The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Project Journals 1952 Chevrolet 3100 Project

That's a slick repair on the heater opening, you really need to look close to see it.

9/09/20: Over the past week I have been trying to tie up some loose ends in preparation of reinstalling the engine.

The block is still at the machine shop. The owner, a week after accepting the block, got a “Killer” deal on a crank grinder that was to be installed last week. He said because one journal only needed to be ground an additional three thousands, it would be best to do it on the new grinder. I agreed and now I’m hoping to hear about it soon.

I finally received all of the parts I needed, rebuild the transmission and gave it a nice coat of satin black ready to reinstall when the engine goes in. I replaced the input and main shaft bearings, the tail shaft bearing and retainer, tail shaft universal yoke, one of the shifting forks as well as all of the gaskets and seals. I follow a YouTube video (by jayhawker) to rebuild it and it made it easy. The tail of the tranny was slightly different but everything else was spot on. It feels so much smoother and sounds so much better, I totally expect it to silence the transmission noise I had when the clutch was out and the tranny was in neutral. I’m also hoping that some of the transmission whine is gone.

I also wanted to relocate the horn relay, the headlight relays to better locations and accomplished that task. I also relocated the ballast resister to get it off of the coil it was previously mounted to.

I’ve been wanting to fix a leaky drivers side axle seal that I discovered in the spring of 2019, that leaked all over the brake shoes. During that time, I was wintering in South Carolina and didn’t have the tools to accomplish pulling the axles, so I cleaned up the shoes, reinstalled them until I got back to NY. Since, I have been repairing higher priority stuff and was not able to get to the brakes. Since I’m still waiting on the engine, I pulled the rear drums, brakes, axles and the axle bearings and seals. I didn’t expect any issues as the axles didn’t have any slop. I was surprised to find both axles had corrosion on where the bearings ride and on the seal area necessitating replacement.

Now to find the axles.

Do you think the axle will polish out? I may be worth the effort as long as you don't remove to much material.

Not a chance. If it was just the seal area, reducing that a few thousands may work with a new neoprene seal, but its also where the bearing rides. I can't take anything off of that.

9/23/20:: Over the past few weeks I’ve been cleaning, taking dents and dings out of the sheet metal parts, getting ready for the return of the engine that is still at the machine shop. The news on the engine is not good. Basically they need to re-machine the entire block taking the journals out to the next oversized bearing. That includes the main, rod and cam journals. During the last engine rebuild (two PO’s ago), that has only about 200 miles on it, the shop never properly cleaned the block, so particles dislodged and ran thru the bearings scoring most of the bearings. That was in addition to the poor machining that was done. I elected to have them assemble the block so all I will have to do is put on the head, the sheet metal and the rest of the components.

Today, I wanted to feel like I accomplished something on the truck so I installed a new top cowl drain hose and hood to cowl seals along with new hardware.

10/16/20:: Over the past few weeks, I have been trying to resolve the rear axle issue. I haven’t had any luck in finding any axles in good shape, so I’ve been exploring my options. I found that some Buick’s use the same bearing that my ‘52 3100 use but in addition they use an inner sleeve that gets pressed on to the axle. I ordered two of these sleeves and I’m working on machining the axles to accept those sleeves. I’m optimistic that this sleeve will work on our axles. There is another thread on this same subject that explains all of the details. LINK

The pictures show the before and after. I’m optimistic only because the sleeve was barely long enough to cover the area that both the bearing and the grease seal area the ride on, making locating the sleeve difficult. I’m pretty sure I have the location correct, but I won’t be sure until I reinstall the axles.

I also picked up my engine block today and ended up leaving the head for them to look at. Two of the pistons had evidence that an exhaust valve had made contact with the piston at one time. They popped the suspect valves out and found no issues. While I was there, they performed a leak down test and found a few valves were leaking, so I left it with them so they could clean, magnaflux and regrind the valve and seats. At this point, all I see is $$$ flying out the window! With all of this work I’ve been doing, hopefully will finally put the mechanical issues to bed! Only time will tell.

Reading through your posts, man you ripped that can of worms wide open!
Good choice though, I would hate to waste all that time, effort and $$’s.
The research you must have done on the valve train to figure out the various pieces, jeesh!
The firewall repairs look good, nice work.

Keep posting, I am very interested to hear how it all comes together.
Steve

Thanks, and you’re right, it was a can of worms. Unfortunately, I really didn’t have much choice. Like many of our fellow bolters, I’m trying to restore a 68 year old truck back to a reliable status that has been cobbed together by PO’s that owned a hammer and an adjustable wrench, and actually called themselves mechanics.

The biggest shocker was that engine was rebuilt by a supposedly reliable engine shop (and I have 1,800 dollars of receipts by a PO to prove it), and it would not hold oil pressure. I tracked down and spoke to the owner that had the engine rebuilt and he said that right after he got it back, a main bearing froze up. He removed the engine, sent it back to the shop for them to fix it. After reinstalling, the engine oil pressure would drop to less than 5 lbs when it got hot. The poor guy didn’t have a mechanical aptitude, so he hired somebody to do the work. After the low oil pressure issue, he gave up, the truck sat in a shed in his back yard for five years, then he sold the truck. I spent over a year trying to diagnose the issue hoping for an easy fix. When I finally gave up trying to fix the problem with the engine still in the truck, I discovered the fix the shop had done. They added .010” worth of shims to every main bearing cap, so its no wonder why it was dropping pressure. The work was so sub par, that I had to have the entire engine re-machined by a reliable shop.

Hopefully when I finally get the engine and drivetrain reinstalled, I will have a reliable truck. Thanks again for your interest and support!

10/20/20 I finished machining the drivers side axle and pressed on the sleeve. I also temporarily installed both axles and it looks like the replacement sleeves are going to work.

I was able to complete this job in about two hours, a considerably shorter time it took to machine the first axle.

I searched for new gaskets that get installed between the inside of the axle flange and the grease deflector and only found them for 3/4 and 1 ton trucks. Fortunately, its not a high tech gasket and is easily reproduced using 1/32” paper gasket material. After making the gaskets, I used coppercoat gasket sealer on both sides, then assembled the axle assembly by pressing in the axle studs with my 20 ton press. I finished by giving the flange end of the axle a nice coat of satin black. All ready to reinstall!

Some very creative solutions to your problem. I am seriously jealous of your machine skills. I worked at a small machine shop in High School run by an old Russian man. He was one of the biggest influences in my life and no doubt the best Boss I ever had. He retired and his son ran the business into the ground, he had no interest in seeing his fathers shop prosper. I often wish I had pursued that career field farther... You are doing some really great work.

10/25/20: I got the axles installed and it looks like the new sleeves are going to work. While I was working on the axles, I was also going to make up new brake lines on the axle and inspect the brake cylinders prior to reassembly. I pulled out one the rods that go into the wheel cylinder on the passenger side and it had moisture in it. I pulled that cylinder and tried to pry off the dust cap. Not knowing how it was assembled , I end up destroyed the first one but saved the next three after finding out how they were assembled. This came back to bite me in the a$$. I was able to press out the frozen pistons and hone out the cylinders so I thought I was on easy street. That was not the case as I was not able to get a rebuild kit that contained the proper dust seal. I ordered a kit from my local NAPA dealer and the dust seal attached externally not internally like the original. I then looked online in the major auto parts suppliers and none of them carried the rebuild kits, just the cylinders at $40 apiece.

I relented that I was not going to get the wheels back on the truck anytime soon and decided I would order the kits from my go to online supplier “Classic Chevy Trucks”. Their rebuild kits was also on backorder but had new wheel cylinders for $30 apiece, so I ordered them. I also needed to replace a brake shoe hold down that mysteriously disappeared some time before I disassembled the drum. I figured I would order a hardware kit and replace everything so I added that to my list, in addition to a few other odds and ends. When I got my conformation email, I saw that the hardware kits were also on backorder. When I placed the order it did not say anything about a backorder! I guess I’ll have to call them to find out how long the backorder is.

In the meantime, I have turned my attention to reassembling the engine. I got my head back on Friday. They hot tanked and Magnaflux the head, refitted the valve guides because some were too tight, re-ground the seats and valves, decked the head and gave it a nice Chevy orange paint job! It looks fabulous but unfortunately, I’m changing the engine color back to the factory original color gray in which I already purchased from Bill Hirsch.

So far I got the oil pump reinstalled and fabricated a bushing to center the timing cover on the crankshaft. I’m actually seeing light at the end if the tunnel!

I know that you have plans to complete a frame off sometime down the road, looks like your ahead of game already. With me the light at the end is usually stars from being hit in the head with whatever I was working on. Making progress is a good thing and you have a lot to show for your work.

11/03/20: With my engine block and head finally back from the machine shop, I started reassembling. In the process of butting up the lower end and found that one of the rod cap stud and nut was hitting the oil pump. The engine was previously rebuilt by a “not so reputable” shop that mixed up the rod location and ground one of the nuts for apparent oil pump clearance. My shop placed the rods in their proper sequence so now the problem.

Where the rod was hitting the oil pump, the pump had ample material that I was able to grind away enough cast iron so the rod had ample clearance. I believe that was a much better solution than grinding on the rod cap stud and nut.

With that issue solved, I completed reassembly of the engine to the point where it will to be painted. Unfortunately, we have been under a cold spell with temps below freezing for a few days now. The weather forecasts warmer temperatures reaching sixty in the next few days so between the weather and my propane heater, I should have an opportunity to get the engine painted.

I waiting for the rest of the parts to come in for the rear brakes, so that will be next on my list. I am anxious to get the wheels back on so I can install the engine and tranny. The weather here is turning fast, as we have already had snow. It didn’t last but a day, but its only getting colder and a substantial snow is eminent. Getting the truck back in the garage is my top priority.

11/04/20: Over the past few days, I’ve been prepping the engine for paint. The instructions with Bill Hirsch engine paint are specific. The first is it must be above 60 degrees to paint. The second is that you must let it cure for two weeks before firing it up, which should not be a problem, but the first definitely is. Living in northern NY where the average daytime temperatures lately, have been in the 40’s certainly presents its challenges. Fortunately we have a warm spell coming up starting today for about a week where the average daytime temperature will be in the mid 60’s so I was able to paint. I did a trial run on the bell housing a couple of days ago with a brush. I pre heated the housing by placing it in front of a radiant propane heater for a couple of hours to get the temperature around 80 degrees. After painting, I placed it back in front of the heater to help it dry. It took several hours but did finally dry to the touch, so I moved to my basement to let it finish curing. It turned out great, so I have high hopes for the engine. The real difference is I can’t transport my engine to the basement but will have to provide heat in the shop for a few days.

Even though the outside tempertures were above 60, I still needed to pre heat the engine. My garage is built into a bank so It stays cool. The temperature of the garage and the engine was only about 50 degrees. It was warmer outside than it was in the garage so first I opened all of the doors and windows then I pre heated the engine for a couple of hours to about 75 degrees with my radiant heater. It took about 2 hours and I rotated the engine to get all sides.

This time I used my old Husky HVLP spray gun. I only mixed one pint of paint and used only about half of that. When I sprayed it, it appeared to spray a bit dry and I did mix it according to the instructions. I tried different pressures but it did not help. I’m hoping it will flatten out because of how slow it dries. Overall I think it came out pretty good.

On my way to shiny!

Nice the assembly line is in full production

11/07/20: My rest of my brake parts finally came in so I can finally get my truck back on her wheels. I needed to replace the wheel cylinders, brake drums, hardware and the brake lines which were original on the rear end. When I removed the rods on the wheel cylinders, rusty water came out of both sides. The pistons in the wheel cylinders I removed were rusted and I ended up tearing one of the dust seals not knowing how to remove them. The other three came out easy. After honing out the wheel cylinders, cleaning and painting, I bought a couple of rebuild kits and quickly found out that the dust seals were different. Of course the rest of the kit would work but the part I really needed wasn’t going to work. I went from a 5 dollar rebuild kit I bought a NAPA, to a $30 dollar wheel cylinder x2 and don’t forget shipping. The dust seals on the cylinders I removed, press into the ID of the cylinder. The kit contained seals that were fit into a groove on the OD of the cylinder. I looked at several other online vendors and they all seemed to sell that same kit. I ended up buying new wheel cylinders from Classic Parts which had the internal dust seal and a new spring kits from Chevs of the 40’s. Classic Parts spring kit was on backorder.

With my new parts in hand, I proceeded by installing the new wheel cylinders. When I went to install the brass tee block with its two copper gaskets the original bolt bottomed out before it made contact with the copper gaskets. The new cylinders (made in China) were not drilled deep enough. I checked the original wheel cylinder and it was almost .060” deeper. I had a decision to make to either take the wheel cylinder apart to drill and tap the hole deeper or take a bit off of the end of the bolt. That decision was easy so I ground a bit off the end of the bolt. After a few try’s, I got both tee blocks installed. Once I attached both wheel cylinders, I moved on to fabricating the two brake lines on the rear end.

I used copper nickel tubing and had previously purchased all new inverted flare tube fittings. I practiced a few double flares before I started since I haven’t flared tubing in years, never flared copper nickel and don’t own the expensive flare kit. I have an decent Imperial flare kit but still the lower end type. I tried to duplicate the existing line on the drivers side but it was too bent up to follow. I ended up just flaring the brake cylinder end, added the first 90 degree bend then bent the rest by hand. I turned out pretty good and hopefully no leaks.

I moved on to installing the new shoes. The old shoes were new looking but the drivers side was soaked with axle grease due to the axle issue I had, so I opted to replace them. The shoes went on easy and I followed the procedure in the Shop Manual to adjust the brakes, including adjusting the pivot bolt.

With the brakes installed and adjusted, I still needed to bleed the rear brakes. I have a cheap eBay vacuum bleeder that uses compressed air to create a vacuum. It was starting to get dark, but I figured I could probably get them bled. I started on the drivers side making sure I topped off the master cylinder. I was getting fluid in the vacuum bleeders tank but couldn’t see any fluid nor bubbles coming thru the line. Contributing to my decision to quit for the night, aside from it getting dark, was the fact that I had very little Dot 3 brake fluid left, so I decided to let it go till I had some daylight.

Today I bought two cans Dot 3 brake fluid, so I continued on bleeding the brakes. The vacuum bleeder still acted the same way and I still couldn’t see fluid or bubbles coming out of the bleeder. I decided to do it the old fashion way and get the help of my wife. This time I had no problem bleeding both brakes but one of the double flares ended up leaking. I tried snugging it up but ended up re-flaring the tube with success. A quick bleed on both wheels and the brakes were done.

After reinstalling the wheels, the truck can now be rolled back into the garage to reinstall the engine and transmission. Another success and one step closer to getting her back on the road! Yea!

You know it's the stuff no one will ever see that we take the most care in doing. It's a great feeling to know that one more thing is finished and you did it right, nice work on the lines.

TUTS 59, your right about that. I’ve sunk more money into fixing stuff most people will never see. The only thing visible is the temporary bed I installed over a year ago.

11/15/20: Over the past week, I’ve continued reassembly of my engine to the point that it is now installed. To accomplish this, I fabricated L brackets to attach on head bolts 10 and 12 to lift the engine, attached the HF 2 ton leveling device and built the engine stand featured in the “Tech Tips” minus the wheels. I needed to be able to set the engine on down so I could disconnect it from the engine stand in order to install the bell housing, flywheel and clutch.

Installation was somewhat time consuming as I had to re-rig the engine three times. The HF leveling device I bought in retrospect, was not needed and only got in the way. I originally placed the hand crank forward only to find that once the engine lift was raised it interfered with the crank. I lifted the engine from the engine bay, set it back down in the engine stand and reversed the lifting device. Lifted the engine and tried to install and the crank hit the firewall and would not allow me to get the engine back far enough to seat on its mounts. When I removed the engine for the third time, I noticed that I didn’t have to change the level of the engine at all to remove it so it should be the same for installing it. I reset the load leveler with the handle forward and this time it installed easily and I never needed to move the leveler. Hindsight is 20-20.

I also installed the tranny and subsequently ended up removing it as the torque tube ball seal cork gasket was non existent and the was never adjusted properly. I couldn’t see a way of removing the torque tube ball seal assembly required to properly adjust the ball seal, without removing either the transmission or the rear tranny cross member or the tranny. The crossmember didn’t look like it has been removed in a long time if ever so removing the tranny appeared to be the easier option. When I first got the truck on the road, The tranny was near empty and now I know why. The only problem is I can’t locate these seals/gaskets locally so I ended up having to order the kit online. I have close to a weeks worth of work before I can start her up, so its not really an issue at all.

Here are some of the fixes/improvements that I made along the way:
1. Replaced the front motor mount that had a few extra pieces including the sidewall of a tire with new.
2. Replaced the rear motor mounts with new.
3. Replaced the intake and the exhaust manifold with one I purchased from a fellow “Bolter”. On the old manifold, the heat riser was missing rhe holes where the shaft came thru were welded up. Living in the north east, I considered it necessary to have a working heat riser.
4. I also drilled out and tapped the vacuum port on the intake from 1/8” NPT to 1/4” NPT. I am adding a PCV valve in the near future and wasn’t sure 1/8” was going to pull enough vacuum for both the vacuum wipers and the PCV. By drilling and tapping while the manifold was off, I was able to clean out all of the metal debris.
5. I replaced the throttle linkage to one that was original to a ‘52 (provided from a fellow “Bolter”) including a new return spring and the lower spring clip. The linkage that was previously installed was from a ‘59 car and utilized the rear pivot mount on the block. This setup was hokey as the bell crank was slightly over center at idle which concerned me that it might get stuck and the return spring was mounted weird. The ‘52 uses the front mount behind the exhaust manifold. I also welded and turned the worn bell crank pivot to tighten up the bell crank.
6. I added a block coolant drain valve which was previously plugged with a pipe plug.
7. I added a period correct original oil bath air filter replacing one that was rusty, too small and didn’t fit the truck.
8. I replaced the bell housing (also provided by a fellow “Bolter”), which was cracked above the drivers side rear motor mount and installed a new clutch lever pivot.
9. I replaced the oil filter inlet/outlet hose with period correct lines. The previous hoses were just gas line with hose clamps.
10. I added a tee to the oil supply to the oil pressure gauge and oil filter so I could attach an oil pressure gauge directly on the engine.
11. The flywheel ring gear was a bit torn up on the leading edge, so following some advice I found on this forum, I heated it up, removed it, flipped and reinstalled it, then broke the leading edge with a Dremel.

My but you've been busy...

11/22/20: I did a little more painting. I painted the radiator satin black and the top of the oil filter and the top of the dipstick, Chevy Orange to give the engine a little pop of color. I also fabricated new vacuum/fuel lines to the carburetor out of Cu-Ni tubing which included a new period correct glass fuel filter at the carb.

I finally received the gasket set for the u-joint ball seal so I set out to get the transmission and u-joint installed. Everything went well with the exception of installing the new rear transmission mount. I needed to loosen the rear engine mounts and jack up the transmission to get enough room to slip the rear transmission mount in. Hindsight being 20-20, I should have removed the rear transmission crossmember as this would have made installation of the transmission, U-joint and ball seal assembly much easier.

While I attempted to install the shift linkage, I noticed that the replacement bell housing did not have the shift linkage bell crank pivot shaft installed. Panic ensued! This was worse than an O-S**T moment but instead an O-FUDGE moment. I should have caught this when inspecting the replacement but I totally missed it. Thoughts of having to remove the transmission and the engine again raced thru my head. Fortunately, I did not get rid of the cracked bell housing and I was able to drive the old shaft out. My first attempt to install the shaft on the replacement bell housing was to drive it in with a short handled 3lb. mallet. Well with only about 6” to swing, that was not going to happen. Then I tried a Porta-Power wedge pressing off of the frame. I couldn’t get it straight enough, nor did it have enough power. I discovered that a 3/4” steel rod about 12” long could be inserted between the frame and the inner fender and I was able to drive the pin in. Huge relief! I finished installing the shift and clutch linkage and adjusted both.

I continued installing the radiator, hoses and filled it with a 50-50 mix of antifreeze. Installed the hood latch panel getting ready to install the hood. I figured I would start the engine first before installing the hood so I put that on the back burner.

Getting the engine ready to start involved installing the push rods, rockers, adjusting the valves, used a drill and a cut off screwdriver to turn the oil pump to get oil flowing to the lifters and rockers, installed the distributor and did an initial timing. I also put a little bit of fuel down the breather tube of the carburetor. Looking over the engine as a final check I noticed a small puddle of oil under the newly installed oil filter. Surely enough one of the new (more than likely, made in China) hoses coupling, was leaking. When I tighten the fittings, they didn’t seem to tighten like I would expect. I tightened the offending fitting and I was ready for her start.

The moment of truth arrived and I although I have done this at least a two dozen times, I still get that funny feeling in my stomach. I pulled out the choke, turned on the ignition and pressed on the foot started and low and behold, after a few cranks it started and sounded good. Yea! It did have a bit of a bog when you hit the throttle which I suspect is timing!

I let it run only a few minutes as I was in my garage and fate has it, it was snowing. Go figure, I have been working on this for months and the day I get it started, it snows. It didn’t matter as I was thrilled that after all of that work, it started! I still needed to install the hood so that was my next task.

The hood took the typical path that Chinese parts seem to take you down. My hood hinges had bolting that came from a hardware store and were really sloppy. Knowing that when I disassembled it, I ordered the proper set of hardware that had shouldered bolts. After hoisting the hood over the engine compartment, I tried to insert the first new shouldered bolt and it started in but stopped shortly after. I tried another bolt location and found it did the same. Getting my 3x cheaters on, I saw that the thread was different. The new bolts were 5/16”-24 and the existing thread was 5/16”-18. Now I wonder which is wrong. The existing thread does not look like it was cross threaded or re-tapped. Regardless the hood needed to go on so fortunately I have a lathe and turned bushings to install bolts that fit the existing hinge holes. The rest of the install went well. I expected to have to realign the hood after installing bolting that took the slop out and new cowl seal and new hood bumpers, but the hood closed solidly. Its not aligned perfectly but as long as it closes and latches, I’m good for now.

Ecstatic, I have a truck that the newly rebuilt engine runs and the hood closes to boot!. All is good!

🤤🤤

So clean! Great job.

Thanks Fox, I follow both of your Project Journals and you do some really nice work. Coming from you means allot to me!

That is awesome... I know that feeling you were talking about, it's like everything you've done up to that point is hanging over you... "Did I do that right???" A few waaah waaah sounds and a cough to life and you prayers to the God's of Combustion are answered, then of course you apologize the the Good Lord for all the nasty things you said along the way. VERY COOL...

With any luck I too will have a running engine before the end of the month.

11/23/20: after getting the engine running, I still needed to road test it and lug it down a bit to seat the rings. The engine had a bit of a bog which I attributed to timing so I started the engine to warm her up and it was smoking a bit more that expected. The hose fittings going to the bypass filter were both leaking at the swivel. I tried tightening but to no avail. I removed the hoses and plugged the oil inlet and outlet at the block. After restarting and warming her up I used a timing light to get her close. I’ll finish the timing with a vacuum gauge.

On to the road test. I backed her out and started in first, when I shifted to second on the column mounted gear shift was way too high. So back to the house to readjust the shift linkage. Readjusted and second was still not right and I couldn’t get her into third.

When I disassembled the shift linkage, I took pictures but I apparently it focused on something else so the bell crank was a bit fuzzy. So, when I reassembled the linkage, I looked at my pictures and the assembly manual which is for a ‘54 and not a ‘52 and it was a bit different. I made what I thought was a educated guess but I was wrong as I had the bell crank in the wrong position. I removed the second/third linkage and noticed that the bell crank had two different lengths from the pivot point to where the linkage rods attached. I had the shifter attached to the longer side which shortened the travel to the tranny. By reversing the rods, I shortened the shifter travel and lengthened the travel going the shift arm on the tranny and now have third gear and the shifter position in second is where it should be.

Maybe tomorrow I can finally get that road test!

11/25/20: I took her out for a road test today, first a few miles in order to test out the shift linkage and second to heat her up enough to re-torque the head and the manifold. It shifted beautifully and the tranny stopped all of its whinnying. LOL. So, the rebuilding of the tranny was a success. There was also no clutch noise which I originally had when I was in neutral with the clutch released. That was a bad pilot shaft bearing.

Re-torquing the head was easy but trying to get 20 lbs on the outer bolts and 30 lbs. on the inner manifold bolts, near impossible unless you have a crows foot and an offset torque table, something I haven’t used since I left the Nuc industry. I guesstimated.

So now that I had all of the work done, it was time for play! I took my wife out for lunch and we made a few stops along the way. We put about 34 miles on her today and the engine ran great. Maintained 30 lbs. oil pressure and a 180 degrees throughout the trip.

A few minor issues:

First, the oil bath air filter has a tiny rust hole so it was weeping oil. No big deal. I can braze it from the inside and repaint.

Second was it was still pretty noisy at 40-45 MPH. Mind you, I have no insulation or sound deadening material so I’m sure that might help to silence her a bit.

Third, there was a bit of vibration in the steering wheel at 40-45 MPH which might be contributing to the noise,. It seemed to be while it was under load as it also occurred in first going up a small hill on the dirt road going to my house. I’m going to post this issue in the driveline forum.

Overall, I’m real happy with the results!

Very Very COOL !!!

12/09 /20: With the holidays quickly approaching, my truck has taken a back seat. I have accomplished a few things though. I brazed the oil bath air cleaner, gave it a couple coats of satin black, reinstalled and called it good.

My gas gauge is not working again. After removing the cluster, and testing the gauge and 12v supply wire, I determined it was the new sending unit I purchased from Classic Parts. I had an previous issue with the float leaking and I used epoxy to seal the leaks. It worked initially but I suspected that may be the problem. Prior to removing the sending unit, I bought a plastic float for a jeep that 52Carl said fits our sending units perfectly! I received that float, removed the sending unit and sure enough the epoxy failed. It lost its adhesion to the brass float. Now I know that epoxy does not hold up submerged in gas. In addition, when I removed the brass float, it broke in half right along the solder joint. Cheap overseas junk! After installing the new plastic float, the gauge once again functioned perfectly.

Little successes, but none the less a success!

"Little successes, but none the less a success!"...

Wow! That looks great! Thanks for the visual motivation!

Brian

It’s been way too cold to do anything on the old gal. My garage is built into a hill with concrete walls on three sides of the building. The concrete acts as a moderator so temperature changes are very slow. It’s been near 20 degrees Fahrenheit inside the garage for the last two months, and it takes a full day heating with my 18,000 btu gas heater to get it to comfortable enough to work on the truck and that is only about 40-45 degrees. The concrete does have its good points as it also stays cool in the summer.

Needless to say, I haven’t worked on the truck in over two months. I’ll restart in June after the spring cleanup around the yard.

Hey it was 81 here today, I'd box some of this weather up and ship it to you if I were smarter..

Man up Phil!
I went out and got some brake drums and hubs off a chassis today at 14F. Beautiful sunny day though. Didn't take as long as I thought though. I was expecting to have to dig it out of the snow. Clearing the snow off my boat cover and a friend's was more work than that. Got a nice workout doing that.

Hey, you almost got it right, we just had three balmy days (ended Friday, back to the 20’s-30’s) with one just reaching 50, so spring in in the air. So much so, it inspired me to start the old gal and let her warm up. Took a bit to get her going after her long sleep, but she finally fired on her own. A few valves were clattering as expected but she did quiet down after about fifteen minutes. I let her run at a fast idle using my new throttle cable for about half an hour. Water temperature was at 180 and oil pressure at 30 psi. Boy did she sound good. I now know why some “Bolters” say they sound like sewing machines.

As much as I wanted to take a little run, our driveway and access road have sections covered in ice and the roads are still have an overabundance of residual salt so all I could do was back her up just enough so I wouldn’t asphyxiate myself in the garage. Shouldn’t be too much longer now!

03/18/21: With the balmy 40-50 degree weather we have been experiencing, I actually got a little “Truck Time. Last time I drove her in December, the brakes pulled pretty hard to the left. I had tried several times adjusting the brakes, both front and back, but it didn‘t seem to make much of a difference. Suspecting a frozen wheel cylinder or a bad brake hose, I decided pulling the front brake drum on the passengers side would be prudent. Prior to pulling the drum I jacked both wheels off the ground, enlisted my wife’s help and had her feather the brakes, so I could feel the resistance on each drum thinking if the hose was blocked or the wheel cylinder was frozen, I would be able to feel it the wheel. I had her step on the brake slightly and hold her position a few times so I could see if each front wheel had equal resistance. Well, they were real close so I surmised that may not be the problem.

I decided to pull the drum. The first thing I noticed was I could rock the tire and wheel a bit more that I remember when I last adjusted it. Unfortunately, the drum didn’t come off that easily. The drum felt initially like the shoes were getting hung up on the drum so I backed off the star adjuster. Still no go. The inner race was getting hung up on the spindle. After rocking and prying the drum did finally come off. When it did come off, it popped the grease seal and dust cover out of the drum along with leaving the inner race on the spindle.

In October in 2019, when I rebuilt the front axle, I installed new tapered bearings and new shoes. The spindle was worn by a couple of thousands on the bottom and the consensus on this forum that it be fine once the bearings were tightened and adjusted properly. With a little persuasion the inner race came off and the inner race, dust cover and seal appeared to be fine. I took the inner race and slid it on the spindle and it would get stuck on the area that was slightly worn. There was a slight ridge preventing it from sliding on easily that was not there when I initially installed them. I took a stone and removed the ridge, polished it with 600 grit sandpaper.

I suspect that when I initially installed the wheel bearings, they did not seat completely. I did use a torque wrench and torqued them to 12 or so ft. lbs. to seat them, then backed them off 1/2 a flat. Not sure what caused the ridge.

I reassembled the drum and readjusted both front brakes but I don’t have that warm fuzzy feeling that the brake issue is resolved. Unfortunately we’re headed into mud season and my access road is icy and muddy, so test drives are out of the question.

03/20/21: Today I installed my NOS door striker plates. The existing plates were the earlier style (47-51) and did not latch correctly. Fortunately the correct spacer plates were there, so they installed easily. Once installed and adjusted the passenger door closed solidly. Not so for the drivers side. The latch on the drivers side is quite worn and may need to be replaced. I did get it to latch, but can’t get it tight so the door rattles. As soon as I move the latch in to takeout the slop, it won’t latch. I need to remove it to see if it can be rebuilt but both door internals along with the vent windows and hinges need to be rebuilt.

Since I finally got the engine, drivetrain and chassis squared away, I’m in no rush to tear anything apart. I would really like to enjoy the truck for at least this year before I do anything that will put the truck out of service for any length of time. In the meantime, I start to collect the parts needed for the repairs.

I had problems with my worn out door latches and tried these clips. They may work for you as well.

https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthread...1949-door-latch-problem.html#Post1360889

Keep on truckin'... and remember, that "Real Trucks Rattle".

I did see your post awhile back on those clips and it looks like a good fix for worn latches. It will surely work on the passengers side but the drivers has more problems. In addition to the worn latch, the housing that the latch rotates in is loose, so its allowing the latch to move up and down. It appears that the housing is crimped or peened inside the the latch assembly. I’ll need to remove the latch to diagnose and I believe I need to remove the wing window and the window and track to remove.

I’m not ready to do all that so I might just try the clips anyway! Who knows, it might just tighten up the door!

Thanks for the tip!

When you have the latch disassembled use your tig or mig and build up the base on the latch “claw”, then grind it to profile. I did on mine and it worked very well.

Mind you, I didn’t have to disassemble mine as far as you might be taking it, but it’s worth a shot.