Rusty_OToole

If you had some plywood and wheelbarrow wheels you could build your own.

Some aluminum crankcases were painted inside to seal them. I have seen this on Harley Davidsons as far back as 1930. There were remains of what looked like red lead paint in there. So, do not be too surprised if yours were painted. You can paint them yourself. Have seen Rustoleum and Glyptol paint recommended for this. The paint is to seal any porosity in the castings, help oil drain away faster and prevent sludge deposits from sticking.

Probably best to leave out the second battery. It could have been installed for various reasons, such as to run a 12 volt radio, or for a starting boost, or maybe the original owner was a ham radio operator. A careful examination of the wires to the battery should reveal how it is wired and what it was used for.

Here is a typical cheap AM FM radio/CD player. It will work on 6 C cell batteries but will work just as well on 6 volts off your car battery. Coby MPCD471 Portable MP3/CD Player with AM/FM Radio and USB Port: Amazon.ca: Electronics There are other designs including "retro" styles that will fit in better with your car's style. Your local shops should have a variety to choose from. If you are handy you should be able to add a plug to plug into your cigarette lighter and a bracket to hang it under your instrument panel.

Slight amount of smoke from the breather is normal when stopped, when moving the smoke disappears under the car. Second the idea of trying the Restore additive. I have never used it but what have you got to lose? So, how is your oil pressure? 45 PSI @ 45 MPH is factory spec for a new motor. How many miles to a quart of oil?

Always understood wood wheels were originally made from second growth hickory. Never heard of any other wood being used.

Supposedly Merle Norman of Merle Norman World of Beauty fame sold his Duesenberg to Bill Harrah for $5000 in 1959 to finance his cosmetics company startup. In 1969 he asked Harrah to sell him his old car back. Harrah replied that he did not usually sell his cars but because it was him, he could have it back for $50,000. Norman indignantly refused. The car remained in Harrah's collection until he died and the collection was broken up in 1985 or 86. At that time it sold for over $500,000. Not sure if Norman bought it but I hope he did.

How does it run? How is the oil pressure? Does it smoke? Have you done a compression test? Suggest you use Rotella 15W40, or 10W30 of your favorite brand. If it raps and knocks, has no oil pressure, and no compression rebuild the engine. Old flathead Chrysler products can be in an advanced state of wear and still run OK, reasonably quiet, with no alarming symptoms. They just get hard to start and down on power. You seriously need to assess the engine's condition. It may have been rebuilt over the years, who knows? There are a lot of uninformed people who think all old cars have to use good ol' 30 weight non detergent oil. They are wrong. I have original owner's manuals for 1951 and 52 Chrysler products, they recommend light oil, 10W30 detergent oil was just coming on the market then, chances are your car never used anything else during the fifties, sixties and seventies. Heavy oil will not cure an oil burner nor will it rebuild your motor. I saw some experiments many years ago by an owner with a worn out oil burning motor who tried various grades of oil. Lowest oil consumption was with 20W20 oil, any higher or lower and oil burning increased.

My DeSoto repair manual shows the 1949-50 as using a MCH-6102 starter and the 51-52 as using an MCH-6109. The difference is the earlier model used a starter relay, the later one is actuated directly by the key switch. Is there any chance of getting the correct starter? Or even the correct solenoid, they should interchange. The early starter, with the square relay and 4 wires, was connected as follows. Big lugs: Battery , ammeter, horn relay all on one lug. Also convertible top pump. Automatic choke Small lugs: Voltage regulator (ground) Start position of key switch The newer starter had the following connections Battery, horn relay B terminal (green), turn signal light,convertible top switch Start position of key switch (brown) It should be possible to connect up the starter as if it was the newer model and simply ignore the unused lug choke lug if you don't need it. The ground can be grounded anywhere, it does not have to go to the voltage regulator, that was just a convenient place for it. Hope this helps.

Here is the diagram for the Ford ignition module.

Mine cost $20 for ignition module, finned aluminum heat sink, wiring harness and coil at my favorite junkyard. I also bought a brand new module and heat sink at a flea market for $5 in case I want to do another car. How much they cost new I do not know. By the way I am trying to post the wiring diagram but can't find it, maybe later.

There is a simple low cost way to change to electronic ignition without changing your distributor. The Ford Thick Film ignition module, used on millions of Fords in the 80s and 90s, will work with a points distributor. It has the advantage of giving a very hot spark if you use the accompanying Ford coil. The points will last almost forever, 50,000 miles or more, because they only act as a switch and carry very low current. I did this on a 1975 Porsche 911. The Ford ignition is about 10 times as good as the OEM Bosch, at 1/10th of the cost.

Engine parts are easy to get considering the age of the vehicle. Same engine was used from 37 or 38 up to 1959 in cars, even later in trucks. They were still making them in 1972 for industrial and marine apps. Most parts are available from your local NAPA or other parts store. Not only engine but brakes, steering, etc. Vintage Power Wagons specialises in parts for Dodge 4 wheel drives going back to WW2. They have all the motor parts, plus a lot of other parts that cross over from the Power Wagons. Fenders, doors, who knows. Probably scarce but not impossible to find if you look and are patient. Do you think a truck that needs all those things is worth fixing up? Might be better to wait for a good one.

Not sure what you mean by pumping. They don't really pump. Vacuum draws fuel up into the top chamber, where a float trips a valve which cuts the vacuum and allows the fuel to dump into the lower chamber. Then the upper chamber refills itself. The restriction is probably there to limit air flow, so the engine does not have a "vacuum leak". The flow must be calculated to allow the engine to draw enough fuel but not too much.

The tank engine made from five flathead sixes bunched together was made by Chrysler. It was the result of demand for tanks FAST. By combining 5 of their industrial flathead sixes, they could come up with a tank engine of the required horsepower in weeks instead of months, with a minimum of new tooling. At the time, what the army needed was good tanks immediately, not excellent tanks next year. In those days the US had the world's best baling wire, or seat of the pants engineers. The amount of war materiel they turned out in 3 years was astonishing, considering they went from a standing start in December 1941.

Do you know why the English drink warm beer? They have Lucas refrigerators.

When reviving an old motor that has been out of commission for years it is often necessary to clean the points. A points file works well for this. If you do not have one, a strip of 600 wet or dry sandpaper folded double works well. Follow up with a shot of electrical contact cleaner or brake kleen spray and drag a strip of white paper between them until it comes out clean. This is for ignition points which are made of hard tungsten. Some points are made of soft material like silver, used in Chrysler transmission controls. On those you have to be more careful, use the cleaner spray wipe and the white paper. For switches etc just the contact cleaner usually works. If you can get the switch apart and get at the points a gentle wipe with 600 paper may be appropriate. These switches usually have copper contacts which are also softer than ignition points. The contact cleaner or brake kleen spray is usually safe. WD40 will work too in many cases.

I have seen a Graham brochure of about 1938 or 1939 that refers to Graham engines made by Continental, as if Continental was making a Graham design for them. I believe the Superchargers were added at the Graham factory, possibly they changed the head on the Supercharged engines. Frazer seems to have inherited the Continental engine when he bought the remains of Graham's car making operation. At least they used Continental engines in all Frazers and Kaisers. I understand they took over a war surplus Continental plant and made their own engines using Continental designs and tooling, although later on they made their own improvements. Including reintroducing the supercharger only this time they bought them from McCulloch. It is possible McCulloch supplied superchargers to Graham in the thirties, they were making superchargers for Fords at that time, but have never heard where they got them.

The 4 inch spec comes from Chrysler in the early 50s. It may apply to the first power steering models with Gemmer steering, you had to turn the wheel slightly to open the hydraulic valves before the wheels started to turn. I stand by my statement regarding cars of the late 30s, 40s and early 50s. Earlier cars with skinnier tires steered easier, and eventually power steering allowed lower steering gear ratios and smaller wheels. But for a while there, steering was pretty vague.

Interesting that Ford out produced all others put together. Another thing most people don't know about 1922 is the number of V8 cars made at that time. More than 20 makes made V8s between 1915 and 1922. What is more the straight eight was practically unknown. The straight eight Packard did not come out till 23 and it was the first mass produced straight eight. There were a handful of Duesenbergs and Isotta Fraschinis in 1921 but few had ever seen one.

Would it be possible to make drawings or blueprints while it is still off the chassis? Not for me but it appears some may want to make duplicates.

Start by carefully inspecting the whole mechanism for worn or loose parts. Do not overlook the bolts holding the steering box itself or the idler arm or bell crank. Replace worn parts or tighten up loose bolts. If you adjust the steering box be sure to follow the manufacturer's manual exactly. If you do it wrong it is possible your steering box will wear out in a few months. If everything is up to manufacturer's specs, get an alignment. Make sure your shocks are in good condition too. You should also bear in mind that cars of that age had "loose" steering from new. 4" of play at the steering wheel was normal on a new car. Watch some old movies of the thirties and forties and see how they saw the wheel back and forth. That is not hammy over acting, that is how they steered back then. You get used to it surprisingly quickly with a little practice.

Manuals are available on Ebay, from $20 for reproductions or CD to $50-$100 for factory repair manuals as supplied to dealers. Here is the Imperial club web site, it has several Chrysler transmission repair manuals. Maybe one will tell you how to adjust your linkage. Imperials used the same engine and transmission as your New Yorker. http://www.imperialclub.com/Repair/Transmission/index.htm

The circuit breaker and resistor unit is for the transmission controls. It draws its power from the coil wires. First check if power is getting to the coil with the ignition turned on. If the coil is getting power take off the distributor cap and check the points. Clean them with a shot of contact cleaner spray and drag a strip of paper between them. See if you get a spark from the coil if you open and close the points with a screwdriver or wooden stick. To do this you pull the coil wire out of the distributor cap, hold it within 1/4" of the engine and open and close the points. If the coil is not firing the next step is to find out why, if it is firing the next step is to see if the spark is getting to the spark plugs.

1931 Model A Deluxe Roadster with twin side mounts, dad courted mother in it during WW2. I have a snap shot of her and the car around here somewhere. 1947 Hudson Commodore Eight Drivemaster sedan they brought me home from the hospital in. I still have a scar on my arm from the cigarette lighter.