EricHoman

I had the same issue and repacked my water pump at the end of last summer. It was very tight, but I was able to get it done without taking anything apart. As Jay mentioned one nut is RH and one is LH thread. You will need some sort of pick to get in there and get the old packing out. I used the sturdiest paperclip I could find and probably spent a strong half an hour just picking the old dried up crap out. I got the packing from meyers early dodge and put it around the shaft with just a little extra grease. My shaft was pretty pitted and worn, as yours likely will be, but it has held up so far. I did my best polish it a bit with steel wool but there is not much you can do in that tight of space.

What Grease / Oil should I be using in the steering box on my 1925? The book calls for a "graphite grease" which I am not familiar with. What do you guys recommend?

Congratulations! You will find that the people here are very helpful. My Dodge is a '25 and there are a few differences from yours, primarily it looks like yours is the 6 volt electrical system with a seperate starter/generator where mine is a 12 volt with starter generator all in one. Because of this a couple of items are layed out a bit different, but I have attached a picture of my engine bay so that you can see how that vacuum tank is hooked up if you choose to get yours going again. Ignore the rubber black hose coming from the top of my tank as that goes to an older but not original wiper motor. Check out http://www.myersearlydodge.com/ for parts, they have a lot. It looks like you already have the Mechanics Instruction Manual which is great, but I would also recommend getting one the "Book of Information" as well. I have both and each book seems to be a bit more detailed in different areas. In regards to your distributor, my retard/advance is not any more than yours.

Thanks all! It took some muscle but I was able to get it off. I appreciate the quick feedback!

Hopefully this is a really simple question for someone here. I have a burnt out light bulb in one of the headlamps on my 25 Dodge Brothers Sedan. Can someone tell me how to get at the bulb? The only screw I see is the one on the back of the housing that is used to adjust the headlamp aiming. To me it looks like the front ring that holds the glass in should pop right off but I want to be sure before I start tugging on a 90 year old headlamp. Thanks for the help!

Did the car run previously? I had the same issue with fuel running out of the carburetor air intake when I couldn't get the car started this spring. I assumed I had a carburetor problem also but it was just the result of cranking. I put in a new coil and condenser and it fired right up. I don't want to doubt what your buddy found with spark but based on my (limited) experience, if your car was previously running but now is not I would be surprised if it is a carburetor issue. Do you get spark all the way to the plugs?

Assuming your car is together and running, if you move the levers while looking in your engine bay you can see pretty quick what they do. One will rotate your distributor cap to advance the spark and the other will adjust your throttle the same way the foot pedal does. I don't touch the hand throttle unless I want a little higher idle. Leave the spark retarded to start but once its running (assuming timing is set properly) you can advance it all the way.

I suppose its possible, but I am not familiar enough with throwout bearings to tell. Is there an easy way to tell?

22touring, I seem to have the same issue as you, I also do not know if it is normal or not. When shifting up or down I take my time and double clutch and have very smooth gear changes. Going into first at a stop gives me a lot of grinding however, my clutch seems to drag enough that the driven gears start spinning even with the clutch depressed. I don't have the thick 600w oil like others here do so I'm not sure if the clutch dragging like that is normal and the heavier oil is enough to stop it or if my clutch actually has a problem. I've taken the clutch cover off and cleaned the clutches with brake clean but it didn't really help. When driving the car I get smooth shifts into first by leaving the car in gear as I come to a stop and once stopped I move directly from third to first. If I leave the gearshift in neutral, even with the clutch depressed, the gears will begin to spin and give me some bad grinding when I try go back into first. When I had the clutch cover off I took a video of the clutch with the engine running, showing that with the clutch depressed that as a I move the gear shift from in gear to neutral, you can see the driven plates start moving without me releasing the clutch. My car has the multiple plate clutch setup and it seems that there is nothing forcing the plates apart when the clutch is depressed. When i push in the clutch the plates are not held together at all, but there is also nothing pushing them apart meaning they just sort of rest next to eachother and produce enough resistance that transmission gears will start turning. When the car is off and the clutch is depressed I can move the plates back and forth freely with my fingers. Sorry for the long post, kind of hard to explain my situation with fewer words. Any advice is appreciated!

I had an issue with getting spark at one point as well and it ended up being the condenser in the distributor. I got a modern replacement from Myers early dodge. Was a pretty easy fix.

The original coil on my 1925 went out so we replaced it with modern coil. I just went to the local auto parts store and asked for a standard 12V coil. I don't think it was more than 20$ and it has worked very well for me. Made a bracket for it using a piece of scrap metal that was lying around and used one of the bolts where the engine mounts to the frame. We mounted it close enough to the original coil that we did not even need to lengthen any wires.

If you look on the drivers side of your transmission on the outside you'll see a plate held on by I believe 6 bolts. This plate holds the reverse gear. With the fluid drained you will be able to actually see this gear through the access plate in the top of the transmission. I just made sure the gear and its bracket were covered with oil.

Hi Frank, I'm not looking to buy anything but your pictures brought up something I have been wondering for some time. In your picture of the drivers side engine bay, to the right of the vacuum tank and mounted to the firewall is something which looks like a copper bell with a handle on it. My car (a '25) has the mounting bracket but I've never known what belongs there. I'm really curious, could you let me know what that thing is?

My car has a vacuum powered wiper motor that as long as I have known the car has been disconnected and non-functional. Over the weekend I pulled the motor apart and I believe as long as I can get a good strong vacuum to it theres no reason it shouldn't work. The gear that attaches to the spindle that turns the wiper had a piece broken off that was laying inside the housing. The metal is obviously very old and getting a little fragile but I was able to JB Weld it back and I think it will hold. My question right now is in regards to the seals on the middle portion that seperates the right and left chambers. There seems to be some sort of greasy type substance on them and as long as they are apart I'm wondering if I should put something on them to keep them soft and fresh. The advice I have gotten from a friend is to use a little bit of vaseline on these seals. Do any of you guys have any experience with a motor like this and what would you recommend? The first picture shows the gear and the small piece that was broken off. This piece being broken allowed the screw that clamps onto the rod to come loose, causing the rod to spin freely. The seals appear to be in ok shape, hopefully they will be tight enough to do the job. Once again, any advice is appreciated! Update: I went ahead and softened the leather seals up with a little petroleum jelly and the motor works 50%. It will slide to the right under to power of the vacuum but will not slide back to the left. One of the gaskets on that side is really bad so I'm going to try cut a new one, I feel pretty good that this will get it up and running.

Thanks! As far as I can tell the leather on the seats is original, I try to be very careful to be easy on them. As far as I can tell just about everything on the car besides the running boards is original. It was also repainted and had the bumpers re-chromed in the late '80s. And I was aware of the folding seat! We have a tool pouch with a few of the original tools as well as the hand crank stored under there.

Hey guys, I never posted pictures like I said I would but I finally have a couple! Took the car out to a small car show over the weekend. In response to my earlier question about the clutch seeming to drag a bit even with the pedal fully depressed I did have some luck. I adjusted the pedal itself to allow for a longer throw to further disengage the pressure plate and I also sprayed all of the plates with brake cleaner and engaged/disengaged the clutch a few times. The transmission gears do still pick up a little bit of speed even with the clutch depressed but it is much better than before and its slow enough that I can go from the car idling in neutral to first gear (or any gear for that matter) with very little grinding of the gears. Thanks again for all your help!

Thanks cahartley, you are talking about the release of the clutch pedal / throwout bearing correct? On my car there does not appear to be any sort of exterior return spring for the pedal, not a big deal. But what about the driven / driving plates? Is there something that should cause these plates to separate when they aren't held tightly together or is the lack of pressure supposed to be enough to allow the driving / driven plates to spin freely from one another? I do have someone who is a little more familiar with the workings of a clutch looking at it for me this weekend as well. Perhaps he will be able to give me some answers after seeing it in person!

I was thinking about doing that but wasn't sure if something else was the problem. Are the plates supposed to some how be spring loaded that they separate when the clutch pedal is pressed or are they just supposed to come apart on their own?

I took the clutch cover off today to see what it looks like. The plates dont seem to be gummed up because if I press in the clutch and reach in with my other hand the plates seem to move around pretty freely. If I only push the clutch in however they do not seem to separate much at all. Is this normal? Also when you release the clutch the pedal it does not come all the way out by itself, while driving I do not feel any slippage however.

Thanks for more good information! I have noticed from skimming these forums that removing the starter can be quite a hassle. I'll try take some time tomorrow to feel for any heat building up. As for the clutch issue, I do have the grease cup for the throwout bearing which I will make sure I have good and lubed up. I am not optimistic that it would make a difference however because my understanding is that a sticking clutch would cause it have an issue grabbing fully when released, while my problem is that the clutch does not quite seem to fully release from the transmission when fully depressed. Either way I will try the simple solutions first As for my age I never thought I would get so intrigued with cars from this era but the more I get into it the more I enjoy it. Like I said earlier it was my grandfathers car so it kind of fell into my lap. I'm around new cars every day so something like this is much more interesting to me. And the way these cars were designed is brilliant but at the same time simple enough that even though I'm no mechanic myself I think I could tell you how just about every component of the car works. It has been a lot of fun learning how everything works. Just spent some time figuring out why I couldn't get spark, ended up hooking up a new coil and installing a new ignition condenser and she fired right up. I'll try post some pictures tomorrow too. The car is a 1925 Business Sedan. Looks just about identical to the one in your profile picture!

Thanks again guys, other than my little issue with first gear I haven't really had any trouble shifting so as long as the gears are in decent shape and covered in oil I think I'll just put up with the second gear noise. I'll try to do a little more research on the clutch. While I'm talking to you guys, have you had any experience with weak starters? (This car has the starter-generator). When I engage the starter it will try to turn over but can't get over the compression stroke and gets stuck and makes noise. I'll release the starter, letting the engine rock itself back then press it again. Once it gets over the first compression stroke it seems to spin at a good speed. Any experience with this? If not I'll start a new thread. UPDATE: After going for a drive yesterday the starter hasn't been hanging up anymore. I think I'll leave it as it is and see if it doesn't act up again.

Thanks for the quick and thoughtful replies! It turns out I have had that cover off before but was thrown off by the cork gasket. It was caked on very tightly as if it wasn't supposed to be moved and I'm very hesitant to force things on a 90 year old car. I scraped around the gasket with a screwdriver and was able to get it to come up in one piece. The car I'm working on is actually my Grandpa's but it has become my project as no one else in the family really has ever had any interest. It has been in storage the last 15 or so years and last year we got it out and running again. Everything is there and in pretty good shape, I'm just going through doing some little stuff and making sure everything is right to drive it without damaging things. 2nd gear makes a lot of noise when accelerating or decelerating so I wanted to make sure everything is clean and properly lubricated it in there. After taking off the cover it actually looks better than I thought. Plenty of oil and it seems fairly clean. 2nd gear does seem to show a little more wear than normal but doesn't appear to be anything serious in my non-expert opinion. The gear oil in there seems thicker than a normal gear oil but I am not sure what 600 wt oil should feel like. I will try find someone in the area who has some so I can compare. I'm hoping thicker oil will slow the gears down and make getting into first gear easier. I think the clutch may drag just a tiny bit even with the pedal depressed because even if I have the clutch in the entire time from when I start the car it will still grind when I slide it into first.

Hey guys, kind of a simple question here but what is the best way to fill the transmission oil on a '25 Dodge? My book of information says to fill "no higher than the top of the reverse idler gear bracket" but does not state how you are supposed to add the gear oil. I imagine you could remove the entire top cover of the transmission but this would also involve removing the floorboard containing the starter switch and foot pedals. Again, I know this is probably a stupid question but I can't seem to find a fill hole on the transmission. Any advice is appreciated. Thank You!