The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts 55' 6400 out of the barn and all cleaned up!

I drove it home on Sunday afternoon. It was in low with questionable brakes and a lumpy right front tire for the 25 or so mile trip. Good thing I picked a good back road route. I work on it every chance I get (the fiancee grumbles at this) and have made good progress on it's way to being road and load worthy. Just wanted to post an update on the work. I washed it! I gave it a valve adjustment, but it's still a little clattery and is missing on one cylinder. Does anyone know how the brake lights are wired? My turn signals work but I have no brake lights. The fastest I've gone so far is 45 mph (I got the two speed working) and it was like being in a rodeo, but a good kind of rodeo. Here are some pics.
http://s311.photobucket.com/albums/kk474/seangardner38/?albumview=slideshow

The stop light switch is on the brake linkage. It is a lever that moves when the brake is depressed. There are 2 wires thing plug on to it. These switches are notorious for sticking. The terminals on the switch are about the size of a nail. You can unplug them and run a jumper wire between the 2 wires. If the brake lights come on, your switch is bad and they are still available. Most trucks your size had independent lights for the stop and flashers. If you have 4 lights in back, 2 may be stop and tail and 2 turn signals. If you have 4 light, check the bulbs. Smaller trucks had the stop light going through the flasher circuit and larger ones had a signal switch strapped to the steering column. This kind used separate bulbs for stop and turn. By the way, those trucks weren't made to go a whole lot faster than 45. 60 was real fast.

Cool looking truck..... I want your flatdeck! I just got a new stop light switch for a 48, $12. I got it from a local parts store. Should be no problem. However, Jim Carter has them too.

Thanks for the advise Crenwelge. I do have a switch like the two wired one you described. More parts to order. I can only speculate on my speed as the speedometer cable is not hooked up. I think it is a newer style with threaded couplers on both ends, as for the gage bezel it has a collor of some sort. I know I am going to have to look into new tires next. The ones on the truck have real rubber tubes. The truck runs pretty well it just has square tires.

Hey, here's another question for you guys. I have a mystery knob on my dash above the radio marked "T". It is stuck so I don't know if it turns or pulls or what it does, I'm still looking for the "A" knob.

It's probably the Throttle knob. See if you can get it sprayed with some penetrating oil of some kind. If the cable housing isn't sealed inside plastic sleeve,just soak the whole housing down. If it does have the plastic,try to get some started into thehousing behind the knob and jiggle the knob so the oil can make its way down into the cable housing. Eventually you'll get enough oil to get freed up. (Also disconnect the end that hooks to the carb linkage so you won't have the carb to fight against. Once you can move it,keep oiling and working it open and shut until it's relatively easy to slide. Then you can hook it back up. (the throttle uses a little friction to hold the throttle open a little for using the PTO on the transmission or just for warming it up,so if it works too easily it won't hold the throttle open.)
Or you can just remove it and buy a new one from one of the vendors who support this forum.
Speed

It looks great! Welcome.

The throttle is hooked to the throttle linkage at the carburetor. It goes through the hole in the rod that comes up from the belcrank on the side of the block. It has a stop in the end. The idea was that the cable would slip back and forth in the hole during normal driving. The idea wasn't very good. The stop usually broke and the cable was replaced with a cotter pin or nail in the hole. We had bob tail trucks that delivered gas out in the country in those days. When the throttle broke, we stuck a coin or a washer in the carb linkage to idle them up. The stop is a round tube that the wire goes through and has a set screw. Some electical boxes use something very similar. All European connections use them because they use no wire nuts. As for tires, I guess you do know that if you have tube type tires now, tubeless will not work on your rims. There is nothing wrong with tube type tires. My father ran tube type tires from the late 30's until I switched to tubeless in the late 70's. I think BF Goodrich came out with tubeless in about 48. It wasn't until 1957 that car rims were actually designed for tubeless.

cool truck and great building.

Nice truck