Turning A 1941 Dodge Army Truck into Sergeant Rock - Trucks! S6, E8

[Music] [Music] hey welcome to trucks you know one thing that everybody loves is an old truck you know we've all seen him sitting out in the field or somebody's yard or grandma's barn and we've dreamed of getting that truck and bringing it back to life and reviving it a problem is the first step is just getting the darn thing running and that brings me up to today's show and a question that I get a lot listen to this Stacy I've got a 74 Ford pickup been sitting for four years how do I get it running there's one in here been sitting two years 110 years 25 years on and on and on they all want to know the proper steps to revive a vehicle that is what I'm gonna show you today okay what I've got here is a 1941 Dodge army truck that has been sitting in a field for years and hasn't run in who knows how long and I literally pulled it right out of the field and brought it into the shop so it's completely untouched as you can see it's still got weeds on it and old tire chains on the tires and a custom made bed and check this out that old blanket covering the seat springs and that's all covered with rat crap is this cool or what now believe it or not I plan on driving this thing out of here and if I can get something like this run and just about anything else would be pretty easy so let's get to it oh yeah look at this man I almost expect a chicken to come flying out of here which brings up a very important point if your truck has been sitting for a while especially outside make sure you're being careful when you start going into it because all kinds of nasty things like to crawl in and make a home like snakes and possums and rats and skunks yeah you get the idea so be careful the first thing that you need to find out on a project like this is what exactly you've got to work with now if the motor is blown or if you've got mechanical damage like a rod sticking out the side or something you might as well just pull the motor out and rebuild it because you're not gonna get it to run so finding out if the engine is free and turns over is the first step now if your engine is locked up don't give up yet what usually happens is a little bit of condensation gets into the cylinders causes a little bit of rust around the piston rings and the cylinder and holds them together and you can break that loose and this is how to do it take some good penetrating Lube pop out your spark plugs and give it a good blast to lube down into those cylinders and let it sit then you can usually break it loose taking a wrench putting it down on the crank bolt and turning it now our motor as you can see turns over well so we are ready to go to the next step all right the main areas that we're gonna have to address here are the fuel system and the electrical system and you don't want to just hack this together because you want it to be reliable enough to where it'll start and run for you when you want it to so we're gonna need some new parts and here's what they are first of all it's a good idea to get a complete engine gasket kit for whatever you're working on and in this case I also got a carburetor kid because I know I'm gonna need that now you may not use all these gaskets heck you probably won't but you don't know what you're gonna need until you get in there and having the complete set now that saves you a ton of time running back and forth to the auto parts store also these master sets a lot of times they've got little gaskets in there that you cannot buy separately so this is a good idea now you also need some fuel hose and a fuel filter I like to use these see-through style because I can tell at a glance if my fuel pump is working and what kind of trash may be coming through the line next is electrical get everything that you're going to need in this case it's points condenser rotor plugs cap wires by getting everything to start with you eliminate all the little electrical Kremlin's that can pop up toward the end now let's dig into the fuel system starting with the carburetor now if your vehicles been sitting for two years or longer now you really need to take your carburetor off and clean it out especially if it's been sitting without an air cleaner like this one has because you have no way of knowing what nasty things have crawled down inside there made a nest for example check this out this obviously is the home of some sort of flying stinging insect and your engines not gonna run with a squat if that gets down in there also gas will eventually go bad turns into kind of a sludgy varnish sort of thing and it will gum everything up so you need to clean it out now it doesn't matter if you're working on a two barrel four-barrel Holley Edelbrock whatever if you want your engine to run good if you need to get a good clean fresh supply of fuel to it [Music] the float Bowl will either be filled with old rancid gas and sludge or the dried powdery residue of it so after disassembling the carburetor will completely clean it with solvent blow out the ports with air to clear any clogs and then reassemble it using the parts and gaskets from the rebuild kit finally reinstall it on the engine now if the vehicle that you're working on is fuel-injected well obviously you don't have to do this step because you don't have a carburetor but you do need to come in and drain your fuel rails and your fuel lines which is usually just a matter of coming in undoing a line I'll let the fuel drain out now if your vehicles been sitting a few years you probably don't have a slick aftermarket fuel injection but that's alright because your stock injection is gonna have lines and rails in a similar location so you should be able to find them pretty easy now the next step involves every kind of vehicle because it is how to get old gas out of a gas tank okay as you can see we majorly lucked out here because we got a drain plug now that's not something you see very often especially on a newer plastic tank now if you don't have a drain plug well you've got two choices you can either siphon the gas out or you can drop the tank and pour it out that is why we love the plug we'll see you after this hey you're back and that's a good thing because today we're dealing with an age-old problem on how to get an old rig running again after it's been sitting for a while now I've already gone through the fuel system by rebuilding the carburetor draining the gas tank and changing the fuel filters now it's time to move on to another potential problem area that's the electrical system so we might as well start at the bottom and the spark plugs oh boy now you can try to clean these up and recap them and reuse them but you are still messing with an old spark plug that may not be any good anyway and you're gonna find that out when you try to start that engine now new plugs are so cheap it is not worth a hassle trying to restore one of these so just replace them and then you know what you got moving down the line you have your plug wires now just like your plugs a replacement set of these is so cheap it's really worth your while to replace them because age and temperature and just general wear and tear will cause these to crack on you and that'll allow you to lose some of your spark energy to your plugs will also give you a heck of a shock if you happen to grab one of these while the engines running at this point if your vehicle is fuel-injected or has a modern electronic ignition well you are ready to move on to other things like oil and hoses stuff like that if it's an older rig like this one is you still have some ignition pieces to replace and they are all under the distributor cap in the form of points and condenser and rotor and of course a new cap now the most important thing here is that you need to know what your point gap is now you can get that at an auto parts store or service manual okay that takes care of the engine electrical system now since we're talking about electrical now is a good time to check your wiring especially on an old rig like this that has been hacked on for years look at this you've got wiring coming through a metal firewall with no rubber grommet to protect it you've got original wiring that is literally just crumbling and falling apart and then you've got all kinds of very creative splices going on here uh-huh now is the time to fix this kind of stuff because if you don't when you turn that key you know you could put a whole new meaning to the term fire it up of course the last thing you need to deal with on the electrical system is a battery now most old vehicles have an old junk battery in them so obviously that'll need to be replaced in this case is six volt but another thing you need to look at are your cables and your ends now these get corroded over time and can give you a bad connection even though they may still look good on the outside so if there's even a question that these might be bad you need to replace them all right we're gonna take a break do a few more things and when we come back we're gonna try to fire this thing up hey welcome back to trucks I am just about ready to try to start this 1941 Dodge military truck that was literally sitting in a field until today when I rolled it here into the shop now the purpose of this is to try to show you the steps involved in reviving an old vehicle kind of like that old junker sitting in your yard yeah you know what I'm talking about now we've already done the electrical system done the fuel system now we're ready for fluids so first thing I'm gonna do dump that a loyal out of there and put something good in we'll follow up the oil with some antifreeze coolant now before you just pour this stuff in take a few minutes and check your hoses because the last thing you want is coolant going all over the engine when you start it remember hose is cheap so if it's bad replace it alright the moment of truth it is time to fire this thing and you doubters can step on back because this thing is gonna start here we go and it really sounds good [Music] [Music] look at this no power steering - no brakes no floor but it's running under its own power and that is what trucks is all about this is great [Music] it goes without saying that trucks are extremely popular you can work with him through the week and then you can play with them on the weekend now boats on the other hand are also very popular matter of fact most people that own a boat use a truck to pull it with now wouldn't it be cool if you could take a truck and combine it with a boat into one unique vehicle well it's been done and very successfully but don't look for this cool ray gun at your local dealership no no this was a long time ago World War two the army called the truck the D ukw the soldiers they called it the duck [Music] now the D ukw was basically a 6x6 truck with front-wheel drive and dual driving axles in the rear but that was really the only thing normal about this rig but then again this is not a normal rig it floats now tires won't do you much good in deep water so to make the duck move you have a big propeller mounted behind the rear axle a series of levers allowed the driver to choose to power the axles or the prop or both it was 31 feet long and had 18 inches of ground clearance and weighed in at a hefty 15,000 pounds pretty heavy for something that's supposed to float the engine is a GMC 6-cylinder which meant about 50 miles an hour was all you're gonna squeeze out of it on land the tranny is a four-speed and it was built back in the days before synchronizers so like most old trucks double clutching is a must now this is where things get really weird because instead of a truck body you have what is basically a ship's hull wrapped around the drivetrain and the size and design of the hull allowed the duck to handle some pretty rough water that way it can get troops and supplies ashore [Music] now obviously you can't find the D ukw just anywhere but we know a place in Chattanooga Tennessee called the Chattanooga Ducks now they not only restore D you kW they also give tours on them I don't have to live here goes for this tour driving the duck on the road is a workout for the driver especially in downtown traffic with no power steering double-clutching and the turning radius of the space shuttle you definitely have your hands full when you get to the water though was when this truck gets really fun although I have to say I did wonder if this big ol heavy sucker was actually kind of float [Music] feeling once you're in the water the duck will run along at a nice solid 7 miles an hour it's just not really fast but remember this thing was designed to carry men and equipment ashore not pull a skier now most of the test drives I do are not things that you viewers have access to but this one is if you'd like to go for a ride in one of these amazing vehicles give the Chattanooga Ducks a call and schedule one you'll be glad you did oh yeah just tell them captain Stacey sent you [Music] for today's first truck gear we're gonna talk about one piece of equipment that everybody needs to have on their off-road rig some sort of auxilary lighting because the Sun always goes down before you reach the end of the trail and we land at night it's a lot of fun now that being said you need to check out these new lights from Warren and this is called the s DB 160 it's a spot driving light has a very tough high impact housing got a rock guard on the front and the h4 bulb inside is very tough and durable and of course very bright now these are waterproof and they have an adjustable base so you can point these exactly where you want them to go but best part is with just the push of a button you can go from a driving beam which gives you a nice wide light so you can see around you as well as in front of you to a spot beam which throws the light way out to where you can see the obstacles before they become a problem so if you're serious about your off-roading especially at night you need to check out these new lights from Warren they could be the best tool that you put on your rig

Channel: PowerNation

Views: 143,905

Rating: 4.8003697 out of 5

Keywords: Automotive;, Cars;, Vehicles;, How-To;, Auto, News;, Howto;, How, To;, DIY;, Car, Tips, stacey david, sergeant rock

Id: JMMylRwK2G8

Length: 18min 19sec (1099 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 16 2019