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Posted by Keith in Washington [24.41.41.111] on Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 12:45:30 :
In Reply to: WC 1/2 ton Should I upgrade the running chassis posted by Al in CO [71.229.192.230] on Monday, May 24, 2010 at 14:31:25 :
I am not in favor of swapping axles or putting the body on a modern frame. Teh axles are fully capable with the possible exception of the brakes. These trucks are a good base for a road worthy truck but not one for constant daily or high speed freeway usage.
I have an unmodified 51 ffPW with a couple of exceptions. It a dual master cylinder vacuum brake system with original drums. I also swapped out the tranny for a NP420 from a M37. It runs well and will do 50 to 55 MPH. I use it for hauling dirt, gravel and other things around the house. It has taken quite a while to get it to run this well.
I have a 42 WC53 (3/4 ton) that has a V8 and a SM420 transmission installed when I bought it. It was in rough shape when I got it. I rebuilt the entire truck. I removed a lot of mods and returned the body basically back to stock. The running gear is composed of a NP200 transfer with the original axles with 4.89 gears. It would hardly go down the road when I got it and had so many vibrations I thought it was going to fall apart. It will now cruise at 70 to 75 MPH all day. It also has Helitool front disk brakes. Gas mileage sucks.
The key to getting both trucks running very well is that absolutely everything mechanical was rebuilt. They both had a lot of wear in the drive train, suspension and steering. I replaced every bearing, bushing, seal and many other items to make each system tight. Getting everything tight is the key to a road worthy truck (kills the vibrations and provides stability). I have gone through the bodies also but mainly the carryall as the PW was really quite good. The interior of the carryall was finished to kill the noise of a closed steel box. There is lots of sound killing mats and closed cell foam and vinyl applied over the interior metal surfaces. I can ride in the carryall with out ear plugs but the PW has not been sound proofed as yet so I still need them in it.