Phil 32DL6

One easy thing to check is if the gas cap is venting properly. Been there, had that happen.

Some background: The rear main bearing seal on my '32 DL has been leaking a bit ever since I got the car in 2009. That's not an uncommon problem on these old engines. I had the same situation on my first DL back in the '60s and replacing the bottom half of the split seal stopped the leak. (I even bought one of the special tools for replacing the upper half of the seal at the time, but never used it.) So, a few years ago I picked up a replacement seal kit to have on hand the next time I had the pan off on my newer DL. When I had the oil pan off this past winter I took a look at the lower seal and found that it was crimped into the metal housing. That was different than what I found 47 years ago, so I suspect that I may be dealing a replacement seal this time around. If the lower seal is crimped on, then probably the upper seal is too(?) That would make it very difficult to replace the upper seal using the special removal/insertion tool which relies on grabbing onto the end of the seal (like those Chinese finger grabbers) and pulling out the old one and pulling a new seal back in. So, I chickened out and reinstalled the old seal, adding a dab of sealer at both ends of the seal. I still have the leak...actually greater leaking after putting 1,600 miles on the car driving round trip to the 100th Centennial Meet in Detroit last month. So, until I pony up and pull the engine (the only way to really get at that upper half of the seal) for a complete overhaul, I'm left wondering about using one of those "stop leak" products. What kind of experiences have people had with those? I've always shied away from "miracle cures" and that's what many of those leak-stoppers seem to be. What are they really doing to our engines? Are they only working on seals, or are they gumming up other engine components? Any help here would be greatly appreciated and may be passed on as a tech article in the DBC News.

That's owned by DBC members John & Lin Bieback (who's DB isn't back together yet) and was the lead car in our 2-car caravan...because it's equipped with GPS.I saw the rear end of that car for 3 days of driving to and 2 days of driving home from the meet. Over 1,500 miles round trip!

As you know I was fooling around in that area of my DL a month ago. I never removed those small brackets on both sides because I didn't have the need to, but in looking at the detail shots I took, it looks like those brackets are attached to the frame with large rivets on mine. Yours appear to be bolted on. Are they? We know your car is an earlier '32 than mine so maybe they switched attachment methods in between?

I can't remember where I came across this, but I have it filed away in my reference folder.

Larry...I'm about to put the head back on my '32 DL and I was going to use 60-65 ft-lbs...which is what's spec'd for the '28-'32 Plymouth. I'm assuming that's close enough for both of ours, but if someone has different info, I hope they'll chime in for both of us.

I'll crawl under mine and see if I find any remnants of a leather boot, but my initial thought is that ours didn't come with one. If they did, wouldn't you think that they would show that in figure 30 on page 76 of our manual? Yet it doesn't. Maybe they were available as an option? Back to you soon.

I've just tuned my '32's Klaxon horn to this woman's laugh. http://www.thatvideosite.com/v/13460/womens-laugh-just-like-a-claxoneeeeeeeee

AWESOME! Hurry up and get Daphne put back together so I can take her for a spin and find out what Floating Power should REALLY feel like!

Freewheeling came as a standard driving option on the '32 DBs. To engage it you push in the large button on the dash between the choke and throttle. Pull it out to disengage freewheeling. Those cars that have the optional vacuum-assisted clutch use the same button to engage that along with Freewheeling. Do you want to disengage ONLY the vacuum-assisted clutch while keeping Freewheeling accessible? If so, I would suggest doing so by blocking off the vacuum at the source: the intake manifold port (#5 in the photo). I did so by making a blank "gasket" (with no hole) out of 1/8" aluminum sheet material. (See photos) That way there's no chance of a vacuum leak anywhere in the system. If you want to disable BOTH systems, the easiest way is to just pull out the dash button to its fullest extent. (But you'll still risk a vacuum leak.)

At least we're only at hotdogs...not hotrods.

Actually there is, as in "He leafs through the pages."But in this case it would be, "He leafs through the leaves."

I've had similar problems in the past but things have been working rather smoothly lately. I'm using Firefox 27.0.1 in OSX 10.6.8 on my MacPro. I have my Firefox preferences set to toss cookies when I close Firefox. (You don't really NEED cookies...it's the website owners that want them there). If I want to access the "Members Only" part of the DBC site I need to log in every time. My username is "remembered" (it appears in the box as I begin to type it in) but I need to ignore the ••••s that pop up in the password box and reenter my password every time to have things work properly. Rick Brinker has told me not to sign out when I'm finished my session, and I believe that has helped. I would suggest that if you manage to sign in, then don't sign out when you're through.

I'd have to see the original to verify but that appears to be a photograph. Retouched, yes, but a photograph. The harsh, unflattering daylight lighting with deep shadows is the giveaway.Here's one that's definitely an artist's rendering.

Don't worry about too little grease getting to the bearing. I once had an over-enthusiastic grease monkey fill my brake drum with grease because he didn't know when to stop! A little goes a long way. Here's a diagram from the '32 DL manual that shows how the grease fitting by-passes the grease seal and lubricates the bearing.

I'm thinking that while you've got the differential cover off, you may be able to see what's going on with the ends of the axles to determine if shims are needed and, if so, maybe what thickness.

This is from Dyke's Encyclopedia, 1943 Edition: "In adjusting wheel bearings, remember that the two drive shafts, right and left, come in contact in the center of the differential spider. If the bearing on one side is adjusted in too far, while the bearing on the other side is adjusted too far out, the spline end of the shaft will project through into the other side of the differential. This will either lock the differential or cause the end of the shaft to be twisted off. Care must be used, therefore, to take up the same amount on both right and left-hand bearings." So, placing the shims outside the bearings wouldn't allow you to adjust (eliminate) the play between the inner ends of the shafts.

This is what's on mine (which I feel looks original) and what I shared with Dick to help him confirm what's likely proper for a '32 DL.

For what it's worth the bands on my '32DL's starter and generator are painted black, as is the arm on the starter that engages the pedal linkage. I know that both were rebuilt by the previous owner about 4-5 years ago, but it doesn't look like the outside surfaces were repainted at that time. Who knows what might happened earlier?

Sorry about that...I'm a grease monkey with OCD!

The DRT-08 was also factory standard issue on the '32 DLs, but both of the ones I've owned came with swapped out Carter BB-1 carbs. I don't know how they would work on a '31, but the engines are pretty similar and I've always had good performance.

No, I never did on that car...now Dick's car.My present DL6 was originally painted "Mercedes Drab" so would have come with an ivory stripe. That's a pretty yucky color, in my opinion, which must have also been the opinion of the prior owner who had it repainted its current more neutral gray (see my avitar pic). One thing you'll learn in an article on pinstripping in the next issue of the DBC News is that you could order custom pinstripes from the factory, so an all-black 4-door sedan COULD have had stripes (from a variety of colors?) even if not normally available that way.

Actually, that chart shows no color under the stripe column for the 5-Passenger Sedan that year. I'd always wondered what that meant while I owned Dick's car. Was it an omission? Did that model in all black normally come unstripped?

Dick...Sounds like you're benefiting from some of the loving care I gave her over the years. I had the rear end apart at one time, thoroughly cleaned and inspected everything, made a new gasket for the differential cover, then filled it with gear lube. During the time she was in storage, I used to periodically spin the rear axles to keep the innards coated with lube. Also, I believe I repacked all of the wheel bearings at least once...sometime in the late-60s.

You must have missed his "Don't worry about the price."