Building a clone of grandpa's service truck

? Where else would I go ?? .

 

Well...

Where ever it is, make sure you aren't on a motorcycle , early in the morning, okay?

 

Sleep on it a day or two !

A good remedy is to sleep on it a day or two and then decide what your gonna do? I would give the machinist a call to coorporate with him ? What year engine is it you have ? If it gives any engine improvement modifying these oil lines then go for it , after my opinion its not worth the time and extra costs as the 235 fullpounder engine block oil line passages are well anough build, most important is that there is `nt any sludge in them lines . A regulair external oil filter is good anough for these long lasting engines. It would be your choice to make ?

Martinius.

 

Yeabbutt ;

That's my favorite time of day , dig ? .

Pre - Dawn is nice , not too hot nor cold , little traffic (apart from crazed Gypsy Cab Drivers) .

Two or four wheels , I like Road Time then best of all .

My Sweet's Birthday is Sunday , I was planning to slip out for an early morning Mountain Ride with a buddy who's 40th B-Day is Sunday also but she announced last night that the previously planned all Girls outing was cancelled so I get to spend her special day with her instead of dodging Taxis on two wheels .

 

Hey Nate,

Tell the missus "Happy Birthday" from me!

Damon

 

Happy birthday to the wife and have a nice day together !

I wanna wish you a guys a nice day. Give my best wishes to the misses, happy birthday to you

Martinius.

 

Damon,

Can you elaborate on what was the exact difference between the Speedway and Classic Parts disc brake kits?

 

The only difference between the Speedway kit and our host's kit was: the Speedway kit included an extra set of bearing races that needed to be changed out. Our host already performed this swap right out of the box... but the host's kit was considerably more money. The main concern you should have is regarding the need for steering stops on the back of your front axle. If you're swapping to a power steering set-up, you should be ok and not need the stops, as the steering box itself limits the spindles' travel. If you're not going to upgrade to power steering, you will need to leave the steering stops in place on the back of the axle. However... you will also need to modify the steering stops and/or the caliper brackets to allow clearance. NEITHER kit is a direct bolt-on installation.

Damon

 

Thanks......that was the info I was looking for.

Great build BTW....keep up the good work!!

 

By The Way :

Didja ever get those mangled brass oil gallery plugs out ? .

I just realized I didn't answer your question and it's dead easy : get a small reverse drill bit and have at it ~ the drill bit goes part way into the soft brass fitting / plug and it backs right out and makes you smile.....

I apologize for my weird answers , I really do try to be helpful but often veer off into space whilst writing .

 

Nate,

I haven't worked on the engine/truck in quite a while (for various reasons... none of them a really "good" reason). The plan, since the head stripped when the plug had barely moved, is to just use a thin grinding or cutting wheel and grind off a little of the plug so it's flush with the back of the block again. That way the bell housing will once again mount properly against the block. I figure I over-reacted to the problem, and will take the easy route with the "fix." It seems to me the machinist used some sort of thread-locking compound on the plugs when they were installed, and that's why they put up so much of a fight when I went to remove them. No biggie.

I appreciate your help and advice, I just had to walk away from the truck for a while again. I'll get back to it here one of these days.

Damon

 

That looks great, Damon! Just out of curiosity, did they supply all of the bolts to install the control arms/tie rod?

 

Zig,

Everything you see there was included in the kit. Each vendor (both Speedway and our host) included different length bolts for the control arm attachment. I've yet to modify my control arms (I'm converting to power steering) so I haven't installed them yet. I also bought a new tie rod, so after I get the engine taken care of, I'll get back to the chassis and post a detailed run-down of how the rest of the front end goes together, including the power steering components.

Damon

 

Cool beans~ I can't wait to get going on mine!

 

I really need to get back to work on mine, too! One of these days, when the floor is fixed from the water pipe leak, the garage guys come to put up the add-on, the next parts truck for the fire truck project is home, the....

Damon

 

Time Off

Damon ;

Some times , walking away is the right thing to do .

We'll be here , not to worry .

I had a grey water pipe break inside the wall of my 1923 Bungalow , this necessitated calling in the big guns as I've been dragging my feet about replacing those crispy original cast iron and hand formed lead pipes for decades , now I'm good to go but have no $ left for the Holidays .

C'est La Vie , Non ? . at least no more sewer gas fumes in my kitchen.... .

 

You're exactly right, Nate. I want to give the Sinclair Chevy project the attention to detail that it deserves. I was getting stressed and didn't want to start cutting corners in the name of making "progress" on the truck.

Now that the 'new' parts truck (for the fire truck project) is home, I'm going to focus on getting back to work on the Chevy. Thought you guys might enjoy a couple of photos of it.

The first shot was taken after I'd moved the truck to a more suitable location for getting it hooked up to my buddy's big Kenworth tow truck. I got the engine running (with the help of the current owner's son), but the brakes are shot so I couldn't drive it home.



The second shot is after we got 'er hooked up and ready to haul home... about a 20 mile trip. We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant and had a few folks ask about it. This aerial truck is nearly 50' long, but it looks like a toy next to my buddy's rig.



Hoping to get the brakes on this one working so I can at least drive it around and have a little fun. The ladder supposedly works too, so I'll be sure to test that out soon as well.

Damon

 

As long as you don't run out of things to do...

 

" Parts Truck "

Whew ! unless it's rusty that looks to be in VGC to me .

I don't suppose you'd have any bits or bobs off old vehicles I might purachse ? .

I like odd ball things I can use or just look at in the cab , under the hood etc. .

 

Nate,

It's a great 50' rig. Seeing it up close is another story. The upholstery (if you can call it that in a fire truck) is shot, the bottoms of most of the equipment compartments are rusted through, and the driver's side front fender is held on by the two bolts that go forwards-backwards into the running boards... the lip on the fender and the sheet metal on the cab are gone. Other than that, she's a beaut, Clark!

What kinds of old stuff are you looking for, Nate? I have a garage full of what most folks would call junk. Ok, some of it's junk to me too, I just have a hard time getting rid of anything. Let me know what you're looking for, chances are I'll have something laying around.

I was able to get the hydraulics on this truck engaged tonight, but something is causing the engine to go in and out of high idle by itself. This is normally controlled with a switch at the control pedestal for the ladder controls. I WD-40'd everything I could find... switches, solenoids, etc. relating to the hydraulics and the throttle controls, but still no relief yet. It's gonna take another set of hands (and legs) to work the PTO controls in the cab while I check out all of the bits under the doghouse to see which cable/rod/solenoid/etc. is running the engine up and down.

Damon

Damon