46 dodge one ton questions and general questions

hello,
working on my 46 dodge pickup and I have some questions.
also I did try search. maybe I am not doing that right.
split rim came up with everything that had split or rim in it.
forget the search for brake.

it has split rims, how do you tell if they are good enough to use?
who makes a replacement non split rim? they are 16 inch with a very large 6 bolt pattern.
the tires are 6.00x16 front and 6.50x16 rear. what would be the new tire size for these and can you run new style tires on a split rim?

brakes, the wheel cylinders blew out. I can't seem to find anyone that knows what size are in there. I have a part number manual for it but I can't find a way to cross reference the old 6 digit numbers to new one's. So my thought is that I have to take them all out, along with the brake pads and take them in and hope they can be rebuilt.

master cylinder is under the floor mounted to the bell housing. it is a single cylinder that feeds all the brakes. is there one that will fit and provide a dual system. seems like that would be the saftest way.

I am also going to pull the emergency brake and have it relined and the drum cleaned up some. Man you pull that lever and everthing just stops turning (rust grip I guess). see above on how I know.

the wood in the bed was gone when I bought it, replaced with a spliced sheet of plywood. it has the 9 foot bed on it.
Any one know of, have pictures of, or measurements for the missing wood crossmembers and how the wood went into the bed? (mostly how the upper wood planks were connected to the crossmembers).

it is the flat head 6, I am pretty sure that it is the 230 ci. I am going to try to put in a tach, but I don't know how fast you can run one of these. the solid mount fan makes it sound like it is spinning really fast.
it has a 3 speed that is verry verry slow, then very slow, and top speed is well, slow. I am thinking that it is not syncronised (spelling) as it grinds a bit between each shift.
if the speedo can be trusted it only has 18,000 miles on it.

steering.
it seems to be pretty tight from the 8 blocks I drove it before the brakes went. I did jack up the font and can just detect a bit of movment in the king pins. where and how do you replace those? how much movement before you need to worry? pushing and pulling on the tire top to bottom I can just feel it a little. may even be play in the bearings.
what speed should you be able to drive? 50? 60? I have no idea. I don't want to blow it up. the motor runs smooth and only smokes just a bit on start up.

thanks for your help in advance.
I am very much looking forward to driving this truck but want it to be safe.
On the safe end of things, is there a good way to put at least lap belts in these old trucks, or better the shoulder belts also.

sorry I guess I have more questions then I thought!!!
I think these are the best looking of the (late model) old trucks.

I am looking for one that is not as complete as this one but has a good body that I can hot rodd a bit with out feeling guilty.
the one I have is just to complet and origional to mod.

 

Where to start....

Since it is a one ton, the rear end gear will be crazy, maybe 5 something? Deffinately not high way gears. Most one ton trucks of that era were farm trucks or local delivery trucks. They were geared to get the most hauling power out of that flat head 6. You are probably right about getting brake parts, take them in and good luck, be prepaired, they will probably be expensive. NAPA has brake stuff that goes back quite a ways, but I'm not sure they go back that far. Kanter (got money?) may have some brake stuff do a google. Good luck if your drums are bad. As long as your wheels are in good shape, and you can find someone that will change the split rims, modern tube type tires will work just fine. Check big truck tire places about changing your split rims. If they are in bad shape, the tire guys will tell you so. 6 bolt rims might be fun too. Have some faith, Vintage Power Wagon may be able to help with many parts (brakes, wheels) too. Far as I know the 9' beds were set up the same as the 7 1/2' beds except the boards were longer. On the 7 1/2' beds, the metal strips between the boards were screwed to the cross members and pinnched the boards to the cross member.

Now, if it was my truck, I'd get a 68-72 Dodge 1/2 or 3/4 ton pick up and rob the axles and master cylinder setup from. Up to 72 Dodge trucks had the beam front axle and the newer then 68 should have the dual master (though firewall mounted). A 3/4 ton would have 8 bolt wheels and a 1/2 ton would have 5 bolt wheels. That would solve your brake problem, give you better gears, and a bolt pattern that would be easier to find wheels for, and not look out of place on your 46 truck. I won't tell anyone its not the stock axles.
Gene

 

nice to know about the 68 to72 front axles. will look into that if the king pins are shot.
yeh the 6 bolt rims are a pain to find, the power wagons use the 5 bolt.
emailed stockton wheel about the 6 bolt replacements but have not heard back. I did find one in the junk yard, brought it home. removed the ring. the side of the tire was rusted on the rim so bad I could not press it off. boy did they make those old tires thick, even with the cords showing on the side wall it took 3 saws all blades to cut it off. the bead cable must have been 3/8ths.

so what would be the modern size of these tires? I mean like the (r 70 16) type measurement?

I am not sure how far we will go with all this.
the 46 I have we are going to try to stay origional.
I would like to find one to cut up for a hot rod.
and we found a 46 dodge school bus. We have not gone to look it over yet but it would make for a neat motor home. heck from what I see putting in slide outs on each side would not be that hard. or buy a wrecked one and skin it with the old bus metal.

dreams huh... lol.

 

Just to beclear, the beam axle on Dodge trucks was used from the begining of time up through the 72 model year. Dodge went to the single wheel cylinder brakes around 65-66 (I had a 66 3/4 ton pickup that had the single wheel cylinder, a single resivor master on the firewall, and 8 bolt wheels, and the beam front axle.) The 68 my buddy had the beam axle and had a dual resivor master cylinder mounted on the firewall. When Dodge changed the truck design in 73, they went with the independent front suspension. I know that the pre 60 model year 3/4 ton and larger trucks had the 6 bolt wheels, not sure when that changed. The power wagons I spoke of were the millitary flat fender trucks.

Nearly all the mid 70s and up (though at least 2005) 3/4 -1 ton trucks had 16" wheels and tires. They would have been 8 lug, but the tires should work on your truck as long as you changed all of them.

It is your truck, you do as you see fit. Personally, I'd change those axles out in a heart beat, nice original truck or not, if I was planning on driving it in more then parades. But then, I'm a cheap bastard. A few web sites that may have some parts for you:
www.robertsmotorparts.com www.vintagepowerwagon.com

A good book with some usefull infomationodge Pickups History and Restoration Guide 1918-1971. Also do a google search, there is a lot of info on these trucks on the web.
Gene