The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts New member and owner of a 51 COE flatbed dump

My name is Drew Goldsmith and I recently purchased a 51 COE that I drove home(over a 11,400 pass no less). The truck has one 2 square inch rust hole and no dents. It has a 235 blue flam and all the gauges work and report good news. It has been converted to 12volt and has 4 speed with a second 2 speed behind a short drive shaft.
I am a landscape and irrigation contractor in Colorado and my plan is to make the truck safe and sound and paint the bed. The top of cab and hood have surface rust but the sides just need buffing. MY intent is to keep the old school look.
I have started going through the brakes and the fronts have been inspected and adjusted. I did find a leaky wheel cylinder in the rear. The wheel cylinders do have the rubber boot right next to the adjuster "Dogs". My plan is to pull it and bring it to the owner of the local napa who is a friend of mine. Will he be able to help me? If not what next?
The brakes work good with one pump. My plan is bleed the brakes and add oil to hydra boost( mineral oil?). Where does oil go in the hydra boost? How do you know its working properly?
What is a good bleed procedure?

My vin tags calls the trucks GVW as 15000 lbs is this a 1.5 ton?

I know this is a lot of info but I am just super excited to have found this resource(stovebolt). Almost as excited as working this truck next summer. thanks Drew

Welcome Drew,
Sounds like you have a great truk to start with and a good plan. you can do a search (top of the page) or go thru the tech tips. I imagine you will get lots of answers also. Really great bunch of guys here.
cannonball

Welcome Drew. At the top of the page you will find the search feature. There has been a lot covered in the past on bleeding the brakes on the big bolts. Cleon

Welcome Drew. My biggest concern for you is what will customers think in an upscale place like Breckinridge if you show up in a 57 y/o truck?
Maybe they'll take pity on you and hire you because of it. Who knows? Those libs love to care for you

Sounds like a nice old girl and of course we all want to see pictures of her so hurry up and post some.
Good Luck.

ps..you drove it home over Hoosier Pass? Oh, incidently the engines weren't called Blue Flame until 55' and that was in cars.

Well I have made some progress with the COE. It turns out I had a bad rear axle seal not a wheel cylinder. No numbers on the seal but local napa came up with the part.
I adjusted all the brakes and now plan on bleeding new fluid into the system. Does the motor need to be running to bleed hydravac properly?
In 51 was this truck originally 12volt?
I am going to post some pictures I hope. Thanks for the help
Drew Goldsmith

Oh yeah I forgot on my last post. My emergency brake "tube" is rusty and very stiff. What I mean about tube is the emergency brake rod attaches to a tube that is perpendicular to the frame rail. This then attaches to another rod that is about 10 feet long and attaches to the e brake drum. This tube effectively gets the e brake rod over the drive shaft so the rods can push and pull in a straight line.
My tube is quite rusty but is moving. It is so stiff that it makes the e brake ineffective. Can I remove this tube to clean a and grease? Thanks drew

no it would have been 6 volt originally. not sure if you have the same e brake set up as my 38. with it the problem was not the "tube" but where the pins went thru the clevis (end) yokes all the pins were froze both to the end yokes, the Tube and to the ends of the ebrake cables. The ebrake cables were also frozen inside the cover. Once I freed the pins up and remmoved them from the Tube the tube rotated freely. i'm sure this is as clear as mud. used heat, penetrating oil and big hammer to free the pins. the tube assembly is bolted or rivited to the crossmember so it can be removed but it might not be needed to get grease in there.

Yes you will need the engine running since the system uses vacuum to operate. Can you post some photos of your truck? I'm always especially interested in the bodies and hoists on old trucks since that is my specialty. I know everyone would love to see it.

I reconnected the wiring to the heater fan yesterday and it really blew. I am sure 12 volts to a 6 volt fan has that effect. It also burned up a 10amp fuse in about 5 seconds. I am sure this is not good but can I buy a 12 volt motor easily and or will the 6volt motor hold up to 12 volts? Any way to reduce voltage cheapl? Pictures are comming I just don't have a photo site setup yet. Thanks Drew

I run mine on 12 volts w/o harm so far but your right, it blows like a hurricane. Too fast even at the low setting. I'm using a rheostat switch from NAPA. You can put shunt in the line, at least that works for gauges so why not for a motor? The 12V-DC power will really spin the starter too but seemingly has no ill effect if you don't grind on it long and overheat it.

I suggest the Picturetrail site for photos but lots of good free one available.

Thanks 53 moneypit,
I simply ran a jumper wire to the heater is it was getting 12.5 volts. Of course not 14v when they motor is running. I guess I will run it for now and rebuild the motor with 12 volt if it burns up.
To answer your earlier question about hoosier pass, yes you were correct. The truck came from berthoud co via boulder. I had it tucked to fairplay and drive it over hoosier pass. It was only the second time driving the truck so I took it easy over the pass . In retrospect it could of been done in third high it you kept it in the onions.
Later in the garage I did a compression test on the motor and it had a range of 115- 125 psi WOT. This was warm at 9700feet. Not bad right what do you think?
Drew

Drew: if it's running that well then I wouldn't lay a wrench on it. Sounds like a good one to me. Maybe a valve grind if anything.

Hurry up and get us some pictures. We are a very visual bunch of gearheads.