Rusty_OToole

Sorry about the above post, don't want to scare the hell out of you but would hate to see you waste your money too. Before you spend any money do a cost/benefit analysis and ESPECIALLY don't trust the job to the "lowest bidder". On the other hand it can't hurt to give the car a good cleaning, wash and wax, vacuum the interior and clean the windows. Do not throw away any odd bits of metal or rubber, they may turn out to be hard to replace parts. Save everything in a box, it may come in handy later. Also save old road maps, drive in theater tickets, take out menus from 1958 etc. They don't mean anything but people feel good when they see them. There is something fascinating about such "souvenirs". Go easy on the chrome, it was of poor quality that year due to the Korean war. The factory recommended washing with mild soap and a soft cloth. Finding any car with decent chrome from those years is rare. Oddly, the cheap cars have better chrome because it was stamped from stainless steel sheet. The expensive models had cast white metal trim, chrome plated, and by now it is usually full of pock marks if not crumbling to pieces.

I would be cautious about spending money on the car. It is very easy to spend more on mechanic's bills than you can get back. What good is it to spend $1000 if it raises the price $500? You would be better off to cut the price $500 and keep your money in your pocket. For most buyers a discount price speaks louder than words. I know a real sharp one is worth a lot more but it can cost a fortune to get there, and if you don't hire the right experts, they can actually cost you thousands and REDUCE the value of the car. I'll never forget the owner of a 1956 Packard who got talked into replacing his engine with a junkyard Buick V8 by a local shop. Since he paid $3500 for the car and paid $4500 to have the motor put in, he figured his car was now worth $3500 + $4500 = $8000. He got sore as hell when I told him he had reduced its value to $2500. So he put the car on Ebay. Top bid, $2200. Have seen decent old cars repainted Chev pickup truck colors (close enough, and the shop had the formula handy). Reupholstered in fabrics more appropriate to a Chinatown tea room (you can't get those old fashion fabrics you know) wide white bias plys replaced with blobby radials that rub on the fenders ( bias ply tires are unsafe). Bad enough when the work has to be done over again and the money wasted, even worse when original parts are lost or destroyed.

A few thoughts. One, it looks like a bargain to me. Two, an MGA is one of the best supported, and easiest to get parts for, among sports cars. The only one easier would be an MGB. Three, they are a simple design. Almost all parts are easy to understand BUT they are English and everything has to be made in some weird half assed English way. As long as you get a good manual, have some mechanical savvy and don't get in too much of a hurry you should wind up OK. Four there are a lot of phony sports car mechanics out there who claim to know these cars but don't. They will mess your car up worse in 5 minutes, than a sensible amateur would in 5 years. Hint: get the manual, look up some MGA web sites and learn to do the work yourself. They may not be as bulletproof as a modern car BUT a lot of grief about English cars being unreliable comes from American mechanics being baboons. I owned English cars and motorcycles for years and learned how to make them as reliable as other cars of their time. I can tell the jokes about Lucas electrics etc. but in truth, they are not bad. Not as good as Bosch or Delco (nothing is) but not as bad as they are painted. Will also say, would rather have an English car from the fifties than one from the seventies or eighties. They went down hill badly just before the industry died.

The V12 had ONE cylinder block, topped by 4 heads. They did it this way so the heads would interchange with the V6, a matter of cutting costs and streamlining production. A local moving company had 3 or 4 of them from new. They were only used for a short time then I suspect the owner died or retired, the trucks sat around for years and years and were finally scrapped with very low miles on them. The engine was quite low, they were COE style and the top of the engine was flush with the top of the frame. At least that was my impression at the time.

Years ago I read of an English collector who was lucky enough to find an engine for a very rare car he was restoring. Unfortunately it had sat in the open for years with no hood or air filter. He was overjoyed when he took it apart to find someone had poured a can of paint down the carburetor. The hardened paint sealed the engine, keeping out water and preventing rust. Wonder how you would go about freeing that one? Lol

It is called a "Sisson" choke. There is a little hole, you put a pin through to lock it in place then adjust the position of the choke. This has all been covered before, with illustrations, if you do a search.

Steve you may be right. I was trying to point out the tremendous difference condition makes on a car that old. This illustrates the difficulty of giving a hard and fast answer.That actually is the price range given in my price guide. If the questioner provides more information and photos I am sure you can narrow it down.

These questions have been answered before, as recently as yesterday. Have a look on the Chrysler board. Briefly there should be a drain plug on the oil filter housing if it is full flow, start by removing the plug and letting it drain. Use a tobacco can or similar to catch the oil. Partial flow with no plug will drain by itself if left for a few hours. Take off the lid, put a plastic bag on your hand like a glove. Pull out the filter element by the ring and wrap in the plastic bag and dispose of as appropriate. Clean out the housing with rags or cotton waste. You can start by using a syphon gun if you have one. Install new filter with the appropriate seals, do not forget the one on the bolt if there is one. Air filter, remove top and look at oil reservoir. If it is less than half full of dirt top up the oil with SAE50 and put the top back on. If very dirty, take the top part and soak it in a pan of kerosene, varsol, or gas. Clean out the oil reservoir by pouring out the oil and wiping clean with rags or cotton waste. Rinse the filter and let drip dry. Do not blow with air pressure, this will make channels in the medium and ruin its effectiveness. Pour a little oil into the top part and shake it around. Let it drain out a minute. .Fill the base with oil to the line,then put the top on. A quart of SAE50 will refill the filter 3 or 4 times. These days if you drive on paved roads the filter only needs to be cleaned out once in several years. One quart could last 10 years. Still a lot cheaper than buying paper filters. 50 oil should be available at any good auto parts store. Not the new one in the strip mall the old one where the truck drivers and farmers shop. Oil drain plug, check the gasket and replace if worn. This should be done every 4 or 5 oil changes but seldom does anyone bother. I wouldn't be too quick to tear everything apart and start cleaning. Chances are you will do more harm than good. If the motor has been out of service for a while and you suspect sludge you could take the pan off and scrape it out, or just do a couple of oil changes in rapid succession if it turns black too fast. Cleaning the road draft tube is a good idea, they do get plugged up over the years. The oil fill cap should be washed and reoiled at oil change time too.

Most remotes can be reprogrammed with no tools. Extras available in junkyards cheap or free. Possibly a Sonata forum could tell you which years will work and how to reprogram.

If there is a drain plug on the filter use it. Cheaper cars did not have this convenience. You had to use a syphon gun to suck the oil out of the filter housing. If you do not have a syphon gun ( I assume you haven't) then the only thing to do is sop up the oil with rags or waste. In other words yes you did the right thing to drain the filter housing. Full flow filters have an anti drain back valve. You do not want the oil to drain out of the filter when the car is sitting. If it did your motor would start up dry and the bearings, pistons etc would be running metal on metal with no oil pressure until the filter filled up. Partial flow is different, they usually drain back and it does not affect your oil pressure or flow at all. By the way the oil filter will last longer if you drain it at oil change time. Modern paved roads and a temperate climate and the filter could go 10,000 miles easy. If you drive on dirt roads in the desert better stick with the 5000 interval.

If it is absolutely perfect in every way, if it wins prestige car shows like Pebble Beach, if it is so gorgeous Jay Leno wants to do a show on it, $16,000. If not, $640. Or somewhere in between. I am not kidding that is the diff between the best of the best and the worst of the worst.

You could ask the lady to unlock the driver's door from inside as you walked around. Cars were seldom locked anyway unless garaged for a long period of time or parked in a dodgy neighborhood.

Why not use the proper lube? Oil guns and 600W are not hard to get. The first at old car swap meets or Ebay, the second from antique car and oil specialists. The hard part is remembering to lube everything every 1000 miles.

Chryslers had quite a vogue in England and in Europe in the twenties. They did a lot of racing and even finished in the money at LeMans. One of the Rothschilds in his autobiography enthuses about the khaki Chrysler roadster he had in Paris as a young man. Forty years later he remembered the car fondly. So, there may be more Chryslers around than you think.

#1 Excellent. perfectly restored show winner. The kind you only see at Pebble Beach #2 Fine. near perfect restoration, or extremely well preserved original. The kind that wins blue ribbons at big shows. A normal person cannot tell a #1 from #2. Both these classes of car will be transported to shows in closed trailers. #3 Very Good. Completely operable original or older restoration. Could be a combination of good amateur restoration and good original. May also be a partly restored car with all parts needed to complete the restoration including rare original parts and accessories. A 20 footer that looks good from that distance but shows flaws when you examine it closely. Most of the cars seen at car shows are #3s. Your car would likely fall in this category after someone worked on it for a few weeks or months. #4 Good. A complete drivable vehicle needing little or no work to be usable. Could be a poor looking original or a deteriorating restoration, or half completed restoration. Even from 20 feet you can see it needs work. #5 Restorable. Needs complete restoration. May or may not be running but obviously needs major work. But not rusted out, wrecked, or stripped of parts to where it is no longer feasible to put it back in commission. #6 Parts car. May or may not be complete but is weathered, rusted, stripped of parts or wrecked to where it would not be worthwhile to restore it. Your car would likely be a #4 or #5 at the present time. It is unfortunate it is not a more popular model like a Chev or Ford or even a Buick. There are Chrysler enthusiasts around but they tend to be harder to find. Also it is hard to justify spending large amounts of time and money on a Chrysler as the value of even the best ones tends to lag behind. Plus for some odd reason, Chrysler fans don't seem to have a lot of dough. Have heard that in the fifties and sixties used car salesmen referred to Chryslers as a "poor man's Cadillac". This is unjust and unfair. If you examine your Chrysler part by part and compare it to other makes including Buick you will find most parts look like they cost more to make than the competition.

Remove drain plug from pan and let drain. If it is due for a new filter take the lid off the filter, pull out the cartridge by the ring and throw it away. It helps to have a plastic bag to wear like a glove then wrap the filter when you pull it out. Wipe the cannister clean with cotton waste or rags. Make sure you get the seals in the right place and don't forget the one on the hold down bolt if there is one. You can pour new oil over the filter before you put the lid on if you wish. With the filter changed you can put the drain plug back in. Inspect the gasket to see if it is squashed, cracked or worn. If it is worn put on a new one. This should be done about every 4th or 5th oil change to prevent leaks. The original was probably copper or aluminum but a modern plastic one will work fine. Do not over tighten. Fill the crankcase with oil. My handbook says 4 Imperial quarts crankcase only. This would be close to 5 US quarts. I think the filter would hold slightly less than a quart. Start the engine and let it run for a few minutes. Inspect the filter for leaks. Shut down and let the oil drain back into the crankcase. Recheck later and top up if necessary. It is better to be too low than too high or at least, easier to correct. If you are not sure leave out 1 quart until you check it. In those days an oil change and lubrication job was quite a process. It could include greasing 30 or more points on the chassis, checking transmission oil, differential, oil bath air filter, oiling the generator, hood hinges etc. checking the battery and topping up with water as necessary. Check pressure and pump up all 5 tires. You may be able to find all the harrowing details in an old service manual.

Yes you are right. I may have miss spoke. If the points are NOT grounding the coil won't fire. In this case you would need to clean the points. If you want to know if the coil is working connect a spark plug directly to the coil and lay in on the engine so it will ground. Now connect a jumper wire to the coil (points side) and tap it on the engine. Every time you do this you should get a spark. This is a crude approximation of what the points do.

Old Cars Price Guide says #1 $19,500 #2 $13,650 #3 $8,780 #4 $3,900 #5 2,340 #6 $780 Will let you sort it out from there. Pricing a car like that can be tricky. It is obviously well preserved which adds to the value. But just putting a car like that back in commission can cost quite a lot. New tires, brakes, battery, etc can run into thousands of dollars in some cases.

On re reading your question I believe you used the word plugs when you meant points. In that case the answer is yes. "If that is true, doesn't completely fouled points explain why I get voltage there whether the points are open or closed?" Answer: Yes

You should have voltage to the points side of the coil whenever the ignition is turned on. The points act as a switch to turn the power on and off. When they are closed they ground the circuit and power flows. When they open they switch off the power. But the power is still there, it just isn't going to ground. The ground completes the circuit. Hope that part is clear. Fouled plugs have nothing to do with it. They are on a separate circuit. At the moment we are still trying to get the coil to fire. Once we get the coil making sparks we will go on to the part where we get the sparks to the plugs. If you connect a 12 volt test light to the movable point, when it is open the light will light up because it has power. When the points close the light will go off. The power is still there but it is going away through the path of least resistance, the ground point. If out of commission for a long time, points can grow a white fur on them. This acts as an insulation and prevents them from working. The solution is to clean the points with a points file, fine wet or dry sandpaper or spray contact cleaner. Points can also get burned black after long use especially if oil fumes work their way up into the distributor.

The V6 and V12 were designed at the same time to use interchangeable parts. If they were thirsty so were other truck engines of similar power. Fuel economy was one reason diesels took over the heavy truck market. It was lack of sales due to diesel competition that caused their demise.

The Fluid Drive was common on Chrysler products from 1939 to 1953. Pretty much all post war Chrysler Dodge and DeSoto cars had it. Fluid Torque Drive was a more sophisticated version offered as an option from 1951 to 53. It does not add noticably to the value of the car although it does offer a little better performance. To those not familiar with Chryslers the transmission may be offputting and reduce the saleability. Frankly the looks of the car are its biggest drawback. They were excellent, well made cars with many advanced features for their time but beautiful styling was not one of them. An up to date price guide will help you put a value on the car. I have one but it is over a year out of date.

This seems to indicate the points are grounded out. The points act as a switch. When the current is "on" the coil gets saturated with electricity. When the points open the current is "off" and the coil fires. I know this sounds backwards but that is how it works. Check the wire is not grounded and the movable point is properly insulated. The points must switch the power on and off.

Q The Model T used a planetary gear set where? A The transmission Q That is correct. Where else? A The steering gear box.

Back in the forties and early fifties Lincoln Continentals often got their original engines replaced with hopped up flathead Ford and Mercury V8s. The V8 was just a better motor in many ways, not to mention cheaper and easier to work on. To put it another way, the ultimate hopped up Lincoln V12 is a Mercury V8. Not that you can't build a Lincoln V12 if you want to. You can. But you better have a lot of time, money, talent, and machinery. And you better not expect very much power or very long life either. Now if you really want the ultimate flathead look at the 1938-40 Cadillac V16. It starts off with a lot more displacement and horsepower and is much more amenable to souping up. But once again you better have a healthy bank balance and plenty of savvy.