That’s Rad!

At this point the truck is running pretty well, however I have been noticing some small leaks at the thermostat housing on top of the

head and there are also at least two or three small leaks within the radiator itself. On top of that, part of the lip on the radiator filler inlet has broken off, which does not allow the radiator cap to fasten properly. I have some work cut out for me. This effort pretty much takes up the month of July, all told.

I first start by sourcing parts, and thanks to the Old IHC forum (The finest IHC forum and excellent source of information, in my opinion, and not just because I have been one of the admins there since 2009!) I was able to obtain a part number for the thermostat (Stant 13368 / 180 degree). The thermostat housing gasket was available from Olson’s Gaskets (Very friendly, knowledgeable service).

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Support

Until I came across a set of halfway decent hood support rods on eBay, I had been propping the hood open on the front lacing.

This is risky, because the hood could slip off, and based on the number of scratches along the rear of the grille section and the scratched surface of the hood corner, this practice is hard on the hood as well.

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Tail Lights

Originally on these trucks, you had ONE stop/tail light, and it was located on the driver’s side. On Cornelius, as I have seen on many others, people have added a stop/tail light on the passenger side. Then, turn signals, originally manual in nature, were added in the front and in the rear. The end result is an unsightly twin set of lights in the rear of the truck and more to maintain.

I decided I wanted to replace this twin set of lights with a single set of decent-looking stop / turn/ tail lights and began a search. Again, I could not find anything that represented an original set of lights, so I decided to find a set of lights that looked original for the application.

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Water Pump

My initial inspection of the water pump did not find any leaks, so I was very happy about that, but I decided to research proper care further. Apparently, a small amount of leakage into the shaft is DESIRED for these older water pumps, and upon further inspection, I was elated to see just that with the pump on Cornelius.

It is important, however, to keep the shaft of the pump properly lubricated. Toward that end, I found a grease JUST for this purpose – Lubriplate #115 for water pumps. Once I removed the grease cup I found that whatever was being used for grease was drying up, and was also not getting where it needed to be. I removed the grease cup, gave it a thorough cleaning, then packed it with the Lubriplate grease.

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Blind Spots

There is a set of peep mirrors on the truck, and the rear view mirror is apparently a Ford Model A reproduction. None work very well with respect to seeing what is behind me whilst driving. Something needs to be done.

I wish I could find an original driver’s side mirror, but there are none to be had just yet, so a better set of peeps are needed. After searching quite a bit, I found a set of 4″ round, long arm, stainless peep mirrors on eBay for a very reasonable price. With the bend in the arm, they work perfect for both the driver’s side as well as the passenger side.

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