My 1948 DeSoto 3 window coupe restoration project.

[Bloo]

And the check valves. Probably not the dashpot. Dashpots typically prevent stalling when closing the throttle, not so much when opening it. Still you may as well make sure it works properly as fluid drive cars seem to need it.

[marcapra]

Today, I started the DeSoto and backed it out a little further into the street where the front tires roll into the divit.  When I put it into 3rd to go back up to the garage, it stalled repeatedly.  I finally realized that the divit is causing the problem.  So I backed the car further into the street in order to get a bit of a running start to get over the divit.  That finally worked, and I got it back into the garage.  I'm driving on very old bias-ply tires that were on the car when I bought it in 1980.  Maybe that's why the tires were attracted to the divit.  I've read that bias-ply tires like to run into cracks in the road.  I've a set of new American Classic tires that are radials that will go on the car later.   My car attracted two young kids from next door who are about 19 and 20, boyfriend and girlfriend.  They were excited to see such an old car running.  Btw, the boy drivies a brand new Corvette!  

Edited July 31 by marcapra (see edit history)

[marcapra]

I guess my next job to tune my DeSoto is to do the the hot, running tappet adjustment.  Yikes!  I have never done that before, just the cold tappet adjustment.  I think I adjusted the intake valves at about .010 and the exhaust valves at about .012 on a cold engine.  Running hot they are supposed to be .008 and .010 for exhaust tappets.  I saw someone on YT adjust his tappets on a hot engine that was not running.  I think I would prefer that than trying to do it with my wrenches and feeler gauges hopping up and down.  

Edited July 31 by marcapra (see edit history)

[keiser31]

9 hours ago, marcapra said:

I guess my next job to tune my DeSoto is to do the the hot, running tappet adjustment.  Yikes!  I have never done that before, just the cold tappet adjustment.  I think I adjusted the intake valves at about .010 and the exhaust valves at about .012 on a cold engine.  Running hot they are supposed to be .008 and .010 for exhaust tappets.  I saw someone on YT adjust his tappets on a hot engine that was not running.  I think I would prefer that than trying to do it with my wrenches and feeler gauges hopping up and down.  

It can be a wild dance with it running.

[marcapra]

I've been wondering if my trans is upshifting.  So I'm checking the electrical components.  Today, I checked the governor by attaching my test light to the SOL of the relay and the other lead to ground.  While idling, the light was on.  When I speeded up, the light went off.  That means the governor points opened when they should.  I also tested the kick down switch.  I speeded up the engine and pressed the kick down button with my finger.  The light came on with the kick down pressed in, and went off when I released the button.  So far everything is working.  I might do an hydraulic test by removing the interrupter switch, stepping on the gas pedal, and seeing if the direct speed rail piston moves and covers the hole.  

[marcapra]

 

[marcapra]

AFter running my engine and shifting through all the gears, I think the trans is doing the automatic shifts.  The way I can tell is I can hear the direct speed piston engaging and disengaging when I increase or decrease speed in low range and high range.  The cover is off the transmission electric components, so I can hear the clicking of the piston easily.  But tonite as I was running my car on jack stands in 3rd-4th gear it suddenly stalled.  I wondered what it could be, electrical?  My fuel gauge isn't hooked up yet so I though maybe it just ran out of gas.  So I put in a couple of gallons and it was hard starting for awhile.  So I primed the carburetor to help it start.  Finally it started, but ran raggedly with a weak, poor idle.  After awhile it finally started to run smoothly without stalling.  So I think with these old cars, when you run out of gas, it takes awhile to get the fuel pump to fill the gas line and pump it up to the carburetor.  I noticed that my ammeter was showing a high reading due to all the cranking wearing down the battery.  

[marcapra]

My ignition key stopped turning unless I jiggled it for several minutes.  I watched a good video on how to replace an ignition lock cylinder on YT.  Luckily, I had an NOS ignition and door key lock kit for my 48 DeSoto.  I followed the directions in the video, and successfully changed the ignition lock cylinder in my ignition switch.  First, I removed the access plate below the lock cylinder and unscrewed the phillips screw there.  Then I pulled the ignition switch out the back of the control panel.  I did not take the wiring off, since I did not need to.  Then, I put the key in and jiggled and jigged it until it turned.  You have to turn the key or the pin will not depress.  Then, after several tries, I was able to depress the small pin and pull out the lock cylinder.  Putting the new cylinder in was easy.  Now I have a perfectly working ignition key with no need to jiggle it.  It turns right or left the first time!  Yea!  Another roadblock crossed!  

[marcapra]

After having all kinds of trouble shifting my DESoto into reverse with the rear axle up on jack stands, a pro mechanic who is fortunately on this website gave me the golden advice as to what my problem was.  I said in the Technical forum that my gears were grinding when I tried to shift into reverse.  I thought all this time that it was a linkage adjustment problem.  but C49er said that if my gears are grinding when shifting into reverse, it means that when I step on the clutch pedal, the clutch is not fully disengaging.  So I got a 5/8 open end wrench and turned the clutch rod nut in a few times, and that solved my shifting problem.  I can now shift into low, high, and reverse with no grinding!  He also explained that the low and high gearshift positions do not grind because they are synchronised and reverse is not.  Boy, do I love this website, and that's not the first time he has helped me solve a tough problem!  

[marcapra]

I got out my special tool Miller overcenter spring gauge to see if my turnbuckle was adjusted correctly.  I had to roll under the car to check this.  It only needed a very minor adjustment of the turnbuckle to get it right on.  I also checked the oil level in my transmission.  On the right side of the trans. you see three square pipe plugs.  You don't unscrew the top one.  The one in the middle is the filler plug.  I used a 9/16 open end wrench to unscrew it.  When I put my finger in the hole to feel for oil, I did not feel any.  So I got a funnel with a plastic hose on it to fill it with 10w oil.  You have to use a hose, because a straight funnel will not fit in there.  Oil came out almost immediately, so I didn't really need to fill it.  The front end of the car was jacked up, so I think that's why it felt empty.  Last night around 10:30 at night, I was running the engine and shifting gears when I decided I would try backing the car out into the street and driving it back in.  AFter I was in the street, I found out I couldn't drive it back in.  The floorboard was out of the car and I didn't have a gas pedal!  I thought what am I going to do to get the car back in the garage?  So I said I know, I'll just get a flashlight and a screwdriver and turn the idle speed screw in a few turns to get a fast idle.  So I did and shifted into 1st gear, and that gave me the slow torque that got me over the gutter divet and rolled me slowly and safely back into the garage!  

Edited September 3 by marcapra (see edit history)

[marcapra]

Today, I installed and wired the dimmer switch.  Easier than I thought to do.  No need to crawl under the car.  After some thinking, I figured out that the headlite switch wire goes the BAT terminal in the middle.  The high beam wire and High beam indicator light go the terminal with two spaces for wires.  and the low beam wire goes the terminal that says DIM.  Easy.  When I finished installing it, I saw in the Parts Book that there is a rubber seal.  I remembered I just bought that about a year ago from AB.  I just goes over the button on the inside.  The carpet or rubber mat will hold it in place.  Before I put the floorboard in, I did a last check of the 1" free play.  The manual says to unhook the clutch return spring and adjust the clutch rod nut until there is 5/32" free play of the clutch fork.  That's a little less that 3/16".  So I did that, but the problem is when you try to put the clutch return spring back on, it's too hard!  So I had to unscrew the clutch rod until I could get the return spring back on.  Then I had once again to guess if I have 1" free play.  

[Andy J]

I hope you have better luck with that switch than I did with mine. My original was no good and I bought three of them before I got one that worked. One just fell apart when I stepped on it ,the other one wouldn't make electrical contact.The third one worked. I'm sure you've heard it before,but those Chinese parts are crap.

[marcapra]

You bet,  I want to keep the original parts when at all possible.  I bought some motor mounts made in India.  They are supposed to be soft rubber.  These from Rock Auto were hard as a rock!  

[marcapra]

Today, I installed the right side engine dust pan.  I'm getting ready to install the right front fender, which is a pretty big job.  There are inner fenders, front shields, tappet panels, etc.  But before I install the front fender, I thought I should get the tappets adjusted hot.  I guess if you are skilled enough to do it, you do it with the engine hot and running.  I have a hard time doing it with the engine cold.  I do have the tappet wrenches, which are long and thin.  One side is 1/2" for holding the tappet, and the other side is 7/16" for adjusting the tappet screw.  The exhaust pipe blocks easy access to the cylinder no. 6.  Are you really supposed to press your wrist against a red hot exhaust pipe and adjust the ex valve to .010 and the intake valve to .008, while your getting second degree burns on your wrist?  I'm thinking of doing the tappet adjustment with the engine hot, but not running.  There is a way to do it with the timing at TDC, and 180 deg out with the rotor pointing to no. 6 spark plug cable.  That is just two positions.  To make the tappets easy to tell apart, I painted a red dot on all the exhaust valve tappets.  

[marcapra]

Here are my tappet wrenches that I bought in the 80s.  Funny that one is made by Proto and the other by Husky.  They are different from regular open end wrenches, in that they are long and thin, since you have to reach far in, and you have to have the wrenches laying on top of each other.  I think these type wrenches might be hard to find today.  

[Model56s]

Nice clean engine Marc, can't wait to see a video of it on the street.