Gordon_M

It isn't my speciality of truck type, but I'm reasonably sure the cab type as originally supplied has a lot to do with it.

Export trucks of that period were commonly supplied knocked down as cab and chassis, chassis / cowl, or chassis with windscreen cowl, intended to be bodied locally.   I'd guess the original LRDG trucks may have been chassis / cowl with flat dash, whereas the modern replicas are cut down full cabs that had the curved dash when they left the factory.

Since the LRDG were using whatever they could get, and the dash would be of no importance, it is quite possible that they cut down some full cabs too, meaning that there could be original LRDG trucks with either configuration.

Somewhat clearer.

The T222 number is the frame number, no doubt, and 2/41 has to be the date, and the small shield is the inspectors acceptance stamp too.

The 910xxxx number is the formal chassis number, so the method of marking and location has to be different between Canadian and US output.

As long as you have one of this on the V55 you'll be fine.  8-)

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No problem Pete.  The chassis part number was machine stamped and is always clear and legible, the chassis number itself seems to have been stamped by someone with a number block, and I'm guessing that after he had stamped the first thousand chassis in a shift his enthusiasm was maybe a little low.  The chassis number can be really difficult to see as it was often faint to begin with.

Well that's odd.

US Dodges were all stamped on the left front frame rail side, near the front spring, front hanger, about 1" down from the top edge of the rail. Numerals were about 3/8" high and often not very enthusiastically stamped.  In addition the frame PART number was machine stamped mid-wheelbase on the right side.  Both Detroit and LA plant trucks were all this way, ( I have one of each ) and remember Canadian trucks were geographically not that far from the Detroit plant.

It appears that the frame number stamping was done somewhere on the production line - the only number on the frame when it arrived from the chassis plant was the part number.  I'd expect the same chassis plant, or plants, to service the US and Canadian facilities too.

Top edge on the back of the frame rail sounds wrong, maybe re-stamped during a rebuild or for British post war registration confirmation.  I'd expect it on the front somewhere.  Remember the Canadian plant also supplied piles of one ton 4 x 2 panel vans and the like, and the panel van body would completely cover any number stamped on the top of the frame rail anywhere rear of the scuttle.

I also remember the Canadian Dodge D8A T212 had an acceptance stamp on the side of the left rear chassis rail, basically just round from where your chassis number is.  There is an image of that stamping in one of those Canadian Chrysler wartime promotional books.

Just out of idle curiosity, have a really hard look on the side of the left front frame rail near the front hanger.. If there is a different number stamped there you have a 1940's ringer   8-)

Well if the cam is OK and all the valves just happened to stick at once, I think you should be looking at the oil supply to that area.

1 hour ago, PHB said:

We have done a compression test on all cylinders and nothing - save for pot 1.     Peter

Ah, that would be the cylinder right at the front then, immediately behind the cam driven gear?  ( some people number the cylinders from the firewall end ... )

I think you have a broken camshaft, and the break is between cylinders 1 & 2, so cylinder one is opening its valves normally and giving some compression, but the other five cylinders are on strike - or at least their valves are.  Hold the driven camshaft gear and try to rock it slightly - it should feel a bit more wobbly that you would expect - it may even pull out a little if you tug on it.

The slightly less bad news is because you have a flathead / side valve, the pistons have not come up and wrecked the valves, which is what would have happened with an overhead valve engine.

I'm thinking something simple but not obvious, like a broken camshaft, or camshaft not driving

If this was at a barrage balloon site, I'd think the vehicle with the tank would be there to scavenge the gas when they brought the balloon down, rather than waste it.  The unit behind the cab would be an engine driven pump.

26 minutes ago, radiomike7 said:

Is the groove around the front hubs designed as a slinging flange?

I don't think so.  Those hubs would have metal and wood centres and the load of sighing them there might be problematic.  If I'm seeing that right, the spoked wheels are just acting to retain the lifting ropes, which go through the wheel spokes and presumably under the axles.  If you were lifting from the outer grooves on the hubs it would be near impossible to keep all four in place long enough to get a safe lift.

If they are all branded as USA made I'd stick with them.  You can of course buy a complete new set of high quality bearings, but that may cost a surprising amount.  Spend some of the savings on seals, axle end gaskets, and the like

1 hour ago, Chris C said:

Here is a question for you all,

I have taken apart the hubs from my wc51 and i have found a variety of bearings does anyone know if bearings i took off are correct before i go and by new ones.

They are Bower BT2984.

I'd stick with those if they are in good condition, US-made bearings, and the low sequence number suggests they may be original.  Where did your truck come from, or via?  If it is straight from the USA or via Norway, those are probably higher quality than many modern replacements.

1 hour ago, radiomike7 said:

My thoughts exactly, just trying to work out what pivots about what.

If it was free to pivot in the chassis brackets it would be fine.  Trapping or restricting it wouldn't work - the first time something bottomed out it would shear.  I'd guess both sides would pivot freely - it would help the high-speed cornering too. 🤐

It looks like it functions like a cross between a torsion bar and the worlds slowest anti-roll bar.  🤔 plus it would add greatly to the rigidity of the rear end.

Very nice.  It will look great when the rest matches, and I'd be surprised if the original paintwork didn't have the odd run too.

Interesting that the die is marked NS, National Special, rather than UNS, Unified National Special, so it is liable to be as old as the thread you are gauging.  That's probably why it didn't say UNS on the advert too.

 I wonder if those endlessly complex trade laws would stop you making and selling something like that as NS these days, with only UNS permissible?

It looks like you could use the Martian type.   The male threads would match both ends, they have just substituted a coarser thread where it runs through the bumper to a locknut, so one coarse thread locknut and you are done.

It is quite possible they went to a coarse thread at the bumper bore transition exactly because the fine thread locknuts used to seize up and strip all the rest of the thread - just like yours did.

While I'm on I think that is the original head too - be great for a paperweight.  8-)

8 minutes ago, paul connor said:

Funny enough, you guess correct!    Exactly why I would like to save it if I can.

 

Well good luck with it.  If you get stuck just drop any other flathead six Chrysler in, they will all fit.  Don't throw that one away though, as the chassis it came in is still driving in Scotland.

14 minutes ago, Gordon_M said:

Build Card for the truck that block came in

Am I right in thinking this is the T112-60001 block Paul, December 1941?  If it is, then I believe it is the very first military T112 block - It came in the very first military T112 chassis 81104100, a WC 36 Carryall, so there is a historic edge to it.  Civilian T112 blocks started T112-00001 in September 1941, so I think the '6' prefix was the identifier for the military blocks with external oil filters and so on. Certainly no other T112 block have seen had the '6' prefix.

It came to me with the T72 block I have in the TD20.  I took one look at that one ( it was the factory original block for that TD20 chassis ) and just freighted it down to a well known Dodge specialist in the south of England.  They stripped it completely, got a machine shop to bore and sleeve it, fit new guides and hardened valve seats all round, then reassembled and returned it to me.

Basically valve guides you could do, but if you are going to get valve seats done, getting the guides replaced and bores sleeved to nominal is no big deal.    Any other T112 block you can find will have worked just as hard and have as many problems, I'm sure. Let me know how you get on with it.  My mother-in-law was quite scathing when she saw it sitting dry in the garage and got me to fill the bores with waste oil.   8-)

I don't know in detail, but I know a lot of new stuff was procured and fitted.  For example, a quantity of Carryall rear door side latch mechanisms were made new, presumably in Norway.  As I understand it all the axes, mattocks and shovels were discarded and replaced, and no, they weren't wasted, as I have a set at home. 8-)

Norwegian trucks only tend to come in two varieties, those that were completely stripped down for a production line rebuild, and those that were entirely original.  Your friend's truck has been rebuilt at least once, maybe twice, but some of the other Dodges like their Canadian APTs had very few miles on them, right up to disposal, and had just been given normal preventative maintenance.  They were obsoleted first too, being non-standard.

I talked to a couple of Norwegians that were involved in the rebuilding around Bergen, I think in the 1980's

Sounds right, moves well, needs that DBG though. 🤢

Dallas Autos should have something

1 hour ago, trophy160 said:

I have never seen photos of such a Saracen, did they exist?

 

I've seen one very similar to that.  My local scrappy had three tired Saracens he hauled off a range, I think in Ayrshire, when it was tidied up.  One of them just had four wheels with the centre station on each side blanked off.  He was told it was the main observation vehicle for the range and a lot more mobile than a standard one.  As I remember it had standard rear doors though.