keithb7

Easiest axle puller ever. Do this: Remove hubcap Remove axle nut cotter pin Remove axle nut. Get a long breaker bar! Jack up car. Remove wheel. Remove drum using HD puller as required Remove brakes and backing plate Put drum back on taper loosely. Re-install axle nut just a few threads. Drum will slop in and out on the shaft. Use the brake drum as a slide hammer. Push drum inward then snap it back toward you sharply. 2X-3X is all it'll take to pull out the axle. Easy-Peasy.

The bearings come off toward the wheel side. There is a step lip that the bearing bottoms out against, on the axle shaft inboard toward diff. Can be seen here:

@W_Higgins you've said some very great points here. Yes indeed, disposable everything these days. It breeds the need for new, shiny, latest, greatest stuff. It keeps people spending lots of money and the economy propped up. During my working and growth years I have watched the transition. I started out in the proverbial factory with a union job and a golden egg at the end, when it arrived. I got bored and moved on. My retirement funds are self directed now. The companies I have worked for, for the past 27 years have no obligations for pay me when I retire. I have seen and lived through the transitions. I have seen people around me at work sent packing with a pay-out when the company "re-structures" every 5 years. There is no stability. I agree, you have no idea how long you'll be working where you are now. The company decides and then off you go. Every dollar I spend in my 5th decade is a dollar removed from my retirement fund. I love old cars. Look at my signature below. My cars are listed. Far from popular, nor desirable models by the masses. Yet I get to dabble in the hobby. I get to learn. Have fun. I still get out and cruise for ice creme. Part of me has to live for today. I am enjoying my younger years responsibly, yet I also hold back to plan for the golden years. Would I love to drop off a 1962 Corvette at a restoration shop, and pick it up later, completely like new? Sure, sometimes I would l love to have that car, in that condition. Then other times I remember and feel the bond I have developed with my own cars. From all the work I have done. The confidence in the car, and knowledge learned. I find myself sometimes walking past the two old girls in garage as I tuck them in for the night. I rub my hand on the fender as I walk by. I find myself thinking, thanks for the great cruise tonight. Weird....

I’m 49. Am I an old guy or a young guy? I am not a formally licensed mechanic. I took shop class in high school and got the bug. I specifically remember learning all about primary and secondary ignition systems. To this day, the ignition system image projected on the screen in class, and my teacher Mr. Doi, is still very fresh in my mind. I had no idea that in 2020 I’d be using those same principles to set the dwell in my 1938 Plymouth. I purchased a mostly stock 1938 Plymouth in 2019. A good price. It ran, but barely. It was indeed in the wrong hands at the time. The poor car was cobbled together. I took it home. All last fall and winter I worked on every system in the car. I brought that car back to life. Since I put the car on the road this spring. I’ve almost put 500 miles on it, so far. I am far from a qualified restoration person either. I’ve never restored a car before. However so far I’ve done all the work myself. Its been a fantastic and very rewarding experience. I rebuilt my first tranny. I rewired my first electrical system. Re-bearing’d and re-sealed my first axles. Rebuilt my first complete brake system. On and on the list goes. The only professional I paid, was to replace the exhaust system with new. Custom built. I will admit that I am not throwing huge cash at my ‘38. I am frugal. I hope to retire someday, and my preferred date is getting closer. So currently, I save alot more pennies than I spend. My old car is my hobby. I have no plans to try and sell it for what I put into it. However, saying that, I also don’t want to put $20k plus into a car that would sell for $12K probably. Many 20-ish kids relish my ‘38 Plymouth. They do show lots of interest. That’s encouraging. However, I agree most don’t seem to have a clue about car repairs or maintenance. They are literally stunned when I tell them I’m mostly just a self taught hack mechanic. That I do all my own work. I tell them I started turning wrenches when I was 16. I had to. I could only afford wore out, junk cars. 33 years later I’m still at it. I guess I’m sorta an odd duck compared to most people. When I go on vacation, for a book I’ve been known to bring along my 1942 Dyke’s manual to study up. I started a You Tube channel to share my old-car learnings. I pass along instructions and tips that I have learned. My hope is that someday in the future, some young car fans will be inspired to pick up a wrench and dig in. Tonight my wife and our adult son, went our for a cruise in my ‘38. He’s 23. He enjoys the old car. He likes the styling and nostalgia. I have taught him to wrench on his own car. He has assisted me several times in the garage. As I too assist him look after his year 2000 car. Last fall he tore down my spare 1949 flathead 6 engine. He gets the whole car maintenance and repair thing. He’s no gear head. He’s an Accountant. Will he want to follow in my footsteps someday? Looking after my ‘38 when I cannot? I’m not sure yet. However at 23, I too had no interest in a 1938 car. I grew into the hobby. My son asked me tonight, “Dad will you own this car when it turns 100?”. I replied, “I sure hope so... 18 more years to go. “ We both smiled.

Not sure if this helps... My 1938 P6 Deluxe Sedan. It there is a more specific area that is more useful let me know. I could take more pics.

Thanks @Blackbetty . I removed the diff and axles. The diff was in great shape. Backlash good. Bearings felt great. Alignment and gear wear great too. I put new axle bearings and all new seals in the axles. The previous owner had resealed the pinion a while ago. However the car had not seen much use. A modern lip seal was installed at that time. It looked good and had no signs of leaking. Initially Inhad thought about changing it anyway just to know it was good. I had planned to do that once the axle assy and brakes were all rebuilt. Then I could lower the car and pry on that pinion nut maybe to break it loose. I thought I’d test drive my work before going into it further. I installed a new diff gasket and fill it with oil. That was back in Feb or March if I recall. Brakes finished up. Wheels back on. I’ve been driving it ever since. The pinion seal is dry. There are no leaks. All turned out well. So, ultimately I’ll leave the pinion seal until I need to someday change it. If you like I can roll under my car and get the part number off the modern seal, for you. I recall seeing the part number on it. It might even be legible! “Any advice?”, you mentioned. Well if you’re going in there, if you don’t know the history, change diff oil at a minimum. Consider pulling the rear brake drums. Look for axle seal leaks. Axle bearings? Reseal diff housing and pinion seal. New grease seals. That’s what I did. But may be completely overkill for you! While all that was going on I ordered a drive shaft trunnion rebuild kit. Lo-and-behold I found a broken main spring in the front trunnion. It was causing me weird rattle noises when hard breaking. I was stumped as to what was causing the noise. Happy to have found it. All good now! Good luck whatever you decide to do. If you do go into the axles check out my You Tube channel. Lots of tips on there.

I do have an original 1938 shop manual. I’ve yet to read anything in there about calibrating the fuel gauge. I don’t recall seeing a window in the trunk floor to access the fuel float mechanism. I’ll take a look. My’53 Chrysler does have access from the trunk. I will get to the calibration eventually. I’m having too much fun driving it in prime cruising season right now.

1953 Chrysler. 6V system. Hi-beams on.

I ran to a local auto parts store this evening. Getting parts for my son’s car. Walking back out, a local kid (20-ish) was doing a walk-around inspection on my Plymouth. I walk up and say hi. “Nice car!”, he says. “Holy smokes. How old is it?”, he asks. I like to say, “82 years old”. That shocks ‘em...Then tell them its a 1938. Big grins. The kid says “Ya sure don’t see many of those around, hey?” “Nope. Not around here. Just the one here in Kamloops that I know of.”, I reply. Just a typical day out in the old girl. Not much new to share. Just letting you know were having fun over here. She’s running spectacular. Engine doesn’t spin over 1 full revolution and its running. Smooth as silk. Just rolled to 98,500 miles on the odometer. Can’t hardly wait to roll it over to zero.

Hi @neil morse, I figured there was some way to get the gas gauge accurate. I will get to that task at some point. I have not seen instructions yet for my specific gauge. In due time I will do my research.

Start by confirming that your oil is SAE 10W, and that the tranny is full. Proper oil and pressure are vital to the hydraulic shift, when you lift your foot off the gas at 20 or so MPH faster. The wire to the coil: When you are in 4th, travelling about 35 mph or slower, when you floor the gas pedal, it will downshift to 3rd. When this happens power to coil is sent to ground momentarily so none of the spark plugs are firing. This takes all load off the tranny input pinion so synchro gears can speed match very quickly and the tranny can downshift to 3rd. The wires on the carb. A dashpot that controls the throttle closing too fast when you let your foot off the throttle to initiate an upshift. If the throttle closes too fast apparently the engine can stall. So the electric dash pot controls the throttle to close a little slower. Other wires on the carb travel down to a kick down switch on the tranny. When you mash the gas pedal, it connects this switch. Power is cut off at the interrupter switch, grounding the main spark coil as mentioned above. This interrupter switch is screwed into your tranny with wires to it. It's right atop of the larger 6V solenoid on the tranny. This is all explained in the manual. There are wiring schematics and also charts showing hydraulic flow. If you don't have a manual, I highly recommend. I'd rule out the tranny oil pump until a last resort. All the wiring needs to be checked for continuity, also ensuring all proper connections are true. Rotating governor points need should be cleaned. Proper voltages should be checked with a digital multimeter at all various points, when switches are activated. If the wiring you have it shoddy, I'd say that the wiring is highly likely to be your problem. The coil screwed into the transmission should be tested to ensure it moves the pin in and out, when power 6V is applied to it. Here is what the actual manual lists about troubleshooting the tranny electrical system. Instructions for each steps are listed. I'd rather not type them all out. Ignition System to Circuit Breaker Test Circuit Breaker Check Circuit Breaker to Tranny Solenoid Check Circuit Breaker to Anti-Stall Check Anti-Stall Check Solenoid Check Governor and Kick Down Switch Check Interrupter Switch Check Ignition Interrupter Resistor Check Hydraulic Pressure Check

Engines are readily available and priced good. I’d find a replacement.

Just for the record, I am currently running Caterpillar TDTO 30W. (Transmission Drive Train Oil). Working very well in my 1938 3 speed manual. Available at your nearest Cat dealer in 1 gallon jugs.

I bought a vintage seat cutting tool on e-bay. I leaned over the engine and hand ground the seats. It was awkward tiresome work. Intakes were easy. The stellite exhaust valve seats were indeed exhausting. Lol. I used a speed wrench mostly. #6 was a tough go. I did the Work over the period of about a week of evenings. I bought new valves and lapped them in. It was humbling, rewarding, cash saving work. I netted great results as all my cylinders gained compression.

2/0 battery cable is big and might be hard to bend, but will work if you want to use it. Cobbling 6V over to 12V makes me shiver. Most people have no idea. 6V in a flat head 6 cylinder old Mopar is completely adequate. You just need to maintain the system, understand it if you can, and it will give you many decades more of reliable use. I own a 53 Chrysler and a '38 Plymouth. Both are stock 6V systems. They are pleasure cars. They rarely see poor weather or night time driving. I have no reason what-so-ever to consider either car for a 12V conversion. I built my own wiring for my 1938 re-wiring project. It's been fun, easy, and rewarding. I have not done all the wiring yet, but a large portion is new now. The original wiring is so crusty, stiff and unsafe. I've upsized all my wiring to keep good ampere flow. My lights are bright with new, clean, good grounds! If you are serious about learning all about the 6V system I recommend some reading. I have been studying up for a few years now. I still pull out the old reference books to re-read again, and study further. Each time I grasp more info and retain it. I think I am 3.5 years now into my vintage car hobby. I have learned a TON of info in that small window of my life. I am far from done learning. I learn more every time I get out there and get my hands greasy, under the old cars.

This housing talk is fun....I currently reside a little north of Greg in British Columbia. Kamloops. I grew up in Greg's area where real estate prices are now out of control. My wife and I wanted to get away from the big city. Raise our kids in a smaller town. That was 25 years ago when we left Greg's area. Land was somewhat still reasonable then. We made the decision to move away for reasons other than real estate prices at the time. Now today, we would not be willing to buy back into that market in the greater Vancouver area. Our house sale proceeds up here in Kamloops might net us a shack in Greg's area. We love it here in Kamloops. It's still affordable. There are less job options of course in this smaller town, however we were fortunate in that we made out well here. My current home would be considered higher end in Vancouver. Worth probably more than 3X the value here that it is in Kamloops. No way we could live like this in the BC lower mainland. So here we stay, living out our dream. We feel so very fortunate. I do have room to build a larger shop, however I have refrained so far. Glad I did as the economy is trending down again here in Canada. I will likely spend the rest of my days, as long as I can in this home. I hope so. We do love it here. Here's us...About a half acre. Lots of driveway. We get enough snow here that I definitely would not want more driveway to clear. I have 2 old cars that I get to both keep in the garage. So I am pretty happy to be in the old car hobby. More cars? If I had more garage, yes likely. The current situation keeps me satisfied and, only owning 2 cars. Left to my own devices I might have built that dream shop and own a few more cars...

I think there is a couple of things going on here. Fuel delivery when hot is likely one issue. I agree new fuels evaporate when hot. It's worth investigating this further. I had a couple of similar instances lately and I have found a few things are working. I re-routed fuel lines further away from heat sources. I used temporary fuel injection rubber lines for now to test. So far so good. I plan to replace with steel lines, probably this winter during the off season. I also installed a 6V electric fuel pump. It is on a switch on dash so I can easily reach it. I only use it at select times. It is not on all the time. I use it to prime fuel lines and mechanical pump after sitting for a few days or longer. I flip it on manually after the ignition key is on, prime until I hear the pump slow down a little. Then turn off the pump and flash up the engine. Then I run on my mechanical pump only. I drive around normally with my mechanical pump. There are a few long hills (5 minutes up hill) around here that I drive. I flip the pump on to assist when climbing these long hills. My throttle is pretty well wide open, so I am not worried about over-pressure. I keep a good sized fire extinguisher in the car handy if needed. So far no need! I also acquired a phenolic spacer to install between the carb base and the intake manifold. This is designed to stop heat transfer up to the carb. This especially happens after a long hot drive and you shut the engine off for 15 mins. The heat climbs up the carb. The fuel in the carb bowl evaporates. It will be hard starting if at all, at this point. Here the electric fuel pump is used again. Forcing fuel back up through the system refilling the carb bowl. Push the accelerator to the floor. Open that throttle valve wide open and hold it there while cranking. Do not pump the gas pedal. Mine will flash up quickly when I do experience this heat soak. I have the phenolic spacer here, not yet installed. I hope to get it done soon. I also rebuilt my fuel pump and tested pressure. So I know it's good. All this has really made my car more fun and gets me home reliably. There is likely something else going on with the slow starter motor and battery symptoms. What size of battery cables you running? 1 gauge is the smallest I recommend. Both positive and negative. You need to get all the amps to the starter you can from your battery. Smaller battery cables create resistance of electrons. Slowing down the starter. Additionally, resistance causes the copper in the battery cables to get hot. Heat adds yet more resistance to copper as it gets hotter. You end up with a compounding problem and poor starter performance. Look at your battery cable mounts. Clean them up, they corrode. You may have a wiring problem that could be sucking down your battery, even while driving. You can do a couple of things to find out. Get a digital multi-meter. Ignition key off. Charge your 6V battery with 1 cable removed. Measure voltage. It should be about 6.3 to 6.4-ish volts when fully charged. Remove charger. Hook up battery to your car again, re-installing the one removed cable. Watch for a little spark. That's a clue there is a problem with a parasitic load. Should be no spark unless something is drawing power. Leave your car overnight. Battery hooked up. Go out in the morning and re-measure your voltage. Should be close to 6.3V or so still. If not, you have something in the electrical system that is pulling away power, that should not be happening. This could also be happening while you drive too. Your generator is trying to keep up, but maybe it cannot, then after a drive you experience poor starter cranking. Next thing you can do. Get a couple longer wires if needed. Run them to your battery posts. Or just use the lead wires from your multi-meter. Secure them to their respective battery posts. Turn on your multimeter and have it sit on the seat next to you. Or in your lap. Somewhere you can see it. Select DC voltage setting. Should be 6.4-ish volts. Start your car. Watch the voltage drop and probably stay there. Go for a drive. Get your RPMs up. Watch the battery voltage climb back up. If the generator is working, it will take the battery up past 7 volts while driving. If not, and you see voltage dropping, you have a problem. Either a bad performing generator, or this bad wire/ground/parasitic load I mentioned. In summary: Heat means more electrical resistance, this happens naturally to copper wire. Border-line condition wires, may be past the point of being effective once they heat up. Yet seem to perform ok when cool again. Heat causes modern gasoline to evaporate at a lower temperature than old gas without ethanol in it. If you can get a grip on these issues, you'll be happier, and enjoying your car a lot more.

My son using mine here. Easy-peasy. Just as easy when the engine is in the car too. I have done it both ways.

I bought and used one just like this. Worked great on my flathead chrysler. https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-HERBRAND-VL-540-VALVE-SPRING-COMPRESSOR/254359073702?hash=item3b38fb73a6:g:IIAAAOSwmRVdfFzB

In terms of car values, and buying, for me, I'd just like to see some economic stability. Covid has the financial markets swinging. Civil unrest is not helping. I love old cars. I'd love to buy more. If I had more confidence in the economy I'd build the shop with a hoist that I've longed for. My chosen profession is based off of natural resources. It's lagging these days. I don't have the confidence to spend much on discretionary things right now. Sell? I can't decide. I don't need the money. My cars are paid for. I do use and enjoy them. They are my "get-away" from the day to day grind of work and life. I think I just made up my mind. I get to have my fun. We are hunkered down and ready for a possible storm. We'll be alright. I'll remain as-is and wait out the economic cycle we are currently in. I watch local classifieds for field or barn cars. I'll pay max $500 for a field find that I can scrap out to support my 1938 car. So far that's not working LOL. My offers are ignored. Oh well, I am ok with that. While I wait out the storm, I don't NEED a spare parts car.

Justin your compression is low across all cylinders. (Unless you live at 10,000 feet above sea level) It may be time for a valve grind, clean up. With the head off now is the time to do it. At the very least check valves for seal-ability. How? Remove intake and exhaust manifolds. Put a cylinder at TDC. Both valves are now closed. Pour a small amount of kerosene around the top of the valves. From the bottom side of the valve, look up, in through the exhaust and intake valve ports with a flash light. Do you see any kerosene dribbling down? If yes you have a leaky valve. Good sealed valves will not allow liquid to pass through. Get a scissor type valve spring compressor tool. Remove valve. Inspect valve and seat for pitting. If ok, not too bad, apply valve lapping compound. Twist valve and lap the seating areas. Do this for a while. Clean up with kerosene. Then perform kerosene test again. Keep doing this until valves will hold kerosene. If valves are poor, you can buy a hand grinding tool to cut into and clean up the valve seats. Then buy new valves and lap them in. Worked great for me and got all cylinders up to 100 psi. Only regret? I should have changed out the guides while I was in there. I did not. I was in a hurry to get the car back on the road. That was three years ago. The car has been running great since, however does pull oil into the cylinders through the guides at #1 and #2 cylinder. Yes, you may be opening a can of worms. But, it's fun and rewarding. Shown is a bad, pitted valve. Also a new valve that has been lapped in. Also you can see my valve seat cutting tool. I did this all by hand. No complaints! I saved a ton of money.

More details here:

Start by removing Left Fromt wheel. There should be a removable window in the fender well. Remove it. This will give you very good access to the valves. Scrape out whatever sludge you can. Scoop the pools out with your fingers. Then buy a jug of solvent and a larger solvent brush or two. Get a pump jug with a spray nozzle. You can pump it up yourself with air. Then preasure spray solvent into the valve area. Brush it lots. Spray and brush, spray and bush over and over. The sludge will all drip down into the oil pan. When all clean remove oil pan. Repeat the process with the oil pan. Scrape. Spray. Brush. Resist the temptation to media blast the oil pan. You’ll never get all the blast media out. It’ll end up in your clean oil later and ruin your engine. A few pics when I was doing this job recently:

Justin here is another one you should watch. In this video I talk about the sludge around the valves you are seeing. You'll also see that the spark plug hole is over the intake valve. It can be challenging to get oil over to the exhaust valve stem area.