timecapsule

The U-Joints were the first thing that I mentioned being checked in my original post. Besides once U-joints go, it's a constant noise and or vibration.

Yes there is an axle nut. But it is a castle nut with a cotter pin. It has tapered axle ends on the rear like the front spindles with key/keyway front and back. Awesome looking truck.

For several months I've been hearing and feeling a "klunk" noise when I take off in my 1930 Hudson. It's coming from the rear of the car. Imagine replacing the leaf spring shackle pin/bolt with one much smaller in diameter. When you'd take off all those components (shackles, pin, leaf spring) would make a similar sound to what I'm hearing and feeling. Or perhaps if all the lug nuts were loose. I've run out of things to check. Universal joints, all components of the brake assemblies, leaf spring shackles, leaf springs for breaks, U-bolts that hold the differential to the leaf springs. Plus I've given the suspension a complete grease job. I've taken off the differential backing place and drained the differential oil, and checked the oil and the bottom of the differential housing for any metal. I've inspected the wear on the ring gear and pinion and that looks normal. I'm about to check the pinion backlash, but just by moving the ring gear back and forth, it doesn't look suspicious. I replaced the pinion/differential gear assembly last year and the pinion backlash was within specs. I checked that before installing. To check the backlash while the differential assembly is still in the car, I'm assuming to get a proper reading I should at least lock the driveshaft in a fixed position. But I'm not sure if I need to slide out both axles or not. I think there might be enough free play with those cluster gears, that it won't effect a reading. But I might be wrong there. My backlash spec is between .006th and .008th. When I installed it the backlash was .007th. I've tried to inspect the 4 cluster gears in the differential but that's really limited since it's difficult to view them completely, without pulling everything out completely and separating the differential halves. But from what I can see as I rotate the wheels in a full rotation they all look pretty good. No excessive wear. I recently had one axle out ( 100 miles ago) and the hardfacing on the end of it is still looking good and undisturbed. I had both axles hardfaced when I installed the replacement differential/pinion assembly, so I could get the proper axle end play. Now we come to the real puzzling part. This "klunk" only happens when the car has been sitting for a number of hours. Overnight for sure. It will happen within a few hundred feet of taking off. But then it won't happen again no matter how many stop signs I come to. Or no matter how fast and hard I try to take off. I can let it sit for at least a few hours and not get that "klunk" . But if I'm in my shop all day, then when I leave I get the "klunk" But,,,, when I do take off for the first time, if I take off ever so slowly. I'm talking really slow, slower than walking speed. Just put the car in gear and let the engine pull it along without any gas for a hundred feet or so. Then gradually try to increase speed without applying any torgue to the drive wheel by just barely touching the gas pedal. Once I travel maybe the length of a football field and get up to 30 mph, then it's all good and after that I can stop the car and take off again without the "klunk" noise. This next theory might be stretching it a bit, but one thought is that one or more of the shocks might be making the noise. They were all empty when I got the car and I filled them with hydraulic fluid. But they all slowly leaked out. I have a spare one that I have pulled apart to see how they work. The problem is the shaft is worn on one side. They have felt seals, so no wonder they leak. To fix the problem, I have to fill the worn area on the shaft, and then turn them to match a speedie sleeve, and then install the matching modern seal to match that speedie sleeve. I don't own a lathe,,,, yet. But it's my next tool to buy. The cost of a used lathe would probably be less than the labour bill at a machine shop to rebuild all 4 shocks. Anyway, so maybe, just maybe, they are getting hung up when at rest and sort of break loose ("klunk") once torque is applied to the differential which the arm is attached to. Like I said that's a bit of a stretch. I've even tried rocking the car dramatically before I take off to get the shocks moving. Has anybody experienced such a thing?

Just to update,,, I finally got it. I credit all you guys for helping me along with this. So it was a combinations of everyone's suggestions that paid off. However one big factor was the flasher. I went and got one of those 550 flashers that Bloo recommended. Which was the one I remember from the good old days. Sure enough once I plugged it in everything worked fine. So thanks everyone for all your help with this. Yes I've wrapped masking tape around each wire identifying where it goes, incase I happen to forget before I do the switch and wire it into the car. Cheers

Perhaps I spoke too soon Joe. After giving it a bit of thought, the flasher you're talking about is the old school bimetallic strip kind, like the 550 Bloo mentioned. The one I've been using ( link above) is a electromechanical type. Whatever that means. But it probably doesn't have that bi metal strip that is heat sensitive. So perhaps the length of wire might not make any difference. Just a guess, since I'm way out of my league now.

hummm! so from what you just said could the reason I'm not getting a flash be that the wire length on each of the 4 lights on my bench test set up, is about 8" long?

Thanks Bloo, When I bought that flasher that I'm using some time ago ( the Napa one in the link), I got that over the counter and I asked for an old school flasher with the X,L, and P terminals. Granted the guy at the counter was still wearing diapers so I'm guessing he just grabbed the first one he saw. I'll go to Amazon and select an old school flasher suited for my application. In the mean time. I'll try to fine tune my bench set up. With the correct bulbs if the ones I'm using are not the right ones.

I never thought to check the bulbs, They are just a bunch of marker light style lights I had kicking around. I'll open them up and have a look at the bulbs tomorrow. Here is the flasher that I'm using. https://www.napacanada.com/en/p/FLSHD13 Not much info on it though. The two pictures below are of the electronic flasher I happen to have, that I was thinking about trying.

Well it wasn't exactly a slam dunk today with the "bench test drive" for my turn signal unit. But at least, thanks to you guys, I know what's going on and what each wire does. I struggled even after I got it all wired up on the bench with 4 bulbs wired in. After some time and a multi-meter in hand, I figured out that I wasn't getting continuity, and I tracked it down to the slider piece and the plastic board with all the contacts are. So I cleaned off all the old grease and then cleaned it further with electrical contact cleaner and I've got that working much better. However I still think I have one lazy contact. I think I'll take it apart again and stretch out the tiny springs that are putting pressure on the slider bar to make contact on those (12) round contacts on the black plastic board. The other issue I think I am having is a faulty flasher. If I have a fused wire from a battery going to the X terminal, then I should have 12 volts going from the L terminal, into the turn signal assembly, right? I have everything lighting up as it should. Two lights come on when I activate the brake light switch that I installed. When I move the turn signal lever to one side two lights light up. When I move the turn signal lever to the opposite side, the other two lights light up When I push in the 4 way flasher, all 4 light light up However nothing flashes. Yes I have grounded the turn signal assembly. Btw, I used the white wire for the brake light because nothing happened when I hooked up the orange wire to the brake light switch. I think that was a continuity issue. But to throw a wrench into the whole thing, if I disconnect the flasher from the turn signal assembly, and then run a fused wire from the battery to the X terminal on the flasher and then a bulb and socket and wire to the L terminal and then ground the socket to the negative post, the bulb will flash. ???? go figure. I'm using an electromechanical flasher X, L, P terminals. I also have an electronic flasher X, L, - ( ground) terminals. Will that work, assuming I forget about pilot light? Or should I go buy another electromechanical flasher? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Thanks guys for all your help. I'm sure I can figure it out from your explanations now.

Thanks. I'm assuming "B" means battery. My flasher has an "X" for that one. "P" for pilot light and "L" for load

I think this will be the most helpful picture. The activator arm is removed. Under it is this sliding bar that activates the 4 way flasher. When it moves forward it pushes both of those plastic half round pieces at once. If one was to apply the left turn signal, that 4 way activator along with the turn signal arm is pulled down, which inturn slides only the half round plastic slide up which makes contact with blue, green, and yellow. If the turn signal lever is pushed in the opposite direction then the red brown and yellow all make contact. When 4 way flasher is activated by sliding the arm straight in, then blue, green, red, brown all make contact with yellow.

Hopefully these pictures and my explanation will speed things up. This pictures with the top off really doesn't show much, other than the black wire going to the pilot light. More pics to come.

So here is what's going on inside the turn signal assembly. From the wiring, I can see which wires go where as far as each turn signal light. I'm assuming that one of the wires ( orange, white, or yellow ) goes to the "L" on the flasher. Which one? I'm also assuming that one of those 3 wires will go to the brake light switch. Which one? How about the third wire? I sent along a diagram to help show which wire goes where.

I do have an ammeter. all wiring goes to a fuse panel and then on to the ammeter. I'll be posting pictures of the inside components and a diagram in a few minutes.

So are you saying without that wire connected to the ammeter in the car, (battery on the bench) that the bench test won't function properly?

I'll dissect it tomorrow and take some pictures

Yes there is a 4 way flasher function. However there is also a 4 way flasher function in the existing 7 wire one on the car now with all tiny wires.

Does anyone have an idea why the orange wire is a heavier gage? The 7 wire assembly in the car now uses all 18 ga. wires.

I saw that diagram during my search and it confused me because one wire is going to the headlight switch and then on to ampmeter. What's that all about?? Maybe that's the 8th wire, which would probably be the white wire.

I was wondering what I might find if I try to take it all apart. Obviously I have taken the top off to expose the bulb socket and the black wire going to it. There are two screws in that portion so I guess I'll take them out and dig deeper and see what I discover. I'm hoping this unit is pre circuit board and the wiring will be self explanatory once I get in there.

I'm fed up with the 7 wire assembly that I have on my car now. It's a terrible design and the wire going to the pilot light gets so much wear and tear that it has snapped off twice in about a year and a half. So now I have just finished designing a method that will reduce that wire movement within the assembly. But I want to be prepared for it too fail eventually. So at a swap meet this summer I bought a new turn signal assembly. It's made by Dominion Auto of Toronto, P/N 70-8033. Probably 60's vintage but by the condition of the ends of the wires, that have about a 1/16" of bare wire showing it tells me that it has never been installed on a car. I did as much research on that unit and it seems like it could also be a 6 volt unit, So I checked the pilot light bulb and its a # 53. So that tells me it's a 12 volt unit I've done considerable searching on the internet for the wiring diagram but I can't find anything. Not only that, but the wire designation is different from the 7 wire that I have now. On that one (7 wire), the blue wire is for the pilot light. On the Dominion one (8 wire), the black wire is for the pilot light. The other wiring designation that is different is that on the 7 wire unit the brown is for rear right. I have done a bench test on the 8 wire unit, and the only wire that I can get the pilot light, and test bulb, and flasher to flash is the brown wire when the lever is set for the left side of the car. So the brown is for left on the 8 wire unit. But that is the only wire that responds when testing it with a bulb. ??? The picture below shows the colours. red. black, blue, orange, white, green, yellow, and black. Except for the orange, all the wires are 18 ga. The orange is 16, or maybe 14 ga. So I ran that one to the L on the flasher. I ran the X terminal on the flasher to the battery with a 20 amp fuse in line. I ran the black wire to the P on the flasher. As I've mentioned in previous posts. I'm as stupid as a stick when it comes to auto electrics. For some reason beyond my "expertise", I'm wondering if all the wires must be connected to bulbs before it completely wakes up the turn signal unit? I'm thinking I have everything configured properly since I get the brown to flash appropriately. I've grounded the turn signal unit to the ground post of the battery and I've also grounded the test light bulb to the negative post of the battery. Yes I could just start disconnecting the wires on the unit that is installed on the car now, and hopefully and eventually sort it out by trial and error. But the days are short now and I want to get the wiring transferred over in a few hours since my shop isn't where I live and I prefer not walking home in the dark, because I got stumped over confusing wiring.

I agree 100%. Back in the 60's with the typical seal beam, ( 1004 was the P/N I think ) I could see just fine. Even without the high beams on. Like I mentioned in my post here. People need to die, in large numbers, before the politicians do anything about it. Of course, at that point they're just playing the sympathy card to get votes. What messed up world we live in these days.

I've come up with a solution that works great. I made up this tool that is a piece of darkest tint plexiglass attached to a UHMW round rod. I simply hold it up between my eyes and my windshield and position it so I'm blocking out the oncoming car. I can see everything around the headlights that I'm blocking out. Also if I'm at a 4 way stop I can block out the car at 90 degrees to me by holding the tool to block out their headlights. When not in use, I rest the tool across my lap and the curve on the bottom of tinted plexiglass rests on the inside of my left elbow. Even when turning corners I can use both hands on the wheel and the tool stays in place. As for the rear view mirror. I have a piece of felt tucked in to the headliner and the other end rolled up behind the mirror. When a car is behind me, I simply flip the felt in front of the mirror. As for a number of comments about people driving with their high beam on. I think it's actually their low beams. That's how insanely bright the new lights are. Then of course the aftermarket companies all want to outdo each other so they in turn come out with even brighter lights. I believe it's only a matter of time before studies are done to confirm that many head on collisions are caused because of the bright lights. But then of course it will take multiple deaths before anything is done about it.

Thanks Paul. I figured it was shaped something like that. I'll improvise and create my own contraption. I'll go see Ian at Acme Safe on Fort St. in Victoria. He's not only a good locksmith, but he's also a vintage car guy, as well as the president of the Island Chrysler chapter. His web page shows a couple similar year, door locks that he has rebuilt. Between the two of us we should be able to come up with something. Thanks again.