close the choke, and crank through that preselected compression stroke.  That should have started a well tuned engine.  Chokes didn't have a selfsetting high idle cam, so the throttle served that purpose.  The things you might see in old movies where the star actor windmills an engine crank were part of the comedy sthict ofthe period.   As far a as the throttle being needed on an electric started engine with a high idle set up, might have been a nod to the past to keep old timers happy in case the new fangled stuff didn't work.  So it's any ones guess why  there was a free wheeling knob and cable in the trunk of my car.

[rustyzman]

My '54 has a knockout stamped on the front face under the grille that you can punch out and setup for a crank.  Has the crank nut on the crankshaft as well.

[Panhead]

I thought the throttle was to be used when you’re trying to start the motor. You can’t pump the gas pedal with your foot on the starter button.

[Los_Control]

You can if you use the left foot for the starter  😛

[ggdad1951]

20 hours ago, Young Ed said:

The interesting thought to me is the 39 trucks don't. So were there so many complaints that it was brought back?

 

pic of FEF prior to all the stuff back on, starter hole still there.