Mark Gregush

Is there anyone in the greater Portland Oregon or Vancouver Washington area on this board that has early Dodge parts? I need to get the correct 1920 front springs to install the correct axle back under the car. The ones under it now are 2 inches wide I need the 1-3/4" ones ( I think the axle under it now is about 1924 to 1926ish). Also would like to find correct shackle parts. If I read things correct it now has the long side bars, need the short ones. Yes I see that the suppliers have the parts but they are way outside the budget. How common are the rear disk wheel hubs with 14" drums, straight axles or were such things made?

Thank you.

Quick update; The float is holding. Replaced the upper hose. Turned the self commencer/generator the correct direction. No output because the fuse holder was badly corroded and dirty. Cleaned it and put in 10 amp fuse. The armature looks good and is undercut. Put the water back in and started it. I've got generator output. 🥳Need to get rings for the exhaust manifold and put the exhaust pipe nut on. Enough for today, I've got some other things to work on.

We got the 20 home yesterday. Drove it on and off the trailer, which was the only way I could, winch not working. Had to take out the float and fill the carb bowl from the V tank, run till died then repeated. There was flooding when I opened the valve on the V tank because the float sunk. The float has some major cracking that will not be fixable, would add too much weight. When we got it home, I had a spare float that seems to be working. Ok so on the plus side I drained the oil today. Very black but the screen was pretty darn clean. Could not feel any sludge on the bottom of pan. So must have been off and cleaned. I was going to swap out the front axle this weekend, BUT the springs that were used with the later axle under it are two inches wide, should be around 1-3/4" for the axle I was going to use and the mounts. They must have ground down the eye in front but did not do anything about the shackles in the rear, wondered why they were so wonky looking! So will have to take changing it off the table for now. One of the rear tires was beyond petrified, it was turning back in to carbon! LOL I swapped it out with another used one that I had. Got it mounted and on the car before I saw the splits in the side wall! Oh poo! I dropped the pressure down to just enough to support the car. The tube in it is newer and don't want to wreck it. Tomorrow I am going to change the top radiator hose and look at turning starter/gen the correct direction. Right now the fuse is on the engine side and can't easily get to the screw to take the brush cover off. Need to see why no charging.

If it were me I would use bearings with seal only on one side, so the lube in the transmission can do it's job.

Yes they do. I am going to swap out the front axle. The one under the car is later and has more drop. If I use wood felloe wheels that were mounted on the spare that is getting put back, good to go there re bearings. While the wood felloe wheels would be wrong, they have issues and might work for a while. Chances are because of tire cost, I might be putting together a set of 21s using Ford felloes and rims. I have to look into the cost of respoking the them, at least the guy is local so save a bundle on shipping. Thanks for the info on the rear tub, I am going to keep my eyes open for the correct one. If I don't find, will make this one work.

As I posted on Facebook, I think the felloe is a GM product that was installed in place of the Dodge. I have a set of rears that used the same felloes.

There is a guy up in the Vancouver area that does re-spoking so at least I would not have to pay shipping both ways. Good point on the wider 21's, I think the 21's on it now are the T/A size. Re engine question. I just found out last night the engine I was asking about is December 1916. One of the guys on Facebook pointed me to where the number could be found. Went out at Midnight to look and found it.

Great. Thanks. Those photos really help. True, T's and A did leave the factory 6 volts but you can buy 12 volt cutouts as a number of people convert them. I have a diode for the Model T that I have been sitting on for years. As the Model T is negative ground and I think 30 amps plus should work fine. Most of them are rated for much higher voltage then this will ever see. We had done some checking, from what we found out, the 6, 8 and 12 units all had the same rating on the diodes in the ones sold by the suppliers and they were only rated at 30 amps. For sure on the correct polarity.

Speaking of cutouts, is there a replacement cutout that can be used on the negative or positive ground 1919/20 to bypass the one in the starter switch? Mine is a G unit, but working on another that maybe the GA. Yes I know that Myers has the rebuilt unit, but this is a time crunch thing. I have looked in the Dykes manual but the illustrations therein are not easy to see how they are made, if different then the normal 3 brush generators like the Model T or A. I know about the change to positive. My 20 is correct but the 1919 is wrong at this point being run with positive ground.

Great info, thanks much. Someone on one of the Dodge Facebook pages said he didn't like the look(21"), but that's cool. I am very use to being around Model T's and A's so might not look too bad to me, comparing it to what I am use to.

Guess I should have stated mine is an early 1920 touring. The front axle and spindles were swapped out and am going to put what should be the correct axle/spindles back under the car. The axle I will be installing had the early 1920 back wood felloe wheels installed on it so will something to compare to. I also have a pair of rear hubs. The front of the car now sits way too low, not just because it has 21s on it but because it has the wrong front axle, 2+ inch more drop then the other one. If I just put the larger wood felloe front wheels on, I think the tire would be rubbing at every little bump and might loose a bit of turning radius with that extra 2+ inch drop the axle has now that is under it. As it is, the 21 disk will have to stay under the car for now so it can be moved as needed, so will check the spindles they are mounted on now to compare and swap around as needed. The steel felloe front wheels that came with the car are a size in between the 33 and 21s but have no tires or rims to fit them. The 25" rims I got, some fit the larger wood felloe wheels others not sure. I have several rims and spare tire holder with the pad as shown, some that have just a tube to fit in valve stem hole (wood felloe wheels?) and a couple that are like the first but have had a tube welded on to fit the wood felloe wheels sort of anyway. mattml430, like it in the colors it is painted in now. Photos of engine to come as soon as I get the spare engine(s) home and do a little more clean up on the pad.

The 1920 touring I am getting at some point had the whole front axle replaced with one that had more drop (around 2+ inches) along with the spindles and 21" disk wheels. I have what I think is the correct axle and spindles for wood wheels. What year did the axle change? Is anyone running wood 21" on teens or 20's cars? I have all the wood wheel hubs, spindles and parts to put them on this car, but plan on using Ford felloes and rims as they are are more abundant, esp in my parts supplies. I ran the numbers and would see less then 5MPH drop at 2000 RPM. With the front axle that now is in place, the correct wheels would not fit, the 21" disks on the car now are already close to the fenders. I am pretty sure the spindles for the disk are different anyway. Engine questions: Coming with the car is what I think an early engine. I don't see a casting date in the normal place and the pad where the number is stamped is rather short, under approx 1-1/2 inches with just enough room for maybe 4 or 5 digits. I tried cleaning the pad off to see the number but could not read what was there. (Photos to come later). It has the aluminum bell housing. Does any of this give a date range that the engine was made? The distributor is mounted to a shelf that might have been able to hold a magneto as needed and uses the larger cap. The engine had been used as a stationary power unit had has a pulley attached to the rear. After I get everything home and go through the extra parts the excess will be sold. This will include rims, wheels, motors, windshield parts etc. The car has the Hassler springs on the back, missing the fronts, I may sell them, don't know on that yet. Someone may suggest I need the Master Parts List. At this point for the amount of parts I am dealing with, don't think it would pan out along with some information that I have read on it, might not be a lot of help anyway. Thanks for any help and information. Mark

Make your own. Get a 160 and trim the flange as needed to fit hose and weld a piece of stainless pipe to it.. https://www.snydersantiqueauto.com/ProductDetail/A-8270_160-DEGREE-THERMOSTAT?fromCategory=SearchByKeyword

From what I understand, the slopping windshield came out in 1919 (?) so might be correct for 1920, if it's not, there are the straight stanchions in the parts stash. I have not got enough experience on the Dodge cars to tell what is what. If it were a Model T, no problem. I am going with the front half is original and the back half, don't know. I spent a good part of 2 days working the clutch loose. It was good and stuck! Got it free.👍Backed it out from where it had been stored for who knows how long and drove it about 2 blocks. Does have some steering issues, which will be address when we get it home. 😁

Update, I got the ID of the upper hose also the number off the cross member is, 440891 which it between Feb 11 and March 5 1920. The photos above, the car is on jackstands, with the car sitting on the ground, with the 21"s in front, quite the rake to her now plus having the dropped front axle. I have a set of wood felloe wheels that will be going on and think there are enough rims that will fit properly to make up a set. There is a dealers tag under the starter button. It was sold, if it is correct, in Spokane Washington. I had family up there at the time, they very well may have seen it when the car was new. (They are all long gone) Thank you for the information. Oh I posted a video of it running over on the clubs Facebook page.

I noticed that jog in the lineup, the doors do seem to open and close fairly well. The rear tub was in the process of being grafted on. The rear doors don't have the metal folded over the top edge like the fronts, you can see the wood filler when looking down. Would that point to a time range that would have doors like that. I did see a photo some place that the doors looked like they had wood caps, but was not sure if that was and aftermarket dress-up item? Ok re the 24" wheels, I have read so much conflicting information re size. As it is now, it has poormans overdrive on the rear with the 33" over sized tires. Oh the engine number (633,892) put it as April 1921 but the info I am getting with the car it may be a 1920. It does have a number stamped on the passenger side upper firewall but I forgot to write it down and have not wire brushed the frame or cross member to check there yet. Being almost or is a 100 year old car, who knows what has been changed.

More photos

Tonight's questions; What is the rear end ratio and when did Dodge go from wood felloe to steel? Right now it has the 1924-26ish 21" disks on the front and 25" wood on the back. the wood wheels on the back have I think the steel felloe, but there is a set of the wood felloes that I could put on. Do the steel and wood felloe wheels use the same rim? Upper radiator hose, what is the inside diameter, I got the length but forgot the ID. Does anyone sell just the button and spring for the rotor? I got it running today! Running very lean because the throttle shaft is really worn. 🥳After everything was wrapped up, I looked at my camera and thought oh poo I could have shot a video of it running.

Thanks for the photo that shows the magneto mounted. I was wondering how they were fitted up. Looks like direct drive with no impulse coupler in between.