The Stovebolt Site Forums Welcome! Welcome Centre Do It Yourself (DITY) Gallery 1947 GMC EC152 - "Love at Last"

You are correct about the turn signals. Your truck was not equipped with them when new. It also probably had only one brake / tail light.

I drive all over the place using hand signals.

Surprisingly, turn signals weren't required on cars sold in the USA until 1968.

Thanks Bill. It does - it's built into the new fuse box. I'll have to review the wiring diagrams. Thanks for the inspiration.

Has only ever worked on one of these old tube radios. My pickup has one. It's nifty. I doubt I'd wiring it in, but at the same time... wouldn't that be cool. Keep it tuned to some oldies station, click it on and wait for the tubes to warm - as the tubes warm the signal becomes clearer. I'm sure I can get a 12v to 6v converter, but it's also missing at least one tube (mud wasp nest in it's place - LOL), dials are frozen, it's missing the cover, and I'm sure there is a speaker in there (that's shot).

This truck is so cool!

Rick - On the radio questions, check out The Radio Bench sub-forum under the Electrical Bay. Some help is available there if you want to dive into your old "radidio".

If you are planning to use the original 2 terminal horn you will need to change the wiring at the horn. One of the wires (I don't think it will make a difference which one - maybe some other Bolter will have more expertise) will need to be connected to ground, the other to the horn relay.

Before you start wiring changes, use your 12v battery and some spare wire to test how your original 6 volt horn reacts to 12 volts. You may decide that you want to change horns.

Radido? Radiditto? Pequeña Raditta? LOL. Gearhead, you are a riot!

Yeah, I tinkered with it the other day. Perhaps I'll just clean it and put it back in. If lucky I'll find a cover and maybe one day I'll get it working again. Bigger fish to fry.

You are absolutely right. Good suggestion.

I did tinker with this yesterday. The old Chevy steering wheel is really stuck on there. I created a "puller" but it didn't work. There appear to be two threaded holes in the steering wheel - that I imagine are for pulling, but the threads are so rusty that I couldn't find a bolt to thread into it. I think before I force this thing off I should have a backup plan (like a replacement steering wheel).

When I got the truck, all the wires were cut. There was a push button under the dash that I imagined could be used for a horn button. Since the starter still uses the floor peddle, this is what makes sense. So likely I'll wire the horn to this push button for the interim.

OK, so this weekend was fun. I've decided to pick up and move for retirement. My neighbors are upset. One of them came over - we had a couple beers and she convinced me to take her for a drive around the block. I have yet to drive the ol' girl more than back and forth in the driveway (I tend to be.... overly cautious). Anyway, my neighbor convinced me - so I took the ol' girl out for a drive around the block. She was fine. It was fun. The tranny makes a bit of noise - don't the all (eyes rolling in head). Anyway, I'm glad someone made me step out of my comfort zone. I did tell my neighbor that if the truck broke down she had to push. LOL.

First drive recording:

Warpig's "Love at Last" first ride

You can see I have the AC on and the air is on full (i.e., the vent and windshield are fully open - LOL).

Not a great recording, but fun to take her for a spin. She feels great. The ignition time is maybe off a little. Or I might have a slight carb issue. I'll play around with it later.

Outstanding Rick! Thanks for sharing and looking forward to more on your truck.

Great looking truck you have there Rick! Welcome to the club! I have a spare steering wheel if you want to chat more about it send me a PM. Here is a pic of my 1945 GMC. Great little trucks and you can't beat that dual AC feature!

I'm liking the sound of an old truck! Looked like a nice day for a test drive.

Rick, what a great video. Isn't it fun to have a crank-out front windshield? The truck sounds good to me, and what a pretty drive. Looks like you are a little at the "Find it; Fix it; DRIVE IT" stage.

Only one word.... "wow".

That is an amazing truck. I think I found pics of it online and downloaded them in my archive. Nice to meet you Phillip. I'll send a DM soon.

Rick! Congratulations on getting that old girl on the road. Your little creampuff purrs like a kitten.

Got the feeling watching that video well done

Thanks Paul. Yeah, I think the timing is off but I do enjoy the sound of her engine.

Thanks TPR! I see your signature says, "265 V8 with service tray" - what is the service tray?

The truck is a riot. I've been taking several neighbors for rides. After all the rides, we were talking in front of the house as it got late/dark. So I got a chance to take the old girl for a short drive at night (after everyone was gone). That was pretty cool. Nothing like seeing all the lights on, driving in the dark - those marker lights are super cool.

I need to start digging into the fuel gauge. I think she's got 3 gallons in her - but who knows. That would not be cool to run out while taking a test spin. I figure I might have the wires on the gauge backwards. I have a new sensor - it's generic though, and apparently you have to adjust of the float arm. That blows in a way - I mean, effectively the accuracy would be dependent on guessing the right length. Maybe I'll get luck and the old sensor will make this obvious.

Also, I noticed the speedometer isn't working - which is odd for a purely mechanical (and simplistic) system. I'll dig into this too. Should be easy to figure out.

My speedo wasn't working when I gotr it. It turned out there was no cable inside the sheath.

I installed a new cable and it worked for 5000 miles before the speedo head itself broke, Rebuilt it, no problems now.

Where is the fuel needle pointing? Always full is usually a ground issue. Always empty is usually an issue with the wiring between the sender and the gauge. This assumes the gauge is not damaged. They usually aren't.

Lookinto your sender. There's a ebay seller who sells the best senders for these Ttrucks under the name industrialstuffs.

OMG - I hadn't even considered that there might not be a cable. The instrument cluster is brand new, so I hope it's not the instrument cluster.

I'll look into the connection and sensor... soon.

A bit more of a drive... and some gear grinding...

Quick drive with the pup (still learning non-sychro)

Yeah, and the ol' girl still needs timing.. and maybe to be at a proper engine speed when shifting.

How is your grill in such great shape? I couldn't find a new/replacement grill. I assume you restored it?

That Grill is 4k worth of restoration and re-chroming completed back in 2004. The chrome restore guys are getting harder to find.

My grill may need to remain "rustic". Or maybe one day I'll see what the process entails. Do you have videos of the truck? I love to see things operate and hear their sound. In my opinion there aren't enough videos of these old beasts. When I search I mostly see models being offered for sale - rarely someone who seems to want to share something personal.

Contact S&H Chrome Plating in Tennessee for a quote. They do an excellent job and I found them to be reasonably priced (all things considered) when they straightened and re-chromed the severely crunched rear bumper of my '66 Toronado.

With bumpers, they have fixed prices regardless of how much work your bumper needs. Not sure how they price multi-piece grills.

615-865-0100

Thanks Otto.

I loved listening to you laugh Rick. First drives in an old truck are pretty laugh inducing. It’s like being a kid again, and graduating from our old bikes we delivered newspapers with, to a (hopefully) unbreakable mountain bike. Same laugh, same excitement.
I need to find an Art Deco truck.

Thanks. It is fun. I've driven it every days since getting her running.

Art Deco Truck? I found this on Facebook. It's been listed for 8 weeks - he might be more flexible. I'm considering it, but I'm also getting ready to move so I probably shouldn't. This truck looks sweet:
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/655029767447295

When I talked to the guy, he said it doesn't smoke and has been updated to 12v wiring. New carb, distributor, and brakes. It's very tempting.

OK, so recent adventures... I got my brake lights working, got my fuel sensor working, and I found the issue with my speedo. The speed is bad - which blows since it's new.

How do I know it's the speedo and not something else - like the cable, etc. Well... I'm glad you asked. In my head I've been surprised that I've already put on 3 miles on the truck - in other words, the odometer is working. Before I spend $300+ on a new one I'll open the current new one to see if I can spot the issue. Maybe it's a trivial issue. It's a small bummer - it's not like the truck is going to be breaking any land speed records anytime soon.

Chuck the cable into a drill and set the drill in reverse. Turn on the drill and see what happens?

Sometimes the cable may not be in the speedo head all the way or the drive gear in the tranny might be bad, missing, whatever.

But, if that were the case I'd expect the odometer not to be rolling digits. Am I wrong?

Rick - It sounds like your speedo suffered a needle shaft failure. The odometer portion still works but since that shaft is probably broken beyond that, the needle will do nothing but sit there.

Here's an old thread with details on how to Repair your speedo, should you decide to go that route. The detailed instructions are courtesy of fellow Bolter "Jon G" in response to Bolter "Clem Donahue's" request for help.

Let us know what you figure out/decide to do.

I took Otto's advice and connected the speedo to a drive. It works. The shaft is not broken. It would seem that it cannot induce the field or something. I'll look at the link in a bit.

.. To be candid... I'm ticked as all get out at Jim Carter's parts at the moment. I've made orders of parts that are supposed to be in stock.. days after the parts should have arrived I call to find out that the parts are out of stock. When I cancel the order they send other items in the order - at full shipping cost. I ordered a new speedo cable and grommet. They shipped me the $1.85 grommet at a $20.00 shipping rate. I got this huge box today with a grommet. A silly rubber item that can take any shipping method without damage - and they charged me $20 for shipping. That was the shipping for the order I cancelled.

This isn't the first time either. Something has changed with them. They seemed dependable - months ago. Suddenly they can't seem to figure out which way the wind shines. They continue to waste my time and my money. If this is the way they intend to go forward, I cannot do business with them. I cannot afford to spend $20 to ship a part I don't need (especially a $2 part that is so highly generic I could by at walmart).

It's a good thing they are in Missouri - otherwise they'd hear me screaming profanities.

FYI, my speedo is a remanufactured unit from Jim Carter's...

I hate to hear that about Jim Carter. I've ordered a few things from them a couple years ago. My speedo is also from them in October of last year.

I've never had any problems with them but I haven't done a whole lot of business with them either. I hope they can get their act together.

There are other companies, OPGI for one, that I won't do business with for exactly the reason you stated. Out of stock parts sold as if they are in stock and then stringing you along after you've paid for them.

That seems to be the trend with shipping these days. I've seen several instances where some small part could be put in a padded envelope and mailed for a couple bucks, but instead they put it in a shoe box with some crumpled newspaper and bubble wrap and charge more to ship it than what the part costs.
Things are definitely not the way they used to be!

So I think I see the issue with the speedometer - or at least a problem. Not moving the speedo shows roughly 12 MPH. I estimate I'm getting up to 30 MPH, with no movement. Something seems very wrong with this unit.

I have tested the speedo by connecting a drill to the input shaft - the needle moves as expected. I don't have much time to mess with it these days. I'm attempting to retire and move closer to my brother. Of course, that might be turning into a pipe-dream. I was hit by an impaired drive earlier this year - and believe it or not, he's apparently going to attempt to sue me. And if I'm frank, I don't have faith in the justice system. But that's a story for another venue I suppose.

Today, I hope to tinker around on the horn for the old girl. There was a button under the dash that I believed someone used for the horn previously. The current steering wheel configuration has issues. The old steering wheel is brittle - I'm afraid if I pull it, I'll break it. It's on there pretty tight. It appears there are two machine screw holes that would be used with a puller to remove the steering while, but the threads are rusted and fairly shot. So... the button under the dash it is!

Just to share some pics... here's the heater