Pete K.

Question is, will your safety gap even spark if your plugs are hooked up & installed? It's been too many years for me to remember about those mags. Do you have ANY printed information on the magneto? I think at least one of the Dodge parts vendors sell a book on them.

As long as the threads on plugs are 7/8 X 18 US std., they will work. The difference with each plug is the heat range of the plug itself. A "hot" plug means the heat generated by cylinder combustion built up on the center electrode has a longer travel distance up in the plug to it's surrounding cylinder head threaded hole where the coolant is.--so the electrode stays "hotter". The Dodge had Champion's in it originally. I don't think your problem is at all, the plugs. I don't know the internals of the NGK G-2Z. Some of my old cars are still using 80 tear old plugs and going FINE. My '25 Dodge is using very old Champion's C-16 C's. They work well.

What's throwing me here is if the timing had slipped, (chain on sprocket), you would still get a cough or back fire unless the chain broke or sprocket let go on shaft. Remove one valve cover and crank engine to verify valves are moving! Is there anything you are doing different when you test the spark at the plugs and when you're starting the car? It only takes 3 things for combustion--spark, good fuel and compression. P.S., I doubt the plugs are failing under compression. The coil might.

Mike, DON'T roughen up the fan pulley drive surfaces. It will only lead to belt failure. Think back or remember seeing pictures of those really old drive pulleys in large shops--they were SMOOTH. Your problem is at the fan hub clamping system or the wrong type belt.

If the engine is flooding, the needle valve is either stuck, worn out or clogged with a speck of rust. It could also be a vacuum leak. I don't know the condition of your carb. At least plug the wiper line OFF at the fitting on top of the vacuum tank next time you try starting it. Put a short length of rubber tube with a screw in the end of it on that fitting. Let the wiper tube dangle for now. Setting up the carb is very tricky because it is unlike any other carb. You've got a metering pin inside the metering valve. They both can move independently within one another. The metering pin is known to break off the rack easily. The small thumb knob on the choke bell crank is the micro-tuning for idling mixture since the rack and pinion goes together in a macro way. Anyway, when you have the carb back on the engine, turn on the "gas", wait a few moments and with a small flashlight, look down into the air intake adjustment sleeve, right before it goes into the block,turn it open if it's not-- you'll see fuel running through it if carb is still flooding. Have you tested the float in hot water for leaks? ---here's a picture of a broken metering pin from the rack.

An armored convertible!! I love it! This needs to go down with the screen door on a submarine jive. (I think poor Trident is lost at sea).

Mike, Glad to hear this helped out. These old engines require all the internal vacuum they can muster to run right. It's a very good point you made elsewhere on the forum about evenly tightening the 2 mixing chamber screws and using a new paper gasket there. I hope others starting up old Dodges for the first time temporarily plug off their wiper vacuum line at the vacuum tank until they have verified there are NO vacuum leaks in the wiper system!

The original belt was 1"x 34-3/4". The fan pulley is 1-1/4" wide. The "drive pulley" is one inch wide. The original flat belt was of a red rubberized multi-layered cloth. The fan pulley has to be levered up with a 2 X 4 on the timing cover and bolt tightened very tight. There can be a few things that will lead to your belt squealing. Even the fan hub itself. A temporary fix can be made with a spray can of belt dressing sold at NAPA & other places. These original belts are getting impossible to find and very pricey when found. Leather can stretch BIG time, as some vendors sell replacement belts for early Ford "T"'s, and modern flat belts don't stretch AT ALL. I would think the a fore mentioned toothed belts would be the best bet if a good original isn't located.

Rameses32, Your plug gap is correct for magneto set up,@.022". I would check into the cylinders getting fuel, FRESH FUEL. If you're getting a good spark at the plugs, chances are your mag is OK. As I recall, the points in the mag can be finicky on an early truck I once had. They need to be clean and gapped right on the money. Check the crazy simple things first. Is gas turned ON?--- All ignition connections clean & tight? Is spark lever retarded at start? A known good condenser? Then double check the ignition timing. The carb has a rack & pinion gear inside for choke and I've seen the teeth on the little pinion gear stripped off. When one pulls the choke button out, it isn't really pulling the needle down inside the carb. Please let us know how you're coming along with the '24 start up. The mag drive plate is important to be in good shape like you guessed.

I chose the faucet packing because of the ease of separating the twist strands, (3), from each other to get the single strand that would fit in the small area around the throttle butterfly shaft. Auto water pump packing won't work for me because it is more of a solid, sometimes square packing with what looks like some foil embedded with the graphite in the core. Plus the fact I didn't want to cut up a nice piece of water pump packing for an old auto water pump. Remember, this is not holding back hot water, just keeping the ambient air OUT. A single strand with the aid of my trusty, rusty pen knife did the trick. The key here is to get the proper size graphited string, (whereas I lucked out), pack it into opening a couple of turns and pin the bell-crank back on, but YET, not have the shaft so tight it won't turn freely enough. ---Chalk another one up for "DODGE" !!! THEY use a carb that actually has a replaceable packing at a VERY INTEGRAL area determining the final fuel/air mixture!! Owning two '31 Model A's, you can't keep a decent idle or have satisfaction at any speed when those Zenith's have an air leak at the throttle plate shaft. It's brass on cast iron. Sometimes, it's just a real MOTHER.

Not a problem! But I can't even remember what I had for lunch yesterday.

Install the thermostat as marked on it for proper flow direction. The engine coolant OUTLET is at the top, and coolant goes to the radiator INLET at the top of the radiator via hose. There is no backwards flow through ANY radiator, with perhaps a few like the '31-'32 Pontiac Six that used a cross flow radiator tank design. The water still EXITS the engine at the top.

Thanks for the kudos, please feel free to post that tip to anybody that may find it useful since I'm not a member of any club. I'm also new to the early Dodge Brothers car and always finding out new things about it here in the "cave". Seasoned Dodge Brothers owners must already know this, I think.---Pete.

Rebuilding a Stewart side-draft carb I had in the pile of parts. The throttle assembly on the carb was so loose, it needed a new butterfly shaft, I thought. Once I removed the bronze throttle bell crank at the top of the carb by tapping out the tapered pin, I noticed that the cast iron upper body had a 1/8" deep under-cut around the brass throttle shaft. It was filled with some dirt, and would allow air to be sucked into the mixture, past the throttle shaft. This will make your car run lousy! I posted a picture of the "fix" here. I unraveled a piece of faucet packing I had lying around in my plumbing parts, packed it into the gap around the shaft, trimmed off a bit and installed the bell crank onto the shaft. It now is air tight and rotates just fine. What a simple repair and remedy for a poor idling Dodge.

Ray, This is Brian, otherwise known as Pete. I cannot find a cap that will fit your tank. I think I know pretty much what it would look like, using internal lugs on the filler neck. The black cap shown in my previous pictures is what I believe is the original cap that was supplied by Dodge, as my '25 is a July build, but for the '26 SERIES.--(A388850). I checked the Mechanic's handbook, Revised edition, 1926, showing the cap with the dang protuberance! The 17th edition, March of '25 Book of Information also shows the "same image" used in the Mechanic's Handbook, again the cap with the protuberance. Obviously, the printers used older images that were drawn back a few years to save money on artwork until it was necessary for the pictures to show a dramatic change, or an important technical change. I've noticed this with the pictures of the vacuum tank also.

I occasionally receive parts back from my plater with this "plater's tape' still on areas of my parts. I peel it off, it looks and feels EXACTLY like plain old masking tape to me. Seems to do the job just fine.

Hi Dave, I have a '25 touring that came with these wind wings, sort of 1960ish add-ons I think. It's a pretty clever way to mount them though, using strap steel cut at the top and drilled at bottom to mount to the post nuts. The hinges are cheapo's and the "wings" are made of Plexiglass! Someday, I plan to change out the wings for real glass. I don't want to give up those windwings! Click on my picture again to bring it up closer so you can see it better.

I hear what you say Ray. If I walked into my bank with Pounds Sterling, They'd clunk me over the head with a stapler. It's too bad folks have to pay plenty for parts, but the tariffs are just out of hand (and out of pocket!!). There should be some sort of "Historical Restoration Parts" clause in the tariff laws that allow people anywhere in the world to gather parts for antique items, say, over 50 or 75 years old, for the sake of posterity. I'll keep an eye out for an old cap that may work for your tank. Best regards Ray, Pete.

Ray, What if I buy the parts you need from Myers, then ship them to you marked as a "gift". Then there wouldn't be a tax on your end?

Here's two pictures of my '25 Dodge gas cap with the spring wire inside the cap that bayonettes onto the filler neck. It is a vented cap, using a cork gasket. The next pictures are of a tank in my collection using the type cap Ray is talking about. It is a heavy steel cap, threaded internally with hex sides that fit the Dodge box end wrench to tighten it onto the tank. The "protuberance" is knurled, where I find it handy to spin the cap onto the tank since it is threaded. This cap has a heavy steel plate with a hole in it. What it doesn't show is the tiny cross pin, way up in the cap's protuberance, where a small ball chain was attached, down to this steel plate. This assembly was for the venting without the spillage if the car flipped over. The tank was my spare for the '25, but upon inspection, the gas gauge is in a slightly off-set position and won't fit into my rear tank cover. I was thinking this was now for an earlier Dodge, perhaps a '22 or '23?

Ray, this carb is so much different than any other carb I've ever worked on. Mike, I'll check again on the air valve floating OK. It WAS when I re-built it. The air mixture screw was not turned down enough to half way as Jay said. Thank you ALL guys for steering me in the right direction! I do have an un-tampered with, orig. carb here in my parts collection to compare that rack & pinion deal. Otherwise, the engine runs fine, warms up to just under the horizontal center line on the Moto-Meter. My little stand-pipe filter I installed in the bottom of the vacuum tank seems to be working great, since I only did my best here to get the fuel tank cleaned out, betting there is still SOME residue of rust dust in the tank that I just couldn't get at or see. The fuel in my carb is as clean as when I put it in the tank. The original ignition coil is at least allowing the engine to start & run. Don't know how it will be under strain, (power).

Mike, Glad you posted here. Finally got this Dodge running since I found it last April 25th. I've been searching your older posts on your '25 Dodge and I noticed that you once asked why your engine only runs with the choke out. Well, NOW, I'm in the same boat. What the heck am I missing here? The only thing leading me to the problem is the carb, which I had to completely take apart to clean and put new gaskets in it. I thought I put it back the same way it came apart but now I'm doubting it. I can't find too much technical info about the set up of this carb anywhere, although I don't see the problem with my rebuild either! Did you ever rectify this problem we're both experiencing?? I haven't driven the car yet, no room to drive it without getting it out on the street & it's not registered yet.------ Getting back to my original thread, I happened to see the drawing of the carb in the '25 B.of I. and it shows the Cotter pin in question here going through the control rod the same way I had installed it! Could it be I'm the ONLY ONE in 87 years this impending disaster could have happened to? I guess we'll never know. Ray, don't feel too bad about that one "split pin'. You DID catch it in time. Sort of reminds me of an old movie that I saw 40 years ago, whereas a 10 cent cup of coffee brought down an entire commercial passenger plane,(the hard way). It was titled, "Fate Is The Hunter" Anyone remember this?

No, I don't think so, I'm even betting there wasn't one there originally. The problem was that the partially splayed leg of the Cotter pin WAS level when it slipped on by the screw, then caught the screw when she was coming back to idle position, holding the accelerator open. Like I said before, IF only I had inserted the pin through the hole, the other way, the head of the pin would not reach the screw and all would be dandy. I do hope owners of these type cars using this set-up check this situation--it could be deadly.

Well, who would of thought that a TWO CENT cotter pin could ruin your whole day? Recently I got my 1925 Dodge Brothers touring car running. Rebuilt fuel system from stem to stern. This has the original carburetor, a Dodge Brothers, Detroit Lubricator, Stewart Carb, Series B-264. As I was in driver's seat while engine was running, I revved the engine slightly by stepping on the accelerator pedal, testing things out. All of a sudden, the engine roared and the accelerator pedal did not come back up. I immediately turned off the ignition switch, shutting her down. After inspecting all the linkages, I came across the problem. It was the little Cotter pin that secures the throttle linkage to the carburetor bell crank at top.(see photo's). I had not bent the "LEGS" of the pin ALL THE WAY AROUND to meet the head of the Cotter pin, thus, a "leg" caught on the idle adjustment clamp screw and kept the throttle almost wide open. With needle nose pliers, I re-shaped the Cotter pin, as in the pictures and now it's fine. If I put the pin in the other way, it wouldn't have caught. This was an INTERMITTENT problem that arose, Glad I was in my own yard when it happened.---Pete.

Smitty, Try this with your computer; "Snyder's Antique Auto Parts", Item # A-12000.-Ignition coil, $15.50. Once there on that page, click onto the "downloadable detailed description". I think you may like this.