Posted by Clint Dixon on Friday, March 11, 2005 at 1:19PM :
In Reply to: cross member posted by Eric on Friday, March 11, 2005 at 0:06AM :
Eric, I do not know, off hand, where to find a good crossmember but you have raised an interesting question about whether that particular crossmember changed over the years. This warrants further research.
For the early trucks, that crossmember should have four unique holes stamped into it. Two of these are for mounting the carrier bearing for the rear PTO shaft. These PTO parts disappeared from the parts manuals about 1960 indicating that they were no longer available. I wonder if they stopped punching these holes in the newer trucks. Also, the two other unique holes were for the rivets to the frame gusset that adds strength for the frame mounted spare tire carrier. I believe these stopped being available in 1951 with the change to the 2nd series bed (unless they continued in use on trucks ordered as cab/chassis). They may have stopped punching these holes also.
Clint