Pete K.

Sounds like little Dodge gremlins to me Jay. I actually left the desk in my shop here and took walk to far end of barn with a screwdriver to check my tank screws on my '25 that I re-did about a year ago, using a cork gasket, with the little tiny bits of black rubber intermixed with the cork that I must have got from Myer's Early Dodge parts--- no loosies! It's GOT to be Gremlins in Ct.

With ammeter showing discharge, the horn motor is most likely spinning, but not making contact with steel diaphragm inside of horn. First try loosening rear adjusting lock nut at rear of horn body, turn "in" adjusting screw while a helper presses horn button and see if you get an Aaooooga. If still no sound, follow BretK's advise.

Rw and Ray, When you go to shim your cap, try using "gaskets", or shims, if you will, made out of discs cut out of the sides of gallon plastic water jugs. It seems to be the right thickness and hot water won't affect it. (And they're free!).

Ray, try using shims under the cap gasket to get it to tighten down at the proper setting you're striving for.

Pure water won't lead to any build up of "crud" unless you already have a cruddy cooling system. It will lead to rusting tho'. I run water with 6 oz. of Bar's brand water pump lube/anti-rust all season long with no issues. It was 97 degrees in the shade here today and I had no overheating or burping out water from the overflow either in my '31 Model A pick-up. I have a new core from Berg's Radiator and a good water pump. I didn't overheat with the original 82 year old radiator, but I was on borrowed time with that poor thing. In really cold weather I drain half out and add Sierra antifreeze which won't foam. I drive it all year long. I don't hold any belief in the radiator flow test using the rubber ball stuck in the outlet pipe trick. it is total bunk.

Mike, as for temp increase after shutting down, yes, temp goes up for a short bit then starts cooling off. It sounds to me you're at the border line of a cooling system problem. I can think of a dozen things right off the top of my head about this situation. Timing, operator driving habits on hot days, too much spark retard, rust/crud in back of block and/or radiator, collapsed hose, rusted away water pump impeller, loose belt, wrong coolant mixtures, grease in system, It really boils down, (ha!, good pun here), to the "radiator" in most situations I've found. I've seen cracked overflow tubes, top tank water deflector missing or bent up, tubes partially clogged, bad cap/gasket and frequently, fins broken loose from the tubes in the core. That seems to be the leading cause. Not enough heat transfer by the radiator core itself. Most old cars have a water level that will find itself, by burping out more than it will tolerate, IF everything is known to be in good shape. Usually the level is right at the top tank water deflector. Mike, I see you say your '25 has a honeycomb core? I have not seen this on a '25 Dodge before. I have the straight tube/fins core and spare Dodge cores with straight tubes. I know General Motor's cars in that era and later on used honeycomb cores along with some others. Could it be an early re-core? They ARE good cores, but fragile as they are, they cannot be rodded out as the water path through them zig-zags. At least you need not worry about broken loose fins from the tubes!

Juan, Splash pans are important for cooling and electrical bonding for engine ground. They also keep boulders out of your carb's intake. Tests have shown that straight water is a better heat transfer than a mixture of water/antifreeze in our old cars. Removing your hood is one way to let out the high heat while going very slow in a parade only. I wouldn't clamp down the advance lever at any time. Refer to your owner's manual for the '27 for adv./ retard positions, as it may be different than my '25. Never start the engine unless you're in FULL retard pos. Engine very well may kick back and damage will occur to your Bendix drive or your starter armature shaft will bend, or both. Follow the manual's instructions to the letter. Happy motoring!, Pete.

Juan, I think the old cars DID have some overheating problems in a HOT day like you describe, going at a slow pace, even way back when. I won't even get into talking radiator condition and rust scale in the block in an 85 yr. old car. I know folks that have spent $1000. on their cooling system and it would still run at the top of the moto-meter scale in a very hot parade. Yes, a cooling fan would help if you could engineer it right. Just make sure you run with the spark advanced properly & idle isn't too fast. At slow speeds, only the fan is doing any cooling, other than the radiator fins that hopefully are all still soldered to the tubes in the core. Once some of the fins break loose from the tubes, heat is not transferred away from the tubes. The engine splash pans are also another step in cooling and act as a partial shroud to channel the air past the engine and out the back. Without them, air is very turbulent in engine compartment from air coming up from under and hot air sits there under the hood.

Rear axle shims are used when the axle nut is torqued up properly and the drum rubs the backing plate.

I have used the regular, cheapie number stamps before on plates that are on a firewall tag (a tag that is not factory), as I don't counterfeit auto numbers, but the font used on the great big fancy Dodge plate really does need to be done properly, as you know. Make sure they get the number right the first time!

Mike, I know your problem with the crappy looking number stamps available to most of us here. This should be nicely done since it is in direct view to all. How about going to your local trophy dealer/maker?? I'll bet they can do a nice job for short money too. P.S.-- for those of you who don't know about the '25 Dodge plate, it's right at the front passenger's toes! Not on a firewall or out of sight most of the time.

A very nice truck Binky! Looks like someone spent a lot of time and work fitting all new wood, and a good job at that. The serial # has to be found to be sure of what year the truck is. It does look very correct to me, as far as an older restoration goes. Most of these old trucks were worked to death and I'm surprised any of them are left today. You're lucky you have a spare vacuum tank laying in the back. It is period correct Stewart tank. The coil has been by-passed with a newer one on firewall, not uncommon to see this. I would replace that coil-to dist. wire SOON. Hopefully you have the crank hole cover. I see it is off in your picture, probably using the crank at the time. Don't leave the cover off, as the whole interior of the crankcase is open to mouse-houses and who knows what, to get into your engine's lower end. What are your plans on "fixin' her up"? Windex and a rag is all I would do for "cosmetics"!!! Very cool truck.

Ok Let's not get crazy with the heat now!! PLease explain this, you guys about the sun, UV rays, etc... on pot metal. On many old cars I've owned, let's take just the ones from the 20's & '30's; I've removed pot metal door handles that have been out in the sun and weather for decades to the point the plating is all but gone- None were swollen and cracked. some were snapped off, but the part of the handle that's been INSIDE the door panels was swollen, and cracks apparent, with nice chrome still on most of that section of the handles. Hmmmm. ALSO, many of my antique jukeboxes that I restore from the 1930's & 40's which uses an abundance of pot metal for the outer trim, from top to bottom and has been exposed to decades of bright sunlight, 99.9% is not decayed. BUT! I found a table top 10 cent, non-electric arcade machine that looked great from the outside, but when I opened it, (no light inside, mind you), the pot metal gears and levers were so far gone, they looked like a box of Ritz Crackers after being run over by a 1925 Dodge. SO... I THINK the pot metal decay problem is not heat or sun exposure at all. It may be the "Intergranular corrosion" of the piece itself, as it also depends on the metallurgical makeup of the pot metal manufacturer. There are definitely better grades of pot metal. Some "junker" machines I've hauled to the dump had to be broken up first, whereas I could sometimes crush pieces of pot metal with my bare hand, (boy, I feel like Hercules!), others I've smacked with a hammer and couldn't bust 'em!

Thinking back now, I had an all original 1930 Buick mdl. 47 series 40 sedan and it did not have fender welting that showed.

A good coat of paint and your daily prayers. This is why pot metal is so darned cursed. I've been dealing with that stuff for more years than I can remember with the likes of my other venture--antique amusement machines and jukeboxes. You are lucky you even have that nice wiper motor in one piece in 2013!!!! Best, Pete.

I just don't know for certain. My car was "gussied up" with a black and green paint job most likely in the 1960's. I will however stand by my thought as not all cars had welting that was visible. I'm not certain my fenders were ever off the car either. You pose a very good question!

8K sounds too high, judging from what you post & what I see. $4500 would be the top I would think.

Mike, 'got to thinkin' about that noise again and it occurred to me that you had the engine front cover off, could it be that a longer cover bolt went back in perhaps in the wrong place and it's clicking against the chain, or... This wouldn't be the first time I've seen (or rather heard) this happen!

Thank for posting this John. I really enjoyed looking and BOY, do I wish I had access to those great, old car tire machines!!!

Hi Ray, I have very thick skin--and I've heard it all. My uncle "Mac", (Wilbur K.) from Matamoras, Pennsylvania, flew 34 bombing missions over Germany. He lived to tell about it. He was with the 339th Squadron,96th bombing group, 8th Air Force (Army Air Corps). he flew as Captain, a Boeing # B17F-45-00. Serial# 42-3322. I don't know what airfield he was stationed at in England. He had his share of the dreaded German 77MM "flak". I had a piece of it that he brought back after the war. Do you think it is possible to fabricate a slightly smaller threaded collar to go in place of the original crank hole and then find the same smaller, good looking steel crank cover that will screw into that? I'm running out of ideas!

Yes indeed, A manifold leak will produce a backfire with the right conditions. Those right conditions are quite abundant too.

Ray, I'm 5th generation American, Does that entitle me to "Native" American yet? Mom's side of family from England originally. Dad's side is 3rd generation German. This is why I'm always in turmoil with myself. Getting back to the crank hole situation, another home brew would be to acquire an expandable rubber & steel pipe plug, the kind plumbers use to close off an un-used pipe, maybe buried in a foundation wall. It has two steel washers with a shaft in the center and hex nut with the tapered rubber "cork" in between. When wrenched up, it expands and plugs well. It would look like the Dickens on the car but that hole needs to be sealed up well when driving. Without a seal there, it's a direct entrance to the bottom end of motor and will spew oil like no tomorrow when running. This I'm sure you know.

Replacement rotors can be had from Myers Early Dodge parts or Romar's. (found on Web). They are very pricey, and I don't knock it since it is a strange bird and I can't think of another car that used that rotor. You may end up purchasing a whole, rusty distributor unit that has a good rotor in it and come out cheaper. I'm not sure if the vendors sell brand new ones or rebuilt ones.

Believe it or not, I've had good luck using a small Dremel type tool with a small cut-off wheel, !/2" dia. or so, and carefully go around the threads in the crank hole body to help restore damaged threads. Also, if you can find a plug the same size/thread as your crank hole COVER, cut a small notch into the threads perpendicular with a hack saw, so as to make a "self tapping" screw out of it. Then thread it into the body and you may have luck restoring the body threads. These are just ideas of a man with very shallow pockets.

Are you positive you don't have a vacuum leak somewhere either around manifold or exhaust pipe connection? The backfire at shut-down sure sounds to me like there is a leak of air getting in.