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- [Narrator] In this episode of the Wrenchmen

we are in Mayfield Michigan

with John and his 1934 Dodge Pickup.

After some engine trouble

and a few unfortunate life events,

the truck has sat for years.

It's time to get this hot rodder back on the road.

(engine startup)

- Aah!

- [Narrator] Ever had a project that stuck,

stalled, or over your head?

Sometimes it just takes an extra set of eyes

or an extra set of hands.

Enter the Wrenchmen.

Follow along as we travel the country

getting classic cars back on the road.

(upbeat country music)

(slow country music)

- Things started sounding bad.

I pull over to the side of the road.

Looked under the engine bay

and there was oil everywhere.

Of course the initial thought process then is check the oil.

And see I fully expected to see nothing on the dipstick.

And much to my chagrin

it was overfull

and smelled like gas and was like liquid.

- [David] Morning John.

- Morning.

- [David] David. - [John] David.

- And Matt.

- Matt, pleasure to meet you too.

- Good to meet ya.

- What do you got hiding over there?

- I have got an awesome 34 Dodge pickup

that I can't wait for you guys to tear into

and make it on the road again.

- [David] Well excellent, let's do that!

- [Matt] Okay so, with him finding gas in the oil

that means one of these carbs

has gotta be puking fuel through.

- Yeah exactly because

this has an electric fuel pump

so there's no way to get fuel into the engine

because it doesn't have the mechanical.

There's no leak path. - Yeah.

Carbs are the only path.

- [David] Exactly.

- [Matt] So we're gonna drop the pan.

Take a look at all the bearings.

- Yeah because as the oil got diluted with fuel

it's not gonna lubricate the bearings as well.

That's why it knocked.

It's a hydraulic lifter motor,

and those lifters are probably slapping as well.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- But we need to make sure that

the mains and the rods are good

and there's no just general junk down in the pan.

- Yeah perfect.

Well let's get going.

- Alright yeah.

I'll get rolled underneath there and start pulling that pan.

(upbeat music)

Alright so since I can't drop this pan

I'm gonna wipe a rag on the bottom of it

and see if there's anything in the bottom.

There's nothing picked up on the magnet.

So there's nothing shiny.

One or two flakes but that would be normal anyway.

I really think we're in good shape.

We'll do a last check,

or part of that last check,

we'll pull that oil filter.

Cut it apart, see if there's anything in there

that tells us differently

that we can't just visually inspect basically.

Now this side looks good.

Is there enough room

to get the filter?

There isn't.

I'm not even joking.

- [Matt] Can't get the filter out?

- [David] No.

You've got to be kidding me.

- [Matt] So we're gonna have to pull that bracket?

- Well we'll have to jack the motor up.

There's probably one thread left.

Oh oh, I got it.

Well there's some stuff.

But not full.

So there might be some wear

on the main bearings and the rod bearings,

but I don't see anything enough to be alarmed.

It definitely had a lot of gas going through it though

cause this thing stinks.

Matt I'm still comfortable

with leaving those bearings in it.

Let's get a fresh oil filter on it,

and go to that battery.

Get a new battery in it so we can turn it over.

Then we'll be at put oil in it and prime it.

We wanna prime it so we can push any

diluted fuel, diluted oil,

out of the bearings.

One more thing down.

- [Matt] (mumbles)

- Yes.

- [Matt] (laughs) Thanks, I like to think so.

- I'm having a little pizza.

- [Matt] Yeah.

(upbeat rock music)

- So this carburetor is anchored

with the gaskets are stuck.

I'm gonna take the end of this wooden hammer

and just basically pop it up off of there.

- [Matt] I can't think of any reason why

we can't put oil in it.

We should be able to fill it up, prime it,

and then basically start putting

the carburetors and distributor back into it,

and get that much closer to firing the car up.

So just like with the GTO we did for Chris

we're gonna do this Pennzoil GT Performance 25W-50.

It's got extra zinc in it,

and that's the stuff that protects your older engines

and it's what they used to run what we're gonna run now.

- [Matt] You want me to tell you pressure?

- [David] Yeah tell me if we're getting some.

(drill)

- [Matt] Oh there we go.

- In my bet we might be able to spin out more

than 20 or 30 pounds.

No but what I wanna do, - Whoo lightheaded.

- I wanna set the distributor in there,

and I wanna see if the starter works.

- [Matt] Oh bump it?

- [David] Yeah cause if I have to order one of them, yeah,

I need to know before six.

- [Matt] A little different conversation.

You got 15 minutes.

- [David] Before six?

- [Matt] Yeah.

- [David] So we gotta hustle.

- There it goes.

Contact.

- Go ahead.

Solenoid fires but the motor's not moving.

- [Matt] 12.28.

Should be enough to turn it over at least.

The starters solenoid is clicking,

but the starter isn't turning over

so I just checked the voltage at the solenoid

for the high current lead.

But we got 12.2 something volts

so it should be enough to turn that motor over

but it isn't, so gonna get a new starter.

Okay, on?

- [David] Yep.

- [Matt] Crank.

That's better.

That's it.

Day one's done.

- Now I promised ya at the end of the day

we'd be driving it,

and obviously we're not. - And I didn't believe you

from the first second you said it.

- Optimism is better. - I know better.

I've been on these things before.

- But we got a big portion of that check list done.

- [Matt] We did, and we even added a few things.

- [David] We did, that's true.

So tomorrow morning new fuel pump.

- [Matt] Brand new fuel pump.

And we already got the starter in.

It comes over great.

- Tomorrow.

- We'll be driving.

- Driving tomorrow.

- That's right.

- Cool, John will be happy.

Let's pick some stuff up and go home.

(upbeat rock music)

(country music)

- It was back in the early 2000's

when I had another vehicle that was

near and dear to my heart.

It was a 32 51 Decoupe,

and never was ever gonna sell it.

I ended up selling it to a gentleman

that wanted it very badly.

And he gave me a premium price for it.

And I thought that I was done with the hot rods

for a little bit.

I was gonna get into muscle cars,

and then I found that I needed

another hot rod.

I was looking aggressively

to find something different and unique,

and ended up seeing an advertisement

in Goodguys Gazette

in the classified's for this beautiful 34 Dodge pickup.

- This morning I gotta wrap up these carburetors.

Now the problem I'm gonna have

is that the steel line is not mating up

with the fittings I got for those carburetors.

So I may have to do a little adaptation there.

- Yeah, well the problem I had yesterday is fixed

is we had the exact same fuel pump,

but a functional version.

I'll work on that stuff.

You work on this stuff.

- I'll tidy this up.

- And when both of us are done

maybe we'll fire this thing up and go for a drive.

- I like that idea.

Sounds good. - Alright.

- Just got one more clamp to tighten

and then we'll see if we get fuel up to the filter now.

There we go.

Hey, look at that.

I am gonna have to...

gotta do a little adaptation here

since I can't get the correct fittings.

We got a little lucky and we should be able to

just use some rubber hose for the short-term.

So that'll get us

connection to these.

The idea here is I'm gonna put this up onto there.

Now I know the tube knots are just gonna be bouncing around,

but I don't have a choice right now.

Alright, see what this one looks like.

(engine trying to start up)

115.

(engine trying to start up)

- No.

- I thought I heard something.

- [Matt] Ready?

- [David] Yeah, give it a try.

(successful engine startup)

- Aah!

- Oh I shut it off, sorry.

- That's fine, I figured.

That's better.

At least we got smoke.

We got smoke, we got fire.

- For a few years while we we're going through the process

of finding a home here, getting resettled,

getting out of the debt and reestablishing ourselves,

ten months after that my wife became ill.

We thought it was pneumonia.

She went into the hospital.

They started treating her for that.

And we ended up finding out that she had cancer

and just five months later I lost her.

She absolutely loved that truck.

That's another part of it that was

a great deal of fondness with me

that hurt a great deal in the beginning,

but now it's, you know, it's like,

I guess they say time heals all wounds.

And that wound of losing her.

Now I can kinda look at the truck

and remember the fond memories.

And now it's fun and exciting for me again.

It's almost like the first week I got that truck.

It's coming back to me now.