46 Power Wagon Restoration pt. 2

[Bruce in BC]

Are you just running lap belts?

i am looking around for ideas on how to get my shoulder harness installed.

[Desoto61]

The headlight adjusters and finally the headlights could go in next. There was one problem though, the headlight holders are supposed to have keys to hold the bulb from rotating. The driver's side worked well, but the passenger side did not. Not sure if I got the wrong guts for one of them, or what but it wasn't properly set up to align the LED headlights in the correct orientation. I ended up grinding off the tabs but not sure what you would do with a regular glass bulb, though even on the other bucket the alignment tabs weren't quite right.

I had a minor problem on the passenger side, turns out I didn't ground the wiring for the headlight, but once figured out all was good. The LED headlights are a GE branded version. They are nice but definitely don't look original, they're a little too flashy for me, and project quite bit from the housing so you get a bit of a bug-eyed look, but they put out a much nicer light than a sealed beam light and aren't much more expensive than a good H3 conversion.

Nice to have the front end look correct though. She's ready to face the night now, just need to work on the tail lighting.

[Desoto61]

I scuffed the headlight buckets and internals and got everything ready for primer inside and out. Then a few coats of primer-surfacer to make sure there were no blemishes. There were a few small imperfections the surfacer took care of. They both got sanded down to 320 grit and then re-primed and the color and clear could go on. Went a little heavy with the clear, but luckily most of my runs went to the bottom where they are hidden by the base.

After giving enough time to cure I could attach the bases and install the inner bucket using some pop-rivets, then mount them to the fenders.

[Desoto61]

Headlights

Someone had send me a few salvaged headlight buckets thinking I might be able to salvage them into two good units. I started by putting the best ones in an electrolysis bucket and quickly discovered that it was swiss cheese in a bunch of different places. I had one that looked solid but had a very rough surface and would require lots of filler work, so time for plan B.

I ended up just ordering a pair of new reproduction headlight buckets and Power Wagon bases from DCM Classics. They called to confirm what I had been told, that the buckets are for 2WD trucks and while the right shape and size would need modifications to work with the Power Wagon bases. Since I had modifications ahead of me anyway I went for it.

The bases are cast aluminum and threaded for the mounting spots. They're not perfect as there is a slight gap in the middle between the bucket and base, but it exists if you put the base on the original buckets too so it's the casting not the buckets. I sanded the surface to get some of the casting roughness off of them.

The bases have two mounting studs held in like in the side markers with a pair of rivets through a mounting plate. I drilled out the rivets and removed the studs. I used one of the original bases to make a template for where holes that mount the bases to the bucket are and transferred that to the new ones, tricky part is making sure it's centered from front to back. Then I could mark and drill those holes.

This showed that the rear original mounting hole and the wire hole are too far back and either exposed or partially blocked by the new base. So I ended up welding the rear most hole closed and use the front slotted opening for the wires. To do that I needed to remove the inner bucket, which is held in place with some rivets. This also gave me a chance to clean and prime them as the bucket was e-coated while the inner bucket seems to at best be galvanized.

Next task is to paint the buckets then re-rivet the buckets in place before I can install the bases and mount them.

Also managed to powder coat the side marker lens rings and get new guts put in those lights as well. I wanted them to be LED but there is no replacement bulb, eventually I may try and build something instead.

[Desoto61]

Side task

The filter I used just sticks up into a space behind the AC compressor and in front of the exhaust. I had considered trying to snake it up to the top of the motor but there are issues with the intercooler plumbing, and fabricating the piping, plus this got me going faster, but I did want to protect it from the hot exhaust manifold behind it with a heat shield. This is easier because there is a screw sticking out the top of the filter to help hold the shield.

I had some stainless sheet from a home project so I cut a template with cardboard and then traced it onto the stainless and cut it out. Tig welding that thin stainless was really tricky, I'm not that good, but time, and a lot of grinding had it looking pretty clean. It's a tight fit but should help keep incoming air from being pulled from around the hot exhaust manifold and hopefully protect the filter.

[Desoto61]

One other task was to modify the rear bumper. There was a pair of eye-hooks built into the rear bumper that based on my measurements was just where the tow hitch would pass through. Took a lot of cutting with both the plasma and angle grinder to work it loose. From the looks of the opening they welded a large piece of C-channel to the rear plate of the bed. The eye hooks had additional re-enforcing plates on both the inside and outside. The interesting story would of been what they connected to it in order to bend the whole assembly out. Need to think about how to try and get it back to some semblance of straight, and if I have anything that can do it considering how thick all that steel is.

The other task is to try and get it mounted to my little trailer in order to haul it over to get media blasted. I picked it up from the bottom with the lift so I could get it high enough to sit on the trailer. The back is the heavier end so I put it on the trailer backwards. To keep it level and help hold it in place I drilled a pair of holes and bolted some 2x4s to the front edge that I will bolt down to the bed. Some straps and the weight of the thing should do the rest.

[Desoto61]

Still working on cleaning up the bed. Removal of some other brackets and loose pieces. I must have swept up 20 lbs of rust and dirt. The next big task is removing the fenders. There was a thick coating of rubberized undercoat, which is good as it seems to have protected the fenders, but bad because it was in the way of removing it. I found that the air-hammer with a broad scraper bit and the pressure turned down did a good job of chipping the stuff loose without excessive damage to the metal.

Took a while to figure out how the fenders were attached. Turns out there are holes in the inner perimeter of the fender that were brazed to a lip on the inside of the fender. I ended up cutting that lip out and removing the first fender as an assembly then using the air hammer to break the weld spots and separate the two pieces. The second side went much faster since I knew what I was looking for. Both fenders seem to be in good shape, they'll need a little work at each end to remove the old running board mountings and a piece of sheet metal installed at the back as a transition to the rear steps. They'll get blasted with the rest of the bed.

[Desoto61]

I took some measurements and drew up a template for a new bed floor. I'll need to get a new one cut eventually. I also need to draw up the plans for my false bulkhead and stake pockets and have it all cut.

Next though was the rear lip and back end of the bed. I removed the mounts for the tow arms but left the big D-rings as tie-off points/tow hooks. Also cut loose misc fasteners and removed the side lights. I haven't decided if I'll put new ones in their place or cut and mount them in the rear fascia.

There is a large lip at the rear of the bed. It sticks up rather high and would make loading and unloading stuff more difficult. It was basically a large piece of angle iron on the inside and diamond plate on the outside welded at the top. I was worried it would be too thick for my plasma cutter, and tried cutting wheels first but were just too slow and difficult, so I went back to the plasma, it won't cut clean at this thickness but will sever. It was a slow process but again way faster and easier than with the other methods. I did have to cut the center section with a wheel as the brackets were just too thick for my plasma. I'll weld the top of the two plates after I dress them up and that will still give me a lip but a much lower one.

Next task will probably be to try and pull the fenders off and then figure out how to get the whole thing to the media blaster to see how much of it survives and give me clean surfaces for welding in the new pieces.

[Desoto61]

Time for bed

Figured it was time to start trying to get the bed rebuilt. First task was to get it in the garage and up on the lift. It was mostly a lot of pushing and sweating since it was sitting in the grass and didn't want to roll on real easily. Some leftover metal pieces helped with the process.

Once in the garage I hung it from the upper rails from the lift arms using some short pieces of chain last used to hang the frame. This was so I could then cut out the floor, which was badly rusted including a few places that were rusted through. First that meant cleaning out all the leftover crud, rust, pine straw and misc junk. I'd never emptied the tool box in the corner, which contained mostly dirt, but a handful of lug wrenches I'll have to sort through eventually. Then I could get out the plasma cutter and make it earn it's keep.

The floor was 3/16" plate as far as I can figure. It was a slow process, and messy, but way faster than trying to use anything else. A few whacks with a sledge afterward and it came out the bottom where I could cut it into smaller pieces and haul it away. I also unbolted the tool box and cut that corner out as well.

[Desoto61]

Well I'm not sure there was anything wrong with my first replacement seal other than it was designed for use on a regular crankshaft, not one with the Cummins wear sleeve. Supposedly you can get a more conventional speedy-sleeve that would work with the regular seal, but either way I had to go with the version I did.

I honestly doubt I needed to replace the original one, but it seemed like cheap insurance since I had the engine sitting on the stand doing other work on it. So it was essentially an expensive learning experience, but hey, that was kind of the goal of this whole project!

It won't pass for your work, but all things considered I'm still pretty happy with it.

[Charles Talbert]

All ours were Cummins branded parts, I imagine built by one of the major seal Companies. Not sure whether the improved design that came about as time went on was a Cummins design or possibly that of a seal manufacturer.

[Desoto61]

I've read that there were many revisions of these seals over time. The first replacement I put in was I think a NAPA unit (probably made by FelPro as they seem the only aftermarket source). This one was straight from Cummins. Even comes with the install instructions in the box.

Quad 4x4 makes the install kit I used based off the Cummins unit. Nice piece, and it comes with everything you would need to replace a normal seal. Difference in price between the two kits varied quite a bit, but neither were cheap.

Honestly it didn't look like the crank surface under the original wear sleeve was that bad, but I figured if they installed one during the reman then either they do it regardless or they figured it needed one, and they would probably know better than I would. Plus they had already given me the unit with the sleeve. The sleeve on my engine looked like it may have been damaged by the wrong seal, and the seal and sleeve come assembled and are intended to be installed that way, so trying to install the new seal over the old sleeve seemed like a great way to ruin a $100 seal.

There is a guy on ebay that was selling a more conventional double lip spring seal he supposedly had custom made for the 6bts. Claims it was because of the issues he had at Dodge with the original Cummins seals. Was tempted to try it, but not sure it would have worked with the wear sleeve, and really didn't want to experiment given how much work it is to replace.

[Charles Talbert]

Seal removal / installation technique is extremely important on these, must be done very carefully, especially true with removing the old. Cummins has a tool that serves both purposes. We have had to replace a few that leaked on brand new engines. Some have had a lesser quality design seal installed as new, with replacements being much better. I would assume they tried something that didn't work out too well at some point and decided to change it later. Cummins has made all we have had to replace good, both the cost of the parts kit and have reimbursed us for the labor as well. I have not seen the cheap seals on any of the QSB engines, apparently they never used them there.

[Desoto61]

Went to move the Power Wagon the other day, and after starting it and letting it idle I noticed oil dripping onto the floor in the garage. It appeared to be coming from the bottom of the bell housing, and was a significant leak.

I had replaced the rear main seal when I had the engine sitting on the stand. Cummins uses a dry seal which comes with an installation sleeve. I had difficulty installing the new seal years ago, and figured I must have messed it up. So up in the air it went to remove the transmission. This required the floor pans to come out, the intermediate shaft, and the transmission. Once it was back down to the seal you could easily see it was damaged.

I had picked up a new seal from Cummins and after getting it home noticed it was the version with the wear sleeve, which on Cummins is a thick metal band with a larger seal designed to mate with the added thickness of the sleeve. I figured it was the wrong sleeve, but upon closer inspection my reman engine had the same sleeve installed, which was why the standard replacement seal had started leaking.

The sleeve and seal are installed as a unit, which requires a special installer tool. Naturally I couldn't find one to borrow and had to order one, luckily I found someone interested in buying the tool from me, so I didn't have to bear the full cost, just kind of an expensive rental. The tool is simple enough but specific to it's task, it did work well though.

Hopefully that will last, it was a good excuse to go back through the clutch, I found some better bolts for mounting the clutch assembly, and verify everything was tight. No leak initially, and it seems to run as well as ever.

[Desoto61]

Yes, I probably didn't pick the best muffler to quiet it down either. Might re-visit that in the future. Of course there's also nothing on the floor yet, and no bed yet to deflect any sound, and even to me the mic in that little camera seems to make it louder than it feels in the cab, but there's no mistaking this thing is not the quiet sewing machine that the flat-head was. The flip side is that you can just tell even from these short drives that it just doesn't care about all the weight in that truck. Plus somehow the grumble just sort of fits.

That 1-2 shift (really kind of 2-3) is annoying though, you really have to wind it out to prevent bogging the engine.