cutdown

Those check balls are corroded to hell. Sounds like I need to get that apart somehow and make new parts. Float is ok. I think the vac tank is working ok, but I can check that out as well. Many thanks. Thrown some light on the problem. Does anyone know what the height of the fuel should be in the float bowl. Also, what is the size of the main jet orifice. The main jet needle looks good, but have not got the dimensions for that either in order to measure it.

ok. Tested again today. Ignition working ok. Jumping direct from my Landcruiser to the starter as well as igniting the starter from the cars own battery, we were able to turn the engine over continuously. Could not get it to fire so went through the procedure of tow starting again,. We actually got it to start and run briefly then conked out. [ after checking, we found the fuel tap turned off. ]This suggests that the carb was still over-fueling but as the fuel level lowered it was able to run until the fuel level got too low. [ that's the theory ]. Carb was definitely throwing fuel everywhere out the intake and into the engine. Removed the carb [ and saw the evidence of overfueling as above ] and found that I had set it up correctly but had since wound the main jet [ metering valve ] up till it was just about touching the "Dashpot". Ok. either the main jet is worn too large [ the needle looks fine ] or the fue level in the float bowl is too high. Can anyone out there who knows these carbs, tell me what the correct fuel height should be in the bowl? Can someone also tell me how to remove the dashpot assy in order to inspect it. MIne appears to be stuck.

My car has not been run for over 50 years so after a full restoration of all running gear and reconditioning the engine, its time to get the bugger going. First up, my mag wasn't up to it so has gone away for rebuilding. Have fitted a temporary coil ignition system but finding the carb is a problem. I read somewhere a comment about the steel balls in the dashpot. I found one of mine had jammed up with some corrosive whitish looking substance, which I managed to clear. I presume the balls are supposed to act as a one way valve, and mine are definitely corroded . What is the function of these "valves". I have cleaned the carb components where I could, and made up new gaskets where needed. My needle and seat in the float bowl appear to be working well. I can suck on the inlet and the vacuum holds as well as when the carb bowl is full of fuel, it doesn't leak out when disconnecting the inlet pipe but It does leak out once I have lifted the needle and then let it go. My vacuum fuel pump is working well. I had read up about how to set this carb up, but the comment above about setting the metering valve down by 1/16 inch was not mentioned. After reading this thread, I reset the needle down the 1/16th and cured the over fueling problem I had . There was so much fuel coming through it fouled the plugs. All I could get was the occasional bang through he exhaust. Spark plugs, HT leads, coil and distributor are new. Compressions are good. Plugs are firing and the timing is set to TDC. [ I have marked TDC on the fan pulley and remote drive housing] . My starter is not up to turning the engine over with the plugs in although it turns it over when the plugs are out. We have been towing the car around a paddock to attempt to get it going. It would be nice if we could get it started and running to some degree [ before it's 100th birthday on 17th May ], in order to diagnose any faults that need correcting.

That propane or butane flame is not hot enough. That's why I suggested oxy acetylene. Best of luck. You may have to dig the crud out of the water jacket.

Hmmm. Time for an expert. You could try soaking it in the best penetrating fluid ever made. Its probably not obtainable or maybe never invented yet. Next, you could try oxy acetylene, and heat the shit out of it. Might work. See if you can fit the spring again in order to un adjust the cam follower adjuster. Thus may allow you to remove the camshaft, then drop the cam follower down [ after you have removed the burrs at its top edge ]. This will save you from ruining the camshaft. If all else fails, remove the engine and give it to someone who can machine it out for you on their industrial drill press. We once had a jap car in our workshop were the cylinder head had corroded onto the cylinder head studs. Even chain-blocking the cylinder head up in the air for a few days with the cars front wheels off the ground, we could not budge it. We threw that engine away and fitted a replacement. You have a problem there mate. Best of luck.

Its a fully reconditioned engine. You are probably referring to the original crank that was in the engine. After a complete strip down, I decided that crank was cracked and it has never been used. I used the crank out of my second engine.

Thanks Matt. Not having seen the original, it seems ok. Your a life saver with those gear box lay shaft bearings you sent me. All the best for Christmas everyone. Dereck

I decided that because the fuel tank was old, I would fit a CAV filter in the line, and as recommended by Colin, I also fitted an SU fuel pump as a backup when going up the hills around here. After due trial and error, I got every thing in the fuel supply working. I had timed the engine and put marks on the timing cover and the fan pulley to line up exactly with TDC. I thought I would jump start in from my Land Cruiser but the starter just turned once and stopped. bugger, that's what it did 35 years ago when I checked it. Forgot about that. I removed it and took it to one of the old school sparkies here, and he proved one of the charging field coils had cooked. I got in touch with Colin and made arrangements to go down to see him about two weeks later. We looked through his collection of Dodge bits and found the body of one, which tested out ok. We then rebuilt the starter using my armature and then set it up and made adjustments to the charging and also proved my starter switch [ which I had taken down to him as well ] was doing all the right things. He also suggested tow starting it first because the engine was so tight. It was now time to find out the rest of the unknowns. We had to wait some time because it had been raining so much, the paddock outside the garage was too soft. We towed it around the paddock with the cruiser but no go. Got a puff and a bit of a bang and that's all. The carb body was leaking so removed that and made a new gasket for it. Buggered around with the leads [ thought I may have got something wrong ] but to no avail. Ended up backfiring once bloody loudly. Nah. Timing was definitely wrong that time. Ok. Mag. It had sparked when I tested it on my lathe but was it good enough. I removed it and set it up on the lathe and started asking questions. [ I also proved I had set it up correctly the first time ] I had a hot blue spark with all plugs, and when I removed one lead and held it away 1/8 inch it stall sparked but when moving it slightly further away, it either would not spark or did it intermittently. I checked with my auto sparkie and he suggested a couple of firms that did Mags. The first one didn't answer my call but the second one in Blenheim spoke to me. Yes, it needed a complete overhaul. Got some prices and was told he would not start it till next year and could take 8 weeks before it was finished. I quickly built a frame yesterday to hold it in, put that in a box and booked a courier. It was picked up this morning. At least I proved we had 2 PSI oil pressure on the gauge when we towed the car. One modification I did do was to make up a 3 bolt flange for the front pipe using a new manifold Nut. This enabled and solid connection to the manifold. Next thing was to make a 3 point mounting for the exhaust using cotton reel exhaust mounts as used on Mini's and Norton Commando's. These were fitted so that the rubber were in compression vertically, with no side thrust on them. I made up a tailpipe the exited in front of the right rear wheel [ The wooden deck was too close to the rear axle ]. I then cut the front pipe and fitted a piece of flexible exhaust, to remove any stress that may occur.

We finally got the engine back last year and proceeded to rebuild and refit it. Had trouble getting the right colour for the engine so in the end, I picked a std colour that looked close. It turned out lighter than expected but what the hell.,

Yeh. Know about those problems. Early this year while waiting for my engine to be reconditioned, I pulled my clutch apart and cleaned it. Left it apart until the day before I started to refit the engine.

I don't think you need to be concerned about the "clutch float". The whole clutch floats. When you disengage the clutch, the shaft needs to float to allow the clutch to disengage. Look at he diagram. The clutch shaft floats between the bearing in the flywheel and the front bearing in the gearbox. BTW, I renewed the flywheel bearing with a 2RS as well. No need for cork seals if you do that. [ modern cars don't use cork seals, they rely on sealed bearings like the 2RS ] I ordered a whole lot of stuff from Myers [ including cork seals etc ] before I knew what my gearbox looked like. I fitted the new corks whether I needed to or not. I changed a few things when I rebuilt mine. I had bought a new exhaust manifold nut and packings, but ended up making a 3 bolt exhaust flange clamping system where the new nut held the front plate of the 3 bolt flange in place. Now when I do up the front exhaust pipe, it is a solid metal to metal connection with a thin copper seal made up from the old water heater we replaced, Manisealed in place. [ Maniseal is an exhaust sealer invented in NZ by Penetril Laboratories in Jessie St, Wellington. The patent was sold to CRC]. Bloody good stuff.

I cant see where you mention what year your Dodge is. Many years ago I rebuilt my steering box [ 1923 Dodge ], making a new eccentric bush and generally removing all play. It was just about perfect. Fast forward 30 odd years [ the car was never worked on during that time and in the mean time, the has been fully reconditioned, g/box bearings renewed and all chassis bushes renewed etc. When towed to where it was being rebuilt, I noticed the car would not self centre. I was on just recently when getting it ready to road test i discovered the problem. When the steering box was refitted to the chassis, the clamp was done up very tightly. This compressed the casing on the steering box, and caused the stiffness. I have now loosened it, but will need to look closely to make sure wear between clamps and steering box will allow it to move where it should not. Just another job to do. Everything you could think of on this car was worn [ nearly to destruction ] and still standard sizes. Very expensive and time consuming rebuild. Moneywise I think it has cost more than its value, and that does not include the hundreds of hours of my time.

The front bearing on these gearboxes takes all the thrust when you put your foot on the clutch. As a result, it will wear more [ I was surprised how worn mine was even though it was still very smooth running ]. I replaced the front and rear main bearings on mine with 2RS bearings [ double rubber sealed but with the inner seal removed ]. They wont leak for a very long time now. Watch out for wear causing the rear bearing to slop back and forward on the mainshaft. I made up a spacer to take out the end play [ fitted in front of the bearing in my case because the bearing had worn its shape into the rear yoke ].

The fuel drain plug may be better dealt with while the tank is held in place. Try using Stilsons [ sorry Monkey Wrench to you guys ]. They are designed to grab tighter the harder you pull. Once you have it out, throw it away or get someone who knows what he is doing, to weld a decent hex nut in place of the square. Sockets or ring spanners rarely bugger up nuts. Depending on what drains out of the tank, you can then decide what to do next. Once you have finished the job, keep the tank full at all times. Driving regularly is good for old cars [ at least once a week for 5-10 miles. Have fun. Remember its the GRIN FACTOR when driving these old cars. The bigger the grin, the happier you will be.

Someone mentioned that tying the top of the springs close together may make the sea harder. the original has those paper clip look alike retainers which allow the springs to operate independently. Below is a picture of my original which if you look closely, you can see the diagonal support springs mentioned above from top front to bottom rear and vise versa in the middle . They stop the top of the seat from moving out of line in the forwards backwards direction. you can also see how the links between the top of the springs are situated. They tie together the middle and back row of springs sideways, and all of the springs in th eforward bacwards direction. Good like rebuild there mate.

Got word yesterday that the cam has been reground so now the recondioner can rebuild the block. Hopefully I will get the short block back soon so I can get the truck going. Once I get it all sorted and running well, I can refit the "new" front guards, then the running boards. Once they are in place I can sort out making mounting brackets for the rear guards and fit them properly.

Many thanks for your reply Jan It still has the original steel side frames with the prongs for attaching the "hood" in place [ very strong ]. You can see them in the picture [ the rope is hooked around it ]. The 2 piece screen has been replaced by a single screen in the wooden frame. I agree about the terminology problem. We call them hoods here in NZ. What you call a hood is called a bonnet here. I want the folding hood, and have added a cantilever to attach that horizontal " iron" so it folds back behind the seat. I do need to reinforce the back of the seat [ tack rail ] so still pondering that. I'm thinking of adding a head board for the tray which will reinforce the seat back. I figured if I do that then I can fit the wooden frame for the back of the "hood" canvas in such a way that two bolts hold it down [ removeable tack rail ]. Hence being able to remove the assembly easily. The hood and seat problem has been a jigsaw, but its getting there. Got word yesterday that the cam has been reground. Hopefully i can get the engine short block back soon.

Many thanks to all the good advise seen in this thread. My dodge restoration of a tourer that has been converted to a flat deck truck has been a jigsaw puzzle from the start. A lot of stuff was done incorrectly but the paint job on the body and wheels [ including the yellow pinstriping on the green paint job , body and wheels ] as well as the nice looking varnished deck, sold me on continuing to bring this truck back to life. initially it was Mike who showed me how I could mount the seat back, and that part has been finished, now its the hood, of which I have had to work out how to make the frame work as it should, and that has been done. Now its making the hood itself, and that's where this thread has got me thinking on the right track. I recently had an issue like 72caddy mentioned on page 1 of this thread, and I decided to throw the towel in regarding the forum because it really really pissed me off. The 2 individuals concerned are now blocked by me. It was a surprise to one other member who went out of his way to find bearings for me and he suggested that i should not get disheartened by the stupid episode. As a result of following Mike thread, and asking about the hood frame, I got the reminder about this thread. This forum is really great and I am very pleased i found it. Many suggestions ahd got me on the right track.

I am about to make a new hood for this truck, which was converted from a tourer. It was never finished, and some of the work was never done properly. The frames for my hood have now been stripped but there is a problem. If the hood is folded back, it covers 1/2 the seat. If you look at the picture, you can see what I am getting at. Pictures of roadsters show that the frame must be different. Can anyone please show me what a roadster hood frame looks like, and how it is supposed to fold up. I have no idea what I have here, and no idea where the nearest roadster is. The only wooden bows I got with the car are the front one [ which doesn't look like it will fit above the screen effectively ] and the rear one which holds up the rear glass screen. Looks like there is supposed to be a middle one but that must have rotted away. Not sure what the bracket with the 2 holes in it is supposed to do. Both wooden bows I have need to be remade as they are broken and partially rotten. The frame around the back of my seat seems a bit too flimsy to cope with the stress the hood may put on it so I may have to put a backboard on the tray and make a nice job of contouring the edges. I am thinking of making it so the hood can be removed from the body easily.

A big thanks to Clive's cams for passing on the information regarding the new cam profile. They couldn't have been nicer. Just like all the great help I have had since coming onto this forum.

I have told Clive's what has happened. If they want to help the local outfit here, so be it, otherwise I will get them to do it as was being organized. I was about to press the button so to speak when I got the call. It's just a pity I wasn't told about this the first time I asked back in January because initially, I didn't know about the Ralphs recipe. I was given a price a year ago form them but it was just a general price for grinding a cam I think. Basically I think the engine reconditioner felt a bit guilty about not taking the action to grind the cam as was requested, and only did it when I reminded them that the cam grinder could give them the specs for valve clearances. n I have been kept busy doing a lot of other things to the car and also did expect to keep reminding them [ the reconditioner ] what was required. Not much point in getting pissed off about it as its only a TOY. At least I can see light at the end of the tunnel with respect to the seat. The rear framework has just about been completed.

Too much castor causes shimmy. Its also important to have good bushes in the springs and chassis.

Battery cables cant be too big, and I suggest you run the cables from the battery to the starter motor as well as the earth straight to the engine. That way you avoid voltage drop between engine and battery because you eliminate 2 extra connections in the earth circuit. Use your old earth cables to go from the engine to the body/chassis. On older vehicles, I also recommend running earths from all lights etc, direct to the battery for the same reasons. As a mechanic, I have seen too many stupid problems created by bad earths.

I just had a ring from the cam specialist this arvo. I think they are back tracking, and may now want to grind that cam for me here. What the hell should I do. maybe I should let Clive's know and maybe they can send specs to NZ. I have just received the specs of my std cam by email. Maybe in the first place they thought I wanted a hot cam. Clive's said it would not be a hot cam but one which gives a bit more low down power which is all I am after.. I was asked what the difference is between std and modified cam. They said care needs to be taken or you can make them worse. Has anyone experienced the difference between the std cam, and the Ralph's special.

They got back to me today. 8-10 weeks before Clive's can start on the cam. Bugger. Maybe I will get it back on the road before it's 100 years old. Certainly hope so. At least it will give me more time to sort the seat and the rear guards out. Do I need that much time? Once the engine is back in that the above work finished, I have to prove the carb, fuel pump and water pump. They all checked out ok but proof is in the working. Once all that is sorted out, I can refit the restored guards, headlamps and fit the bonnet. Then I can take photos and start the process of registering the car unless we can start the process before its finished and photo's provided. Another birthday just gone since i started. Dereck