WWII Dodge Trucks - Learn me?

Some oil down the cylinders a bit before trying to spin it by hand will help it spin and avoid scratching the bores that are now totally dry.  

Here's some Dodge M series fun you may enjoy:  Will It Run? 1952 Dodge M37 Backyard Alaskan

I thought I had responded to this but guess not. There's a yard near Tallahassee that has a dozen or so of these. I think they only sell them whole but I can check for you.

Sonic said:

Some oil down the cylinders a bit before trying to spin it by hand will help it spin and avoid scratching the bores that are now totally dry.  

I usually use MMO (Marvel Mystery Oil) for this. Should I look to a different oil?

Stampie said:

I thought I had responded to this but guess not. There's a yard near Tallahassee that has a dozen or so of these. I think they only sell them whole but I can check for you.

It would be interesting to know what they charge for a whole one!

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

MMO is totally fine, just didn't want you to try to turn it dry.  

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

I've been scared to ask as one might end up in my driveway.

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

I really like the way the truck looks too. I'd love to revive it at least enough to putter around. Ensuring that the engine can run is the first step. 

A few notes, mostly for myself, for later. 

• 6V electrical system
• tires should use tubes - I wonder if I can replace the tubes only? 
• Vintage power wagons dot com seems to be a good place to source parts
• 4 speed non-synchro trans and 1 speed transfer case. 5.something:1 axle ratio. Speedy. 
• There's a hole in the bumper (and radiator) specifically so you can stick a tool in to turn the crank from the front. Wonder if I can find that tool...

With tires that haven't gone flat I have definitely seen tubes be all thats needed for tires that old.  With these I would be worried that the tires are not gonna have enough flex to return to shape, and you'll destroy the tubes when you inflate them.

If they dont return to shape, maybe a heat gun?  Might be easier to just get new rubber, considering the limited time you have there.

Watch a couple VGG episodes before you go!

ddavidv said:

Here's some Dodge M series fun you may enjoy:  Will It Run? 1952 Dodge M37 Backyard Alaskan

Watched last night! Fun, but I hope the trans in ours isn't like that...

Didn't even think of lead substitute for the gas, but not a bad idea.

Updates!

First I did some looking around.

This is apparently what 50 year old spark plugs look like in Montana. Champion j-8. They require the big socket - note to self.

The fuel pump is... Not connected. Hmm.

Carb is... Dirty.

Other side:

Starter has a manual contactor instead of a solenoid? Cool.

I think we're answering the fuel pump question here.

The cap was disconnected and the wires are questionable. Not sure what all the twine is there for. But the cap sitting disconnected could be bad.

Generator looks... Ok?

Then I took the hood off.

I did a bunch of cleaning around the plugs (with poking tools and a mattress inflator pump to blow the dust out), and took them out. Didn't have the big spark plug socket but none were too hard to remove with an adjustable wrench. Good news.

1-6 left to right.

Put some MMO down each hole. Looked in and saw the MMO wasn't immediately draining out in every case - good (or could be really bad) sign.

After MMO went in, I twisted the plugs back in by hand and waited a day.

When I came back, they all came back out and I looked down each hole again. Every single one had drained out and I could see tops of pistons. I theorized this was a great sign that the MMO drained out slowly. Draining fast would indicate piston or ring issues that would lead to compression problems and not draining at all would mean the piston was rusted in the hole.

Then, with a tool found in the cab to engage the front crank pulley and a pipe wrench to turn it, we wiggled the engine back and forth. It was moving. 

I had my son watch down a spark plug hole and he could see the piston moving up and down as I turned.

Eventually, we turned the motor over a few times (probably 2-3 turns total, and nothing seems horribly jammed). 

Woohoo!

With that success, I turned the plugs back in by hand, re fitted the hood, and left for at least another year.

More to come!

Oh, we also found this sweet vintage ratchet:

Sweet! That's good progress. I'd have been tempted to take the carb and distributor home to clean them up ready for next time. Neat ratchet too.

Burn outs next year?  It's great working on old stuff but I found that I had to change how I thought because things were done different back then.

Racingsnake said:

Sweet! That's good progress. I'd have been tempted to take the carb and distributor home to clean them up ready for next time. Neat ratchet too.

That would have been a good idea oops.

Stampie said:

Burn outs next year?  It's great working on old stuff but I found that I had to change how I thought because things were done different back then.

I dunno about burnouts, but I am now at least willing to throw some new parts at it.

I also have this, is there anyway to look up where this truck may have been used in the military?