VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1946-1948 Did you do anything on your 46-48 Chevy doday?

Here ya go:





Good to hear from another Fleetliner :)

thanks a bunch daryl I got to work on the photo dodad to figure it out.

the base was painted a blue as the car was and the handle looks black and thre tube is a silver type color and balck jack handle. want to get it right as car is 90% right. Thank You

Today I installed my repainted battery tray and tried to figure out what kind of oil filter I have (see other topic) I also thought about flipping over those rear leaf spring shackle plates (I realized the way I have them the 90 degree bend on the end of it stops the suspension travel (that can't be right...) Oh well maybe tomorrow

let's see what did I do to mine,Iv'e been driving it alot more since the weathers been nice.always get a thumbs up,It was funny the other day stopped at a light and a young boy pulled up beside me and said cool car that thing is SICK.I assume that was a good thing.

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha...Nah, I think he meant sick. lol
I got out on the open road, today...Called my insurance co., but couldn't add the jolopy to my policy w/their online service...The form won't recognize VIN numbers of that era...Had to call it in...lol
Seemed to run kinda lousy, 'till I retarded it a bit...And the vacuum advance doesn't seem to rotate as far as I remember...Looked like it rotated about 1/4 of an inch is all.
I never did finish the registration ( resurrection they call it now ) Got a "one day" operating permit to drive it down to DMV so they can inspect my VIN numbers...I assured them they'd be the same numbers found on the TITLE they issued me 20 years ago, but....

Yesterday I went to collect a rear end from a 53 Chevy station ( One fifty Handyman?? ) Its got a 3.7 ratio. At the moment I am collecting information relative to installing it in my 48 Fleetmaster. When I know a little more I will post some questions to make sure I am on the right path.

Jianis

...To finish this story of my DMV "verification" of VIN numbers...The guy comes out, clip board in hand, says hi and as I "pop" the hood, he asks, "Is that where the VIN #'s are..?" I suppress my astonishment and sheepishly mention that "Sure, in California the engine serial numbers are your VIN #'s..." Now I'm trying not to insult his intelligence, he's the one with the clip-board and all...So, he peers in to the engine compartment and I feel it's my duty to point in the general direction of the numbers towards the back of the distributor . He looks at me and asks, "You got a flashlight...? I'm not sure how to react, I want to ask, "Do you work here..? Or are you a f***ing Volunteer...!!!
But instead I blurt-out, "No, but I have a picture of them...Would you like to see it...?" And to my amazement he says, "Yes, I'd like to see that..."

It was only a short time later, I was arrested and my car impounded...( just kidding )

It was only a couple of months earlier, I was standing at the DMV window and the "gal" says, "You'll have to bring your car in for verification, we need to see it." And I says, "See it...? Here, I'll show you a picture of it...!"
It wasn't good enough for her then, but it sure was good enough for him now...!

I forgot to tell his supervisor, that they otta invest in a flashlight...lol

Well after driving my car to the show in San Jose California. I got home and my car was sounding like a diesel engine lots of chatter ing coming from the valve cover. So I pulled the valve cover and found my Oil connector tube for some reason was pinched and not feeding the rockers with oil.

So after searching I found the replacement part a friend had

It appear to be the handy work of some one with "vise-grips"...
Have a talk with the previous owner and he'll tell you why...
He tried to improve it's oiling system...
Guess it finally clogged up is all...

Yeah you nailed it handy work hahaha..I have been going through this car from top to bottom fixing rigged things such as this oil connector.I should get better flow now I hope

Actually, I believe it was done TO improve the flow...Helps to squirt the oil out to the far reach's of the rocker arm shaft when the oil pressure is low up-top...It's an old "shade tree mechanic's" trick...

that's a new one to me.Yea we had our first Cruise In Last night there were prolly 75 cars and trucks there the oldest car there was in the 30's hot-rod of course.I'm itching to get some paint on mine might go back to original color,Oxford-Maroon would prolly look really nice with all the Fleetline Trim.

So I stuck my air hose in the oil line and blew it out. Do you think that I may have some other Oil issues related to why the previous owner pinched the line?

I'm just finishing up working on the valvegear on my 48. Still have to do a final valve adjustment. Anyway - if you start her up with the valve cover off, you should see oil dripping out from between the rockers, oil weeping out of holes on top of the rockers, and oil running out of the pipe on that oil feeder back into the head oil drain. That's the pipe on yours that was crimped. Mine's doing all this now. Some possible problems: Rocker arm shafts full of sludge, rocker arm shafts installed up side down - the lube holes for the rockers should be on the bottom. Plug missing out of ends of rocker shaft. Oil supply line plugged or some problem with oiling system causing insufficient flow up to head. My problem wasn't with oiling. I had a really bent pushrod, and, I had 3 rocker arms that were incorrect for my 216. You don't really need much pressure - what you need is sufficient volume to keep the rocker shafts full of oil

Hope this helps.

Regards:
Oldengineer

The rubbers of my 48 Fleetmaster rear shock absorber links were very bad so I had to replace them.The rubbers themselves are not expensive but shipping from the USA is 6 times their price so I was waiting until I should need more spares from the same vendor to save on shipping.
Looking at Ebay,as usually,I found a pair of after market links. Inclusive shipping they were cheaper as ordering the rubbers + shipping so I ordered them.
I removed the shock absorbers drained them completely refilled them, using automatic transmission fluid and finally reinstalled them with the new links.
In due time I will fit new rubbers to the original links and use them again saving the after market ones for spare.
I hope I will be able to drive the car this weekend as I am curious to see if the use of ATF makes any difference in the behavior of the shocks in comparison to their behavior with the original shock fluid.





Jianis

Yup. Sandblasted the frame.

Ok, so it was just the first blasting to determine any damage that needed repair and get 64 years of concrete hard mud off of parts.

Cleaned up real nice and only have one repair to make.

The diagonal frame member under the battery has had the bottom rust out. Should be able to manufacture replacement and weld it in yet today.

Other than that it is incredibly solid. Even after banging away with a hammer I got very little debris from inside the frame rails. (Yea!)

let's see,I checked and adjusted my front brakes and greased the front end and tightened the left front wheel bearing.getting ready for a 100 mile road trip,hope the tranny holds up,if not then ready to rebuild it.

Good luck on the "road trip"...! I can't remember...Is your "tranny" making noise or is it "popping" out of gear...?

I'm afraid to ask what a "doday" is...grin

JianisN1
How did the new shock links work??

I recently picked up some similar rear shocks off Ebay for $25...Oil & grease free...Then Charlie sent me the matching "links" to go with them...What a pleasant surprise...

I'm confused...! For why use "tranny" fluid instead of "jack" oil...? Softer ride...?

They don't leak do they...?

kevin47 the tranny is not poppin out of gear or whininng,just every now and then it sounds like it wants to bind up .I keep saying that I'm gonna drain it just to see what comes out,Sometimes I do hear a chirping noise,which is prolly a bearing,guess I'll find out soon.

Update,update,well I finally drained the gear oil out of the tranny and in the sun it looked like black metal-flake paint but with smell.took a magnet out side of pan and man o man did it really have metal in it lots.

48HC.... That stuff really tastes good over Pancakes...LOL...ED

BTW..There are magnetic drain plugs available for oil pans and transmissions..(I cant remember were from though).
Maybe someone else on the site will know...Good Luck...ED

Ah yes, the odor of ransid oil...haven't experienced that smell in a while...It was common in old machine shops...
Fine "metal-flake"...I wouldn't worry about, as old as that oil is...Bits an pieces are unwelcome...Fill'er up, should sound much better...you hope...grin