6x6 Power Wagon Project

[Greg Coffin]

Clutch System is Operational

Since I was on a roll with the brake system I decided to work on the clutch system. I bent the lines yesterday, and picked up the flex line today after work. It took a while to get the system bled out, probably because the master is lower than the slave. A pressure bleeder would have been a big help here.

The master and slave both came from the engine donor truck, so I figured they would work together. I wasn't sure if I had enough throw from the clutch lever, but it appears that the pressure plate has plenty of clearance from the clutch disc when the pedal is pressed. I still have to clamp down the steel line around the bellhousing. I plan to use 3 of the bellhousing bolts to mount hose clamps, and I'll drill and tap the bellhousing ear for a clamp near where the steel line connects to the flex.

I noticed a bit of movement somewhere in the steel bracket for the master cylinder. I can't tell yet if it's actually the steel flexing, or if there is movement somewhere closer to the frame. It's hard to press the pedal and look carefully at the bracket.

Since I'm on a roll with steel lines, I think the fuel line is next. Once that's done I may slap on a temporary set of exhaust pipes and fire up the engine. I rebuilt it over 2 years ago, and I'm getting impatient to hear it run. Now to research the proper way to break in the cam.

[Greg Coffin]

Spring Fever

With the nice weather lately I've been working on the truck more. I got the steel fuel line run all the way to the fuel pump, and overall I'm really happy with it. I found out that I ran the brake lines through the wire clamps that are supposed to hold the wiring harness to the chassis. I was looking at photos of other 6x6s and noticed my mistake. No big deal, just need to find a place to run the wire harness now.

The engine installation continues to creep forward at a steady pace. I finally bit the bullet and installed the bolts for the front engine mount, and tightened up the bolts for the rear mounts. The engine is now officially installed in the chassis, though there is still a lot left to do before I can actually start the engine. But if things keep going well I may be able to fire it up sometime in early April.

With that in mind I temped in the radiator frame and radiator, so I could template for the upper and lower radiator hoses. Today I found a potential lower radiator hose, but there were some kinking issues right at the water pump. I looked around for a steel hose coil to keep the hose from collapsing, but no one carries them anymore. On the way home I remembered I had saved a spring from a broken yard sprinkler head. The first miracle was that I actually found the spring, the second was that it just fit into the hose! It's stainless steel, so it should last a long while. The hose fits beautifully, and doesn't touch the front motor mount, or get too close to the power steering belt. I think I have about 1/2" of clearance from the belt. I have to do some more looking for an upper hose that will fit.

The bracket that holds the clutch master definitely flexes a bit, so I'm going to weld a gusset to the side to stiffen it up. It means I have to disassemble both the clutch pedal and brake pedal supports, but it shouldn't take too long to actually make the repair. Just a minor step backwards.

[CSCameron]

Looks like your fan blade is going to contact your pulley bolt? Or is it an optical illusion?

[Tom Petroff]

Nice!!
You'll be done in no time!
TGP

[Greg Coffin]

Nice!! You'll be done in no time!

3 years down, probably 2 more to go!

Looks like your fan blade is going to contact your pulley bolt? Or is it an optical illusion?

It's an illusion. The original 7 blade fan was 18" in diameter and tagged the pump shaft pretty good, so I went with a 16" flex fan. The smaller fan also give more room to run the lower radiator hose.

I've wanted to try a flex fan to see if it would help reduce the engine load, we'll see how it performs. I may have to build a shroud around the fan to help pull the air through the radiator, but I'll test it this way to see if it's necessary.

[Greg Coffin]

Progress

Over the last week we've gotten a lot of things wrapped up on the chassis. Here's a quick list of recent progress:

Welded in the gusset for the clutch master cylinder bracket - it's much stiffer now
Found and installed the upper radiator hose
Installed the starter
Installed the carburetor
Primed the fuel line, fuel pump, and carburetor
Cleaned, painted and installed the air filter housing
Installed the PCV system
Painted the radiator frame and installed the radiator
Rebuilt, installed and painted the driveshafts
Installed temporary spark plug wires - tested out okay
Installed temporary exhaust system - scavenged from a 74 D200 w/318

After I primed the fuel line I found a tiny leak in the carburetor. It's coming from one of the plugs in the float body casting. It doesn't drip, but it's always a little damp. I'll have to see if there's an easy way to reset the plug, or take it to a carburetor shop to have them fix it.

I was at a friend's to look for some cab parts and stumbled (literally) over a gas pedal bracket from a 60's Dodge pickup that I may be able to use on this project. I uses a cable to connect to the carburetor, so it 'should' be easy to adapt it to the stock PW gas pedal and cab.

When I was checking out the pillow block I found something unexpected. The yokes and the shaft are splined so that it is not possible to align them 'in-phase'. At first I though one of the yokes might be a replacement, but looking at the splines they are identical. I also noticed that the cotter pin holes are drilled at 90 deg to each other, so even if you could align the yokes, you would not be able to install one of the cotter pins. This truck was made in late 1944, so I don't know if this is a change that was made during production, but it clearly appears to be intentional. Maybe having the 2 driveshafts in-phase to each other created extra vibration, so they changed the pillow block. At any rate, the yokes are 90 deg to each other, and that's that.

Next things to happen are buy a battery and cables to run to the starter and chassis, and build a simple electrical system to control the starter solenoid and ignition circuits. I also want to find the right size hexagonal rod to prime the oil pump and oil galleys before we fire up the engine. We used a lot of assembly lube when we built the engine, but it's been sitting for 2+ years, and an ounce of prevention....

If things go according to plan we hope to fire up the engine on April 4th.

[Desoto61]

It's those milestones that keep us going! Looking forward to the next progress report!

[Greg Coffin]

Engine Start-up, T minus 4 days and counting

I'm getting the last bits together to fire up the engine this Saturday. I've invited a few friends over to either celebrate or commiserate the event. If any of you local guys want to come over to watch, let me know. I'm aiming to flip the switches around 1:00p Saturday.

[bilfman]

Would love to be there! But Canada has me frozen in. Hope she purrs like a flathead 😮

[Greg Coffin]

Got the engine running!

Yesterday was a very good day. The boys and I spent the morning prepping the engine and setting up a temporary ignition system. Then we primed the oil system using a 5/16" hex rod and a drill motor to spin up the oil pump. We got pressure almost right away, around 60 psi. Then we filled the cooling system, and made sure there was gas in the carburetor. For the initial start-up I was using the original spark plug wires, which tested out okay. The new spark plug wires were cut to length and installed after I knew where the distributor was going to end up (for timing).

A few friends came buy around 1:00p to watch the lift off. The engine wanted to run right away, but I wasn't sure how much choke to give it. After a couple tries I realized I had flooded the engine, so I opened the carb and she fired right up. We ran the engine at 2100-2400 rpm to break in the cam. After about 10 minutes before we noticed an overheating problem and we shut things down. We checked a couple things, but there were no obvious problems. We drained the coolant (which was very clean), pulled out the thermostat (the original, untested one), and fired it back up. Another 10 minutes later we were running hot again, so we shut it down. The cam was good and broken in by now.

During this time we set the ignition timing to 8-10 deg BTDC and checked the dwell, which was running at 30 deg - the spec for this engine is 35 deg. We noticed that cylinders 1 and 2 were running a little cool, so we swapped the old wires around and they perked back up, so I was glad to have the new set ready to install.

As for the engine overheating, we figure the problem is running a 16" flex fan without a shroud. The flex fan pulls less air as the engine speeds up, and the lack of a shroud makes the fan that much more inefficient. Making a new shroud shouldn't be a big deal. Last night I tested the old thermostat. It's set for 180 deg, but it didn't start to open till 200 deg. Time for a new one.

Now that we have passed this happy milestone, the chassis is virtually complete. It's time to start diving into bodywork, which is not my strong suit. But I'm looking forward to it, and we've already made some progress. My hope is to have the cab and front clip installed by September, and start putting some miles on the beast. Then we take on the bed and lift mechanism.

[cj7and8]

Very Awesome! Keep up the good work!

[CSCameron]

Nice! Great progress, keep going...

Clark

[Greg Coffin]

Clark, I saw that you got your PW running as well. Congratulations!

[CSCameron]

Thanks Greg,

Yep, I actually moved it under it's own power last night. That is the first time in 25 years since it has moved under it's own power and almost exactly three years since I have owned it. Now fiddling with tuning it and fixing the toe-in so I can drive it around. Can't wait... :)

[Andydodgegeek]

Glad to hear your success story. Looks like your doing good work.