MercMontMars

All has gone well so far, I cleaned the tank the best I could and bolted it all back together with a new pump. Lines are clear, fuel rail is getting fuel and 40psi of fuel pressure is there. Only trouble I’m having now is injectors, which have probably been totally destroyed by sitting for so long with old gas. Have everything but fuel now. New set of injectors coming in the mail, once they’re in hopefully this car will come back to life. Also got lucky and found a parts car at a scrapyard with the same motor, so I’ve been pulling everything I can off of that.

Patched up all the damaged wires I could find, my only big issue now is the fuel tank. It’s filled with nasty varnish and who knows what. I plan on getting a new metal tank for this car since the plastic ones aren’t too great. For the time being, what’s the best way to clean this so I can get the car running? I don’t want to crud up my new pump with this nasty tank.

Dropped the tank last night and pulled the old fuel pump. I don’t really think I can call this a fuel pump anymore..

@TexRiv_63 Beautiful! I love the white. I’m looking forward to getting her going, from what I’ve seen these cars last 200,000+ with proper care and the one I’ve bought only has around 85,300. What did you end up selling yours for if you don’t mind me asking?

Hi there, I’m posting in regards to my ‘new’ 1994 Cadillac Fleetwood. As my collection continues growing I’ve acquired a Cadillac. I’m not sure if it’s old enough to post about here, but I’m hoping someone knows a good source of information and parts for this car. Only problems I’ve found so far is that mice got to some of the wiring and the fuel pump is bad. I bought the car for $700 so these are pretty small problems for the price. I’ve confirmed the 5.7 does run, I got it to run a little off of starting fluid so spark is there. All I need is some wiring diagrams, a source of parts and any knowledge anyone has on this car. Also if anyone has parts for sale like a good set of exterior decorative trim or wiring harnesses I am interested. Thanks for any help!

Luckily I’ve still got some old fashioned tools lying around. Electric soldering iron should prove helpful for the starter job. I knew these would come in handy eventually!..

@Rusty_OToole That’s good to know, right now I have a typical 3-way solenoid in there but I have to manually jump the terminals when the starter is in as my ignition cylinder/starter button are not hooked up. I replaced it according to what was in there before I did anything, someone apparently changed over to this when they got rid of the original starter that had the Chrysler solenoid on it.

@c49er Beautiful truck! Gosh she’s huge, I love Dodge trucks. Very hard to come by nowadays. Love the red!

@keiser31 That’s great! I am located in Florida. Message me and we can discuss more there.

Hi there, I am looking for a 1939 Chrysler Flathead 6 hand crank. Does not matter if it is original or a reproduction. Thank you!

So this is a bit odd, looking at my Chrysler today told me that I can absolutely hand crank it with a tool suggested by the specially machined hole and “wings” for disengagement once the motor started. The odd part is that Chrysler didn’t make it very easy to access, I’d have to unbolt the center piece on the grille which isn’t a big deal but strange that this feature is still there but totally hidden. The rad even has a little bit of a curve in it to allow a crank tool. All I need to do now is find one..

@wayne sheldon It’s a great feature to have! You never know when a starter might give up or your battery ran low. I’m not sure why they phased it out, you’re probably on the right trail though which is that the consumer took it as a negative thing.

Today while messing with the starter I actually discovered that my starter plate is perfectly fine, with the way the spring broke it looked like it was broken. I wasn’t really paying attention and assumed it was toast but it’s all good. I’ve ordered a new set of springs and brushes and I’m going to take a shot at fixing it. Only thing discouraging me is how the brushes are attached to the armature(?). It appears that they are soldered or crimped. Before I try fixing this and mess up my connections how does this attach? What’s the best way to remove it so I can put a new one in? AcDelco starters are much easier, this starter is odd to me.

Looks like I have a MCH-6101.

@Oldtech Good to know! The Ferguson starter I have is almost identical to the old one, only thing that stopped me from bolting it in was the base being too thick, literally an inch or less. Not 100% sure if it’s for a 101 Super though. This is what I bought: https://www.ebay.com/itm/224810011213?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=0amNRQmqT4q&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=pfqk-z0dthg&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Hi there, while I’m waiting on a shop to rebuild my starter I’ve been reading old forum posts about starters and such. I found a post that suggests you can hand crank the motor but that seems somewhat antiquated by 39.. is this actually possible? Now that I think of it, I think I saw a hole on my 39 Chrysler that would imply you can put a hand crank through. Not positive though.. gonna have to check today and see for sure. Would be a nice feature to have if I ever have starter issues again. The post I read:

@keithb7 I have the inline-6. Thank you for that, definitely helps my search. I have to look at the data plate on mine and see what I have now.

@Bloo My mistake, it actually is the bracket where the spring coils onto. I don’t know how but it broke off and the plate needs a new spring bracket put in if it were to be fixed. I’ve done a little research and found a NOS plate on eBay for this starter so that is good news.

@Bloo Thanks for the informative reply! I was worried about that, wasn’t sure if it’d damage anything even though it looks “right.” Gonna err on the side of caution and take your advice. I’d rebuild the starter myself, I’ve done it with my Pontiac’s AcDelco starter but this one is much more complicated and needs soldering which I’m not great at. It’s just the spring, it’ll need a new spring riveted in on the plate if I can’t just find a whole new plate. As far as I know the motor is original to the car, I haven’t run the numbers but as far as I know it is. This car overall has appeared very untampered with and has a Chrysler inline-6 and 3 speed transmission with overdrive. You might’ve read another topic about my Pontiac which has a non-original 54’ Straight-8. I will start researching auto-electric shops in my area. Before I have it rebuilt I just want to figure out one last thing, which is if my car originally had a floor button starter. It’s unfortunate that someone changed it because they didn’t replace it with one that has a solenoid on it. No clue why they chose to replace rather than rebuild when they put in a starter that is just as old/worn than the original would’ve been.

Hi there, I’m trying to find a starter for my 1939 Chrysler Windsor as the starter that was in the car is a later starter with no solenoid and was not working efficiently. Easier to replace than fix it because I want something newer and one of the brush springs in the plate were broken. I don’t want to spend $200+ on a “rebuilt” exact fit starter but that seems like all I can find online. I bought a Massey Ferguson tractor starter that is practically identical to the old one, but I’m just having trouble bolting it in. Not 100% sure if it’ll work with my flywheel once it’s installed and to make it fit I have to grind a small groove in the starter housing so it fits around a flywheel housing/engine block bolt. Only issue is if I grind it to fit I won’t be able to return the starter. Tough situation.. I see no reason for it not to work but I want to ask here before I’m stuck with a starter I can’t use and $120 out of pocket on it. Anyone had any luck finding a starter for their Chrysler inline-6 motor? Thanks for any help!

@57Classic Probably already done that, once.. twice.. okay maybe more than that. 😅 Apparently the starter isn’t original to the car so I ordered an exact fit Massey Fergusson tractor starter. Should do the job, the old starter would be more of a pain to fix than it’s worth.

@Oldtech Thanks! Unfortunately just as I had it all set up and tried it my starter kicked the bucket.. not turning nearly fast enough to start the car. Dropped it and opened it up to find one of the brush coil spring things are gone. Just my luck.. on to looking for starter parts.

@Oldtech Yes, I currently have the motor in TDC validated by the thumb test on no.1. This put my rotor at a perfect 12 o clock position, does this mean that is my number one on the distributor? I’ve also been doing the firing order VERY wrong, I read in another forum post that the order went counter clockwise but my rotor turns clockwise. Haven’t tried it yet with a clockwise set order so hopefully this does it.

(My distributor actually turns clockwise, I’ve been trying counter clockwise orders.. gonna see if that makes a difference.) Hi there, I’m finally at the stage with my 1939 Chrysler Windsor project where I can try the motor. The carburetor is rebuilt and pumping fuel, and the distributor is getting spark at the points. Only thing im having trouble with now is my timing. I set up the firing order 153624 according to a diagram I found but when I try it the motor turns about 2/3 times, puffs a little smoke from the exhaust then a big POOF comes from the carburetor. Not really sure what’s going on, seems like it might be firing on the exhaust stroke? I’ve never tinkered with one of these old straight 6 motors before so I’m not sure what to do from here. Getting fuel, getting air, getting spark, just having trouble with the timing/firing order. I’m pretty sure the order goes counter clock wise as well. P.S I tried feeling for where the 6th cylinder’s TDC is and marking my no. 1 that way, but the rotor seemingly just pointed at the ground. Thank you for any help!