E361T Progress - NEW PROJECT!

[oldspwr]

It’s been a while since our last update so here is where we are at today…

We had one last load of parts to paint. These included the door panels, lower door panel sills, power window brackets, the heater box, clutch inspection cover, etc… So we hung everything up and starting priming and painting…





After they were painted we let them sit a week prior to reassembly…



And then we started on the heater box…



The heater core came from our ’54 148W and was in tired shape so I had Cicioni’s in Hazleton re-core it for me. For the screen, instead of the factory expanded metal I used a leftover piece of the SS grill I used for the 155W. This came from a 379 Pete and is almost identical to the original material used in the 100 and 200 series trucks…



More to follow…

[oldspwr]

Then we moved on to the door panels. After I bolted the angle supports on them along with the brackets for the interior door handles, I added some more Dynamat. I still had several sheets left over so I put it to good use…



I was getting ready to install the door panels when I remembered that I forgot to re-key the cylinders in the exterior door handles. So I removed the handles, removed the key cylinders and then re-keyed the tumblers to match the 155W doors. It’s not hard to do, I was just fortunate that I had juggle the existing tumblers around to make it work…



After I finally installed the door panels along with the upholstered panels, I quickly realized that the square shafts for the interior door panels were too short by about a 1/4"… So I had to come up with a plan to extend the stock shafts. When I got my lathe, it came with both a 3 jaw chuck and 4 jaw chuck. So I dug out the 4 jaw chuck and centered a piece of 3/8” square stock. The I proceeded to round the corners to match the existing shaft…



And it actually worked out pretty well. Here is the finished piece…



Then I cut them to length and drill 1/8” holes in them for the pins. I also cut the existing shafts short and chamfered both pieces so I could weld them together…



More to follow…

[oldspwr]

When they were done I dug out my handles with a new set of escutcheons I bought from Craig M a few years back. For the pins, I used some broken 7/32” bits that I cut to length with a Dremel cutoff wheel. Who doesn’t have a handful of small broken drill bits laying around???



Then finally I was able to install everything and finish the door panels…



And finally I installed the heater… It almost looks like it was ‘meant to be’ there !!!



So that’s it for now!!!

[paulgcgpr]

Is that it? Can there be anything left?

[oldspwr]

Well a lot has happened since our last post. When we last left off we had just finished installing the door panels and heater. We had started driving the truck a few miles locally and wound up with some bad oil and transmission leaks. So it turns out I had the trans overfilled which I believe caused the trans to leak from the main shaft. But the oil leak was more complicated… It took me some time to figure it out, but I had a fuel pipe that was leaking under the valve cover which in turn diluted the crankcase oil. Our oil pressure had dropped and after pulling the dipstick we quickly realized what happened. So I made the decision to upgrade to the O ringed fuel pipes and was able to buy they from Irwin at Leid Diesel. Irwin was extremely helpful and sent everything right out so I had it the next day…

So we took the top of the motor apart and pulled the injectors so I could replace the fittings…







And here are the new fuel pipes, a long and a short for each cylinder…



So we installed everything and re-ran the rack…



To make sure the new lines had sealed, I removed the return line and installed a pressure gauge. Then I removed the fuel line from the secondary filter and installed a Schrader valve. I put about 50 psi of pressure on the line and then let it sit for an hour to make sure the pressure didn’t drop from a leak. Then we put another 6 gallons of oil in it and when for another ride… At that time I put a GPS in it to check the speedometer and sure enough it was fairly close. I was hoping the Stewart Warner adapter on the trans was the correct ratio since we kept the same size tires and same rear axle ratio…



More to follow!!!

[oldspwr]

Back in March my Dad took the front bumper down to Librandi’s to get re-chromed. If you remember we used a 761 bumper along with 761 brackets since I found it locally for sale and it was in nice shape. Since Macungie was quickly approaching, I was starting to get worried it wouldn’t be done in time since they have long lead times. So I talked to them and they said it would be a few more weeks so I decided to pull the bumper off of our 761. Fortunately the previous owner had used lots of Never Seize on all the bolts so within 5 minutes it came right off. So we spent some time cleaning it up…



And then put a quick coat of paint on the back of it…



Then next night we went to install it but realized it was hit on the driver side at one time, straightened and then re-chromed. So the driver side aluminum did not fit right. I didn’t want to modify the new one I made, so we cut just a flat piece from a piece of 1/8” diamond plate (actually it was the piece that came out of the deck plate where I cut the hole for the tool box!) So that Friday I decided to take it to work to shake it out. Instead of running the interstate, I took an easy ride down 307 through downtown Scranton…





And made it to Clarks Summit… I park right off of route 6 and you would be surprised how many people mention they saw a Brockway in Clark Summit…





More to follow!!!

[oldspwr]

Then that Saturday we spent the day at the Museum for the Spring Fling and Clambake, which was a great time. The food was outstanding and we spent pretty much the whole day catching up with everybody. After we got home that day, I took the truck over to my Parents house and then took my Mom for a ride!!!



After that we took it out on 380 between Gouldsboro and Daleville for a ‘highway’ trip. According to the GPS, the truck will run 63 or so right around 2200 rpms…



We then spent the week getting ready for Macungie, cleaning, polishing, etc… I usually don’t follow the weather but they were calling for rain on Friday all week. We made the decision regardless that we were going and sure enough Friday morning at 5 am it was pouring…





It rained pretty much the hole trip. We did stop off of route 33 where 191 crosses to grab some coffee…



And a few mirror shots…



It just stopped raining when we hit rt 100…



We did arrive around 8:30 or so and were able to park up by the gazebo before things got too soggy…



This is really a great show and we talked to a lot of great people. Steve S and his daughter Mary also parked next to us which was great…



More to follow…

[oldspwr]

On the way home the weather was much better but we ran into another issue. Right before we got home the compressor worked look and the hard oil line cracked. This in turn sprayed a gallon of oil all over the bottom on the truck, like if you took an industrial 100 mph fan and tossed 1 gallon of oil into it. So we nursed it onto the garage and watched the oil rain from the bottom of the truck…



That was about 6:00 or so. We always go to the Father’s Day car show at Nay Aug Park in Scranton with the 155W and this year I was hell bent on taking the 2 Brockway’s so that Tommy and Maddie could go with us. So after dinner my Dad came back over and we spent 2 quality hours under the truck cleaning off all the oil with wax and silicone remover… I also replaced the hard line with a #4 AN flex line and tightened up the bracket.

Here’s the ironic part… We stopped to visit Craig Morgan in the flea market and he had this bracket sitting on his table. I never saw one so I asked him about it and he said he sold hundreds at Cook Bros because the compressors came loose. Well I didn’t buy it thinking I wouldn’t need it since our truck didn’t come with one to begin with. Fortunately he still had it and it’s on its way now…



Then the next day we loaded the kids up and headed to Nay Aug Park… The Marushock Brothers also showed up with 3 of their Brockway’s so we had a pretty good showing of trucks at the show! The show was jammed all day and they had over 625 cars and probably had to turn 75 away or better…



While we were there we looked at the 671 in their 361 and sure enough that had an auxiliary bracket of the top of the compressor to steady it…



By the time we got home from Nay Aug, the compressor had worked loose again. So last night we removed the compressor from the Detroit. Two of the four bolts broke. One came out with my fingers and the other one I had to drill. I need to finish that tonight, so I’ll keep you posted…

That’s it for now!

[oldspwr]

Ok, time for another update…

When we last left off I mentioned how we had issues with the air compressor coming loose. So here is a pic of what happened to the hard line that fed the compressor. It cracked right at the top of the flare… Like I mentioned before it has since been replaced with a flex line just in case…



After I talked to Craig M, within a day the bracket showed up in the mail. (big thanks to Craig for his help…)



I removed the two long 3/8” bolts from the motor and trial fit the bracket to see what needed to be done…



I wound up turning two 3/8” wide spacers and then welding them to the inside of the bracket…



I also had to drill a 1 1/4” hole in the top for the water line to pass through…



There were 3 sets of holes drilled for different compressors so I decided to weld these up…



And then I redrilled the holes where I needed them…



When I was done with everything I radiused all the corners, sandblasted and painted it. I also decided that I would use studs in the compressor instead of bolts. So I bought two 5/16 bolts, cut the heads off and then threaded the ends to make studs. This worked out really well and I kept them long enough to double nut them. And here is the finished product…



The bracket really did the trick and the compressor is rock solid!

That’s it for now!