Finally got the brake drum off after much hammering to get it free from hub. It was rusted pretty tight. Look like it had a brake job just before it was parked. Too bad the rust jacking has popped some rivet heads off the linings. Hope the right side looks as good.

 

Got passenger side drum off. I reckon that makes the day for today. Time to roast hot dogs and marshmallows over a camp fire in the back yard with the grand children.

 

Looks to be in a lot better shape than mine were.

 

It looked better than I expected. Still the adjusters are froze up. But I think I can get them freed up with a bit of trying.

 

Wish I knew you were gonna tackle that today, I would have stopped by to lend a hand.

 

You could have. It went fairly well. But took a lot of patience lol.

 

If you've got the time there is an ATHS Truck show at the Fairgrounds next Fri & Sat (14th & 15th), I should be there with Edith.

 

Cool. I hadn't heard about it. I heard about a car show in Cookeville the same weekend. I will try to be there after I get off work. Its in Crossville isn't it?

 

Yep, it's a combination antique tractor and antique/working class truck show. Lots of BIG trucks.

 

OK. That will be cool. Looking forward to it!

 

Been working on Gracie (I finally named her) today. It was a Good day. Turns out that engine isn't rusted tight like I thought. After I got it to turn a little, I could hear a strange growling/ grinding sound and then would stop solid. So I thought "crap! Timing gears must be fried. Guess that is why they parked it". So naturally I kept tinkering with it and eventually decided the noise was in the starter area. I pulled starter. It turned by hand. Dang that's not the problem. Then I notice the flywheel inspection plate was really rusty on bottom so naturally I pushed on it..lol... and poked a hole in it and crap started falling out like crazy. I still don't know how a mouse was able to get in there and carry all that stuff up inside but after I cleaned it all out, the engine rolls freely now. Happy happy joy joy!

 

Great News!!

 

It being a Dallas-area truck for all of its life, I think that Albatross' pressure plate was simply packed full of raw cotton from driving the fields. Albatross is our 1955 F500 that we recently determined had a cracked head casting. We're slowly replacing the original 239 Y block with a 1959 era 292 from a Fairlane and some ~1957 "113" casting heads. I'm setting it up to run slightly under a 9/1 compression ratio. The block will deliberately be bored .030 over to yield about 301 CID. The rotating assembly will be balanced simply to provide for easy starts, smooth idle, to minimize wear and help ever-so-slightly with fuel milage. The clutch was still good but getting old and worn. It was jam-packed with cotton. That ("mouse nests") seems to be a recurrent theme, but, I saw no fur, droppings, or other recognizable evidence of actual mice. Thus, I guess that it simply got pulled in by the flywheel's teeth or something. It was rather densely packed into the pressure plate voids. Years ago, an elderly neighbor told me that there was virtually nothing but cotton (not even overgrowth of trees) from South of Waco through well into Oklahoma. It's still grown around here in a lot of places. Good luck with your new big-boy toy.

 

I would like to know how it turns out when finished Horvath. sounds like you have a good plan.

 

A little progress today. I got engine to crank over with starter. It turned too slow to fire tho. I still can't seem to determine if it is still 6V or if it is changed to 12V. There is no tag on generator so I am working with six volt first . The turn signal flasher says 6V, the headlights are 12v. I have not found any resistors to indicate a change over. But none of the gauges work so PO may have stuck a 11V battery and toasted them. Well, I was happy to get it to crank over