1952 1 Ton Rebuild

[mechanixman]

A picture of the steering

[mechanixman]

I made a small control panel to run the engine during the break in period.
The first picture is of the terminals on the "wiring harness".
The black connector plugs into the alternator. The green wires hook up to the coil. While the small red wire connects to the other side. The larger terminal hooks up to the starter solenoid.
The next problem is what to do about accessories. I can't put them in front of the head/block because I have a short water pump. I can't mount them in their stock locations, because I have no room between the heads and the inner fenders.
It looks like the only open space I have is up.

A little bonus, the body shop started painting the cream on my doors.

[mechanixman]

Alan Grove to the rescue!
I bought their 200R alternator mount. I thought the price was pretty steep at $90. I was afraid after that after all that cash, I was still going to need to modify the mount in some way. Notch the manifold mount.. or bend a part of the alternator side of the mount..
Once I got my hands on it, I popped it on the motor. and it fits like a glove!
I am really impressed with their product. Now I need to decide whether I make a power steering pump bracket and use my power steering kit, or try once again to make the manual steering set up work again.

[rusty76]

You are getting there.

[mechanixman]

GUYS.
There is paint!!

[mechanixman]

It was a busy saturday!

[mechanixman]

Holy Smokes!!
It's been a while!
I'll try to remember everything that has happened since the last posting.
First off, HANK RUNS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AFMIxCz8wc
I was having some trouble when I was trying to start it. I bent a couple pushrods while I was first cranking it. It turns out the heads don't have pushrod guides. So I needed to buy guide plates or the rockers in the first picture. The rockers have those little arms on either side of the roller, which keeps the rocker on the valve stem. Once I got that set of rockers, I went ahead and broke in the cam.

[mechanixman]

I decided to use the power steering setup, so the next task at hand was to make the power steering pump bracket.

I took a piece of scrap plate and tack welded a stock GM steering pump bracket so I could take measurements off the pump without having to hold the pump in the air like before.
I really don't care for the "canned ham" pump reservoirs, so I bought an earlier generation reservoir to add to the chaos of making this all work together.
To double check the measurements from the mock up, I affixed a square to the bracket. The final measurements were 7" down from the two lower holes on the pump, and 2" over from the passenger side bolt.

I laid everything out on cardboard, then traced the metal stock I bought for the project. (4"x3/16"x24" bar stock for the arm, 1.5"x3/16"x18" for the band around the pump.) With the stock traced on the cardboard, I knew where I did and did not have metal on the bracket. I then freehanded some arcs that seemed appropriate.

[mechanixman]

I took my 24" piece of stock, and cut it in half.
I welded the two pieces together so that as I cut and shaped the arms, they would be identical to each other.

I traced out the provisions for the mount and roughly where the engine side bolt goes.

I welded both arms on, and we have an almost finished product!

At this point, I discovered the bracket is still decently flimsy. It would flex a LOT when there is a v-belt hooked up to that pump.

[mechanixman]

So I took everything apart, and painted it all.

[mechanixman]

Here, we can see the tension-er for the power steering pump.

[whitedog76]

Keep up the great work Nick. I’m jealous of your progress.

[mechanixman]

Thanks a lot Whitedog!

It's definitely coming along, I think I'll actually have a shot at getting hank to turn, stop, and go by the end of march!
The biggest difficulty will be hooking the pedals up.

Onto more progress!
I didn't want all the force of the power steering pump belt and weight of the assembly on just one bolt, so I fabbed up a little bracket to help support that original bolt.

I welded that 1/4" stock with my weldpack 140, a little bit of preheating with a propane torch does wonders when you need better weld penetration.

[mechanixman]

I finished the bracket and got a 58" belt for the power steering, it seems to work, but I think I'll get a 57" belt so I have more room to cinch down on the belt.

I'm really liking the hose routing in the second picture. I'm going to see if I can find a high pressure line with a 180° fitting so it fits next to the lower pressure line in the picture.

After all that, the next step will be to trim the firewall to fit the new steering shaft.

[mechanixman]

I started making this LED plate about a year ago. The idea was to replace the original gauge bulbs with this handy dandy plate. But between the effort it was going to take to convert the 11-14 car volts to a nice, clean, constant 3.2 volts and how much light they threw, I figured it was better to reconsider.

I bought this LED strip for roughly $20 because it is a warmer light (I think it match the original gauge design better) and is the densest affordable LED strip on amazon. it already runs on 12 volts, so we're good there, and because it will go around the outside, I can actually light the top of the gauge despite that tube being there.

I'll post more about this when I get done on it.

[mechanixman]

Welp,
I made some progress on the go pedal linkage.
The CAD drawing was just a 10 min sketch to show some people what I was thinking. Later on, I decided to have the "teeter totter" part curve the other direction.
The purpose behind that, was I was afraid that as the linkage approached WOT, the arm would run into the firewall.

I know the work holding isn't the best, but it was easy to set up and this part doesn't need to hold a ±.001 tolerance.

In the pictures of the linkage on the engine, I managed to balance it for the picture. The next step is to make the pivot bracket that will hold the "teeter totter" piece next to the firewall. After that, I just need to hook up the pedal, and we'll be good to go!

[mechanixman]

I guess I forgot to mention,
I bought a finned air cleaner on ebay for $59.99.
I was a little nervous that the air cleaner wasn't going to look very nice/be decent quality, but it surpassed all hopes and expectations! I'd definitely recommend it if anyone is thinking finned is the way for them.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/12-Oval-Ful...72.m2749.l2649

I finally managed to find the shift plate!.....in the living room. I spent probably a year looking for it, including tearing the garage apart twice. Now I've got it bolted on for safe keeping.
I promise the piston isn't staying, I thought it looked better than a piece of black pipe sticking up.

It's surprising how much bolting/taping the glove box and speaker grille on can make a difference. It's starting to look/feel like a truck again! haha

[mechanixman]

Hey Guys!
It's been a while, I'll do my best to bring everyone up to speed.
I graduated from Milwaukee School of Engineering This past November, and I've got a job with a pretty slick outfit.
What else? oh! Hank Runs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOuS2pHjXy4
That was the first video of him moving, stop, and turning on it's own in over 35 years.
That was pretty cool.

I came up with a neat way to use the original pedal with a solenoid starter. I used a softer spring in the starter pedal so when you press the pedal, it had the two levels of resistance that the original setup used.

I just bought new door hinges, vent windows, lock cylinders, altman latches, and door handles. I'll post more pictures as I get the time.

[mechanixman]

I almost forgot to also add:
I made a new drive rod for the brake pedal. I wanted something sturdy enough to not bend if I need to STOMP on the brakes.

I also made that little adapter to use the original linkage with a T-5 shift fork.

[mechanixman]

I restored the latch mechanism for the hood, and mounted it to see how it looks.
I'm not going to mount the dog house till the cab is done, but I have to say I'm pretty excited to see the fenders finally mounted.

My dad got me tickets for Hotrod Power Tour this June. So it's time to kick it into high gear.

[rusty76]

Glad to see updates as always. Nice work.

[mechanixman]

Thanks Rusty
I won't have an underbed gas tank till I actually finish the bed. So in the meantime I'm turning this keg into a tank. The plan here is to weld a flip up gas cap (like you'd see on boats or mopar muscle cars) to the side? of the keg. So it looks like the third picture. I drilled out the connector on the top so that I can mount the sending unit there.

I bought altman latches, and it's been a bit of an adventure getting them in, but the drivers side door works.

[mechanixman]

Here are the other pics of the latches installed. It took a LOT of work getting the door to fit right. The main reason being that I didn't test fit the door when I welded the cowl panels on.....5 years ago? It's been a while and I can say I definitely didn't know all the tricks. But it finally looks alright....despite the paint chips. Those will get taken care of in may anyway.

I was really bugged by the fact that the door handle relay mechanism didn't follow the groove made for it. I found a post where MartinSR said he was always bugged by it too, and would fix it when he got the chance. So I decided to take care of that tonight. For what they are, I'd say they look pretty good.

[mechanixman]

Some more pics of how the door handle mechanism will fit.

Also: I don't know if you folks have ever used Quick lo before, but it rocks.
It will make water marked, nasty chrome shine again. I watched the current owner of the company demo it with Jay Leno and thought I would buy a can to see how well it works. 3 cans later I'm still loving it.

[mechanixman]

I finished hooking up the latch. Because I wanted to run the connecting rod under the door handle instead of over it, I had to cut my own hole in the door and rework the connecting rod. I forgot to mention I got a d̶o̶g̶ shop helper. She's doing a pretty good job assisting.