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6/17/19:Last week I was able to order a new water pump, the alternator pulley and the water pump relocation plate but was not able to resource a new harmonic balancer. I have been wanting to go to Adler’s Antique Auto’s in Stephentown NY, a place that specializes in AD trucks, since I first spotted it searching the internet several months ago. It was just under 2 hours away and the place did not disappoint. It is a treasure trove for us Stovebolt addicts. Acres and acres of glorious rusty AD trucks in various degrees of decay, truly a Stovebolters “Heaven”. Even my wife was impressed. As a amateur photographer she’s had a long love for rusty old pickup trucks. She was busy snapping pictures while I talked to Bob Adler, the owner who has been there since the 70’s. He is a very knowledgeable soft spoken gentleman and at times I could hardly hear what he was saying. Wanting to hang on every word the man had to say with over 40 years of living and breathing every aspect of an AD truck, was difficult at times. I told him what I was doing and that I needed a harmonic balancer with a 5/8” pulley, a fan for a 216 and a clutch inspection cover and he said he had them all. His filing system is in his head, so off he went to collect parts. He runs a cash only business which I didn’t know so off I went to find an ATM. When I got back about twenty minutes later, he had everything collected except the balancer. He said to follow him and out we went to the yard, first checking a old rusted out VW bus. He didn’t find correct balancer there so we went to his two car garage by the street. He dug on a shelf and pulled out a box with 3 correct harmonic balancers, one NOS and two used. I choose the later as the NOS he valued like gold. The one I chose also had the hand crank lugs, how cool is that! My 52’ has a hole in the lower radiator splash pan and a dimpled grille to allow the use of a hand crank. I suspect my 52’ may have had that style balancer as original equipment on the old 216. Now I’ve got everything but the hand crank. I can’t imagine having to start the ole gal like that. It’s tough enough to crank it over with the fan just to get the timing marks lined up.

We returned to his shop where we completed the deal. Toting my box of treasures, my wife couldn’t help to comment about the smile on my face. I didn’t tell my wife what those rusty, greasy old parts cost. In this case, “Ignorance is Bliss”, for me at least!

The pictures of Bob’s place were taken by my wife!