Hey guys, new member here.
I have been reading some posts here, and have tried to find the information that I want to know on the web, but information on this particular model is extremely hard to find, let alone just a diesel 450. I have seen some very helpful people on here, and I am hoping that somebody can fill in some blanks for me.
My father in law and I have recently purchased a 1953 GMC DW455-37 truck. It will be an on going restoration and trailer puller, as well as taking it to car shows.
It currently runs and drives, and we have put a few miles on it now.
We know the owner of the truck that owned it from 1960 until we bought it, so we have quite a lot of information on the truck already.
We were told that before the truck came to Canada in 1960, one of the rear differentials failed, so the frame was shortened, and a Mack single axle was installed. I know from the service manual and owners manuals that I have purchased, that the truck originally had tandem driven axles (no tag). By the glove box ID tag, the truck should have Eaton 22M differentials installed. Does anybody know if these differentials were used on other trucks? I would like to put the truck back to as close to original as I can, but I cant find any more information than what is in the service manual. Ideally, I'd love to find a parts frame with differentials that I could swap my cab and drive line into, but I don't know if I will get that lucky.
In the owners manual (and there is still parts of the system left on the truck), it talks about a cold weather starting air intake heater that was installed on the 3-71s. The system used a ignition coil and a kind of spark plug into the air box on the engine, and diesel was pumped via a hand pump on the dash into this heater, starting a fire in the engine to warm the air. I haven't been able to find much for information on these either, and I think having this system working would be really neat. I do have a system break down for it in my manual, but I haven't found any parts around for it.
I know that the d450 trucks were only made for two years. Does anybody know how many were produced? Id be especially interested to know how many were made of the DW455-37.
Ive been totally fascinated with this truck. How it looks, the GM diesel, the air over hydraulic brakes (bit of a challenge finding parts for the airpak, but we got it figured), and the 5+3 transmission.
I'm a Journeyman Motorcycle mechanic, and I also have done a lot of automotive repair work, but this big old truck is just something else.
