Spinneyhill

My manuals say that too. And at the front they recommend a particular brand of oil. Case closed!

I think your car was made before lead was added to fuel. When I added lead to my 1930 Dodge 8 the plugs failed within 1000 miles. I don't bother with it. Sounds like a blown head gasket. Try a compression test. Take out all the plugs first.

The carburetor contains a venturi at the throttle. Below the venturi the mixture expands as the manifold opens out. To expand, the mixture must absorb heat from the surrounds. The area cools, including the carb. You will see condensate on the carb and if it is cool enough (say about 5 deg. C or so) it will freeze, inside as well as on the outside of the carb. If it ices up, the engine will starve of fuel. Just let it idle for a while to warm up the manifolds a bit, shut off for five minutes and restart and you will be OK. The break will let everything warm up from the engine heat. Later cars had a "heat riser valve" in the bottom of the exhaust manifold to direct hot exhaust gas to the base of the inlet manifold to prevent icing. Higher humidity makes it worse.

And there is less clearance between tire and mud guard = weight in the back. It is hard to say but the rear springs might be heavier too.

The ladder will be fine along the vehicle axis, but across it is likely to be dangerous, depending on cross fall. You can not see, however, how much kentledge is loaded into the bottom of the box for stability purposes.

My 1973 Honda XL175 "trail" bike iced up one day when we were out playing in the snow. The bottom of the carb was a block of ice. When it stopped I kicked and kicked it to no avail until I looked and saw the ice. Once I allowed it to thaw, it started first kick and off we went. BTW, it was an excellent day playing in snow and ice in an area of plantation forest that had been logged and was ready for replanting. I got about 1 m onto the ice on the lake before landing on my side. Power slides all over the gravel forestry road with no traffic to annoy us. Oh, we were late back to our photogrametry class too, wet and cold from thigh downwards and elbows down. What a blast! It might have a lot to do with humidity. I suppose low humidity air is less likely to form ice. Remember you also have a 6 or 8 mm thick insulator between the carb and manifold too. Engines have higher volumetric efficiency on cold air (and mixture) than hot air.

I still think it is a cut down sedan, probably custom made maybe by a body-building company. Where were the seams in the roof panels in that sedan? Maybe they bought a two-door sedan minus the rear end? I wonder what the location was? The ladder is unlikely to be steel at that period - more likely to be wood? It probably has a limited range of erected attitudes for balance, but of course occupational safety had little more than a nod in those days. Note side-mount spare is missing. Did Dodge offer a chassis-cowl? Perhaps to the top of windscreen plus the roof panel behind the top of windscreen. In other words, what was offered to motor body builders?

It is my experience that on a cold start on a cool day (below 5 to 10 deg. C or so?), the carburettor ices up just below the venturi. The heat riser valve prevents this. The icing is caused by the expansion of the air & fuel mixture, which requires heat, so it takes it from the environment. My heat riser butterfly is frozen and has no operating lever so does not work. I start the car, idle for 5 mins and shut down. Five mins later I can restart and drive off - the area has warmed from the exhaust manifold. This is in the 1930 Dodge. The 1939 Studebaker also has a heat riser valve, which operates with a bi-metal spring. The Dodge one is manually operated. In later models, I expect the same effect would occur but improvements in carburettors and engine design in general perhaps make it less noticeable.

Do you mean the tie rod has a loose end? Best way to check steering slop is to put it on the ground, have an assistant turn the steering back and forth a bit while you look at all the steering connections. You will see what is moving when it should be and what is sloppy and movement. Drive-on ramps are the story for this job. You can also check the wheel bearings and king pins for movement when the wheel is off the ground by trying to rotate the wheel top out-bottom in and vice versa. And then turn the steering by turning the road wheel by hand. It should turn freely and evenly with no change in resistance lock to lock. You can also check suspension bushes and so on by putting the wheel just off the ground and levering it up with a pry bar under the tire. These tests are all done as part of our legally required Warrant of Fitness (i.e. safety) check. Much movement anywhere and work is required to get a pass to allow us to legally operate the vehicle on public roads. Just wiggling it by hand with no reaction load will not be enough. So after 10 minutes you will have a pretty good idea of the condition of your front suspension and steering. If all is OK, perhaps change the tires around as stated above. If you have a friendly tire shop, a balancing machine should show in a few seconds if there is a flat on the tire. Just be careful that they use a dolly on the studs rather than a mandrel on the centre - I understand the centres are not necessarily concentric with the bolt pattern on old wheels.

Looks like a cut-down sedan to me. In New Zealand, there was a great shortage of vehicles after WWII and many "old" sedans were cut down ("trucked"). Tires were also impossible to get and many very nice cars were wrecked to provide tires for something else.

Too much jumping to conclusions here. Blown fuse = overload. Check the fused circuit for problems, such as shorting to a circuit with greater current capacity. Dead battery = current leak or old battery. Was the electrolyte level ok? I always disconnect the battery at the starter when in the garage and connect a maintenance charger. So, where is the short or overload? Is the replacement coil and ignition etc. wired up correctly? Might you have shorted something in the ignition switch or somewhere when this was changed over? Is the generator OK since the cut-out melted? is it possible you shorted or changed something else with the third brush adjustment? It is possible a new harness is called for, but a little sleuthing could fix the problem for little cost. Think about when the problems started and whether you had done something just before that.

Have you asked the internet how motor and aero museums inhibit engines for storage? I know one museum that inhibits its engines with Shell Ensis for storage and hangs big signs on the engine warning of it. If you have non- or low-detergent oil, definitely drain it. I would also remove, clean and re-install the sump - it will contain a good layer of acidic sludge. Then I would put a good low or moderate detergent oil in the sump. The detergent and disperives will provide for some holding of any water that gets in there. Turn it over for a while with the fresh oil to put clean oil around everywhere. There are probably oils designed specifically for this use, with particular "stickyness" to hold to metal and not run off for a while. If the oil is not clean, it should be changed for fresh for storage. Used oil contains acidic combustion products, as well as dispersed water. Turn the engine over for a while to put clean oil throughout the engine. The more of the engine you can coat with clean acid-free oil the better. If you just drain the dirty oil, the sump will have a layer of acid-laden dirty oil on it and will rust. My 1930 Dodge 8 was stored for 2 years at a time at one stage before I bought it. Ian would squirt (using a dishwash liquid bottle) a good dollop of Shell Ensis oil into the carb while it was running, give it a few (15?) seconds to disperse the oil through the combustion chambers and around the valves, then shut it down. Never mind the smoke! There were never sticky valves and it always started immediately fuel reached the carb. Again, look the other way for a minute or so while it smokes out the neighbourhood. The staler the fuel the better - it was designed to run on what, 63 octane fuel? Probably best to fill with fuel. No water vapour in the tank then! A flat-head engine will be very happy with the old fuel when restarted. Mine certainly is. Also, I have found that a maintenance battery charger is the bees' knees to keep the battery alive during storage. Mine has four stages and a rated current of 0.8 A at 6 V (well, probably 7.2 V actually). Make sure the electrolyte is at the correct level first. My recent experience is that it is a VERY bad idea to drain coolant and leave it that way. You will have moisture laden air in there with little corrosion protection. Best is to put de-aired (not distilled) water in with a good level of corrosion protection. You want to exclude oxygen.

Studebaker made a coupe pickup option in 1939 or 40. Did Ford do that? Maybe it is an aftermarket adaptation?

Looks like you had best advertise in the Dodge Brothers Club news.

Can you count the teeth on both ring gear and pinion? According to the Republic Catalog "S", the following is for the '28 Std 6: set 30345 (30343 and 30344 ring and pinion) is 49-11. Set 202489 (36865 and 202441 ring and pinion) is 52-11. The "speed set" is 49-13. And there is another set 51-10. Ring gear ID 6.375", OD 10.5". The '28 Victory 6 , 130, 131 to car M26246 with Timken bearings used either set 35754 (36379 and 36380) at 49-11 or set 33707 (34666 and 34679) at 49-13. Same dimensions as above. Cars M26246 up used ball bearings and had the same options as Std 6. OK, so it looks like you have set 35754 at 49-11. It is out of one of those cars shown above. The 49 11 is the teeth count. 14 1/2 = what? Check it has Timken bearings.

My 1930 Dodge prefers "stale" fuel. It is nearer the octane it was designed for. So I never bother replacing the fuel with fresh stuff. The older low octane fuel burns more quickly than the modern high-volatiles fuel so should work better in our flathead engines with large squashed combustion chambers. Do you have a timing light? Put it on and see if the timing mark (or just put a dot on the damper or pulley with twink) moves around while idling. If so, look at the distributor. Timing is changing. Might need to rebuild the distributor. Check the vacuum system for leaks - to distributor and wipers. Does it have a bleeder tube on the inlet manifold below the carb to run off flooded fuel? Is it closing properly?

Woohoo indeed! You say it is pooling water around two plugs? Which two? If it is the front two, look at that top radiator hose connection onto the head. My DC was leaking out the bottom of the hose and into the front two plugs, esp. the first. Look for simple things first - don't frighten yourself with worst case ideas until all else is examined! Those wire hose clips are original style but there is a good reason they went away from them: they can pinch the tube and leave a wee water channel through the connection. Does it have any core (a.k.a. Welch) plugs in the head? e.g. at the back, perhaps on top?

Presumably you are referring to items advertised by Hans Compter. I knew he was hungry, but that looks like a serious rip-off too me.

It will help a little if you tell us what sort of vehicle you are working on.

P7 and P8 both had handbrakes. The main drive gear (M.D.G. a.k.a. input pinion) is the same in them but different to the PJ (how is not stated, but the number is suffixed A in the PJ and is without the suffix for the P7 & P8). The Hollander says "complete sets of gears interchange '35-39". There are four internal parts different between P7 & P8 and to the PJ. There are another 2 parts different in P8 to the PJ and P7. You may be able to bolt straight in IF the gearbox length is the same and the M.D.G. will fit into your clutch and is the right length. If your PJ does not have the brake and brake mounting holes in the P7 or P8 box go right through, put in a couple of bolts with thread tape and a copper washer (and then paint the area around the washers). The P7 & P8 cases appear to have the same casting number 668068. Based on all this and you probably knowing the P7 or P8 origin of the '39 box, it should work. If there are any difficulties, you can swap the internals. Presumably when The Hollander says that they include the M.D.G. in the complete gear set. Good luck! Let us know what you find out so we can all learn from your experience.

Do you mean it is hard to get the "far" bead over the edge of the rim? Can you start where the rim is collapsed, on the rim side, with your two screwdrivers or tire levers and work your way round, levering the tire off as you go? I have tried PVC tape on the levers to try to preserve the paint, not altogether successfully. Whatever, once you start to get hot and bothered, it is time for a rest to cool and calm down.

I am not sure what sort of rim you are talking about. A photo would help clear up the confusion. I can't remember your model - DA? Does it have wire wheels or wood? The devices you describe using makes me thing you are talking about a locking ring rim as used on DA wire wheels and not a collapsible rim (a.k.a. split rim). If it is locking rings, it would help to see a photo of the ends, with the starting notch visible. I use a large (wide=0.5") screw driver to start at the big notch, then another wide screw driver to hold my place and gradually work around with the two screw drivers. Brake the bead first. I do mine on carpet wearing my biggest steel capped boots - they are heavy with a strong sole and I can dance on the tire to break the bead. I put wood under the carpet under the hub so I am supported on the wheel rather than the tire. Some are hard to start so I filed an old tire lever humped end to fit in the starting notch to give a little more travel. Pop up a photo to end the confusion.

Is there a small "floating" particle of something in the carb? When running (carb under low pressure a.k.a. suction) it could cover a fuel way. When you shut down it settles away from the fuel way and you can start up again. I had flakes of shellac doing this. They came from the flaking coating on the fuel level sender cork float.

You are forgetting a number of vehicles of around 1930 that used locking ring rims, e.g. Dodge Brothers Eight-in-line, DA, DE, DI, DG,. Toyota Hilux utes used them c. 1980. Trucks used them 'til fairly recently. Yes, they are a PITA to get off. The ends were often broken off the rings - two of mine have old repairs. I would not dream of taking them to a tire shop - I value them and the rim too much, not to mention the paint!

As carlnut50 says, but look out for the hand brake attached to the trans. case. A case with a brake attached replaces one without, but the other way is harder. Either drill holes or weld nuts on the case. Some '36 used case with brake. Same case also fits '35 airstream, some '36 C7, 8 Airstream, some '37 Chry, some 38 and some 39 Chry; also some '36 to 39 de Soto; '35-39 Dodge but not all '36 D2s. It is a T86-1 (1T86-1 with brake). Complete sets of gears interchange from '35-'39. '40-51 is a different trans, looks to be all new in '40. Note also they may be column shift. It does all Ply, Chry, Dodge and de Soto with std trans. (not Underdrive). Cases from others also bolt to the bell housing, e.g. 37 Stude w/o o.d.; 36 and 37 Grahams sent to England; some Mack trucks; Reo '36-40 6-50 & 50L. P.M. me if you want more info. This is from The Hollander.