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Easter Sunday 2024: Finally had the opportunity to recreate a photo here in downtown Winona; East 3rd and Main St. Traffic was super light where normally it would be impossible to stop and pose the Meadowbrook for a shot. The beautiful buildings on the left were demolished in the 70s in favor of the mini mall. The foreground buildings on the right were demolished to make a parking lot. I put on a new fuel pump and hard line yesterday. Meadowbrook is back in business. Happy Easter everyone! 🙂

My 49 has only 38,000 miles and steers pretty good without much wandering and I'd like to keep it that way. I have added oil to it and have determined that the seal leaks. Not unexpected for a 75 year old car. One of the benefits of the KT Keller era of cars is that they use a lot of off the shelf bearings and seals. My NAPA store found the seal CR Seals/SKF ( formerly known as Chicago Rawhide ) #12350 or MoPar 639-837 To get to the seal you pull off the pitman arm and I did this with a cheap Harbor Freight puller. It's a spline so all you have to over come is dirt and rust. The generator can be pushed out of the way to withdraw the sector and cap out of the top. As usual there's two ways to do everything of course and I tend to get it right after trying every other possible way. The top cover doesn't come off the sector until you back off the adjustment screw. My M.O. is to get the sector and the attached cover to the bench and then count the turns of the adjustment screw until they part company. I used 5 turns because it was easy to remember. The idea being if you put it back the way the factory had it, you have a better starting point than if you are guessing. ( especially with the steering gear in the car ) The next thing to do is to check the tapered bearings on the steering shaft. The manual says to push/pull on the steering wheel to detect any slop. I could feel a tiny amount so I took the bottom cover off the gear housing. As luck would have it one of the shim/gaskets popped up while the rest stayed put. The factory put a dimple in the frame to enable you to move the cover down a little but you can't take it off without unbolting the gear from the frame. So I snipped the gasket and bolted the cover back on. The up & down movement of the steering wheel was 2/3 less and the turning effort had not increased. All good signs and time to stop. The shim/gaskets are made in several thicknesses and this was a thin one. In my humble opinion, this is the most important adjustment because even a little up & down slop here moves the sector a lot. You can change the sector engagement with the worm till it's so tight you can hardly turn the steering wheel and the sector will still move if the bearings are not right. Now the problem becomes finding another gasket for the top cover. AMSNOS.com had MoPar 1142-262 for around $8 and when I called they had 15 in stock. ( 706 ) 337-4606 The plan is to put the top cover on the sector, turn the adjustment screw 5 turns and slip it back together with the new gasket. Since I detected no wear on any of the parts it should be very close to okie dokie and it won't leak.

I went to a local AACA clubs spring swap meet this morning. At the second building that I stopped at a gentleman had a set of Senior Trippe Safety Driving lights. I examined them and they were complete even had the correct Trippe mounting brackets and the level in the top of the bucket and the original wire and the original Trippe black tipped bulbs. Came home and polished the buckets and then hooked them up to my 6 volt battery charger and the bulbs even lit up, no cracks in the lens. As many of you might know these Trippe lights are not cheap, the price ranges from 1600-2200 for a set in perfect condition. OK, no i did not even pay close to that amount. I asked the seller what he wanted for them and I was thinking at least $1000+. He came back with a price of yes $100. You never saw any one ever get their wallet out and pay the seller. I basically stoles these from him and I asked him if that was his price and he said yes. Also at the same time he had a box of the Autolite BullNose 6v sealed headlight bulbs in a box. There were six in the box. Asked what he was getting for the bulbs he said $20, I then asked each, he said for all six, so another $20 was spent. Got home and tested these and they all work. There is some rust on the edges and on the back but this can be removed and repaint the back a gray color. As you also know MoParpro sells these same light autolite bullseye for over $200 each. So not a bad day of looking for parts. I attached the picture of the Trippe Lights. Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

Here is another small thing to brag about: I installed a leather cover onto the steering wheel The original objective was to protect the old plastic. It is still in very good condition (only minor cracks) but the perimeter is obviously worn. I wanted to cover the whole wheel (including spokes and horn button) with thin ivory leather. My wheel is brown, but I like the ivory color instead. However, I've quickly realized that I have no idea where to get the proper matching color leather, etc., to do this right. So I decided to experiment with just the universal cover strip, first. Bought this one. Size XL1, according to the provided chart. The leather is soft and stretchy, but way more thicker than I expected. The color turned-out to be not quite as I expected either, and the original holes were too far apart. I was planning to do a hidden seam, first, but with this kind of leather it was not technically feasible so I did a cross stitch instead. I punched more holes, trimmed the sides, and put it on. The stitching took a very long time. I am not sure whether or not I like it, at this point, but given the amount of time spent, I am definitely keeping it for a while 😂

For several years I was hounded about getting a dog. Pun intended. Didn't want to do it. Not because I don't like dogs but because I do like dogs. I get too attached. I finally relented and on a Saturday morning and we took off on a two hour ride - one way - to pick up a basset hound puppy. That was eight years ago. Daisy is my buddy now. She hurt her back a few days ago and it was after hours. And the vet we usually use was going to be out of town for the Easter weekend and wouldn't be back until Monday. So I found an alternate local vet and took her in yesterday. OK I'm almost to the point of this post. I expected it to be a thousand dollars when I went back to pick her up. But I'll pay that - I don't skimp on medical stuff when it comes to people or pets. That's just one of the things that has to be done. BUT the bill was only 500 dollars - still not cheep. Now being of the old car mind set that means that I have 500 dollars left over to get some parts for the 47 P15. Not sure I'll get away with that😂 PS: I expected spinal problems in an old dog. But turns out it's only a pulled muscle. Really good news.

Spring arrived this week. I saw enough vintage cars and motorcycles on the road to stir-up some nostalgia. I removed the car cover and rolled out my ‘38 Chrysler today. It flashed up and ran like a hot engine that was just tuned-up yesterday. I didn’t do a thing other than check the oil and hit the electric fuel priming pump. I love a well maintained flathead engine. While warming it up the pup wanted in on the action. We went around the neighbourhood a couple times. I will drain the oil now and put in a fresh jug of 10W40. How’s 2024 shaping up in your Mopar neighbourhood? -59,331 miles.

Happy Easter everyone. Was such a nice day yesterday that I was out for most of the day. Managed to grab a pic whilst it was warming up. Doesn’t look too bad….

Well, same here, the pup eventually become family and usually cause less trouble or heartaches. My little dog asks for nothing, gives all. I have had a number of dogs over the years and yes, they all been good animals. But this little guy, he is very special. He was 14 last Christmas...I have had pugs since early 80's....they my favorite breed. Here he is doing his Don King impression.

Or install a 6v alternator, keep the 6v battery and drive happily ever after. 😁

All ready to re-install. I bought this one on eBay for $400 delivered. When I changed the Counter Shaft Gear ( aka Cluster gear ) I didn't like the countershaft so I replaced it with a good used one. The reverse lock out switch was open so I replaced that as well. Other than those items it was in very good shape. If you are going to go through one of these, the service manual and a parts book will help. There's a couple of little secrets you have to know about. Example: the lockout arm must be retracted to take the back housing off and there is this tiny tapered pin you have to drive out with a pin punch to do that. If the transmission is covered in grease you may not find it. I got all my parts super clean and checked the movement and function at each stage of assembly. I did not however install the governor as the book says to do. When I rolled the transmission over on the bench the pawl slid into place and things wouldn't turn as expected. I took it apart once more and figured out what had happened. Not a bad thing as I am now really good at assembly and disassembly for the experience. lol Of course it happened again and I simply turned it over and the pawl slid back into its rest position. Since my Suburban has Back Up Lights I wanted to see if I could add the switch with the Overdrive. It does fit and it does work! The beauty of the B-W R10 G1 Overdrive is all the MoPar replacement parts fit. Most of the wear parts in the Overdrive unit are standard B-W parts common to the other makes that used it. The reverse lock out switch is different however. When you see them on eBay most sellers call them a "Neutral safety switch" because that is what they look like. If p/n 1370-462 ever becomes hard to find at a decent price an adaptor could be made to fit a "real" neutral safety switch. ( another note: there's a short little round part that relays the movement of the reverse shift shaft to the switch. If you remove the switch under the car it will fall out and you could lose it. Best to check it before you install the transmission )

Forum started in 1998 on some open source forum software. Was pretty buggy and required a lot of time to keep it working. Basically as the number of posts grew the index would get corrupted and have to start over. Remember the forum updates when we started anew?? Then went to a commercial product, I think it was vbulletin. I think they got bought and then support got pricey. Started looking for another solution and ended up going with Invision, partially because they had tools to migrate from the previous vendor. Migration was a pain, but got it done. Invision has maintained a fair price structure and is good about bug fixes and security updates. Support has also been good. They are reducing some of their features like the store for physical item sales, which is going away very soon. They don't think they can compete in that market with all the other marketplace solutions available. Same was true of the chat function. FYI additional security with the ISP has been implemented and guest access is again available.

Couple shots from the day

I’m sitting on the sidelines, watching. Minding my own business. I get dragged in to one of two discussions that will never be solved: 1. What oil to run? Zinc additive? 2. 6V or 12V? I’ll respond based on my experience and what makes me tick. 6V? Cool. I wonder how that system works? Let’s rebuild it and see if we can make my car perform like it did when it was new. I’ll learn a ton along the way plus it’ll feel good to fix something I know little about. Hmm. The wiring is old and crusty. A bit of a volatile mess. Do I order a new replacement wiring harness? Pretty pricey. Plus how am I going to improve my soldering and harness building skill-set? I’ve got plenty of time that I don’t seem to mind wasting. I sure don’t like paying someone else to do what I can learn to do myself. I sure don’t like letting money out of my wallet very quickly. Off we go. 6V it is. I’ll read and study all about it. I’ll make my own harnesses and upgrade wire gauge too. I’ll add relays & fuses. A 6V-12V converter too for my iphone. I’ll rebuild switches. Sockets. Salvage and re-use rare wire connections. Voila. My car starts up immediately and runs like a dream on 6V. I feel good. I like it. It’s different than everyone else on the road. It works well. People I meet like to talk about my 6V system. These experiences feed my brain good things about the vintage car hobby. I’d rather spend $1200 on books, tools and parts. Then another 40 hours of my time perfecting my skills, versus spending $1200 on a new harness assembly. So now I’ve appeased myself and quelled my curiosity. I like 6V and I’ll stick with it. Both of my cars are 6V and I’ll keep them that way. You can do whatever makes you feel good and secure. 12V if you like. The other 5 vehicles around my house are all 12V. They work fine too. No complaints except they are way harder to work on! Lol. Not sure I helped settle anything here. Now you just know me a bit better.

Personally (from all the posts here) I like dogs, but just don't have the time for one. You have to be around (or someone) every so many hours. When we moved to our place we inherited Puma, the shop mouser. She's had her adventures (lost for 6 weeks after a broken carrier outside the vet's office....but we got her back..which involves the USPS phone call...long story). She's my little buddy in the shop and when she's gone, I will miss here dearly. Growing up on a farm I never got too attached to the cats as they were outside animals and could literally disappear overnight. But she has clawed her way into my heart. She's over 20 years old (we actually figure 22 from discussions with the neighbors) now and spends the majority of her day sleeping, but still needs to take a nap at the end of the day on dad while he makes sure nothing will go amiss overnight in the shop after welding, maintenance or woodworking. Hemp oil has given her a new lease on life this last year or so, the arthritis pain is kept at bay and she still plays, runs and jumps. I highly recommend this for older pets! When she's gone, I'll be alone out there, but won't find a replacement as I worry too much about yotes and eagles. I give you the engerizer bunny kitty and shop supervisor: Puma!

Our current girls and are best friends! Roxie on the left, Queensland-Aussie mix, and Sunny, 100% Heinz 57 mutt! One suggestion after some substantial previous vet bills with one of our other dogs is get pet insurance. Cost is easily offset when you have those unexpected emergencies. Both my wife and I have had cats and dogs our entire lives and I don't see how you can live without them!

Finally changed the 16 year old tires- went with 16R-7.00 in the back and 16R-6.00 in the front. Did a toe-in alignment. Took it for it's first ride and it seems to track well. I plan to take it to an alignment shop before the "Woodies in the Valley" show in late April in Visalia CA.

Also had them flip the flywheel starter ring.

Been awhile since I've been in an engine but I would recommend that once you remove the lower cap place some kind of sleeve over the threads of the cap bolts , rubber/vinyl hose, masking tape, etc. this will avoid worries of bolt threads scraping the crank shaft as you push the piston up per Sniper's recommendation. Just a thought.

Pre BBQ and Merle has already been seen working on someone else’s truck Lol, and we have collectively solved the “ b-series” horn button removal scenario Ggdad1951 (with beer) John T53 (flannel left hand try) Merle (left of 48 dodger holding down the steering wheel)

This adventurousness, driving about to see the eclipse-distracted, or wandering through a riot, seems like when I find myself driving through a snowstorm. I tell my wife that I was going out to see what sort of an idiot would drive around in conditions like this.

We always had dogs, I love dogs. We had cats too, the last one went missing a couple years ago. Our neighbor has outside cats that hang around our place sometimes. I don't mind, they are good mousers. Our last dog was a Chocolate Lab named Coco who we had to put down the same week I lost my Dad. Hardest thing I have ever done. My wife said "no more", she can't handle the loss again. I hate the loss, but the joy when they are with us outweighs the loss for me. Just about the time I thought we might be ready to adopt another dog, 7 years ago, my daughter adopted a rescue. Remmy is a terrier mix with an unknown background, although the vet says his past was very bad based on a physical exam and his obvious trust issues. Remmy is a lone wolf, he doesn't like other dogs, or cats. He takes a little while to warm up to most people too. He and I became best friends quickly. Although he lives 2.5 hours away, we visit often, and we dog sit whenever needed. When his human brother was born, it really freaked him out. I slept on the floor in the living room with him for about a week until he adjusted to a baby making baby noises overnight. My grandson is now two and they get along pretty well, but sometimes Remmy just needs his space. We brought him home Monday after Easter to stay with us for two weeks, a longer than normal visit, but my daughters family has several things going on over the next couple weeks and rather than shuttle him back and forth, he will just visit with us. I love it!

In fact, Chrysler was so proud of the 1951 Hemi, that they released it as a stand-alone option- no car, just motor. For some reason the gals just loved it!

Buster dog hinting that he'd like to have what I'm having. We've had seven dogs over the past 50 years. This guy is not only the largest dog who lived with us, but also the most well behaved. He isn't a snuggler, but he can't control his licker. Lot's of kisses. He's an absolute gentleman when riding in the backseat of the DeSoto, and he has made himself the official protector of it. If someone gets too close to the car while he is in the backseat, he will let out a low growl in his throat if he doesn't know them. No snarl, no bare teeth, just the warning. Of course, if you passed him a burger, the car is probably yours.😉

This is Daisy. She is asking for something - I just have to open my mind and figure out what it is😄. Not that hard to figure out - she wants a treat.

Rest assured I'm not leading the 6v marching band. But I think something we need to consider is these old cars were daily drivers back in their day and they started reliably. People weren't converting them to 12v just so they could get them started every morning. I have to wonder how many times a 12v conversion is performed just as a band-aid applied over systemic problems such as poor wiring, a sluggish starter or a battery that isn't being kept fully charged by an anemic generator. Perhaps many reliability concerns could be addressed by making sure the existing 6v system is in optimum condition by addressing basic maintenance issues. These old cars worked very well in their day, there is no reason why they can't be as reliable today if the electrical system is in good condition. Having said that a set of good battery and starter cables along with an alternator will go along way toward keeping a 6v car happy.

12V if you prefer. That’s fine. I like 6V for old school cool factor. I like it when young drivers want to check out my old car. I point out the positive ground 6V system with a generator. Vacuum wipers. Suicide doors. Tube radio. Split hood. Flathead engine. Bias tires and more. They are often stunned and awed. I like being a custodian and teacher for these old systems. That’s just me.

It kind of looks like the shifter bushing my 49 has. I wrote in about it a couple of years ago. My shifter was getting stiffer and stiffer and hard to shift. Pulled the whole thing apart looking for the problem. Turns out the “bushing” is a piece of webbing and it had dried out. So I lubed it up and it has worked fine ever since. Your steering shaft bushing looks very much like my shifter bushing. If you oil it, it might swell up and work fine. Lastly if your steering wheel moves up and down when you pull on it, you need to adjust the steering gear bearings. The seal in mine leaks so that’s a job I have to do as well. I’ve been through the shop manual prepping to do it. I have the front sheet metal off right now ( a rust prevention project ) so I can get good photos for a write up coming soon.

This weekend at the range, had company with a '53 Studebaker.

We had a very pleasant, mild winter so there was only a few wet weeks that I left the Plymouth cooped up. Back in January a local college kid spotted and photographed my car parked streetside.

I have an admittedly tight focus on the KT Keller cars, so that's what I research and play with. It's all about having fun after all and those are the ones I like. I am a huge fan of Overdrive transmissions because they don't really change the charm of the cars and actually add to it. When you put one in your car your speedo will be off at all speeds because the speedometer pinion gear was selected for a 4.1 ring and pinion. The good news is you can swap out the pinion from your old three speed to the O.D. and all will be back to normal ( assuming your speedometer doesn't need service ). But what if you changed the rear end ratio or the tire size? I don't advocate changing rear axles because I don't see much to be gained there. You can easily change the differential carrier ( aka 3rd member ) in a Plymouth if you want another ratio. Where I live there's lots of open road with highway speeds of 55 to 70 so optional ratios, tires and O.D. go well with my Plymouth. My P17 Coupe came with 6.40-15 tires ( modern equivalent 195/75/15 ) and a 3.73 final drive ratio so the speedometer pinion would be a 17 tooth gear ( p/n 652-848 ) for an example. Chrysler designed the pinions to use the same 6 tooth gear on the output shaft so you only need to change one gear to correct the speedometer. One thing you find out right away is selecting speedo gears is not an exact science. You can get close and you might hit it right on the button but you more likely will be over or under by 2 or 3 mph. That's why the Highway Patrol has an enforcement tolerance. So let's look at tires first 6.40 15 = 195/75/15 standard tire for a P17 6.70 15 = 205/75/15 standard tire for a P18 7.60 15 = 225/75/15 an optional size tire Final drive ratios 3.90 very common on long wheelbase cars 3.73 standard ratio on many optional on all 3.54 optional Chart of ratios & tires vs speedometer pinions 3.90 6.70 15 17 tooth pinion 3.73 6.40 15 17 tooth pinion 3.73 6.70 15 16 tooth pinion 3.54 6.70 15 16 tooth pinion All 7.60 15 16 tooth pinion So you can see you're not going to get an exact reading but you can get close enough to avoid a ticket. The part number for the 16 tooth pinion is 652-846. I have found that if you have the number for an obscure part the parts house will look to find it in their inventory but they are likely to blow you off if you just say "I need a 16 tooth speedometer gear." Happy hunting!

Yup, between 65 and 70. When I had earplugs in, I tended to go faster, haha....

Hello, I recently purchased a 47 WD21. As far as I know, it’s 100% original, but I honestly know very little about these trucks, so I’ll be visiting the forum frequently. I do not plan to do any modifications, but upgrading the oil filtration system does interest me. If anyone has done such an upgrade, please let me know your thoughts. what I know (or have been told) about the truck: New water pump, new brakes, new tires, new glass, new shocks, 12v, fuel system cleaned. I drove it home about 1 hour through the mountains. I learned a lot in that hour. Like she handles similar to a backhoe with low tires ha ha, and 3rd gear is the only gear I can get my foot on the brake pedal. But she ran great!

Public Service Announcement.Time to spring into warm weather driving mode. Remember to reverse your car's battery cables to change heater to cooler function. Happy Motoring to all.

I'm moving right along on my '52 Suburban build. This week I finished upgrading the brakes to a dual master cylinder from ECI Hotrod Brakes and Brackets. It's very well made and I had no trouble fitting it to my existing underfloor brake pedal. The instructions were good, and the only thing I had to buy extra was a bracket off eBay, to hold the combination valve below the master cylinder. I tried to re-use all the original clutch parts that I could, but needed to add a bit of metal to the clutch pull back spring arm as it was wallowed out, and install new clevis pins. My wife donated her old tan purse for the clutch fork seal. I saved some $ by using the P15D24 Forum template and made one myself, as AB and others are all out of stock. Next-steering column fun! ECIChrysler.mov

Ok. So. That was probably the most spectacular celestial thing I've ever seen. I still wouldn't go out of my way to see another total eclipse, but I am definitely glad I got to see this one. We were in the 100% zone, the skies were crystal clear, and we had an unobstructed view, so for three minutes and some seconds, all you could see was the sun's corona, and three stars/planets that popped up, seemingly out of nowhere. Like turning on a light switch. Funny light effects for an hour leading up to it during the partial eclipse, then BAM, it's dark, the temp dropped a good ten degrees, the wind stopped, everything got quiet, and you could look at the moon/sun with the naked eye, surrounded by the awesome display of the sun's corona. I guess I was expecting groups of white-robed Druids to pop up chanting pagan rituals, not that that didn't happen, but I didn't see any. I had to go through town earlier in the morning and it was already crowded at 0800, but then we stayed home. Had some friends over later to watch the event, who said it was packed downtown when they went through at about 12. Doesn't look like we got the full quota of madness that was predicted, but still got enough people to challenge our planning and preparations. Traffic on I-95 northbound was not quite bumper to bumper, but it stopped to watch the event for a good 45 minutes. The day isn't over yet, though, and tomorrow is worthy of staying home, too, everyone who trickled in over the past three days will be leaving at once. I got a kick out of this - there was a rumor going around that Taylor Swift flew into the Houlton International Airport on her private jet to witness the total eclipse. A friend was assigned to monitoring inbound air traffic, (his wife and kids were who came to our house to witness the event), all he would say was that a fancy private jet flew in, but he wouldn't confirm/deny her presence, despite our encouragement to propagate that rumor whether true or not. So, if you've never been outside, standing on the ground, to actually see a total eclipse in person, I think you've missed something worth seeing. Won't be another one in North America for something like 20 years.

My photo dump. Sadly we missed "Friend of the Show" pic. I'll update pics with the awards tomorrow. Twinsies the grand master Tim! Best Non Mopar: Katy 71 Range Rover Best Hard Working Truck: Joe Light Blue B1/B2 Best Built Truck: Dan Red C series Best Fastest Looking Truck: Brett R/T Challenger (it identifies as a truck) Best of Show: Bud Red modified B3/B4 Not shown: Friend of the Show: Nick 4x4 B1/B2 Wish you were Here: Keven B1B (sorry have the year wrong in the note, I was looking at Brent)

Success! Completed the Rusty Hope disc brake conversion today. Looks like the truck will make the BBQ after all. OMG! What a difference! It feels like power brakes. I’m willing to discuss this process at the BBQ if anyone’s interested. There were several issues along the way. It’s not the straight up bolt on project that I imagined and the biggest hang up was the first machine I went to. That had my spindles almost two months! Any way, I’ll be there…

Ok, I've finally got a few things that worth an update. The bed panels are done and the front fenders are mostly installed. I'll be the first to admit the bed panels aren't perfect, but they are good enough for me. The trick is once installed, drive fast enough that people don't get a good look at them The panels are still at the painters, which is good because I currently don't have any room to store them. I've had a lot going on and the shop was packed with stuff so it's been really difficult to work efficiently. I finally managed to make room and once the front sheet metal is all bolted into place then I'll be able to move things around to make an assembly area to build the bed. This morning we worked on fitting the front fenders. Started on the right side and fought it tooth and nail to get the gasket and bolts between the front of the fender and the front nose. The left side we were able to apply lessons learned and it went a lot faster. The bolts holding the fenders to the nose are now tight, but the bolts holding the nose to the radiator frame are still loose. We're having difficulty getting the door gaps to stay put. I can pull the nose on the left side and get a decent gap but after letting off on the pressure it moves back closer to the door. Tightening the bolts on the left side don't seem to help it stay in position, it still springs back somewhat. The passenger side gap is slight larger than it should be so I think the cab needs to rotate slightly. I'm currently struggling with finding a method to pivot the cab (the four bolts are loose). I believe the front left bolt is somewhat of a pivot point and what needs to happen is the passenger side needs to pivot slightly forward. What's the best way to do this? It's been around 28 years since I dismantled the truck and its kinda weird to see fenders on the truck!

Later pic with her favorite toy. I’ll bet I kick or throw that ball well over a hundred times a day 5 1/2 lbs of fun

Ready for Easter Sunday. Winter projects done. Time for spring. Rebuilt rearend all new brakes MC to wheel cylinders, new kingpins and bearings.

It's amazing what we'll do for pets. Buster dog, a Border Collie/Pointer/Shedder mix, had his spleen removed last summer. It was a rough week for all of us. I slept on the floor next to him the first couple nights after his surgery. I don't remember what it cost but it was spendy. He's back to his big old goofy self again. He's also waiting on me to get this stupid cast off my foot so we can do our morning 2 mile walks again. Two more weeks, buddy.

I'm not following the cheaper to go 12v unless you are referring to the incredibly complicated system the original poster is describing. Less than $150 for a new 6v alternator and nothing on the car has to be changed. I would, however, upgrade to the proper 6v battery and starter cables if they are not present, that will solve the cold weather starting problems.

had to slap on the chains to collect the last of the sap last weekend.. season is done... time for clean-up.

I had my 1953 Plymouth out today for the first drive of 2024. Weather is warm and snow is gone. I put on a new water pump and fuel pump recently and all worked well. I live on the prairies of southern Alberta but if you enlarge the picture you can see the Rocky Mountains in the distance above the car’s roof.

See now a song comes to mind I see a black wheel and I want to paint it red Apologies to The Rolling Stones

•pinched tube on intake manifold appears to be the vacuum source for the vacuum windshield wiper motor •intake manifold appears to have a partial PCV setup •spark plug wires appear a little on the long side...universal sets with 90° boots can be sourced

Since the easiest position to replace the bearings is at the bottom of the stroke, two cylinders will have the best access, the other 4 will have severely compromised access. Replace the bearings in the two at the bottom one at a time, rotate the crank until another two are at the bottom, do those and then rotate again to get the last two. It only takes about 4 inches of fuel line that way.

Facebook didn't exist when I first joined, I think Zuckerberg was only a gleam in his daddy's eye. I've talked to a few folks that know about the Forum but don't seem to want to join because it isn't FB. I ask them what kind of info they get from FB versus what they are looking for, usually don't get a sensible answer. Seems to me they can't grasp how helpful the Forum can be, they lean towards thinking the Forum can't possibly be better than FB just because it existed before FB.