Unloaded from transporter in the dark. Towed to doorless shop (Thanks Laura/Delta). Bore scoped the cylinders which had loose rust flakes on top of pistons. Engine has oil in it and rolled with original hand crank. We blew about a dozen flakes out of each hole and spun by hand. No compression in 1, the rest OK. Broke the gas cap trying to look in tank, tank is clean and dry. Truck has good bones, fiberglass over pressboard for the roof. No fuel delivery tank/air cleaner. Very little wiring, brakes work somewhat, clutch, tranny and E brake seem to work. Frame and under carriage look really good. Get my first daylight look in a few. Stephen
Soaked the cylinders and now have compression in all 4 cans. Starter works fine so we filled it with oil, only to watch it run out of 3 rusted out holes in the pan. Pulled drain plug and had to poke hole in internal crud to get it to flow. Body rocks on frame ie weak wood and a mild dose of lipstick is on it. BUT the frame is straight and solid, undercarriage hardware all there and brakes and ebrake work sort of. Rolls and steers good so may try to find a cap and rotor and see if it fires. Stephen
Before trying to start it, I suggest that you pull the oil pan off, clean out all the sludge, repair the oil pan rust holes (even if it is just with JB Weld for now), and do an inspection and cleaning of the bottom end.
BTW, the oil pan will come off with the engine in the truck.
For the cleaning operation, you definitely want to make sure the oil reservoirs that feed the main crank bearings and the reservoirs that feed the cam shaft bearings are clean. From underneath, you can see these reservoirs with a flashlight and a small inspection mirror that is angled to show the top of the bearings.
These engines have splash oil systems. The oil pump fills troughs under the crankshaft where tangs on the bottom of the rod caps rotate through the troughs and 'splash' the oil all over the bottom end. If the oil pump inlet screen is clogged up with sludge or the oil gathering reservoirs are clogged, the main bearings will become toast quickly.
This is also a good time to make sure that the tangs dip far enough into the troughs to create the splash that is needed. Here is a link to the part of my engine rebuild story when I checked the tang depth. Also, read a couple the posts below where I show a technique for forming and holding the curved oil pan gasket in place next to the front and rear main bearing caps. Checking tang depth in oil troughs.
Keep up the good work! Dean
Dean 'Rustoholic' Meltz old and ugly is beautiful!
As rustoholic said compression is a good start, sealing and cleaning the bottom end while a messy job is most important on those splash oiled engines it doesnt take much to block the oil and ruin a otherwise good engine. Tony
Got it on the lift. About 2 hours of soaking, brushing threads, adjusting brakes; we have 3.5 tires that stop and a nice pedal. Clutch feels good and all shifts work. Driver front brake needs more love/grease etc but we could drive it if we had ignition parts. Start pulling body apart as some 92 year old wood needs help. Need a ebrake return spring, 1 rim bolt, and 2 rear axle threaded cap covers. Of course 4 tires. Phish
I have a can with some rim bolts and keepers from previous one ton trucks that I've owned.
There were a few different styles of the keepers, so if you post a photo of one of yours, I'll see if I have one that matches. If I recall, most of mine are Jaxon keepers.
Cheers, Dean
Dean 'Rustoholic' Meltz old and ugly is beautiful!
Out in todays mail: Cap, Rotor, Points Condenser, Rim bolt and lug. This lug is the plain one with no markings. It matches my '28 truck. The bolt is a bit shorter than mine but should be long enough to use, at least temporarily. You will need a 7/16 fine thread nut.
Truck 1 us 0. Found the distributor cap laying in splash pan. Cleaned points etc, got fire but 2 different type of spark plugs. Dirt dobber in carb as well as 100's of other places. Cleaned carb and used gravity boat tank with bulb. Weak compression on 1, good on others. Pulled pan and scrapped a ton of sludge out. JB weld holes in pan. Can only get it to run on1 maybe 2 cylinders no matter what we do to timing. Also I see no pressure oiling up top so I guess you oil the wick pad thru the 4 holes in VC. Weird stuff. We did pull oil pump and run on drill and it had great pressure. Slop in rotor/gear so we made a bigger shim out of a .015 feeler guage (Rustholic) . Still not running right. Happy Thanksgiving. Phish
Yup, the oil pump does not do anything for the rockers. It's job is to fill the troughs, squirt oil into the oil reservoir above the middle main bearing, and feed the oil pressure gauge. The only purpose of the oil pressure gauge is to let you know that the oil pump is working.
According to the owner's manual, you need to squirt a little oil (10-30W) on the rocker felt pad every 50 miles. I do this squirt before every drive and after 50 miles if I'm taking a long drive.
Something that is not mentioned is that before every drive when you check the oil with the dip stick, do not wipe the dip stick off. Instead, let a drop or two of oil fall onto the front bushing of the water pump. There is a little oil reservoir inside the water pump casting that is inside the pulley and on top of the forward bushing.
Speaking of the water pump, use marine grease in the grease cup. I give this cup a tweak before every drive too.
As for timing, I found the shop manual to be confusing. The way I do it is:
1. Set the spark timing lever (the right lever as you sit in the driver's seat) to the full retarded position (pulled down all the way).
2. Hand crank the engine so that cylinder 1 is on top dead center on the compression stroke. With the oil pan off, you can see when the crankshaft is positioned straight up under cylinder 1. If the flywheel is put on correctly, you should be able to see a pointer that is pointing to the U|C mark on the flywheel. There is a peep hole on the passenger's side of the flywheel housing that can be viewed from the front of the truck by looking down the side of the radiator towards the firewall. The heater hose that goes from the exhaust stove pipe to the carb hides this peep hole. You have to disconnect the heater hose from the stove pipe, shove it aside, and then you can see the peep hole.
3. With the spark lever in the retarded position and the engine with cylinder 1 on TDC of the compression stroke, the points should just be starting to open and the rotor should be pointing to the distributor tower that holds the spark plug wire for cylinder one. The firing sequence is 1-2-4-3 with the rotor going clockwise. Loosen the 1/4-20 bolt that holds the distributor in place and turn the distributor until the points are starting to open. Then tighten the holding bolt on the distributor clamp.
Here's the starting sequence I use:
1. Make sure the transmission is in neutral. Don't try to start the engine with the clutch pushed in. This puts extra pressure on the center main bearing.
2. Turn on the gas to the carb.
3. Fully retard the spark lever (meaning the spark will happen at TDC during starting).
4. Pull the throttle lever down a little (maybe about 1/4 or 1/3 open). This is the lever on the left as you sit in the driver's seat.
5. Turn on the ignition.
6. Pull out the choke.
7. Step on the starter switch.
8. When the engine fires, leave the two levers alone for a brief moment, then slowly reduce the engine speed (pushing the throttle lever forward to the idle position) and slowly advance the spark lever (also pushing it up) to the fully advanced position. This will put the distributor at roughly 25 degrees advanced. For general driving, you leave both levers pushed towards the top.
Hope all this helps. Cheers, Dean
Dean 'Rustoholic' Meltz old and ugly is beautiful!
The flywheel is correct as we see the marks when on TDC. We have no exhaust stove or pipe so even as it sputters the intake has condensation quickly. What spark plug should I use as it has 2 different types in there now? Who makes a fitting for compression test? That is where I think the problem is. The distributor gear is worn and the whole thing has slop. We rigged a better shim but it needs a rebuilt dizzy, carb, and radiator leaks. What I see missing: Radiator shroud assembly, vacuum tank & lines, fuel bowl, air cleaner, exhaust stove and system, oil pan. Heading to Bama for deer hunt and some turkey. Boyd may mess with it. Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving
Well, you can take one thing off your 'missing' list: radiator shroud assembly.
It's true that the '28 cars and 1/2 ton truck (which were built on an AB chassis) were made longer by 4 inches for this year, the one ton trucks were not. The '28 LO and LP trucks have the same wheelbase as the '27 LM (124 inches) whereas the '28 AB cars and truck wheelbase increased to 107 inches versus the '27 AA wheelbase of 103 inches. All the extra inches in the AB vehicles went to the engine compartment.
Thus the need for the one year only radiator shroud for the AB vehicles.
The LO and LP trucks have the engine fan kissing the back of the radiator, same as the '27s.
You should have a four bladed fan. If not, this is an item to add to your list.
Cheers, Dean
Dean 'Rustoholic' Meltz old and ugly is beautiful!
Rustoholic gets a CIGAR for timing instructions. Boyd (my race crew) timed it as you instructed, started right up. I have been on the road all day (from hell) but he sent me a vid of him driving it at the house. The pitting i saw oozing at the oil filter can turned into a major blowout on first 500' drive. Oil pump works. 2 blade fan as 2 are missing, like broke. How will we know when to pull shims? It runs on all 4, no smoke but: NO Exhaust stove/pipe and flex tube Vac tank/ bowl air cleanee IE fuel delivery system Leaky oil pan and filter can Bad amp gauge Worn dizzy Spark plus dont match Total rewire CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG, runs (sort of) goes (sort of) shifts (sort of) and stops (sort of). Happy Thanksgiving and ALL the help. Stephen
Black (RUST) Friday. Did some last minute buy it now shopping for some missing parts. EBAY charges tax now! Scored 4 blade fan, fuel delivery system, exhaust stove, oil filter EXTRA MOTOR etc and a complete1 ton chassis with bad wheels. There are 3 or 4 other vehicles of that era to dig in so let me know if some parts are needed. We roll this weekend, 830 miles. Plan on making a hillbilly truck out of the remains and probably sell the correct 28 LP 1 ton after it is perfect. All in Phish
That is Boyd, one of my crew. I am much better looking. LOL Although he looks the truck....While I was in Bama visiting family, he got the lights, ignition and some other wiring done. We leave Monday for Ks. to a junk yard that has 4 of these things! No telling what is heading back. Then over to Chipper with a load of stuff and the truck. All thru the mid 20's and 30's my parents drove from Cameron Louisiana to San Deigo (and back) as he was Padres star lefty pitcher. No interstate and in vehicles of this era. Hard to imagine. Google Wallace "Preacher" Hebert . Thanks again for all the help. Great club. Stephen
Neighbor brought the mail over since we were gone and sure enough, a box from 35mike. I do appreciate folks passion to keep this truck original and we will. We will also pay Mike for the parts. We leave in early AM for 2 donor trucks in Albert Ks. to give us the parts we need including the cowl light lenses to make the LP truck complete. BUT, the the best frame will become a TV truck. Come and listen to a story about a wierdo named Steve. LOL
A '28 truck rescued from a fence row over 25 year ago by George McMurtry Bayard Nebraska participated in the VCCA 4 cylinder tours. It was outfitted as a transporter for Grannie. I probably have a few photos somewhere. Others may have some that they can post as well. The first wins a prize. Let the contest begin.
Today we installed 2 rear axle nut covers and cleaned a good oil pan. Also scored an oil pan pickup filter and oil filter bypass tube, all from donor Pile One (P1). Stephen
