Pete K.

Phil, That's one of the nicest turn signal mod I've seen. Bret, go over to the "FORDBARN" Model A Ford website to see all the threads about lap belts and turn signal modifications. They are always doing things like that to the million Model A's out there. Most are quite good. Seat belts can be installed to the steel center crossmember, or even the seat frame, but I've not done any seat belt mods to any of my oldies on the road. I try to drive very defense-ably. You're surrounded by thick, U.S. steel, a downtown fender bender probably won't even scratch your Dodge. There has been some SERIOUS highway wrecks in the last few years involving antique cars. One of the most important safety mods you can consider is to replace the windshield plate glass for safety glass, and perhaps the door plate glass also. Taylormade & Keiser hit the nail on the head with the input about the wiring.--Best, Pete. P.S.-- I spoke to a young man going for his license now in 2013 and he told me they still teach hand signaling in his classroom work. Do they pay attention? Hmmm...

WOW! That's a beaut! Good luck and stick with the original equipment. It did the job for many years and many miles. It seems that some, not all, new updates bring on more headaches than what they're worth. A good, clean fuel system, from the tank to the engine is mandatory and will discount many trouble-shooting hours in the future. Same with the basic engine electrical system. Hope to see more pictures of your work in near future. Best of luck Bret!---Pete.

Yup Keiser31, We all HAD those thoughts when we were Adolescents! Jeff, those are great finds. I hope you keep the '31 coupe original. That's a rare car.

Who would think those old wood slat and fabric roofs were that strong. I don't see any of those gems on the bottom caving in.

I've had some old cars with noisy release bearings too, It's still in one piece and doing it's job. Yours definitely needs some lube soon. I have not had my '25 transmission opened up beyond the point of the top cover, so I'm having a hard time figuring this one out. I want to say the slight warp-age, if any, with the plates would not be so pronounced as to spin that group of plates that soon after stepping on the clutch pedal. You could back off the pedal adjustment quite a bit just to see if that changes things, then remember to re-adjust for proper pedal play. You could also jack up the drive wheel at rear and put trans. in reverse gear,with engine running, to see if the plates slow or stop when you push the clutch in.

Ray, It doesn't sound like your clutch throwout bearing is bad, "they" usually stop working by giving a really bad noise at first, when pedal is depressed followed by complete failure when the balls fall out from the worn off bearing retainer. From what I gather, the transmission gears are spinning with even low engine rpm's and clutch depressed. Either the 680W oil isn't up full enough to just cover the reverse idler gear, or the pilot bearing on the forward end of the trans. input shaft is seized. I don't recall seeing a pilot bearing seize that strongly to keep the transmission shaft turning that much. A sticky build up of goo could have got on the clutch plates, like you say you were spraying them down with carb cleaner. Maybe not all the goo got sprayed off. They HAVE to be dried out after spraying them.

Ditto on that.

I would straighten it cold. There isn't as much driving stress as one would think, on the rod itself. Remember, the rod is connected to the spindle arm with a little BOLT in some cases. others have a cup & ball, spring loaded connection that are overlooked by many, when the ball gets worn to a oval. They still seem to "hang on".

By Golly they did mike--Had the pleasure of restoring one 30 years ago, made by the Columbia Phonograph Co. in 1899. An oak "table top" case with a curved glass front that held a mechanism that played cylinder records! It was originally a nickel-a-play too. The listener would have to use ear plugs on a rubber tube (like a doctor's stethoscope), to hear the one and only selection of the day, so that others around him would not hear his money's worth of music. (no amplifiers then!). other more elaborate machines were coming about thru the teens and twenties. Gable Co. was a leader of very early acoustic jukeboxes. Very rare today.

You may check out the tire sites that offer the Goodyear All-Weather Diamond tread bias ply tires. I've had a set on one old car of mine and am very pleased all around with them. Lucas Tire is another outfit that carries good tires too. They have a warehouse in Ohio I believe.

Many thanks Ray, I found that article very interesting and I learned many things about the Tower that I never knew.

Ray, Thanks for the photo. And yes, My apologies to Mike for the start of this major hijacking of his thread!! I would like to think Mike knows we would help him out in any way I can with his '25 Dodge project. The gent that has the Wurl. P-10 is a bit off the mark. That is not Wurlitzer's first jukebox. Wurlitzer's 1st was called the "Debutante". The blue paint in the cabinet IS original color also. I've seen both blue and black interiors. The light-up plastics were not invented as yet- that was started with the Seeburg Corp. of Chicago,Ill. in 1937. The early wood "flat top" jukes are worth far less than the later "gaudy" ones, but they're cool anyhow. I found your link to Nigel Ogden playing the Blackpool Tower Wurlitzer organ really neat! I'm glad the war bombs didn't hit that hall!

I hope this will help a bit Bill, I believe this to be original to this car, 1925 Dodge Brothers, Serial# 388850. Distributor Mdl. "O" , Type 10004, 12 Volts. The serial # on this dist. tag is not filled in. In other words, no imprint of numerals. It is blank. The lower tag on shaft housing is;1868037. I wish I could help with all the other distributors--good luck!---Pete.

yes, I started with the old jukes way back in 1977 when virtually no one was looking for them. The collectors went cookoo for them a short 4 yrs. later. Now, investors buy them. I've been fortunate to locate many jukeboxes from 1936 to 1955. All makes & models, probably a hundred. The rarest and most beautiful ones are the Wurlitzer's from 1939-1948. I kept 6 of them which are fully restored and in my home. The internal record changers are made of steel, iron, brass, cast aluminum and POTMETAL. The turntables rise a foot to snatch the record from a selected-out pivot ring of polished aluminum stack of the records, then meets up with the tonearm on a stanchion at right rear. Music plays, then returns record back to the "stack". One can watch all this going on through the front window. These machines are not for the faint of heart. They are quite intricate with a lot going on inside. All direct drive through gearing and a clutch for the mech & turntable. (78 RPM). There's more wiring in them than 20 1925 Dodges. They of course use a tube 110 V. amplifier mated with electro-dynamic speakers that operate at boost of 600+ volts. "Ballroom sound" for sure. I play them all the time. At least it's GOOD music. I once repaired a player piano Mike--Don't ever want to do another one, but I do love 'em. You are right on about the pre-internet days finding parts & info. It was SLOW going. It didn't stop with jukeboxes. I went on to dig up old penny arcade machines and many old mechanical slot machines from 1906 to 1949. I Had some stories and repair articles published over the years. Some of the stories are really funny. I once bought an early jukebox from a totally(from birth), deaf man. The only part it was missing was the tonearm. He didn't care. One man traded me his old jukebox for 20 Lbs. of fresh jumbo Pistachio's. At the time I was operating a string of nut machines in all the bars & shops in the county and had the bags in my trunk. Wonder how long it took him to polish those all off. Here's a couple more shots of some cool, old music machines. My apologies Mike for the severe hijacking!

Yup, They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

I second the motion.

John, If you can open the hood to look at the fuel filter bowl when you hold the throttle open a bit at high rpm's, do you see any air spaces or large bubbles coming into the filter bowl, you may have a porous suction tube in the tank, sucking some air into the line.Make sure all connections are flared OK and tight. Without seeing this it can be hard to tell if it's actually a fuel problem. Could it be a high speed miss because of a timing or ignition issue? A vacuum gauge would come in handy with this problem.

Thanks Mike, I've only had two Model A's out of the 14 antique cars owned in the past 40 years. The earliest was a 1909 Autocar two ton coal truck, two cylinder engine with acetylene lamps. I'm very used to locating "impossible to find" parts if I put my mind to it. Ford built millions of Model A's as you know, so original parts are still around. The repro parts for the A's vary in quality from poor to good. I try to find only original parts, but some body styles are unique and their parts are now difficult to locate. If you really want to go on some treasure hunts for parts, try restoring a 1941 Wurlitzer jukebox. They only built 10,000 of them in '41 and most were worn out & scrapped by the 1950's. Jukeboxes were not "built to last" like many of the fine automobiles of the day. Record disc speed & size changed and so did the machines. The old ones were cast off to the dump! This is one of about 25 still in existence and now playing my old '78's loud and clear, for a nickel-a-play.

Mike, Here's a picture of the '31 ford pick up I pulled out of a plumbing warehouse where it had been sleeping for over 45 years un-touched and mostly original. It had some WWII modifications done like the 16" Ford wire wheels and a brush paint job. I tell people they sell my touch-up paint in every store in America. It's called black Rustoleum. The baloney skin spare tire is the original that came with the truck in '31. I drive it every chance I get. It's like driving a Go-cart since it's half the size of our Dodges. It is a tiny cab. I freshened the engine, new brakes, tires, hoses, battery, all new wiring. Just finished putting in a new radiator core last week since the old one had more leaks than I could count. It never over heated though. I plan to get the core re-done for my other project, a 1931 Ford 160-B Town Sedan, the slant windshield body. That has been on-going for many years and will be for a long time. (a frame-up resto.). The Dodge is a "breeze" compared to that. I'm very anxious to get those new tires on the '25 and drive that baby, just haven't been ready for wrestling alligators doing those tires (all five), for the Dodge. I bought the tubes with the vulcanized-on metal Schrader stems and correct, long dust covers. The Dodge has most of the original metal stems, but I can't see re-using them at this point. They are probably the clamp-in type, I don't trust them as much.I'm hoping the flaps are in those old casings, as I didn't buy new ones. They rarely go bad over time. I'll certainly find out soon enough.

Mike, I thought your '25 was all put back together. If there is anything in particular you may be looking for, I'd be happy to crawl into the overly- packed barn of mine and photograph something for you. As you may know, I found this Dodge about a year ago, assembled, mostly original. I've spent the last year cleaning fuel system & restoring wiring and minor problems. I'm leaving the car as it is, the paint job buffed out pretty well, got it running well and just as yesterday, got my new 21" tires and the tubes delivered here. I still haven't placed the battery back in it for the spring time start-up yet this year, I've got other old car projects going on here at the same time. A picture only takes a minute to do, so let me know-- Best regards, Pete.

Ray, Usually a back fire from exhaust pipe means there is RAW gasoline fumes in the exhaust system that are ignited and exploding once engine produces fire or sometimes the heat from the exhaust system itself. It sounds to me the ignition is intermittently shutting down and starting back up causing this problem. As mentioned earlier, the coil, condenser, points grounding out or wiring is the culprit. I do remember reading a service note about the distributor we have, not being grounded to car, where the two main iron bodies meet of the distributor housing and the coil housing. Grease and oil were the culprits there. Dodge suggested to run a separate wire from dist. body to frame, or other good, known ground. I had a '38 Chevy as a kid for everyday driving and one day in downtown traffic a backfire blew the muffler completely open. My feet were jolted 3 inches off the floorboard and a woman on the sidewalk almost fainted from shock. I found it was my key switch at fault. An intermittent on-off situation. Anyway, I'm thinking your vacuum tank may be OK.

Ray, Here's my 2 cents; Take hold of the copper vac. line from intake -to- vac. tank after engine is warmed up. If it's cold, there's fuel going through it to your engine with a problem of the valve in vacuum tank not closing and engine siphoning fuel out of the tank. Your problem of any loud backfire from tail pipe sounds to me of another source,--- IGNITION! This could be anywhere in the ignition system, from the key switch to the plugs and all in between. Sounds either like some component is either breaking down with engine heat-up or shorting out with the same heat induced scenario. If your vacuum tank was at fault and gas was siphoning into engine big-time, you would see the fuel pouring out of the pre-heater adjustment at carb and you'd be blowing out more black smoke than ever out of exhaust pipe.

My bet they are horse drawn carriage lamps that have been electrified at one point.

I have a U joint with the spiral speedo gear on it for sale. This did come from a '30 Buick, small series 40. Probably the same as your '29?

Jim, I'm sorry to hear LeBaron-Bonney couldn't help out. As I remember, there was an advertiser in the older Hemmings Motor News of a company called "Stitts" that specialized in old auto fabric restorations. Don't know if they're still around. The windlace will be a problem to find as you stated. You may need to vary a bit from original, I hate to say it..but what else can one do these days? Matching the color would be the big obstacle. The green "Pullman" mohair IS available, though not a blue-green. Best regards, Pete.