Is the front of the 216 crank supposed to look like the picture? Plugs look ok? Has the bed been altered or is this the norm? Is there a good book or another forum out there for a Chevy Truck rookie?
Looks like it rusted out on the bottom of the front panel, very common on these trucks, then someone made a new brace. Easy fix. That is the crank damper bolt it also is used to crank start it. I'd ditch the 216 in exchange for a 54 and up pressure oiled 235 you will be much happier. Sent from my XT1585 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I think the 48 short block I have in the shed has the same setup to hand crank it. You would have to be a whole lot stronger than I am now to be able to hand crank one though. The plugs, probably running rich as Sch****e engines said and the farm and garden fix on the bed is just that. Someone's haphazard repair to keep it going. I participate a lot on this truck board. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=13 Good folks who are helpful for the most part and you will probably see a few names there that you see here. The 47/59 group ranges from serious restorers that like them show room stock to full on rodder/customizer and everything in between. I haven't found a really great book on working on these trucks and I have had mine since 1973. I'd highly suggest investing in a factory service manual (reprint of) that you can find on Amazon or Ebay That gives you step by step instructions written at a real basic reading level. The tech writers who originally wrote them did not ***ume that the mechanic working on the truck and reading the book as he went knew anything about the truck and the instructions are usually well detailed. The 47/54 ***embly manual is real handy for fitting sheet metal and getting measurements but does not have one thing about the bed/box of the trucks in it. Here is a link to it on Amazon but you can find it on Ebay or some other vendors. https://www.amazon.com/1947-1954-Chevrolet-Factory-***embly-Manual/dp/B00BGB7FXC That link also shows the shop manual but there are year specific ones if you hunt a bit. Well spent money because it will answer a lot of questions and if you ask on one of the boards who ever gives the answer for a stock truck question will refer to it anyhow You can download a free copy of the owners manual here http://freeshopmanual.com/downloads.php?cat_id=1&rowstart=15 That will give you the basics of operation and how things work
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