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Thread: 1951 Willys Pick Up

  1. #51
    I'm getting close to buying tires for my truck. Do you guys know if I can use tubeless tires or will I need to get inertubes? I will be using the original wheels/rems.
    I'm getting excited about the thoughts of actually being able to take it for a little spin down the road and back.
    There's still a lot I have to do but I'm slowly getting there.

  2. #52
    Senior Member pelago's Avatar
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    tubes and get or make a liner out of a old tube protects the tube

  3. #53
    Super Moderator LarrBeard's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tim.. View Post
    I'm getting close to buying tires for my truck. Do you guys know if I can use tubeless tires or will I need to get inertubes? I will be using the original wheels/rems.
    I'm getting excited about the thoughts of actually being able to take it for a little spin down the road and back.
    There's still a lot I have to do but I'm slowly getting there.
    Tubes ... those rims may not have 100 per_cent welds to seal them.

  4. #54
    Super Moderator gmwillys's Avatar
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    You have options, depending on how you want to use your pickup. some things you may want to consider;

    1. What are your intensions for your truck? Are you going to drive your truck everyday? Are you going to be driving off road, on road, or a mixture? If the truck is to be a weekend cruiser, then I would go with the stock wheels, bias plies, tubes, and boots. The boots line the inner radius of the wheels to protect the tube from rubbing the spot welds for the wheel centers. The original wheels were not designed to be air tight. The wheels were not designed to have tubeless radials either. If you are going to drive your truck regularly, then you may want to run a radial tire, and change to a tubeless steel wheel. You can find steel Ford or Dodge 4X4 truck, large center wheels fairly cheap. This option opens you up to being able to run a more modern width tire, making the tires easier to acquire. The original wheels also don't have what is referred to as a safety bead. The safety bead is designed to help hold a tubeless tire to the wheel. Some tire shops will not mount a tubeless tire to a vintage wheel due to liability. Another thing to keep in mind, if you run your truck in a warm climate, running tubes in a tubeless tire is not a good idea. The heat and friction between the tire and tube will cause the tube to fail.

    2. Choice of tires? Radial tires have better road manners then bias plies. Bias plies tend to want to follow every groove in the road, so you are constantly correcting the steering wheel. Bias plies also ride rough until you drive a while, and they warm up. Bias plies will flat spot faster while being parked for any length of time. Radial tires cure a lot of the wandering issues, (as long as your steering is tight, and wheels are in alignment). Radial tires are more readily available, although 15" tires are being phased out since not many new vehicles run them anymore. 16" tires are much more common these days, but the width will cause you problems being that the modern tires are much wider.

  5. #55
    Thanks guys. I doubt I'll put 500 miles a year on the truck. It looks like bias plies with a liner and tube will be the way to go for me.
    I like the look of a taller, not so wide a tire with deep rough tread. Probably going to have to special order everything.

  6. #56
    Super Moderator LarrBeard's Avatar
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    Tires for a Pampered Truck

    Quote Originally Posted by Tim.. View Post
    Thanks guys. I doubt I'll put 500 miles a year on the truck. It looks like bias plies with a liner and tube will be the way to go for me.
    I like the look of a taller, not so wide a tire with deep rough tread. Probably going to have to special order everything.
    The trucks of that era were rated for 6.50 or 7.00 tires. When I restored the '48, I decided to go with 6.50 x 16 tires vs. the bigger 7.00's.

    These folks make a good selection of bias ply, small truck tires:

    https://www.stausaonline.com/product...t-truck-tires/

    There are a surprisingly large number of distributors for their tires - generally farm tire type dealers.

    I chose the "Super Traxion" 6.59 x 16LT for the rear; "gnarly tread", but it does talk to you going down the road.

    For the front I chose a bit less aggressive tire since I have a 2WD and a gnarly front tread doesn't buy me anything up there. I chose the "Super Transport", again in 6.50 x 16LT. They are a lot quieter...!

    They match up the truck very well in size. (My "spare" is a 6.00 x 16 recapped BF Goodrich tire I bought in the summer of 1965 that sat in the barn with the truck for 35+ years. I don't expect it to ever touch the ground...).

    These are the best tires that truck has ever had on it!
    Attached Images Attached Images

  7. #57
    Quote Originally Posted by LarrBeard View Post
    The trucks of that era were rated for 6.50 or 7.00 tires. When I restored the '48, I decided to go with 6.50 x 16 tires vs. the bigger 7.00's.

    These folks make a good selection of bias ply, small truck tires:

    https://www.stausaonline.com/product...t-truck-tires/

    There are a surprisingly large number of distributors for their tires - generally farm tire type dealers.

    I chose the "Super Traxion" 6.59 x 16LT for the rear; "gnarly tread", but it does talk to you going down the road.

    For the front I chose a bit less aggressive tire since I have a 2WD and a gnarly front tread doesn't buy me anything up there. I chose the "Super Transport", again in 6.50 x 16LT. They are a lot quieter...!

    They match up the truck very well in size. (My "spare" is a 6.00 x 16 recapped BF Goodrich tire I bought in the summer of 1965 that sat in the barn with the truck for 35+ years. I don't expect it to ever touch the ground...).

    These are the best tires that truck has ever had on it!
    Those tires on the back are exactly the look I'm wanting. I called Coker Tire in TN today and I'm going to have them send me 5.
    All things considered, there not priced that bad. Now I just need to measure my rims to find out if there 16inch. I'm fairly sure everything on this truck is original so what size did my truck come with? 15 or 16inch rimes? The guy at Coker said to measure the circumference and divide by pie. I thought you could just measure from the bead on the rim to the other bead. Am I missing something? Man I hate sounding stupid.
    I'm also going to go by Harbor Freight and pick up one of those manual tire changers and change them out myself. Ha, we'll see how that turns out.
    I used to work at a gas station (40 years ago) and have changed out my share of tires. Although not manually.
    I have put a lot of tubes in so no problem there.
    I received my emergency cables for the breaks and new u-joints this week. hopefully I'll get those on this weekend.

    OK, I was just reading pelago's thread and pi was mentioned. I guess instead of pie it should have been pi. Again, I hate sounding stupid.
    Last edited by Tim..; 03-14-2019 at 05:49 PM.

  8. #58
    Super Moderator LarrBeard's Avatar
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    Trucks were 16-inch rims.

  9. #59
    Yesterday I learned what an engine stay cable was. While I was removing the engine and transmission I saw the short cable hanging off the cross member. It wasn't hooked up to anything so I just figured it was part of the emergency brake system. Yesterday while I was working on the brakes and saw how it was supposed to go back together I couldn't figure what that short cable went to. I looked at my clutch system and there was no way it could have been a clutch cable. Finally after searching YouTube I ran across this guy talking about the engine stay cable. Sure enough that's what it was. Kaiser Willys doesn't even show my truck having one. They have them for, I think military jeeps.
    Anyway, for any of you that may be very limited in knowledge when it comes to working on a truck or jeep like me I just wanted to pass that little bit of info along.
    Last edited by Tim..; 03-18-2019 at 04:47 AM.

  10. #60
    Today I was ready to take the truck on it's first test drive. I thought I'd go ahead and put it on stands just to see if the transmission worked. Well sadly it didn't. I think it was either stuck in one of the forward gears or I was able to get it into 2nd and 3rd. I never could get it into reverse. And the only way I could get it into neutral was to use the shifter for the transfer case. Do these transmissions even have a neutral?

    I have a couple of questions if you guys don't mind answering.

    1. When it was running and I had it in gear only one side of the wheels were spinning on the front and back. Mind you I had it off the ground and in the 4 wheel drive position. The right front was turning and the left wheel on the back. Is my axels bad as well? I would think all the wheels would be turning at the same time.

    2. I also noticed a leak in my gas line at the connections. I'm using a (I think it's a 5/32 inch line) and I am bad about overtightening everything so I tightened them a little more but still have a small drip. Can I use that plumbers white thread tape on the connections or should I just keep tightening them until it stops leaking. I'm thinking I'm close to stripping the threads.

    3. One last question. I noticed oil dripping out of the vent tube on the side of the engine cover that covers the valves. Right behind the exhaust manifold. Is that normal or should I be concerned? It would drip ounce every 15 seconds. More or less.

    That about does it. I think I'll take a break from working on the drive train and start getting the paint cleaned and ready for clear coating. I also have my tires to install.

    Thanks in advance for any replies.

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