idrjoe_sandiego

Dodge KCL you are no doubt right on the money with the advent of Kettering's system. One note as a slight correction: Marconi, while successfully commercializing the use of wireless transmission of electrical energy actually "adapted" (i.e., stole) most of his work from Nikola Tesla. In 1943, a lawsuit regarding Marconi's numerous other radio patents was resolved in the United States. The court decision was based on the prior work conducted by others, including Nikola Tesla from which some of Marconi patents (such as U.S. Patent 763,772) stemmed. The case was resolved in the U.S. Supreme Court by overturning most of Marconi's patents.

Wow! Hbergh- interesting problem there. My guess is you do not have a "functional" vent in your gas cap if it was difficult to remove (presuming, of course, that the difficulty was, in fact, due to excessive vacuum). The entire fuel system will fail to operate properly without a functional gas cap vent. I seriously doubt that your engine is drawing enough vacuum to collapse the tank, unless the tank was extremely weak to begin with. Joe

Posting pictures would be useful here.

There should be a compression nut at the switch end of the light switch control tube. If this nut is not tightened properly, the tube will rotate, but the rotary Clum switch won't. Usually this gets loose due steering box gear oil soaking the entire assembly. Since this is a compression fitting, excess gear oil will cause slippage. Another possibility is that something's amiss at the top end of the control tube up near the horn button. Simply having an assistant observe the tube at the switch end while you rotate the lever inside the vehicle should sort the problem out.

This is how I do it...and as I recall John, I think I learned this in your Shadetree Brake Repair course you were teaching down at the Community College...Works for me!

Also Doug FYI- you posted a pic of your timing chain which is 346px × 259px. Try using something closer to 1000 to 1200 pixels in the horizontal dimension. The lower resolution makes it postage stamp size and very hard to see any details. Thx, Joe

Doug you might want to consider conversion to modern insert bearings, esp. if you plan on running this at higher freeway speeds as you have discussed doing. And I just learned of some gasket problems (the hard way) with my own DA. Both the manifold gasket and the head gasket blew out with less than 2000 miles on the new engine. Both were composite style gaskets and are completely worthless. They are still being sold by many suppliers. Save yourself alot of headaches and get a copper head gasket and a steel manifold gasket. I will post pics later of the whole mess. Look for a post coming soon labeled CHEAP GASKETS! The kit I sold you has the composite manifold gasket-don't use it! If I knew this before now, I wouldn't have sold you that one gasket. All the rest of the gaskets are fine. Joe

That's funny-just the other day I was just looking at a reprint 1929 Chevy manual someone gave me and the valve train was totally different than the Dodge setup. Do you still have the Chevy? Any pics?

Jason, not to nit-pick, but you might be confusing the 1929 Dodge DA engine with an valve-in-head type engine. The DA's L-head style engine has no rocker shaft or push rods or rocker arms. The valves are in the block and are driven directly from the cam thru the lifters (tappets). Here are the engine X-section diagrams from the 1929 DA manual. Now Doug, if you dropped in a small-block Chevy engine when I wasn't looking, you can disregard all of the above. Joe

Jason, here you go...

Don't be so quick to sell John. What if you live to 206?

I wonder what Starbucks puts in his lattes???

You are talking about two entirely different animals. The Model A uses a single transverse leaf spring. This type of spring is best unloaded using a spring spreader. The DB uses two semi-elliptical springs and can be unloaded simply by letting the axle hang down as you jack the body upward. No doubt, your jack stand prevented the axle from completely relaxing the leaf spring. No spring spreader is needed here. You are very fortunate you or your assistant were not seriously hurt when the leaf spring unloaded. For reassembly, attach the front eye of the spring to the vehicle, then raise the differential with the springs attached. You could support the differential and lower the body, as well. The rear shackles should eventually align such that you can insert the shackle bolt. Of course this all assumes that no one has changed the suspension using non-stock springs or dog-bones.

Shannon, John is being modest...You should see his hubcap collection. It can be seen from Space. Nasa had to develop a special sunglass for the Space Shuttle crew when they orbit over Southern Oregon. It's amazing what one 106 year old man can do.

1hooligan- The Myers version is here: Myers Early Dodge and Texacola went to the same place (Mac's) I did for the rubber version. DodgeKCL -you asked "I hope my description is clear?" Yes, crystal ! Thanks again for all the good ideas!

Thanks Dave and John. So I guess I wasn't mislead after all-DB ceased production on the 4 in 1928.

The 1938 Buick is the first to have electric turn signals.

Kevin- nice work so far on your Victory! Quality takes time - hang in there! Maybe when she's finished you could take a test run down the coast to San Diego. MICG- Welcome aboard-nice project for you- You husband is a lucky man to find someone who can take the bull by the horns, so to speak! My mom was a lot like that. She was the pointed-toe getting my Dad out in the garage to finish up the restorations they started. And absolutely, GET THE CD!! JB has poured his heart and soul into research and note-taking to create the masterpiece he presents for only $10. Best ten bucks you'll ever spend if you own a 28-31 Dodge Six.

Dodge KCL - that makes sense as I have ordered two sets of these corners from different vendors. One was made of a cheap rubber and only had a hole in one of the two faces of the "pocket". I thought they just didn't finish it correctly. On the other hand, if you purchase a set from Myers as shown in the picture here, you get a product with a hole pierced through both sides of the "pocket". It looks like these are intended for the rivet head to show no matter which mounting method you employ. By the way, what do you use to bend the tangs on theses critters. Those little buggers seem to resist my efforts to spread them, especially in stainless. I prefer not resorting to some bigger guns which may lead to scratched paint and some &*!?^*% language.

Dave, was this a reprise of the Fast Four engine from 1928 or was this a new re-tooled engine. I had always heard/read (incorrectly) that 1928 was the end of the 4-cyl engines for Dodge Brothers.

I can assure you this is true...I have met the man (Keiser31) in person. He is immortal and timeless. He will dance on all of our graves!

When a front end looks as clean as this one, you know another very nice car just bit the dust.

Phil, you need not worry about compatibility on this item. The switches respond to the increased pressure in your brake line or master cylinder regardless of the vehicle. I have been running these low pressure Accel motorcycle switches in three vehicles for over two years and absolutely no problems. The switch doesn't care what vehicle brake system the pressure comes from. I purchased about six of them and will replace the other vehicles switches as the old "regular pressure" ones fail. The only compatibility issues are the 1/8"NPT fitting and the electrical hookup (terminal style). No worries about 6V vs 12V or pos vs. neg ground.

Phil, I agree, this can be a real problem with infrequent useage- you sometimes really have to apply pressure to get the brake lights to come on. Worse yet, these switches will often stick "ON" leaving you with a dead battery when you return to your car. SOLUTION: I recommend you upgrade your switch to one sold by Harley-Davidson resellers. This is a low-pressure brake light switch. They sell two types depending on the wiring connectors that your car uses. These work very well with DOT5 brake fluid (silicone) as well as DOT3. DOT5 tends to eat brake light switches for lunch, and until I found these replacements, I had many failures. DOT5 is used in Harley-D's cycles as OEM. Make sure you use the good quality ACCEL brand made in USA: http://www.speedsupplies.com/accessorylistingdetailpurch.asp?item=41349

No, Jason, not the same speedo as DA.