hchris

Bit more info needed: Are the vibes thru the steering wheel? or, do you get the vibes with the engine running but the car stationary? or, do the vibes remain if you put it in neutral at that speed? We need to establish if its unbalanced wheels,engine or drive train so answers to the above will help.

Have to agree with Martin, before you spend up on plugs get the carb checked out, much more likely to be an over rich mixture than bad plugs

Have you loosened the distributor base clamp and rotated the distributor body whilst still in the block ? Doing this will alter the rotor to cap position, depending which way you rotate it determines whether the timing is advanced or retarded. It is highly unlikely that the splined part of the shaft is wrongly positioned and to establish the correct tension of the springs you would need some expensive machinery, it is not unusual to have them loose when the distributor is stationary. So get the engine started and loosen the clamp bolt, experiment with moving the body in one direction or the other until you get a smooth idle, if it wont start move the body until it does. Take it out on the road and see if you have any pinging/knocking under acceleration; if so you have it too far advanced, if it overheats then you are retarded. It will take some time so keep perservering.

As TonyAus says, yes there is a battery/starter/generator required just as in your more modern vehicles, however this electrical system has no connection to the ignition system. A magneto is simply a spark producing generator which was in use before technology introduced the coil ignition system as we know it today. There are pros and cons for both systems (most aircraft piston engines still use magnetos) but in the automobile field coil ignition systems became much more reliable and less complex than magnetos.

Perhaps you are over thinking this one, normally the fitment of twin ignition systems is a way of achieving more efficient combustion by igniting the mixture on opposing sides of the combustion chamber thus creating a uniform flame front. I assume you have the ability to rotate both distributors for advance and retard, so why not set one with points just opening then set the other the same, if you finish up with a split of a degree or two I am not sure this will make a significant difference as the engines of this era were typically slow reving and under stressed. The only other factor that may apply is if the distributors are designed to fire in sequence, a bit like dual point devices which use this technique to increase the dwell time; in which case you will really need the proper specs.

Magnetos are self generating spark devices, they have no connection to the cars electrics other than an on/off switch so there is no issue with 6,12 or any other voltage. Simply hook up a spark plug from the distributor cap and hand spin the magneto, you will soon know if it sparks or not. Fitting it to the engine (assuming you have the appropriate engine drive) is the same as a normal distributor as regards timing etc.

What if the piston is already machined? Suppose your piston is 3" in diameter and has a ring groove 1/16" wide? Does the piston ring manufacturer care what make of engine it goes in? There are a number of factors to consider : cross sectional shape of ring and piston groove - many rings are stepped in cross section side clearance between the ring and groove some rings use spacers between ring and piston oil rings often have expanders behind them ring materials such as chrome hardening etc. cylinder surface finish So you can see its a bit of a lottery selecting rings at random and hoping they will do the job

By puking do you mean the coolant is being pumped out of the radiator as opposed to just boiling out ? in which case you might want to consider a head gasket leak

Unfortunately with piston rings you dont get a one size fits all, while the primary job of a ring is to provide a gas seal within the the cylinder it is very much dependent on the fit within the piston. A piston ring can have many variations in cross section and the ring groove machined into the piston is generally unique to that engine, it is also one of the most critical tolerance fits in an engine so it needs to be a precise fitment. Having said all that, their is no reason why you cannot select a set of blank pistons for a cylinder bore and have them machined to accept a particular set of rings.

The Master Shop manual puts great emphasis on ensuring that both internal master cylinder ports are clear when the master cylinder is at rest, you should be able to run a thin wire through both ports. The trouble shooting guide for binding brakes includes a check to establish that both ports are clear when the pedal is at rest, failure to do this will result in trapped pressure within the braking system. The recommended free play between pedal and actuating rod is 1/4 to 3/8 inch, there is a caution when doing this adjustment to ensure the two port holes are clear when adjustments are finished. From personal experience I have seen many frustrated restorers spend hour after hour trying to get the brakes right without first carrying out this procedure.

Having owned a 25 Maxwell for 10 years and done a ground up restoration I think I can say that the Maxwell is a simple and reliable car just like the T, probably because they are not as prolific as the T buyers/sellers may not look at them as having similar values. The !926 to 1930 Chrysler 4s as well as the 28 - 30 Plymouths share many mechanical components and parts are readily available. Probably the only drawback is the limited braking capacity being two wheel mechanical on the rear wheels, but this can be easily overcome by using the 4 wheel hydraulic system used on the Chryslers of the same era if you are not too fussed about originality.

This brake mechanism was used on most of the Chrysler/Desoto/Dodge/Plymouth cars from 1926 to 1960s. If you know of someone parting out one of these vehicles you should be in luck.

OK pump looks good, however I still think there should be a greater flow from the pump than what you are showing; very difficult to establish what is correct without a known flow rate on the pump. The fact that you are pouring cold water from the tap into the radiator could mean that the thermostat has closed and we are only seeing bypass flow. From what we see the block looks good and all other factors have been covered, so we come full circle back to the radiator, maybe to completely eliminate it you need to have it professionally cleaned out ??

That pump flow looks very weak to me, however if the thermostat was fitted at the time and without knowing the internal flow route, it could be the thermostat was passing some flow internally. Nevertheless considering that you have done everything else why not remove the pump and have a look ?

OK so the condensor has probably cured the engine quit issue - I would give it a hard run to be absolutely sure. As to overheating - the radiator flow a year or two back? how is it now? - block flow appears good - timing is right - thermostat is good - mixture is good (no coughing/spluttering). What do you know about the water pump? is the impellor in good order? can you see the flow in top of the radiator with the engine running? - get the temps at normal operating conditions and run the engine at high rpm with the cap off, you should see a quite turbulent flow through the top of the radiator indicating that the pump is effective. One other thing, again with engine at normal temps feel the top hose and then the bottom hose, there should be a significant difference in temp between the two indicating the overall effectiveness of the radiator.

Well done !!

Seat belt webbing does the job

OK do you have the dimmer unit within your light headlight switch? - if so then removing the switch from the panel involves pulling the knob all the way out (as you would when turning lights on) at the same time depress a small button on top of the switch unit (not easy to reach round the back of the instrument panel). This will allows the knob and shaft to come completely out of the switch assembly (disconnect the battery before this otherwise you leave the headlights on). You can now undo the securing nut which holds the switch unit in place and remove it from back of the panel.

Although I dont know your car, Chrysler commonly used a wire wound variable resistor within the lighting switch to control the intensity of the instrument lights. Most often you just rotated the knob, like a volume control, to vary the amount of illumination. Usually over a period of time this resistor would corrode/get dirty, to the point where it affected the instrument lights. I would start by removing the switch and checking its internals, if it has the wire resistor you can access it with the switch removed and simply clean the resistor with an abrasive pad or similar. The switch may also contain a set of visible contacts which turn the lights off completely if you rotate the knob far enough, these also corrode and can be easily cleaned without further dismantling.

Not out of the woods yet it seems, I would not be happy with the temp at 200 at any time. You need to sort that one as a priority before going any further and obviously the first place to start will be the radiator. Drain it then leave the bottom hose off, put a bung in the bottom outlet, fill the radiator then pull out the bung; the water should rush out, if it glug,glug,glugs then you need to clear out the radiator one way or another. Trying to sort heat related running faults is difficult if you cant keep the engine at normal operating temps, of course there may be other reasons for hot running but start with the most obvious first.

Can I suggest putting a filter in the top hose to save you pulling the radiator over and over, especially when you are clearing/disturbing crud in the block. I cut the leg out of her old stockings and put in the top hose as a cheap disposable filter.

Reading this again, are we talking about only when you are driving or is the knocking there all the time the engine is running? If its there all the time then at 35000 there should be no knocking at all - period We might be able to identify where its coming from with a few simple checks: 1. with engine at idle remove each spark plug wire one at a time, does the noise vary/disappear on a particular cylinder? if so we have at least pinpointed the area (you might want a decent pair of gloves or well insulated pliers to avoid a hefty shock during this excecise). 2. if the above hasnt revealed anything then get yourself a piece of wooden dowel or plastic conduit and position it against the forward part of your ear, now place the other end against various parts of the engine, like a stethoscope, and see if you can isolate where the noise is coming from. Careful here that you dont get the probe tangled up in the drive belts or fan and do yourself a nasty injury. Let us know your findings and we take from there.

OK so we have eliminated the fuel quality, how about the gas tank vent? Does the accelerator pump squirt fuel when it stops? The ignition condensor is just as prone to heat failures as the coil.

1. How old is the fuel? - perhaps try a fresh tank of gas if its been in there longer than a couple of months, forget the kerosene, maybe try a higher octane 2. If you can, take the air cleaner off when it falters and operate the carb linkage to see if the accelerator pump squirts fuel into the carb throat, at least you then know if the carb is kept supplied with fuel. 3. On the ignition side as you have already replaced the coil; again when it falters, lift the distributor cap off and with the ignition turned on, manually open and close the points, you should see a healthy spark at the points (you may need to shade the area if you are in bright sun light). A weak spark is indicative of a failed condensor, this may occur as engine temp rises.

Just because they dont seem to have been mentioned - have you tried the idle mixture adjustment? What about the ignition timing? 17" is just a little on the low side for idle vacuum but I dont know the age or condition of your engine