mrcvs

I heard a new one last year. Jeep = Just Empty Every Pocket. Also, Ford = Found on Road Dead as well, or the F bomb and 'old rebuilt Dodge'. Pontiac has a very un-PC one, but cannot mention it here. (The C in Pontiac refers to Cadillac). Any others? I have always found these to be amusing!

It is the same thing as speeding tickets. The states claim it is all about safety, but the reality is, both annual inspections and speeding tickets are just money for the state coffers. You can also add red-light cameras to this as well.

I went to that show in 2013 and enjoyed it immensely! That was before I owned the Model A and the Maxwell had no problems, either! Talked to a man who has a 1919 Buick who said he drove it to Maine and back on its own power, including a small stretch of I-91! Was greatly impressed. The wife was not. She enjoyed her French Fries, and not much else!

Actually, I did well. Just ended up costing more than expected. Thought it was $75, but ended up being $125. Also, if going through a third party, you still need photos and I have no way to take pictures and get them on a computer to print out and cannot locate an old camera with film photos.

And it does...came in the mail today!

I wanted to go, and VIRTUALLY never get sent anywhere for work. Wouldn't you know, of course, it is the one weekend in over a year that I was away for work purposes, and that was beyond my control. Believe me, I tried to get out of it and could come up with no viable option short of being on sick leave after being hit by a truck.

Nope, I am willing to get my hands dirty. DON'T MIND THAT AT ALL!!!! I go into slaughterhouses for a living, you think the innards of a car bother me?

I will have to look again for the hand crank, or buy one. I think I looked for it and could not find it. Which reminds me WHY I was looking for it. I have been starting the Maxwell with the built-in hand crank as the electric starter doesn't work anymore. What should I do to fix that? Add in the Smith & Wesson Triple Lock I have with the frozen lock (I am ordering Kroil for this) and this place ought to be called 'The Land of Nothing that Runs'. LOL!

Regarding a local club, the New Tripoli one is nearby. My problem now is that I really wish I had been attending it for years so that, when I have a problem such as this I am a regular member rather than the 'stranger' who shows up and just wants help.

I would love to be able to say I can fix ANYTHING, inside and out, and not rely on any help whatsoever. Not quite there yet...LOL!

I thought I bought a car that needed little work. Unfortunately, with student loans and house payments, $5,000 is a LOT of money. Cars that need little work equal more money than I have available.

How do you crank the engine so that the points are closed? Then how do you open the points manually and repeatedly? My spark plug 'wires' are flat bands, pronged at the end.

John Knox is amazing! He won't take payments on faulty belts and will shorten for free on multiple occasions. But, they keep stretching and stretching...

Yes, they are leather and they do stretch. But the belt really is not adjustable as it is a bunch of wire 'clasps' held together with a pin. That would still be okay if you can get some distance, but it doesn't take long for it to stretch out (like 1 or 2 miles) and I cannot afford a new belt every 2 miles. I have belts that are about impossible to get on as I have them as short as possible, and STILL they stretch to the max really quickly. As far as ignition problems go, it is just me working on this car. It is hard to assess what is going on with the ignition when I am in the car trying to start it and not up front assessing the quality of the spark, condenser, etc. Besides, this is a little over my head right now.

Yes, I realize that these cars require attention and things will need to be fixed, but the frustration is that I try and fix something, it never seems to work, and I don't know really what to do next. I mean, I initially sprayed carburetor cleaner all over the carburetor, and that didn't work. Now, soaked the carburetor, then sprayed it with carburetor cleaner, and absolutely NO improvement. Fuel flows through fuel line well...so I don't know what to do! I actually enjoy tinkering with these cars and think it is a shame that folks hot-rod them, but I seem to have lots of problems which are minor in nature, they take forever to fix, and I get a minimal number of miles out of the car before the next insurmountable problem. I really don't have the money to invest in Trailer Queens. Have to fix things myself and am more into drivers than show cars as the money just isn't there for it.

I am asking this, as I am extremely frustrated. Bought a Model A, and it ran fine when I bought it. Ran it maybe 5 miles and now I cannot get it to run, more than 5 or 10 seconds. Soaked all the gunk off the carburetor and no improvement. My other car has had multiple fan belts which stretch until the fan blade hits the radiator intake. This usually stops the stretching but then results in stress to the blade. You put the belt on as tight as is possible, and it still doesn't take long to stretch out. I am really HATING this hobby BIG TIME!!! Everyone else seems to drive hundreds of miles in their antique cars and I cannot even manage to make it to the antique car show three miles down the road. Once again, without STRONG clubs ALL over the place and a support group out there to help the younger generations, those of you with grey hair are, someday, going to wonder why there is no one out there to buy your cars when you want to sell them. I know that cars need repairs and work, but they are supposed to be simple fixes and occur once every several hundred miles.

I just tried that and it didn't work. Does anyone else out there think this hobby really sucks? I mean, I cannot get this car to run, and my Maxwell, no matter what I do, remains out of commission because the fan belts stretch, causing the fan blade to hit the radiator intake, stress, and throw a blade into the radiator (been there, done that). i actually got the Model A as an alternative I could run a lot more, and still, no such luck!

Okay, sent in the $75.00, and a letter came back that another $50 and an insurance card was needed. Mailed it back in and the antique plate came back, but the title was not mailed with the plate. Any ideas as to if the title will ever come back separately or do I need to do something. GOOD LUCK in actually reaching the Pennsylvania DMV by telephone. Trying to reach them on various occasions by telephone over the YEARS ALWAYS yields a busy signal. Congressmen in this state ought to MANDATE that you reach a live voice, hopefully without having to go through a canned recording, this not even being an option!

Okay, I soaked the carburetor all day today in gunk remover, sprayed carburetor cleaner all over, reassembled everything, and...still, the same thing! (Okay, I did not try using the air compressor as I do not have one -- trying to find one at auction, which, of course, is easy to find at a good price, unless you actually need one). What happens, now and before, is when you start it the first time, you press on the starter, pull the choke out one, pull the spark lever down, and it roars to life, only to peter out in about 10 sec or less. Subsequent starts yield a weaker start and dying out in only a few seconds. Any ideas what to do, other than simply waiting until I have an air compressor? Or, any ideas as to exactly what is going on? Fuel flow seems to be adequate as, once when I removed the carburetor and forgot to shut off the gas, the gas did pour out.

Where do you go to get one duplicated? I went to the local hardware store and they did not have a key with the appropriate 'stripes' necessary to duplicate the key properly.

I believe that the float is allowing enough gas into the bowl because, when I have pulled the carburetor, there always is a substantial amount of gas in the bowl. I would think it would be enough gas in there, as much more would flood it. Yeah, a bad day when I voiced my frustrations. Sometimes best to stay off the computer when I get frustrated! Despite my feeling dumb when it comes to this (and I am relative to you 'old timers' ), I am probably at least moderately ahead of many of those in my generation, I think, as most of 'us' are perfectly happy sitting in front of a computer all day long, and loathe the idea of any grease or oil under the fingernails! I am disappointed in myself, I guess, because my grandfather (who came from the GREATEST generation, a WWII veteran), could fix ANYTHING! I remember my uncle had a player piano once, that did not work, and he sent it off somewhere to get it fixed, and they couldn't fix it! My grandfather got it working, even MADE his own tools that were specific to fixing this player piano. I could have learned so much from him, and he has only been gone a little over two years, nearly making it to 95 years old. Trouble is, I never could find a job reasonably close to where I grew up (yes, the Connecticut economy has been in the gutter for some time!), so trips to Connecticut were more social visits instead of anything where I could spend lots of time learning all he knew. He didn't need Valvoline to change his oil (of course I change mine too!), or the internet to dig himself out of a hole. I wish I could instill the same mentality in my wife. Her mentality is buy new and get someone else to fix it (AND, live in a subdivision (Ugh!), so I don't have the space I need (and complain that the garage smells like old car all the time). I think I will get an air compressor, despite it taking up 'space' in the garage. I pitched four fibreglass columns on Friday, which were taking up space in the garage, and the compressor will take up much less space. Any ideas on which ones are best and how much to spend?

I am coming to this conclusion myself. Rust deposits (minor) and mostly white powder (lead?) were in the fuel bowl, so this what I am suspecting.

Zenith. I also have the 1917 Maxwell, we have spoken before. How are things these days?

Okay, I tried again today, and first time, it runs 5 - 10 seconds and quits. Then it wants to run, but sputters a second or so and dies. I will try to figure out how to get air in the screw hole without a compressor and see if that works. BTW, I, on a microcosm level, am a good example of why this country is falling apart. I was born in 1970, struggle with fixing things like this, and waste my day with a job in front of a stupid computer half of the day. We need people who can fix things and make things run, not folks with useless skills who waste time answering dumb and pointless e-mails from upper management. Don't produce anything in this country anymore, folks who cannot fix things...and waste their formative years in useless liberal arts courses when they should be avoiding college (and debt) completely and learning a skill. My 2 cents worth. If anyone with Model A skills lives nearby, I would love to learn from you. I live in Macungie, PA, not far from Route 100. I saw one recently (running!!) on Spring Creek Road, I think it was a 1930, blue in colour...if you read this, where are you?

I don't have an air compressor. I know, I should have one, but the wife complains about the car itself being in the garage and it makes the option of having lots of other toys in there difficult. Any ideas? I did mess around with the screw already, but I think it is where it always was before. This was what I thought might be the problem reading the Jim Schild book.