Bloo

If I found brown oil in that car, I would drain the entire thing, torque converter too, change the filter, clean the sediment out of the pan, and adjust the bands to the spec in the shop manual. You'll probably need crowfoot wrenches and at least one small torque wrench. Don't work with the pan off in a dusty environment, and be extremely clean in your reassembly. Don't wipe stuff off with rags if it is going inside an automatic transmission. Wash any parts with solvent or brake Kleen, blow dry, and assemble. In 1976, all types of automatic transmission fluid had been red for longer than anyone could remember. Use fluid that is backward compatible to either Dexron II, DexronIII/Mercon or Chrysler ATF+3. Not every type of Dexron fluid is fully backward compatible today. Brown means burned. The transmission has been badly overheated. Adjust the bands. Also be sure to adjust the throttle and kickdown linkage as shown in the manual as it does more than just kickdown on the Chrysler transmissions AMC was using in the mid 70s. If it is misadjusted it will cause the transmission to overheat and possibly destroy itself. The transmission might be shot, but I would give it every chance to be OK. Adjust the bands. Did I mention adjusting the bands? Best of luck with it.

What?

Probably. Batteries do that, at least if there is a voltage regulator, and I think that cutout box on your new generator does include one. Not really. Current draw from lights, radio, heater, is relatively constant, it does go down a little when the system does not keep up, but that's not terribly important. Yes exactly. That is exactly what third brush generators do when there is enough current draw to keep them at their maximum. Your ammeter however should only be showing what current goes in or out of the battery, in amps. Amps represent flow. The primary current source is the generator, and the lights and stuff should be siphoning off current before it gets to the ammeter. So assuming it is voltage regulated (and I think it is, by a second relay in that cutoff box), the accessories, ignition, lights, etc. get to take whatever they want first. Any available current that is left over goes to the battery, if it wants it, and registers as charge. If the battery is kind of low, it will take everything it can get. If the battery is pretty much full, it wont take very much current, and will register less charge. If it is charging pretty high and you turn an accessory on, you will see less charge because the accessory takes it's bite first, and there is less available current left to flow through the ammeter to the battery. In the case where generator does not keep up, the generator will do all it can, and all it can is speed dependent because it is a third brush generator. The battery will supply the rest. Whatever current (amps) the battery provides will flow backwards through the ammeter and register as discharge.

Plymouth Sattelite Custom, probably a 1974

306 V8? Really? Pushbuttons on dash for the cast iron Torqueflite it would have come with, and an aftermarket floor shifter too. Original transmission was cable shifted. Will the aftermarket floor shifter even work on a cable shifted transmission? If it did it would still be odd because the Torqueflite had no "park". it used the parking brake instead. The parking brake was on the tailshaft. Maybe it has a different transmission? A Chrysler transmission new enough to have a linkage instead of a cable will only bolt on engines back to 1962, not 1957. Now that begs the question "what is the engine?". Chrysler Corporation made so many different displacements in that period it would make your head spin, but to the best of my knowledge 306 was NOT one of them. There's not a single picture under the hood.

Airplanes have frequent government mandated inspections and maintenance to take care of any looming problems before they crop up in the air. I have a box of wire here that is identical to wire that is commonly used in space, and I can assure you it in no way resembles anything you will find in a car. For one thing, the strands are well plated with something that never seems to oxidize. For another, the quality is extremely high. I can only really comment on what you will find in a car, as that is my area. You will typically find wire made of bare copper strands. When you crimp a terminal to that, it is fine at first, but over time the strands will oxidize, especially at the end where you stripped the wire to crimp it. The resistance rises when those strands oxidize at the crimp. You can measure it, and the reliable way is by measuring voltage drop. Just get some nice needle-sharp multimeter probes, like Fluke TL-40, Oldaker 763, etc. With load on the circuit, headlights on if it's a headlight circuit for instance, poke one probe at the bare strands and the other at the brass of the terminal it is crimped to with load on the circuit. Measure the voltage dropped in the crimp. The meter does not lie. Try it sometime. Using headlights as an example again, 0.2v is a difference anyone can see in a headlight. You'll probably find 0.1v under load in a single crimp if the car is old. How many of those crimps are there between the voltage source and the bulb? There's 2 crimps for each wire just in one connector. When you consider that there is also loss in every connector where the terminals touch, every switch, and every fuse or circuit breaker, the dim lights on old cars start to make a lot more sense. Those other losses can be minimized but not eliminated. Solder alloys to the metal of both the wire and the terminal. The wire and terminal become one piece of metal. The voltage loss is negligible under load, and you probably won't even be able to measure it. It doesn't degrade unless you dump battery acid on it or something. Even then, it would degrade slower than a crimp. Don't take my word for it. Try it. Measure it.

When you have a voltage regulator, and I believe you do now that you have the correct parts, voltage will be more telling than amps. When the charging system is keeping up, in other words the generator is capable of putting out more current (Amps) than the car is using at that particular moment, the voltage should be whatever the voltage regulator is set to. That number needs to come from the manual, but it might be about 7.5 volts at room temperature on most cars. So the first issue is what happens when it doesn't keep up. The voltage of a fully charged 6 volt battery is about 6.3 volts. When the generator ceases to keep up with the demand for current (amps), the battery has to pick up the slack. As such, the voltage drops to 6.3 volts very quickly and goes down from there as the battery discharges. You can see a difference of 0.2 volts in lights pretty easily so the loss of 1.2 volts is an obvious dimming and it continues to get worse as the battery discharges. The second issue is the current itself (amps). A DC generator would gladly charge several times its rating and go up in smoke given an opportunity to do so. On most 1930s generators this is prevented with a third brush. Third brush generators have a downfall, They only charge at the maximum setting at one particular RPM, and if the generator turns slower or faster than the ideal RPM, the maximum output is less. It ls like a bell curve. As you drive faster or slower, the available current falls off. When there is no regulator, the third brush has to be set for fairly low output to keep from boiling the battery too much with the lights off, and then it can't keep up with the lights on. Such is life with a Model A Ford and many others. When there is a regulator, like I believe you have, boiling the battery due to lack of regulation is not a problem, and the third brush is set to the maximum SAFE current for the generator. Be careful about the spec for this setting. Some generators have a higher TEST current than the normal set current. OK, so the third brush is set for the maximum safe current, and the regulator regulates the voltage. Great. But, since it is a third brush generator you are still stuck with the bell curve for available current. Using my 36 Pontiac as an example of this, I have a maximum of 15 amps, maybe 17 if the generator is stone cold. That is about 40(?) mph. If I drive faster or slower I get less. So if I need 10 amps, I can probably get that across a wide range of speeds. If I need 14, I probably can't hold the speed close enough to the peak even if I try. The Chrysler no doubt has a larger generator, but the principle is the same. If the battery starts out full and you have more current (amps) available from the generator than the lights, accessories and ignition are drawing, the system will run at the set regulator voltage (~7.5v), the lights will stay bright, the battery will stay charged indefinitely as you drive. If not, you will start out around 6.3 volts, with somewhat dimmer lights, and the battery will slowly go dead, as it has to carry the difference between what the generator can supply (in amps) and what the car is using (in amps). The more amp/hours you have available from your battery the longer you can run like this. I doubt there are many 1936 cars that can carry a radio, heater, and lights all at the same time.

That is a 6 bolt transmission in the picture, should fit 60-80-90. Car in the original post is a 40 and should have the physically smaller 5 bolt transmission.

That sounds like a good deal, but the car in the original post is a 40 series. It is a whole different transmission.

Welcome to Farmer, WA. This tiny town has been the butt of a lot of smallest town jokes over the years because it doesn't even have a church or a tavern. It has... a Grange hall, and only a Grange hall. I see they are calling it the "Farmer Community Hall" now. Nice. Once upon a time, there was a store on the other side of Highway 2. In the early 70s the ruins still stood, set back from the road in a low spot, surrounded by trees. No trace now. I took a little detour here and headed north on Highway 172. Next stop Withrow WA. That's it in the distance. I continued north on 172. A few more miles up the road the highway takes a hard right turn and heads east. Next stop, Mansfield, WA: I got some gas at a bulk plant just outside of town, and then turned around and backtracked to Farmer, turned right at Highway 2 and headed west a few miles. Next stop Douglas, WA. The old store: And some other stuff. I think this used to be a motel. Old St. Paul's Lutheran Church: The old Hotel: Old Douglas School: I then got back on Highway 2 and continued west a few more miles. next stop, Waterville, WA. Stay tuned, more to come...

@TerryB As someone who spent a lot of my career repairing screwed up engine control systems, I think we may have to agree to disagree on this one. You are correct that crimping, properly done, is more resistant to outright breakage from vibration. Crimping is terrible, on the other hand, for keeping stray resistance under control. It doesn't age well at all.

In my opinion, the C body Electra (late 80s) is the best car on that list. The Olds 98 is almost the same car.

My guess is the string used in that method was probably the same type of waxed linen thread used for tying harnesses in the electronics and telephone industries.

There is also a period method that involves wrapping with string and maybe beeswax(?). I don't know exactly how it was done. A period repair probably would have been friction tape. Let us know what you come up with.

Thank you! The soap opera about the tape and the hinges continues. I was able to buy a used left hinge and a pair of NORS (aftermarket) hinges. Those are the NORS aftermarket ones in the picture. They had pot metal rot and started falling apart immediately, the right one first of course. It had probably already been drilled and bolted in a lame and largely unsuccessful attempt to hold it together by the time these pictures were taken. In retrospect, I would have still bought them. They were better than nothing. Recently, on a tip from @pont35cpe , I was able to buy a right hinge. I've not put it on yet.

Last run of 2021.... It has been a while since I posted anything in this thread. My plan was to fix the generator when I got home, and then take it on an extended drive, about 80 miles or better, to prove that it was fixed. The plan was to jump from Highway 28 up to Highway 2 and come across the Waterville Plateau and visit some of the little towns up there. I would have done exactly that on the return trip if I had not run out of daylight. I did tear the generator down and inspected the field coil closely. It looked good. I put it in the oven at about 170 degrees for a couple hours, shook it, banged on it, moved wires around, and it was solid as a rock. My theory now is that coolant was getting on the generator belt. I could see how it was probably happening. The overflow tube ended right by the generator pulley because it was missing it's extension hose. It probably took about 20-40 miles for the coolant to expand enough to reach the overflow and dribble a few drops on the belt. It wasn't dripping enough to show spilled coolant. With nothing to fix, I put it back together with the intent of taking on an extended drive, but first I drove it to a neighborhood convenience store. It didn't want to shift into second. I didn't grind, It just didn't want to shift. It would with persuasion, but something was obviously wrong. I went back home and checked the transmission oil. A tiny bit low, but not enough to explain poor shifting. I pulled the drain plug and metal came out. At first I thought a ball retainer on a bearing had come apart. It turned out instead to be a synchronizer detent spring. I'll make a thread about it when I get around to uploading pictures. My over-winter storage is several miles away, so I had to fix it. @Kornkurt found the critical parts for me. By the time I was done with that, winter had arrived. 2 days later we had a nice day and I took it on a shakedown cruise. I headed east on Highway 28. Here is Rock Island Dam, the first dam on the Columbia river, circa 1933, looking back toward the west in this view: I continued east on 28 to the Palisades Road and turned north. If I had done this while headed back west from Wisconsin as intended, I could have either gone this way or cut north earlier at Soap Lake. Palisades Road: Palisades WA. Some of my pictures didn't turn out, so here are some from the Internet of the school and the old store: I did manage to get pictures of the Grange hall and an old farmhouse: Headed out of Palisades and on up the coulee toward the plateau: A little further up it turns to dirt. I hadn't been up here in years and had forgot that little detail. Looking back toward Palisades: A little further up: Past this, about as far as you can see and to the right, this road does get a bit narrow and twisty, but the pics didn't turn out. Finally on top of the plateau, looking back again toward Palisades: And out onto the plateau, eastbound now: Then turning north toward Highway 2. This road seems to have 2 names, Sagebrush Flats Road and Coulee Meadows Road. We are in Douglas County, WA, and I suspect this is the Grant County line. Northbound toward Highway 2: The road tees into Highway 2, and I headed west to the Waterville Plateau. In this confusing picture, The road I was on is in the foreground, the tee is out of frame to the right, and the road in the background is highway 2 heading west between the 2 rocks. And out across the Waterville Plateau toward Farmer, WA: More to come....

This^^, and NTX5497 is being nice about it. I would say that power windows and locks could be expected to be partially broken on any used car. When a car came in for repair, and a Borg dashboard clock was found to be working correctly, people from the shop gathered around and stared.

No it is literally like hose. You use some that is a little tight and force it on there after the fact. Here's an example, sorry for the awful pics. the pictures are years old, taken to show something else, and turned out blurry. On the RI Wire site, go to "Metal and Non-Metal Conduit Tubes" and then scroll down to "Neoprene Tube" for a table of sizes. I don't see any way to link it directly. Original from the period: Rhode Island Wire stuff:

Rhode Island Wire has black tubing, essentially rubber hose, but made for this purpose and in the right dimensions. You push/stretch it over the connection after soldering. It may be the original method, but it is also possible the original rubber may have been vulcanized in place. After all they thought nothing of vulcanizing a tire patch in place in those days. Either way, it hits the original look closer than heatshrink does.

If there are before and after flow tests, I would love to see the results.

Oh there's one other explanation. The car might have the wrong door switches. The diagram clearly shows switching on the hot side. 99% of all dome light switches only switch the ground. I'll bet they were originally 2 terminal switches (to switch on the hot side), and somebody changed them. Are you sure? It wouldn't need to be if it matched the diagram and switched the hot wire. Yikes. I'd rather have it switched on the hot in that case. For one thing, you only have to get one wire through there, not two. For another, if you switch on the ground, one of those wires that got drug through the roof is hot all the time.

It's made up. Years ago i had a book called "1960 Cars Of The World". It was published in the small magazine format of the time, in other words it looked just like a copy of Mechanix Illustrated or Popular Science of the time. This book had all the cars you know in it, and all the ones you don't know too. There are pictures and basic specs. At that time, almost all of those makes had at least one or two agents in the United States, even some eastern bloc cars. Cars that did not have an agent were also included. I highly recommend the book, and I can assure you the Zblorft would have fit right in.

The rod oiling is by squirt nozzles in the oil pan. They squirt across the oil pan at the dippers on the rods. If they do not squirt far enough, the rods will starve for oil.

It probably says 20W not 0-20W right? 0-20W would be fine in that engine. Back in the day 20W would have been the standard recommendation for that engine, or 20W20 and a little later 10W30 after multi-viscosity oils became standard. Cold flow matters a lot in this engine. The main thing is you don't want anything thick. I'm thinking 0W20 would be great because it might flow better cold than the others. Zinc is not much of a concern because it wasn't being used yet in 1937 when that engine hit the market. It probably wasn't even in use yet in 1951. It shouldn't hurt anything if you want to use it, but it's not a requirement. Later engine designs with much higher valve spring pressure brought about the use of zinc.

About three, but the pieces of pie keep getting smaller and smaller.