keithb7

Well better than a model T with worn synchronizers!

You may hear many suggestions on how to troubleshoot for no spark. Folks often jump to make suggestions, assuming the basics are all working. Best to strip things right down to basics. Remove distributor Cap. Is there a rotor in there? Leave the distributor cap off. While the battery and starter are cranking the engine over, is the rotor turning? If not, look into the placement of the distributor. Is the distributor assembly snug and in place? Bolted down to the block with the timing lock down bolt? Yes, but rotor still not turning? Likely distributor needs to come out of block for further investigation. If the rotor is turning when engine is cranking over, remove the rotor. Now you can easily view the points. Are the points opening and closing while the engine is cranking over? If you are working alone, you may want to loosen/remove all spark plugs. No compression will be generated. You can then easily turn the engine over by hand. By simply turning the fan at the front. Fan is bolted to the water pump. Lean over the fender. Driver side. Then you can watch the rotor and points moving (or not) while you turn the engine over by hand. If movement of points and rotor is confirmed and appears good, next steps likely involve a digital multimeter. To check for voltage and ground continuity at various connections.

Some body pass her a fire extinguisher! Quick.

Oh man. What a beauty! That’ll be a show winner when it’s all done. Heck I’d vote for it for “peoples choice” as it sits right now. You just don’t see these very often. I’m smitten. Good luck with the sale.

We’ll fall is here. I am back at it. I hope to have a nice new running 237ci in my ‘38 Ply sedan by spring. Tappets and cam are in. I dropped the crank in tonight. Feeling good about it too. Very satisfying. I Mic’d mains and rods. Seem perfect. Ring gap well within spec. Measured bore, taper and out of round. Good. 1 valve guide was too high. 1 valve would not lap-in. Dropped down the one guide. Hand lapped all valves. Oil gallery port parts sealed up. Oil Pressure valve and spring in. Off to grab some plasti-gage now to check main bearing clearances.

I’m 50. Things have changed so much. They keep on changing. I think about what this world has evolved into in my lifetime, so far. I can’t image it’ll improve any within the next 50 years. Sometimes I think about oil and gas. Will there be gas readily available in 25 years.? I don’t know. If I cannot get gas for my ‘38 Mopar, I’d have to consider whatever options are available at that time. I’m not saying a firm no to a possible conversion. I’m just not sure it’ll be electric. Today. No. I will not entertain an electric conversion in my ‘38 car. How will I feel in another 15 years from now? We’ll see. Things evolve. I too must. Or be left behind.

@cahartleyI could not watch it.

Nice car. Great to read about it being driven again. Does it have the straight 8? These 8’s interest me. I’ve yet to see, hear or drive one. I hope to some day. It may mean a long trip for me, to maybe drive a friend’s 8 NY’r @Jeff Perkins / Mn lol. Is that an oil pressure gauge mounted near the left side of the steering column? 20 psi at idle seems pretty darn good to me. Be sure to go through the brakes thoroughly. They love to rust up pretty bad at the wheel cylinders. Proper concentric adjustment of the shoes is paramount to get good brake performance. These are big heavy cars. You’ll want good brakes to reign-in Newton’s law. Things in motion want to stay in a straight line of motion! Or something like that. 😃

Hard to watch part 2 which was also uploaded to YT. I hope someone with the cash and the means will intervene. This car needs a good new owner. Quickly! It is an interesting time we live in. Car culture is rapidly changing. I sometimes wonder: Will we even be able to get gasoline for our old cars in another 20 years? If it gets that bad, I suppose maybe there will be options to convert to electric.

Valves. Hand lapping of valves. And machinists is who don’t install valve guides correctly. That’s what I am dealing with this week.

You search a Mopar part number on eBay. Options will appear.

Ebay. Buy NOS. Helps a ton if you know the actual part number. If you need it let me know. Can provide. I can also suggest a seller to avoid. PM me as I won’t post seller’s name here. Thanks.

Not extra 1 cent from my pocket, for a celebrity owned vehicle. Others can do whatever they want. Depends how much disposable income you have maybe. Your perspective will differ from mine for a multitude of reasons.

This story reminds me of the great race from NY to Paris back in 1908. One of the driving teams was arrested. Their car drove into a small USA town. The car’s exhaust noise was claimed to have scared horses. The team were in jail overnight if I recall. Was it the Italians? People don’t like change. Never did. Still don’t. Yet eventually society adapts.

Disassembly. Larger leftover unwanted parts are shown in the pic, inside my enclosed trailer. I’ll be taking those parts to the steel recycler soon. Smaller manageable parts head up to the attic.

This past week I spent whatever free time I could muster up, tearing down spare Mopar parts. Someone locally tore down a ‘37 Desoto Sedan, and a ‘37 Dodge sedan. He’s building a hot-rod. From engine back to drums. From steering wheel forward to drums. All points in between. Parts were offered to me. I tore everything down to scavenge what I thought I could use. Lots of little giblets. Big stuff too. 2 3rd members. Leaf springs. Steering gear box. & shaft. Tranny. What I decided not to store will go to the scrap steel recycler this week. I’m starting to worry about the trusses in my attic. Plenty of parts up there!

My '38 Chrysler 6V has a cab heater. Built in Canada, an option. Due to amp draw, the fan output is lower at idle. As I speed up, the generator puts out more amps. Then the fan speeds up and I get very good heat. Grounds, switch and wire contacts need to be clean and tight of course. I think in my 6V '38 Plymouth I worked up to about a 7-10 amp fuse inline, to keep it running.

Some of those lessons at 17 we never forget. I too have similar memories in auto shop class back in high school. Many, many years later those early lessons still guide me today. Your theory about bearing knock is a good one. Knock the engine power way back. Inefficient combustion. No hard, firm torque on the crank. Sure I bet that would indeed cut down on the bearings knocking.

What if a distributor was installed 1 tooth out? What if the the error was corrected by removing any distributor anchor stop bolt, and manually turning the distributor timing well past the stock adjustment positions?

Yes, In theory too much fuel pressure would force the float down and sink it. Fuel spewing out any orifice it can. A great tool, a Mity-Vac vacuum & fuel pressure gauge. Awesome tool that will allow you to test many things. You can hook it up to your fuel pump and measure the pump’s output pressure. Indeed your fuel pressure seems high to me, as I mentioned above. You can get a Holly low pressure regulator. Pain in the butt really. You are better off to address your fuel pressure issue properly in my opinion. This same vacuum/pressure gauge tool can be used to set your air fuel mixture screw. Also set your ignition timing. Then you can also see a multitude of other things that could be going on in your engine. Here I am troubleshooting fuel pressure problems. Also dealing with a regulator that was added to my car’s fuel system. All gone now. I addressed the source of the problem. No more band-aides. https://youtu.be/W66Z6uYLcik

Ignore the suggestion of 0 degrees timing. That was old low octane fuel. Modern fuel has a different burn rate. Set the timing that works for your engine, using today’s fuel offerings. All you are doing is setting the ignition time in relation to the piston and valve positions. Do what works for your engine. Listen for pinging under load. Back off a little on the retarding if pinging too much. My understanding is can also set up your timing using a vacuum gauge. I’ve not done that yet. Achieve maximum vacuum at idle by turning distributor timing?

I suppose this diagram would be opposite for the positive ground crew here.

Condenser capacitance value could be suspect.

I brought up compression and spark as I think there is possibly more going on here, than fuel leaking at the bowl. Please report back after more checks.

The string of issues that keep appearing does seem a bit odd. Reviewing the thread here, you have had the carb rebuilt. Did you rebuild the fuel pump yourself? Car won’t run, and you have fuel pouring out of the carb bowl. You have 4.75 psi fuel pressure. Next I’d probably start stripping things down to basics. start fresh. What is each cylinder compression, cold? Hook up a dwell meter. Watch it while someone cranks the engine over. What dwell are you seeing? Pull all spark plugs. Lay them on the head, lead wires connected. Are they all sparking? Look at cap and rotor. Clean up at arc areas. All wires in place and all fasteners inside the distributor tight? How old is the condenser? Sparkplugs all clean? An engine can flash up even with all fuel lines removed. I’ve manually fed fuel into a dry carb myself to see if it will flash and run. If only briefly, at least you’d know it could run. Remove fuel inlet line at the carb. Attach a piece of fuel line to it . Put other end in a container. Crank over engine. Is fuel pumping out at a good rate? 4.75 psi seems a little high to me. I tend to be looking for the 3.5 psi range. Take cover off carb fuel bowl. Suck bowl dry of any gas with a syringe. Install about 2-3 feet of line at carb inlet fitting. Clear hose is nice for this test. You can see inside the hose. Hold line up vertically. Use a good sized syringe to put fuel into the temporary fuel line. Watch fuel bowl level in the carb. Is it filling up? It should be. Slowly filling. Watch the float. Is it rising? Keep add fuel to vertical hose. Watch bowl fill. Watch float close off fuel inlet valve. Fuel should now stop flowing from the temporary hose. No more fuel should flow into the bowl. Is this happening? Is the shut-off valve and float doing its job? Check your float level. What is it set at? Compare to spec. Set if needed. You only need a couple basic things to make your engine at least run. Fuel. Decent Compression. Spark at the right time. The carb just keeps the right amount of fuel going into the engine under various operating loads and speeds. You can replicate it for testing purposes. The engine won’t know any difference.