well Im the new owner of a 1960 dodge 1/2T longbed stepper. after selling off the 48 plymouth i was in need of a truck to do things around the house and this was on CL with 10 miles from the house and the price was right. brakes were all redone and it is even inspected till the end of the year. the owner even drove it home for me. i do need to rewire the thing and it is a mess. it does have the original inline flattyand 4 spd trans. is it possible to switch to 12 neg ground or leave it as is without having to change a lot of parts out? anyway a few pics i took before the 10 mile journey to my place
I like it a lot but don't know a damn thing about the electrical system on a 1960 model.I thought it would be a standard 12 volt setup
Yeah, I would have thought this would already be a standard 12V neg ground system in here. Also, surprised it has a flat 6 in it, I know all the cars had swapped over to Slant 6 by 1960, unless they carried that over for a year in the trucks. Possibly the engine was swapped into this truck from a 55 or older Dodge, which would account for the flathead and the 6V system, or ?
1960 was the last yr for the flat 6 in trucks, it is 12 volt but they run a positive ground. i have a scoup on some other parts im gong to ck out tomorrow so the wiring will be getting redone and possibly a m/t swap too
maybe someone pissed in bowl of cheerios, anyway i have an electical problem with the truck, keeps killing the battery so there is somekind of a drawl in the system. as much as i would like to keep it somewhat stock appearing tho lowered it just mite get clipped or the full ch***is swap, just not sure at this point. but it will be alittle while till i start the build thread cuz my buddy just dropped a 57 GMC *** cab for me to do cab corners, steps, and switch out the complete dash to a chevy
You tried here? http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/ Not exactly on topic for them, but it's definitely the right group.
---------------- ------------------ -------------- If they didn't, someone should. Mart3406 ==========================
Flathead 6 would be right still for 1960 in trucks. But the 12 volt "positive ground???" system. Just asked my Dad and he said everything from 56 up should be 12 volt negative ground. He worked for a Dodge dealer from 63-70 as a mechanic and trans. r&r guy. Michael
Love thiose 1960 Dodge trucks - the grille and the general layout is just swell on those models and there are not a lot of them around so therefore a little bit more unusual. 12 volt systems are normally negative ground however never say never and yes the flat head 6 was the last year of the sidey in a 1/2 ton truck - Powerwagons kept using the flathead after this date but the 225 slant 6 came in 1961 and that killed the flathead in Mopars cars and light commercials. Neat wagon I nearly bought one up in washington 18 months ago however ended up with a 73 ClubCab instead so a bit OT here
You're sure it's positive ground? Maybe someone used a red cable for negative and a black cable for the positive. Looking at the ignition coil might be clue as well. ***uming it's a negative ground system, the negative coil terminal should go to the points. A positive ground system would be the opposite with the positive terminal wired to the points.
I like the 58-60 Dodge pickups.A freind of mine here in town has a 58 that he chopped 6 inches in the late 70's .Looks bad *** and he still has it ,but its not on the road anymore ...
ill have to look at the coil more tomorrow. the P.O metioned it was positive ground and I knew dodge had done it that way for years, but maybe he was missformed also. thats another reason i need a wire diagram, none of the other forums i been on have nothing
Ya might have more info available to ya if ya go to one of the Power Giant or Sweptline sites. The Pilot House site might have some flathead info that might be helpful. BTW that's a nice lookin' rig. I p***ed on an eBay find recently: '59 wide longbed with a 318 and the big back gl***. It had a lot of potential, but there were some rust areas that I couldn't get past, so it went for less the $400 to somebody else. Anyhow, I hope ya have fun fixin' this'n up.
Sharp truck !!!!! Got a 59 and 63 town panel,s and love the looks of em.On the 59 all i had was a total of 30-31 wires in the whole system and most of them went to the 4 headlight set up. Good luck with her......................YG
It will run with polarity reversed but not loke it should. As stated any post 56 and later should be neg ground. The only things that will care is the coil and the ammeter if it has one. switch the battery and then make sure the wire from the ign switch goes to the pos term of the coil (should be a ballast resister in between) and the neg wire goes to the dizzy. If it has an amp gauge and it shows a discharge when the engine is running, then you need to swap the wires on the gauge. These were pretty simple systems, probably 8 or 10 circuits at the most. Ign, lights horn, heater and charging, accessories signals. If its still a genny the bat terminal goes to the ammeter and then back to the battery side of the starter solenoid a feed wire comes off the ammeter to the ignition switch and another lead either from the bat side of the sol or the accessory term of ign for uswitched stuff like lights, brake lights, and other IOA (ignition off accesories) If you find you need to swap leads to fix polarity issues, you will probably need to repolorize the genny. You can find the procedure on the net. If you go to the P15 -D24 site forum and search P15 wiring diagram, there are a couple schematics posted. I can't imagine the truck is a whole lot different, and should get you to a place where you have reliable basic circuits. Only difference is the early cars main feed went through a 30 A circuit breaker and the only fuse was on the back of the light switch. You could pick up a 8 or 10 fuse holder and do a 30 amp for the main circuit, and 15's or 20 for the rest. Never mind here is the chart. Remember this shows positive ground but there should't be a difference except for the coil hook up. By the way trucks could be equiped witht he flat 6 till the early 70's and the military used speced them well into the 80's
The last WM300 Power Wagon was built in 1968 for domestic markets, and 1972 for export. All the later trucks used the 254 c.i. flathead Six. Chrysler continued to build and sell that engine for industrial applications, pumps, and OTC spares up to 1978. I know of a 1978-cast 254 locally that is now in a '55 WM300.
On the drawl of power. A quick easy fix is to add a simple screw on and off battery terminal from wal-mart or an auto parts. They will be by the car battery's. You'll need to use an open lug and use soldier for a corrode proof connection. These trucks are very simple, you should be able to look on the back of the fuse panel and find a wire that's drawling power (use a test light to see which ones are hot without the ignition on) then that's your problem. It could be something as simple as a voltage meter if left long enough.
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