Pete O

Has the London to Brighton run ever taken place when it was not raining? 😁

I can never understand the guys who buy an antique car and then do everything they can to make it drive like a modern car.

A little tack weld maybe to hold it in place?

They also make a positive ground 6v alternator for the Model A, so don't switch polarity until you know what you have. Is there a label or tag on the alternator? The failure of the bendix to engage could be that it's just clogged up with crud and/or rust from sitting. Take the starter out, it's not hard to do. Disconnect the battery, remove the battery cable from the starter, unscrew the starter switch rod from the switch, three bolts hold the starter to the flywheel housing and bingo. Look for a broken bendix spring and make sure both bolts holding the spring are intact and the tabs on the lockwashers is bent up to hold the bolts in place. Spray the whole bendix assembly with a penetrating oil to free it up so the gear will slide freely on the shaft.

I did have to change the ball bearings in my '51 when I first got it because the balls had galled. But I went to and old, independent auto parts store near by (are there any of these left any more?) and they had the original style ball bearings in stock on the shelf! I checked Rockauto, and they stock the original bearings for a '52 Special for as little as $6.24!

In 1931, there were no torque wrenches- hadn't been invented yet. When the cars were being assembled, they used wrenches of the appropriate length so that a man of average strength could tighten the fastener to the correct-ish tightness using the two grunt method (get it tight, then yank it two more times with a good grunt on each yank).

Car computers "learn" your driving style as the car is being driven. They keep this in memory between starts. If the small internal battery in the computer dies from not having a power source, when you do eventually hook up the battery, the computer will reboot to default settings and will have to relearn from scratch. Shouldn't be an issue.

The way dual points work, I don't think you measure the dwell separately for each set of points. As the cam rotates with both sets closed, one set will open first while the other is still closed, but the coil doesn't fire yet . Then after a little more rotation the second set will open while the first is still open. This is when the coil fires- both points must be open to cause the coil to fire. After a little more rotation the first set will close while the second set is still open. But because the first set closed, it will start energizing the coil again even while the other set is still open. The overall effect is increased dwell angle because the open/close interval between the two sets of points is faster than one set alone can open and close. I think you measure the dwell with both points functioning.

A NAPA store closed where I used to live and the owner was giving away much of the inventory too. Must be a thing. Anyway, a friend of mine picked up two 30 lbs tanks of R22 refrigerant from the owner. That stuff is like gold! Between the two tanks it's got to be worth maybe $3,000 in today's market. Either the owner didn't know what the R22 was worth, or he was just dumping everything.

Found this on the web.... IF you zoom in it looks like the spring connects to the firewall below the wiper motor.

The first three pictures are the base for the jack. The other pictures look like door hinges to me.

I have a Chiltons Flat Rate and Service manual that covers 1947 that has exploded views of all the assemblies, including the generator. All the parts and part numbers are shown. Interestingly, the diagram for the Lincoln and Ford 8 does not show a nut on the end of the generator shaft holding the pulley in place. The Ford 6 generator shows a nut. I wonder if the pulley hub is threaded, as is the shaft, and the pulley just screws onto the shaft and it doesn't unscrew during use because of the clockwise rotation?

I believe these are sleeve valve engines. Lots of sliding and moving parts there to get hung up if there's rust from non-use.

Some lock cylinders require the key to be inserted in order to be able to rotate the lock to remove it from the housing. The wafers are the little bits of metal in the cylinder that slide up and ride against the teeth on the key. They are of different heights so that when the key is inserted and they ride against the teeth they end up being all at the same height, freeing up the lock cylinder so it can rotate. I've heard of locking steering columns that worked with the ignition key that was mounted on the column. I can't figure out how a lock on the dashboard would somehow lock out the transmission, unless there some kind of linkage or cable that works its way from the lock to the tranny.

Originally the paint was smooth and polished. It did not come from the factory crazed and cracked. The paint has failed- it is no longer as it was originally. I don't understand the current pendulum swing the hobby is in where everyone thinks "original" cars should be left as is. If your original engine had cracks in the block would you leave it unrepaired? If your car had its original tires but they will no longer hold air would you leave them on your car? Repair the paint and display the car as it was intended to be seen.

Is the intent of those lines to slow cars down? Speeders gonna speed, and they'll take a straight line through the wiggles. Also, just think what those lines would do to a self driving car!

Doing a wheel alignment on my '51 Buick, setting the caster is done with an Allen key to rotate the threaded upper control arm pivot. The pivot is reach by removing the grease fitting. To set caster, you measure the change in inclination of the wheel while turning the tire from right to left. Well, I left the Allen key sticking out of the control arm pivot, and as I turned the tire to the left, the Allen key punctured the inner sidewall of the tire. Stupid.

I'm no expert on Plymouths, but was the 4 cylinder engine oiling fully pressurized? I tend to think it wasn't as very few engines from the '20s were. Anyway, I know first hand that in the 4 cylinder Ford Model A, that the oil pump pumped oil up into the valve chamber and no where else. There was a dam toward the front of the valve chamber where excess oil overflowed and oiled the timing gear. The valve chamber was kept at the oil level that dam controlled, and gravity fed oil to the the main and camshaft bearings through drilled passages. The valve tappets were oiled by spray from the pump discharge- there weren't drilled holes like the Plymouth seems to have for the tappets. I suspect the Plymouth worked in similar way and that the oil pump filled the valve chamber.

I think it might be that Rambler, particularly George Romney, invented the terminology of "Compact Car".

I've also read that the condition of the transmission mount impacts the operation of reverse gear. If the rubber mount is deteriorated, the back of the transmission sags and that impacts the operation of the linkage.

Yes.

No

I saw a 1907 Ford Model K being started by hand crank once. 405 cid 6 cylinder. Don't know what the compression ratio is, but it can't be much. Still, that's a lot of piston and crank mass to turn by hand.

First thing to check is the timing. If the timing is ok and it still overheats, my experience has been that it's the radiator that is the culprit.

I was making the same point you made in your post to the guy parked next to me at a show recently. We may think that the hobby is dying because kids today aren't interested in the same cars we're interested in. But there are young kids out there who are interested in collector cars- just not Model A Fords, or '60s muscle cars, or classic Packards, etc. They like more recent cars, like new Mustangs and Hondas with trick bodywork and hollow mufflers. If you think about it, when car collecting and showing first became a thing, the cars being shown were from the brass era. You hardly see these cars at shows any longer because they've been displaced by the guys who collect muscle cars. The same thing is happening now as before.