brian1925tourer

I was told to double clutch on the way up and don't bother shifting down till car is almost stopped. Don't race the motor but get into top as soon as possible. The motor pulls in top from very low speed. My car gets upto 50mph easy but I try to stay about 40mph. If the car has sat for a while the tyres get flat spotted and need some time to get rounded again so go slow at first. There's nothing better than taking the car for a drive especially if it is running nice. I can not give any tips as I am no expert but after a while you will get the hang of it. Regards Brian

Hi, I use 3 drops of super glue. cork or felt is ok. make sure bearing cap grove is clean. I still seem to have the odd drip most of my oil come from the engine mount at front and runs down under then drops down and makes the car look like it is leaking everywhere. Regards Brian

Hi Mike, that trim and paint job looks great, you'll make mine look tatty if you park next to me. Have you done much driving in it and did you get your oil pressure up. Regards Brian

Hi Mike, video's are great, is that really 70years since last started.What sort of oil pressure do you have, is this your first Dodge 4. Did you do any other work to the motor which bytheway sound ok to me. I sent a picture of my motor of a recent rebuild. Not sure if it will come out any good or where it will show up. Regards Brian

Hi Mike224, It's Brian here I live in Aspendale Gardens. I have a 1925 tourer. Question, what did you do to the pump to rebuild it. And did you recently do some work to the gearbox. The oil you bought is most likely the same as mine and you have to squeeze it out of the bottle, my tranny works ok.Also does your car have a magneto. Regards Brian

Hi Revkent, Was just wondering if you have the pump working yet.

Hi Aussie Dodge, I had a bad experience with my bearings, had a vintage motor expert do the job with the single grove big end and mains, the big ends did not last long and the mains were real tight, you definitley need the x or you will have trouble, I replaced my big ends with a set of used bearings and bought a dremmel and did my own x on the mains so I have a grove and a x , as mentioned by Robert schamfer the bearing edges and make sure the 3 groves on the sides are there if not use small round file do it yourself. Some experts should never be allowed to touch these old motors. My engine runs great even cruisers at 40-45 mph for more than 30min no over heating. This is the place to ask these questions because most of us have been there. regards Brian

Hi Brian again, follow previous instruction to get top dead centre. I believe it may give you about 10 degrees before top dead centre. how ever this is the point you should settle at. Once you do that you need to change the small arm on the manifold it is operating back to front. The lever on the steering wheel is down for retard and up for advance, however on the magneto the arm is up for retard and down for advance. good luck regards Brian

Hi; Brian here from Australia, do you have a magneto or distributor

Hi my names Brian and I am from melbourne Australia, I have a 25er and my clutch does the same as yours, at first when cold I wobble the shifter and select the gear usually reverse and not too much trouble there, as I'm driving going up in gears no prob's at all. When things are warm and stopped at lights I have to go through the motion while stopped of into 3rd then 2nd to get first to avoid too much crunching. Sometimes it just drops straight in and makes me look like I know what I'm doing. I recently took my car for a 90 klm drive thats an hour each way, and although there were moments of crunching all went well. I have very thick oil in gearbox and have dropped idle down as low as possible. If your car is similar to mine I would leave it alone there is no syncro so there will always be a bit of crunching. I hope I have helped in some way and if you do find a solution let me know. I could do with some tips of how to gear down to 2nd without breaking something. regards Brian

I know Cled well. He has lots of stuff including refurbished pieces, you probably saw his range. I have fitted his starter button, ball bearing fan, speedo cable they all work well.

Hi, Brian here. I have a 25, and live in Aspendale gardens 3195 Although I do not have any spare doors if you are near by maybe you could come past and have a look at mine.

I think many of us have been here before, I would replace the petrol if it is more than 2 months old. Another thing the advance /retard lever on steering wheel works opposite on magneto, so lever down on wheel is retard, lever up on magneto is retard. Worth checking. Do you have the timing hole. If so use white paint to mark both lines, I use the first line so I get more advance. I found I needed half my allowance to start. Hope this info is helpful

Hi again, your on the money with press and tube idea. I used a crazy mix of what I had laying around. 2 pieces of 3mm angle 140mm long with cut outs 30mm long in the corners . The pieces will need to be long enough because the spring comes out quite a distance. So wear safety glass. Not sure the pressure but 6 tonne jack should do if the stroke is long enough. Because when you remove the collets the spring comes right up. On the end cup use texta to mark where the spring clip goes through for assembley. I used the flywheel to align the plate holes so the whole job was done inside the flywheel. It took me a bit of messing about to get this. By the way your clutch holes look ok so unless the bush needs replacing I think it is .750inch, I would not pull it apart. anyway good luck regards Brian

Hi, when I pulled my clutch apart I use a 20 Tonne Garage press, and a spare fly wheel. If you would like to know the whole story let me know. It is a bit involved. Also some members may know of a better way or a special tool to do it. Either way I am happy to help. Regards Brian

Thankyou for your replies, I will work on my technique and be a bit more patient. Also I need more practice. Although I think I am taking it easy and nursing the car I probably do not realize how fast I am going as it seems quite slow to me. Anyway thanks again

I have a 1925 dodge 4. I was wondering if somebody could explain how I should change gears. I am not sure if I am doing it right, The clutch seems to be working ok rev and 1st no crunching moves to 2nd not too bad but when I change to 3rd there is a feel and noise of gears then it slots in, also how do I change down to 2nd gear without crunching. Your comments would be greatly appreciated. Regards Brian, By theway it was my crankshaft that broke in December I have fixed it and back on the road.

Thankyou Willy for your offer, I have 2 spares so hope one of them will fit. I will be doing the work myself this time around as I did have some earlier problems with the rebuilt motor, and I know a bit more about them now. The person who did the work is on holidays at the moment so I can not confirm if crank was crack tested or not. I have started removing engine so should soon know if my spares will fit. The motor has 3 main bearings not five, I am thinking all sorts of reasons why crank broke, starting with my lousy gear changes, maybe pushing a bit hard on take off, noisy clutch, out of balance, could have been just one of those things that happen. Should I get the crank, flywheel and clutch balanced.

I ONLY DID SOME OF THE BUILD, BEARINGS CRANK, PISTONS FITTED. BY BUILDER I DID REST, I TOOK SOME PHOTOS OF CRANK LOOKS LIKE IT BROKE ABOUT THE RADIUS BUT NOT QUITE RIGHT IN THE CORNER. SEND EMAIL WILL SEND PICTURES. I SUPPOSE I SHOULD JUST PULL MOTOR DOWN AND START AGAIN.

THE CAR WAS DRIVING NICELY WHEN THE CRANK BROKE JUST LIKE THAT, STILL KEPT TICKING OVER BUT VERY NOISY, BROKE AT END OF NUMBER ONE CONROD.THIS MOTOR HAD DONE ABOUT 800K'S SINCE REBUILD. ALL BEARINGS STILL LOOK GOOD, ANYONE WITH ANY IDEAS WHY THIS BROKE. IS IT A COMMON PROBLEM

Hi , here in Australia I bought 4 plug adaptors that bring plug size down to 14mm so I use standard 14mm plugs, not original but 4 times cheaper. these plugs work great. You only need one adaptor if you do not want to change plug size. Maybe someone over there makes something similar. regards Brian

Hi, after what I have been through , I believe everyone is correct. the book said pour oil in crank hole. however this is difficult, but important, so I removed small starter cover and put a quart in here. It is a must to do this as it oils the chain. Yes remove oil plug at back of motor , I used an oilcan pump and pushed oil in till it appeared at the ball valve end. Crank motor but do not start it, until oil is pushed out the plug hole, then start motor check oil pressure, if all is well don't believe it. Remove plug again and turn motor over till oil appears. I wish I knew this before I seized my new motor. Also make sure the oil tube plugs are put in at the right end. front one has a hole in it to oil chain. If anyone wants to add more to this you're welcome.

:cool: in the process of rebuilding my motor myself. the cam gear has another marking other than 00. there's a M as well, does anybody know what this is for. also is there a cam part number somewhere on it... my cam had a steel gear the replacement has a fibre one, what would be the difference between these 2.

the vanes for your pump should be rounded with 1/8 radius regards

Here's something that hasn't been mentioned before, just did some major damage to my dodge 4 motor. Here's what happened, had the motor recoed by an expert about 3 years ago, and took me a while to put it in, only done 100 k's in 2-3k at a time. From what i can work out with my limited knowledge is the grub screws in the oil pipe either end of the motor were not put in their correct place, the one at the front has a hole in it to oil the chain, but when i pulled it down to see what went wrong i found it at the back oiling the flywheel. Well, such is life.