Rusty_OToole

Please save old posts. Every few weeks someone asks about Fluid Drive transmissions. Back around 2008 we did a few long threads that covered the subject exhaustively. I still refer questioners back to them. I would hate to have to type all that over again.

Most parts can be bought from your local NAPA store or other old school parts store. The parts are available if the parts man can find a good number to order them. You need an old gray haired or bald headed guy. See if you can find out where the local farmers shop. Another great source of parts and info is Vintage Power Wagons. They have all kinds of parts for Dodge Power Wagons back to WW2 vintage, a lot of the same parts fit your truck. Do not be too hasty about 12 volts, or disc brakes. The original design is perfectly fine, you are better off to fix the old stuff than tear everything apart and start over. You must face the fact that you have a 60 year old truck with a top speed around 60 MPH that is happiest at speeds under 50. The tires, suspension, brakes, gearing etc is meant for farm fields not the interstate. Old manuals are fairly common. When your truck was new every dealer had one, and there are still a lot of them around. They turn up on Ebay and at antique car flea markets. Price $20 to $50 depending on condition and whether it is original or reproduction. The old trucks were good work horses but required a lot more upkeep than todays vehicles. Fortunately they were easy to work on and parts are reasonable. If you get a manual and put everything in good condition you can have a lot of fun on the back roads and quiet streets. Just keep away from the interstate.

They make heat proof sleeves for mechanics now. I am thinking about working around a hot exhaust manifold if you dont have asbestos arms lol.

It will work OK but will cause the coil to heat up after a while. The resistor cuts the juice when the engine is running, allows a full volt jolt for hotter spark when starting. I wouldn't worry about driving for 10 or 15 minutes at a time. In fact, you may be able to eliminate the resistor and get away with it for years. Newer GM cars and trucks use a resistor wire. You can get one at any parts store for a couple of $$ bucks and connect it in place of the resistor.

Couple of points. If the water distribution tube is bad the coolant will stream right up the front of the engine and never reach the back. The front of the head will be cool while the back is overheating, this can be checked with an electronic thermometer or even your hand. Easy way to diagnose without tearing your engine apart. I had a hard to find overheating problem caused by a mouse nest in the to rad tank. I only caught it after seeing bits of shredded paper towel floating in the rad. Cleaned out all I could reach, did not help much, finally took the rad out, turned it upside down and flushed it with the garden hose, eventually got out a pile of shredded paper the size of a football. Can only surmise the previous owner drained the rad for the winter and left the cap off as a reminder and the critters moved in.

A mechanic should be able to fix the hinge in a few minutes. But it is hard to tell without seeing it. If the hinge has to come off of course it will take longer. You might show it to a mechanic and see what he thinks or give us a photo. Worst case, you might need a new hinge but likely the old one can be fixed easily. Someone who reads this board may have one. Right now I am trying to buy a 49 Windsor parts car myself.

So far as I know the last engine requiring valve adjustment when hot is the Dodge slant 6. This is not a problem as solid lifter engines do not throw oil around like a hydraulic lifter and the engine will idle down to where it is barely moving. If you loosen the jam nuts and retighten barely tight you can adjust the valves easily while running and will not hammer the feeler gauge unless the adjustment is way loose. After doing the adjustment tighten the jam nuts. They do not need to be real tight just snug. Do the adjustment correctly and the valve train will be dead quiet red hot or stone cold and stay that way for thousands of miles. The only problem I had was with an engine that had been neglected to the point where the valve gear was loose and hammering. Once the rocker arms and valves get pounded and peened over adjusting will not get them dead quiet again, you will always have a slight rustling sound if you listen close. Other than that solid lifters are better than hydraulics in every way except of course you have to adjust them once in a while.

Chev V8 too common, more like a Kaiser Jeep Tornado OHC six. Yes Jeep made their own OHC six, from 1962 to 65.

Incidentally a guy named Don Coatney adapted a manual 5 speed transmission to his flathead powered 48 Plymouth sedan. It cruises easily at 7O Mphand he drives it all over the US. Detailed pics of the conversion are on the web if you do a search.Try Don Coatney Plymouth transmission or similar. An Australian Chrysler from the early sixties with the big fins, a hopped up flathead and a 5 speed would be a great car and turn a lot of heads.

When not in use cover the container. I didnt and kept finding drowned rodents.

The same block was bored to 3 and 7 sixteenths for the DeSoto and Chrysler. The same engine for industrial and marine use was bored even farther then sleeved to 3 7 sixteenths with hardened sleeves. And engines in those days could be rebuilt several times, with a maximum overbore of one eighth or more. Some Olds V8s could be overbored one quarter inch. Today sonic testing will tell you exactly how thick the cylinders are, but the old flathead Dodge engine has very thick walls by todays standards. 3 and 9 sixteenths should be safe for your engine maybe 3 and 5 eighths if it does not have core shift or corrosion problems. A 265 bored one eighth over will give you 283 cu in. With a few common hop up tricks it should be good for 15O to 2OO Hp. For the largest dislacement flathead Chrysler look for a 265 cu in Chrysler, Dodge truck or industrial or marine engine. This is the biggest they made and has the longest stroke, 4 and three quarters inches. This crank will fit any Chrysler DeSoto block and uses the same pistons as the smaller displacement engines, but you must also use the accompanying connecting rods that match the crankshaft.

The Fluid Drive and semi automatic transmission are usually reliable and long lived. They need certain maintenance and a certain driving technique. All has been covered before. If you do a search for Fluid Drive on the Chrysler board you will find many old threads. In 2OO8 there were some that covered the subject in great detail. They could save you a lot of time and make owning and driving your Chrysler more enjoyable.

If a car is out of service for a long time the clutch can get a coat of rust. This causes the clutch to drag. When the car is used for a few days the clutch gets polished smooth. See if the problem corrects itself, if not you may need to renew the clutch.

Canadian made Chrysler engines were different from American made in that Canada only had one engine block while the US had 2, one for plymouth and Dodge and another for DeSoto and Chrysler. All Canadian made engines used the larger DeSoto Chrysler block. It measures 25 inches long at the head while the smaller engine is 23 inches. Your T147 it a 228 cubic inch model used in Dodge trucks. The same displacement engine was used by DeSoto from 1937 to 1941, certain Dodge truck and industrial engines, and Canadian made Plymouth and Dodge cars up to 1959. It has a bore of 3 and three eights and a stroke of 4 and one quarter inches. parts are generally available for repair and rebuilding, I believe the same engine was used in Australian made cars and trucks up to the early sixties. Chrysler's Flathead Engine

DeSoto and Chrysler had a lot in common as did Dodge and Plymouth. I doubt the DeSoto box will fit without some adapting.

Dont know if this is significant or not but the electrolysis also seems to keep off rust. As an experiment I cleaned an old wheel this way about 5 years ago. Then painted it and hung it up outside for a garden hose reel. It never rusted and the paint never peeled or cracked.

The easiest way is to remove engine and trans as a unit. Especially as the front clip is off and you need to take both out anyway. Remove mount bolts, wires, hoses etc dont forget the speedo cable. Lift the engine and tip it back so the trans is low. When everything is free roll the car backwards lifting the engine as necessary until the engine trans assembly is clear.

Chrysler products before the sixties are a lot more critical about shoe alignment. Follow the procedure in the repair manual.

The full flow filter was first used in the early fifties. Older engine designs used the bypass filter up to the mid sixties. If you see a full flow filter they are usually built into the block. If you see a separate filter with little pipes leading to it, you have a bypass.

There are charts in machinists handbooks giving recommended torque for all different sizes of bolts. They are available online as well. In the absence of factory recommendations they are a good source. Usually the same as the factory spec or close to it.

How would that make it reliable. The original engine has already lasted 82 years, no crate motor has ever lasted 3O years. I have seen a few that did not last 1 year.

Doesn't have to be. I know guys who have practically no money, not even enough for the cheapest collector car. But they participate, attend shows and cruise nights, take pictures and have as much fun and interest as the rich guys. They are also quite knowledgeable, certainly smarter and more fun than the typical stuck up trophy hound.

I didnt know they made the throw away filters that long ago. They are supposed to be replaced every 5000 miles at least the newer ones.

Joe is correct about the mounting points for the front seat belts being visible from under the floor. I would add, that if the carpet has been replaced and you need to make holes in the carpet for bolts the easiest way is with a hot soldering gun. Mark the hole by pushing an awl or ice pick up from below then melt the carpet from above. Rear seat belt mounts are under the seat. You must remove the bottom half of the seat. Older cars had 2 bolts at the front but I think yours just pulls out. If there are no bolts in front of the seat, just take hold and lift it straight up then pull forward. You will see the reinforced bolt holes under the seat.

Can the filter be take apart to replace the filter medium.