1942 dodge ambulance resto

[jake neville]

after months of not being able to access MLU i can now update my work so far on the dodge. thanks to hanno spoelstra for fixing things up for me.
heres a few old pics and some recent ones of the restoration as i have no idea where the old post is.

[jake neville]

a few pics of the disassembly. wasn't much to do as it came pretty bare. just the body on a rolling chassis.

[jake neville]

chassis, springs and diffs. sandblasted and painted

[jake neville]

both front and rear diffs stripped and rebuilt, new shackle pins, bushes, brakes, bearings, seals etc.
because this is an early 41 model ambo it has the smaller diff. so to speed the old girl up a bit i purchased 2 complete half ton dodge diffs from jim harris and have fitted the 4.89 gearing into the back diff.
currently doing the front. has all gone together well so far. thanks to robin mawson for his time in showing me how to do it all.

[jake neville]

rear diff installed. nice to finally see some green paint back on it. wheels and some new rubber on the back. time to attack the front.

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by jake neville

. so to speed the old girl up a bit i purchased 2 complete half ton dodge diffs from jim harris and have fitted the 4.89 gearing into the back diff.
.

I think 4.89 is the standard diff ratio in 1/2 tonners . Bevan Fenner fitted 4.1 ratio diffs in his 1/2 ton dodge ,( he sold the truck to Graeme Kerslake , then it went to QLD ? ) maybe you could ask Bevan where he sourced the 4.1's from ? Mike

[jake neville]

hi mike

i beleive the 4.1 diffs that bevan used came out of a post war dodge delivery van. from memory he said it would do about 70mph. which would be hair raising to say the least on a truck chassis i would imagine.
hopefully the 4.8's with the bigger 251 engine should move it along ok though.

hanno i dont know exact numbers for WC54's in australia. i know of one complete driver in queensland and 4 others including mine in various stages of restoration. but fairly rare out here i would think.

[Lynn Eades]

The WC54 (3/4 ton) originally had 5.83:1 diffs.
I believe a few 1/2 ton Dodges were built with 4.89:1 diffs (ambulance?), but most were still 5.83:1.
(I have a couple of 4.89's in storage) I did have a 3/4 ton dodge on 7.50x16s on 1/2 ton wheels with 4.3:1 diffs. Yes it would run up to about 70 (guess) but ran out of legs in low gear on a steep hill.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by jake neville

after months of not being able to access MLU i can now update my work so far on the dodge. thanks to hanno spoelstra for fixing things up for me.
heres a few old pics and some recent ones of the restoration as i have no idea where the old post is.

Jake, glad we got it sorted, sorry it took so long! Merged your new thread with your old one.

That's quite a project you have there, the Dodge Ambulance must be quite rare in Australia?

Hanno

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

That's quite a project you have there, the Dodge Ambulance must be quite rare in Australia?

There were quite a few of those Ambos here during the war, but just about all of them left Australia when the US forces moved Northwards .

Leo Shackleton ( or his brother ) were VMVC members years ago , they were young teenagers in Melbourne at the time the yanks were here and one of them snapped a pic of a Dodge Ambulance driving along Sydney road, Coburg or Brunswick . The pic appeared in a VMVC newsletter many years ago . Mike

[jake neville]

hi mike

would love to try and dig that photo up if anyone has a copy. might be able to recreate it one day when the trucks finished.

[jake neville]

time for a dodge update

i have commenced stripping down the 2 engines i have to see which one is suitable for a rebuild.

both appear to be in reasonable shape. i picked them both up for $300 from a deceased estate in melbourne. the guy i dealt with was unable to tell me what they came out of. some kind of car based on the clutch and bell housing that were attached to one of them.

they are both the larger capacity engine, 2 inches longer than the T214 it should have in it. i am after a bit more grunt to help with the diff's i have put in it.

i have been doing some research in an attempt to figure out what size they are but am not really sure by the numbers i'm looking at. everything i have searched on the net hasn't been much help as these things were built for decades in a large variety of sizes.

the engine number is :P2018114C
and has :K260 cast in the bottom of the block
L20 cast in the head

anyone familiar with these engines please fill me in, the only engine i can find listed on the net with 260 was a straight 8?? confused i will attempt to attach some photos if this thing lets me.


this is the one i plan to use, seems to be a bit more modernized with an automatic choke and a few other minor differences. hopefully more power??

the other has 231 in the side of the block and :E131

[jake neville]

here's the pics from engine 1, this is the one i plan to use. if anyone can give me some more info on identifying the year, power output etc i would greatly appreciate it.

[jake neville]

today i stripped down the transfer case. not in great shape at all. water has gotten in at some point and done it's thing.

if anyone has some spares i'd greatly appreciate it. it's the only one i have

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by jake neville

they are both the larger capacity engine, 2 inches longer than the T214 it should have in it. i am after a bit more grunt to help with the diff's i have put in it.

i have been doing some research in an attempt to figure out what size they are but am not really sure by the numbers i'm looking at. everything i have searched on the net hasn't been much help as these things were built for decades in a large variety of sizes.

e block and :E131

Can you measure the bore and stroke of one cyl. to work out the capacity and then multiply X 6

The early long blocks were first used in the local 1941 army utes and sedans with the TJ Richards bodies , these were Canadian made engines ,with a 3 and 3/8" bore X 4 and 1/16" stroke . The two 1941 military Plymouth De Soto utes I had both had those engines . P in the prefix is usually for Plymouth .

They later went to 3 and 7/16" bore and a variety of strokes .

Many years ago a guy in Sydney, Col Conyard, had a lot of NOS weapons carrier parts . I bought NOS transfer case shafts from him . He died, I dont know what happened to his stock of parts .

[David DeWeese]

Hi,

This may help with the engine identification:

http://t137.com/registry/help/othere...herengines.php

David