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All going well since the refurbished mag was installed and the carb thoroughly cleaned. [ I was busy writing up about the work on the car in other threads, to realize I had not finalized this thread. ] Working on perfecting the brakes after finding one drum was only 30-50 thou thick. Obtained a replacement that was very rusty and took some time to clean up. Still a work in progress but getting close. Current job is repairing hood bows and sorting out the remanufacture of the hood [ soft top to those from the States ] The hood had been made from the original Touring hood, but never was able to fold down without covering the seat. No way you could drive the car with the hood down like that. I have reworked the front "irons", to allow it to fold back. I have to do this because or the recommendation to keep the hood up at all times to prevent shrinkage, but it needs to be fold down to get into our garage. Only 2 inches of clearance between top of screen to the tilting door when its up. The last hurdle to finishing the job is that I live over 90 kms away from the testing station the tests vehicles prior to registration when they haven't been on the road in NZ for such a long time. Problem for me here is that the inspector is required to see the car and it's production numbers before he can get permission from LTSA to check the car. I am supposed to trailer the car down there and back just so he can check the numbers. That really is an insult to my integrity. Why would I lie about the numbers if seriously want to get the vehicle registered for our roads. That's bureaucratic nonsense at its worst. By the way, the over fueling problem was related to under ignition problems. Once the mag was fixed there was no more over fueling problem. Just now, I fixed the problem with the right hand door easily lifting off its hinges. I measure there was 1/4 gap between the top of the top hinge and that restricting bracket, then cut a piece of 1/4 inch rubber sheet, jammed it in above the hinge then refitted the inner cover. That's All fixed now.

As we say here " It's got me buggered" as well.

Hi JF. I have a variety of drums, some worn with a huge ridge and others that have been machined , and having very little ridge. Yes they have external contracting bands as well a a full shoe inside for the hand brake. The hand brake would probably not wear the inside of the drum so much. I was just hoping someone would have information on what the original spec for the drums were. Not a problem though. I should have mentioned that we are talking about a 1923 Dodge here. We have tyre shops here but they are not brake specialists. Estimation of our greater population is approx 16,000. Hard to know how much the drum would compress, but I suspect it would be minimal otherwise that would be no good. I am a retired mechanic that used to own my own business way down south of here.

JF You must live in an area with a very big population. The nearest brake specialist to me is 0ver 50 miles away. If I am right, the drums were 14 inch OD and there has been 1/16th inch wear, bringing them down to 13 7/8 inch OD. Near enough for me. Still no guarantee what the original thickness or OD might have been though. When the weather cleared again, the road test showed a great improvement in brake performance. I had to really step on the brakes to even get a feeling the the l/rear was about to lock up. Need to do plenty of driving now to bed it all in.

Got it all back together and while filling the engine I saw the float rise. Trouble is, it sank to the bottom again. Stuff it. Thanks Mark. Most of the V8's I worked on only held a gallon so presumed I was on the right track. Still had plenty of oil pressure. Now a road test to test that brake again, now its stopped raining.

Understand. Dodge did work to inches and fractions of inches except in 2 places that I have found so far.. the 0.2 inch size of the pin through the front of the crank and the 0.4 inch square on the rear sump bolts. Not sure how accurately I can measure the inside and outside diam of the drum though. I don't know of a 14 inch micrometer so it will have to be a gestimation.

14 inch O D

Does anyone know what the original thickness of these drums was. Metal spraying could be an option but I suspect it would be very expensive. I think a qualified boiler maker would be able to weld on a new band better that spraying. After all. Steam boilers are just bombs waiting to explode. I remember watching a video on running steam engines and the driver mentioned that the engine is just a big bomb running on rails and 80 mph.

Where the hell did I read that it takes 4 quarts. Yes, the book does say 5-6 quarts. [ in two places ]. That's good because I see no fault with the float. [ all three do the same when floating in water. Will sink lower in oil as it is lighter than water as I indicated above. Just have to fix the oil leak. I did notice after rebuilding the engine that I could not get the front engine mount spigot into the front hole. I had to carefully reverse file the upper right edge of the sump. I think this has reduced the ability of the sump to squeeze the gasket at the right front allowing the leak. An easy fix. Mark, none of the floats leaked, one of my spares has a wee rattle in it but not leaking. I will fit the better spare and add more oil.

After spending time getting my brakes working really well I finally got the chance to remove the left rear wheel and inspect the drum thickness. Ages ago, I could not get the left rear hub loose, so I left it alone and jut drove the car. More recently i had another go at getting the hub off and found it loose. I measured the drum thickness and it was between 25 thou and 50 thou thick. Also, I noticed the hub was further into the diff housing so that the axle protruded about 20 thou. No wonder it was loose. [ Doesn't explain why it was so tight in the first place thou ]. I managed to track down a used drum and a 20 inch wheel fitted to a Dodge rear hub. Got the lot home and set about removing the thick rust on the inside and outside of both drums. In the mean time, I checked the used hub and found it cracked along the keyway. I had a quick look at my original drum and found it was ok. After making a few measurements, I made up a 5 thou shim to go between hub and axle and fitted the used drum I had emeryed the rust off.. On the road test, the left rear kept locking up under harder braking. Thought I had cleaned the drum up satisfactorily but obviously not. [ quite badly pitted, buy as it was 125 thou thick, think it better to not machine it. Then the weather turned shitty so spent the time having another go with the emery tape. Still pissing down and some flooding around the country, so decided to remove the sump as per the other thread. Will have to wait for the weather to clear before putting it back on the road again.

After I rebuilt my engine and got it running, I noticed the oil level indicator sank. If I lifted it then let it go at about the right level [ 4 quarts ] it hesitated then slowly dropped down. I didn't want to pull it apart so drove it. I am still in the stage of getting it ready for the authorities to let me get it tested for road use etc [ another long story ] so have been driving it up and down my and my neighbour's driveways. I have just done about 12 miles in it. I could not seem to stop oil leaking from the front of the engine, [ sump gasket area it seemed ], so decided to pull the sump today and check it out. i noticed uneven compression of the gasket, and when I checked the float against another two, by floating them in water, they all appeared to float the same height [ i.e. 5-6mm of the float sitting above the water level.] There was no noticeable resistance to the movement of the original float. I haven't checked it floating in the running in oil but expect it to sink a little lower. Bit of a conundrum I think.

Adam 72. You have not mentioned whether you have points ign or magneto. iF YOU HAVE A MAGNETTO , READ ON. iF NOT, DONT LOOK ANY FURTHER. My switch did not appear to be operating correctly so I took it apart. It inly had 2 springs in it where there should have been 3. [ Because I didn't have a key, and In order to test the switch I made a key blank out of a sheet of galvanized iron, ] I ended up converting that into 2 keys., I had lost any form of key I.D. so I set about resetting the toggles/tumblers and making 2 keys to fit. One of the keys had a spigot at the end from when I first made the blank. That switch worked well, and the other didn't turn the mag off, [ IE short out to earth ]. I took the switch apart again and worked out that there should have been another spring in the centre to act as the earthing contact. After reassembling, my switch worked perfectly. When the key is rotated to the anticlockwise position, it is in the running position, and the toggle/tumblers stop the key falling out. When turned clockwise, it shuts the engine down because it has earthed out the coil. Like the carb on these engines, it is virtually bullet proof until some numb-scull has a fiddle. Hope this helps.

Cant do much about it now. The plates already have elongated holes and I'm better spending my time doing all the other jobs. Besides, and as I mentioned earlier, this car is meant to be driven, not idled. Thanks for your comment though.

Just sorting out the hardware for the soft top. Making sure it will fold back down. It was previously always going to be up prior to me owning it.[ its made from the original Touring irons, with my modification.] Hard to tell with the second pic but shows the outer door handle I had to make for the car. I also made an inner one to go with it. They look the part but not quite the perfect match. They will do until I find replacements. You may also notice the H4 light units sitting behind the DB lenses. I have Paul Goff LED head lamp bulbs in there. They a really bright. Its a modified Touring so why not go all the way. In the first pic you can see the front indicator lamps. Engine has eased up a bit now and I can start it by hand hot or cold [ even without pulling the lever around to give it a faster idle. ] The bike is a Commando. Its done the length of NZ several times..

I have seen the results of soaking rusty steel in a 1;4 solution of molasses and water. Comes up like new steel. Probably better than an acid bath but I suspect it may be a mild acidic solution.

Drove the car yesterday with no problems. Even did silent gear changes from second into top. Another thing I have learned now is the sound of the rattle caused by not having those springs in place. Its quite loud when the floorboards are out. No problem though. [ It only happens at idle and most auto engines were not designed to idle for long periods. They are meant to be driven.] Not pulling that bugger out again until its done its job.

I think I fixed the clutch problem yesterday. Somehow, I had put the anti-rattle springs on the back plate and not the front plate. The back plate didn't seem to move easily so cut both springs out. Works fine now. Two days ago, I was reading about the clutch and saw in the manual that the are supposed to be fitted to the front plate. I don't remember seeing that before so If removing them didn't fix the problem, I was going to have to remove the box anyway so just did it. Straight away, I was able to shift gears easily when it was still hot. Raining at the moment so wont be doing a real test for the moment. Everything has been some sort of learning curve on that vehicle. The springs were probably causing seven linings to rub, whereas on the front plate, they would have caused only one lining to rub. Without the springs, everything comes free.

Hi Norm. If I was doing this from the start, I would stick with 24" wheels at the back [ mine has 21", in order to lower the deck, but creates a small problem lining up the rear guard again. ]. The rear guard needs a decent amount of thought going into it to secure it to the chassis [ which as you can see, does not extend anywhere past the rear wheel.. I have made inner guard pieces to help this, bolting to the existing guard holes and then to the wooden deck beam. the firs pic is upside down compared to the other two pictures showing the inner sections added, , but shows where the rear of the guard was originally bolted to the body. [ I have also just realised someone has bastedized it to try to make it fit. [ tended to be hard up against the top 1/4 elliptic part of the spring.] When I bought the car, the rear guards were held on by the front section, and only one wood screw intothe deck frame.

Here they are A B. As you can see. The rear guards are not fitted yet. Still some titivating to be done and proper mountings made for them. Those rear lights all work (stop, tail, indicators and reverse ) and They can be turned up out of sight when purists are around. I still have to locate a rear light, an inner and outer door handle and 2 spare rims [ genuine 24 inch and the 21 inch that has been fitted to the rear.] Apologies for the load on the back. We don't have much room in our garage. As possibly mentioned before, the starter does not have enough grunt to turn the engine over, nor do I when cranking her. Having the co-pilot kick the starter button as I crack the engine works a treat. She starts first time every time when a little of the enrichment is engaged..

AussieBuick. Will do, but a bit later.

Finally got the vehicle ready for the road. Having to go through the VCC process [ photographs and forms ] to get the car registered as I have no proof it was ever on the road in NZ. Have owned it for 35 years and it had been off the road for a long time before I bought it. What's been done. Full engine recondition New solid exhaust flange made up, and small flex added to the front exhaust pipe. Properly designed rubber mounted exhaust system New gearbox bearings Full steering box rebuild with newly made eccentric bush. Full recondition of the running gear, made new spring eye bushes and new shackle pins all round, re-bushed the shackles. [ that lot was completely flogged out.] Sorted out the brakes. Ended up have several goes at this. The right rear was dragging on both foot and hand brake. Removed the wheel and drum and added a few extra washers under the return springs on the inner shoe. Fixed that part of the problem. Found the brake levers would not return easily so got rid of the existing springs, ,made adaptors and fitted heavier springs. Still were not returning fully so put heavier springs in again. Had the co-pilot push the brake on and off while I worked out how to best set up the brakes. Ended up with a better pedal feel. After doing about 9 miles up and down my neighbours driveway, I still wasn't happy with the dragging so with the help of my daughter, had another go at those adjustments. The levers at the back still did not seem to go right back but that turned out to be the brake rod from the front , coming back and hitting the diff.. Might have another go to see if I can do something about allowing the bisector to ride a little higher. I have been doing a lot of work sorting out running lights. I bought new LED tail lights and mounted them under my rear deck in such a way as they could be rotated up and hidden when the vehicle is displayed. Tail lights, stop lights, reverse lights and indicators. In for a penny, in for a pound. Fitted a micro switch to the gearbox for the reverse lights. Still waiting on a LED suitable flasher unit to arrive and suitable front indicator lights which I will mount to the front bolts holding the guards. A previous owner had drilled quite a few holes in the dash but I have now used them to fit and indicator switch [ regular on-off-on job, and an indicator warning bulb. I have also made up mountings to fit H4 semi sealed beams in behind the DB lenses, but will have to get LED bulbs for these as the halogen 60-55 bulbs draw 10 amps when it up. Charging can really only cope with 7 amps I understand. Some people may think I am going overboard here but safety is my main aim. The H4's can easily be change over for the originals as the wiring has been set up especially for it. I have run earth wires back from all lights to the battery and I have fitted power and earth multi terminals under the dash so it is easy the plug in lights etc. After running the car regularly, I have now discovered I have a clutch dragging problem. This wasn't an issue for the first 5 miles or so. Last Time I drove the car, I left the second foot board out and the cover off the bell housing so I can watch what happens. There is heaps of disengagement [ probably 1/4 inch, but still dragging when the engine is running ]. Plates are loose when foot on clutch. When I examine the clutch plates prior to assembly to the car, they looked good Gave all surfaces a rub with emery cloth ], but I suspect now that in the past, some sort of contamination has got into them. I will attempt drowning the linings with brake clean before I condemn them.

Finally got it running. Sorry, You will have to stand on your head to view the picture of the car in our back yard. Tried rotating the pic on the computer before adding it and that didn't work. Lots of work done since last posting. Cured the carb leak problem by adding a minute smear of sealer to the carb lower gasket. Not what I would normally do, but the new gasket leaked and its in an area not effecting any orifices as in later carbs. Vacuum pump and back up SU pump working well. I had to remove the large filter as that was causing too much restriction. Noticed the fuel tank leaking so had that out and re-soldered the bottom protrusion also the to where the fuel outlet joins. Tank was actually quite clean and no rust. No need for the filter. My biggest problem getting it going was the magneto. Not enough spark Sent that away to get rebuilt. Cost nearly $1000.00 NZ but now going well. Starter was not up to the job so tow started it at first. Now the car is home in our garage, had to figure out how to start it without towing. At the moment, I get my co pilot to work the starter while I crank. Starts easily with a little enrichment. To heavy for me to turn it over without the assistance. Generator side works well.

I have spent a lot of time getting my Dodge back on the road after at least 50 years. I had carb problems. Leaking etc. I suggest you clean the outside of the carb and then turn the fuel on. Check carefully to see where the fuel is leaking from. I made new gaskets for my carb [ 23 Stewart carb ] but after a time I found that it still leaked. In the end, it was a stuff it moment and I ended up applying a very small amount of petrol resistant sealer to both sides of that lower body gasket. That fixed the leak. Later, I found fuel leaking from the bottom plug on the carb body and that turned out to be that it wasn't tight enough. Tightening it That fixed that. I have been driving the car up and down our neighbours drive way this after noon and the car was running quite nicely. One of the things the manual doesn't tell you is the fuel height in the float bowl. I went down and checked it and it was 1 inch below the top edge of the float bowl. I used a Vernier caliper and a good torch. Fitted the edge of the caliper to the edge of the bowl and lowered the depth gauge till it just touched the fuel. That was the 1 inch. [ that seemed a good enough measurement as Dodge used mostly multiples of inch fractions in most of there measurements. The exception was the 0.2 inch diameter of the securing pin at the front of the crank shaft that holds the 2 gears in place passing through the thrust ring. The other is the 0.4 inch square head of the 2 long bolts at the rear of the sump. You should not have to adjust the float height unless someone has stuffed around with it. Check to see the the needle and seat does seal. I sucked on mine when it was apart and it held a vacuum. I once forgot to turn the fuel tap off, and the carb did not leak or overflow, proving the needle/seat was working correctly. We are told these carbs are bullet proof. I have tended to prove that with all the work I have done to getting this engine up an running. Be warned. Some advise you can find on the internet is a load of shit so be careful. I was lead to believe the a 1/8 inch spark coming out of the mag was sufficient. [ I tested that in my lathe while the engine was being reconditioned ] It was not good enough, and that added another delay to me getting the engine running. Cost nearly $1000.00 NZ but the mag is perfect now. All the best to you from NZ All the best.

My Mag wasn't up to the job so I sent it away for rebuilding. In the mean time, someone suggested I fit a distributor. I obtained a reasonably priced new distributor and coil, and set about making an adaptor to fit it where the mag was. [ this was because the mag repairer said he could not start the mag repair till Feb and may not be finished for another 8 weeks ]. Job well done but the problem was to make 2 spark plugs fire together from one coil. Needles to say, not such a good idea. [ more work required to sort that out. ] Carb is ready to go back on, with a blanked off vacuum port, and we will see if it vacuum sucking extra fuel through is causing the over fueling. Carb is not flooding due to a bad needle and seat. Its been too wet to test the vehicle as listed below. NZ was hit by a tropical cyclone last Sunday, and there has been plenty of damage around the North Island, due to high winds and rain [ I am going on a motorcycle rally in the south island starting tomorrow, so preparing for such ] . It was pissing rain all the way back form Paeroa where I had been at a band competition on the Saturday. Kerikeri hasn't been hit so hard but heaps of rain and some high wind but nothing like the Wahine storm in '78. The man doing the mag has got it mostly sorted and is going on the rewinding machine as this is written, Might be ready this coming weekend, and our rally just happens to be close by, so going to see the progress. [ I mentioned to him on Friday 3rd Feb that I was desperate to get this bloody Dodge running ] No work has been done on the car over the last week.

Those check balls looked corroded to hell. Float is ok. I think the vac tank is working ok, but I can check that out as well. Many thanks for the above info. I Managed to get the carb completely apart now. Those balls are brass, so one was only stuck because of verdigrises or something. When I got it apart, it appeared fairly clean after my last effort. It appears the inlet from the float bowl is above the dashpot piston and so the check balls must be there to stop the dashpot from moving up too quickly as they must check [ or restrict ] the flow of fuel back to the lower carb area. They then maybe allow the dashpot to fall quicker, by allowing free movement of the fuel below the piston, to rise through the openings to the chamber above. If those check balls were not there [ ie closed off, the dashpot would have a hell of a job rising. The fuel below it would probably cause an anti hydraulic lock when rising and a hydraulic lock when falling. ] I had originally thought there was a lot of carbon buildup in the throat of the carb, but found it was just rough casting of the body covered with a black film of carbon. I'm probably overthinking this, but maybe the balls are not supposed to seal perfectly so that they can allow the piston to rise. This carb is vaguely similar to an S U but definitely not the same. Note:- I made a tool to hold the piston while undoing the top off the dashpot. Not sure I have found enough or understand enough to explain why I have over fueling.