I finally had a major breakthrough with my '49 4408 today. Even though it is missing most of the electrics and the front fenders, I drove it down off the hill about 2 miles to the turnaround and back to the house with not troubles. I guess the trick about putting gas in the tank worked! :+ It did have a small miss but I located an exhaust valve in #2 that was just a bit tight so I readjusted it. I also re-torqued the head bolts while it was hot. The center 3 were much looser than the rest but they are all sitting at 80 ft/lbs now. I haven't retested it since I decided to strip and repaint the valve cover again before I put on the new gasket. I just did it a couple of weeks ago but it got scratched while adjusting the valves. It looks like I finally have a decent running engine. It's quiet and pretty smooth. Need to be fine tuned now. Next step is the steering. On the test drive I found about 1/4 turn of play and it looks like it is toed out about 1/2". There is play in both front wheels so I guess I will put a set of king pins in and front wheel bearings. The turning is so stiff I almost couldn't get it turned around in the yard. Progress is being made!
HEY ! never , _EVER_ torque any bolt when it is worm or hot ! that's the easiest way to snap one off , spoiling the heck out of your day . Glad to hear it ran well and you finally got to drive it . Expect to need to re-check and adjust the valves in a couple thousand miles . You can use two yardsticks and a chalk line on the center of the tire tread to set toe in to zero to 1/16" . If you take the axle off to fiddle with the spindle bushings , watch out for the two wedge shaped caster shims , they jamb in the rear edge of the axle , between the axle and the spring to tilt iot and give some caster for easier steering return . if they're gone missing , get two identical ones from any old beam axle truck or car and install . Keep up the good work . -Nate
Bossman - Congratulations... I know that's a great feeling!! If you're not sure of the condition of the inside of that gas tank, be aware that all kinds of rust, scale and other crud could be waiting to run down those fuel lines and give you those "out of gas" symptoms again. When that happened to me, I installed a glass bowl filter right at the bottom of the pipe coming from the bottom of the tank. That took care of the line plugging big chunks. Keep us posted on your progress... and thanks again for the suggestions you given me. Mike M '27 Chevy '41 John Deere B '49 GMC FC-150
