Cold Blue

My wheels - chrome rims with bullet caps at the lug nuts. Wide white walls.

I got mine from my local O'Reilly's Auto Parts for my 48 P15. The part numbers are MPC ES158R and MPS ES158L, the same Moog numbers as Rock Auto shows. They are $22.00 each, at O'Reilly's, with Limited Lifetime Warranty. They have been on my car since August. Be very careful threading them into the tie rods. They have fine threads, and are quite easy to cross thread. Don't ask me how I know.....

My first Mopar was in 1969. I bought a used 1966 Dodge Coronet; 2 door hardtop, canary yellow, slat six. Funniest thing about it was the aftermarket AC the previous owner installed. The AC was one of those boxes that hung under the dash with vents in the front. You could turn it on with one knob to start the compressor and wait a minute, then turn the fan on, and it would blow fog into the car like crazy for about 10 seconds! The kids thought that was such fun. Kept it for a couple of years. No more Mopars till last year when I got my 48 Plymouth Special Deluxe Coupe. Working on the 48 has been fun. I think I will keep it until I kick off. Took it on a 50 mile fun ride yesterday. It purrs along like a kitten. That 218 is the smoothest running motor. The 48 seems happiest at 45 to 50 mph.

I'm 71. I wrenched on muscle cars in the 60's and 70's. My first car was a 64 Chevy Impala coupe, 409 with a 4 speed, in 1968. Then a 50 chevy coupe with a 327/350 horse motor, 4 speed. Fastest car I have ever had. Scary. Had to put an aircraft cable on the left side of the engine to snub it from the torque twist to keep it from breaking motor mounts. Would pull the left front wheel off the ground when I went WFO in first gear, due to frame twist. Wish I still had it.. Now? A 48 Plymouth Special Deluxe coupe, original 218 engine. But customized in a 50's style motif. Fun to drive. Still needs some small things repaired, like most all 70 year old cars, but drives just fine. Gives me something to tinker with, and to putter around town on the weekends.

Hey Sam - Thanks for solving the vibration transmission problem! I am now going to get new upper mounts for my 48 P15 and get them installed. One question - can the new mounts be installed by jacking up the tranny a bit, removing the old ones and then install the new ones? Is there enough room to remove the mounting bolts? If so, this would be an easy repair. Thanks again for solving the vibration problem!!

I got rid of the wide white walls which were bias ply. They handled terribly, followed every groove in the pavement, and made driving not so fun. I went with Toyo Extensa tires, P215/75/R15's. What a difference! Ole Bessie drives down the road straight and true, does not follow grooves, and steers easier than those wrenched old bias plies. I have the white sidewalls that are the narrow ones ( thats all that is available in this tire line) and I like the looks of the narrow ones better! They were installed by a small shop not far from me that had an old dude (like me..) that knew about the left and right hand thread lugs bolts and how to balance them so the wheel weights were all inside, and not showing. Really pleased with the Toyo's!

I have the peep mirrors that clamp onto the door edge. The drivers side is somewhat useful; the passenger side is useless. I have them on my car for the look. The vent windows can open 3/4 of the way as shown on the pics. I am thinking about changing them to get them further away from the car so I can see better what's in the lane beside me. I always turn my head to look anyhow (an old habit I got into in the 60's), so it's not a big deal for me. I do like the way they look....

Thanks HotRod! I will look at the switch and see if it is indeed wired correctly! Seems like a lot of the switches are wired like mine, but I would like for it to operate as designed.

Sam - glad the leak is fixed!!! When I find some soft mounts I will do what you did and grid the shallow groove so the oil drains out properly. I now think you are right - mounts that are too hard are the problem. I am going to order some mounts that I found on the Web and see if they pass the fingernail test. The ones I found are not too expensive, so if they are too hard, big deal. I will let you know if they appear to be good mounts. Congrats!!

Sam - someone posted that the front motor mount may be the problem. I replaced my front mount (the old one was a folded piece of radiator hose!!) with a new one. The rubber on the new mount was quite hard. It had the mounting bolts moulded into it, captured by the rubber, and I could not induce any movement of the bolts, as you maybe could do with soft rubber. For sure it did not pass the fingernail test. Replacing the front mount did not produce any vibrations at all; the 6 banger runs as smooth as a kitten. With that said, somehow I believe that something other than the new rear mounts is causing the vibes? Could something on the motor be touching the car frame or body? Or maybe the new mounts raised the rear of the engine enough that the drive shaft alignment is off now? Just for the heck of it, I might jack the rear wheels off the ground, start 'Ole Bessy", put her in gear, get under the car and feel around for the source of the vibes.

We have three opinions that it is correct. But chrysler1941 says its not....will reversing the AM and ST connections blow fuses or fry wires? I am not an electrical guru...

My 48 Plymouth Club Coupe was rewired and converted to 12 volts by a previous owner. My question is this: press the starter button on the dash, and the starter motor will turn over with the ignition switch in the "Off" position, but will not start. Turn the key, and she fires right up. Is this correct? Seems to me the starter should not operate when the key is off, but I may be wrong. Thanks! Blue.

That's exactly what I did Frank. I must say I think it is quite handsome...

Sam, I was going to order new mounts for my car, but with the problems you describe, I hope someone is a source for soft mounts. I am going to do some web searching to see if I can find some soft ones. If I do I will post it. I am not going to replace mine until I find those soft mounts. Dadgumit! Now you have to go to the trouble of removing your new hard mounts and install soft ones....

Man, that finned head is super nice looking! But at the price they are asking, my stock head looks super too, the more that I look at it...

I've got it made in the shade. My garage is air-conditioned!!

Congratulations Sam! It is always rewarding to get something repaired correctly. Now I hope that the new biscuits are not too hard and your vibration problem goes away...

Hot Dog! That means the dual Carter carb set-up on my car is worth $1390!!! Pitch in the Offenhauser intake, and I am getting real close to 2 grand! Happy days are here again.

Registering a YOM plate here in Tennessee is a piece of cake. I got a pair of restored 1948 Tennessee plates from a member. I had an "antique auto" plate on my car. I simply took the antique auto plate to the vehicle registration office in my city, along with the pair of 48 plates, told them I wanted to use them on my car. They searched their records for that plate number, found none, and then voided the antique auto plates and registered my car using the '48 plates number. I paid an $81 fee, and Viola! All done in about 20 minutes. The '48 plates are beautiful on my car and are the period correct yellow background color to boot. And only one plate is required; I have two, but it is on display on the wall of my garage.

Sam - glad to hear there is enough clearance to install the back motor mounts. I have read some posts that say the lower left (driver's side) mount suffered from not enough space between the motor and the tranny tunnel to remove the motor mount bolt. I plan on just jacking the motor up just enough to remove the old biscuits, then slide the new ones in. I have replaced the front rectangular shaped motor mount; it was a piece of cake. (The mount that was there was a flattened piece of radiator hose, thru bolted; yikes!) Amazing what you find that has been done by previous owners! I have some clutch chatter too, when pulling out. I am hoping that bad motor mounts are the problem. My mounts do not look as deteriorated as yours, but they probably need replacement. A previous post also mentioned that bad shackle bushings may also cause clutch chatter. I am going to check those too.

Thanks Sam for the info. I think you are right about the gasket. I will be tackling the oil leak in my tranny soon, and the info you have provided will be valuable! Especially the pics and your really good way of explaining things. I don't have any tranny leaks except for the forward end of the tranny. I like the guide bolts you have to align the tranny when it is reinstalled. Seems like these tranny's can be a PIA to install if you don't have those guide bolts.

Sam - one last question and I'll go away. You say "if the bearing retainer is sealed properly, the tranny will be oil tight". So the gasket between the bell housing and the tranny is really just a spacer? And I right? Thanks Sam.

Sam - what is that vertical slot for at the bottom of the gasket (the part you are going to trim off..) I see that you have applied sealant to close the top part of the vertical slot. The gasket set I have has that same vertical slot at it's bottom. If the top of the slot was not sealed it is going to leak, right? I really don't like that. Do we have the right gasket set??? Why would the gasket manufacturer make a gasket that wasn't continuous?? Got any ideas? The only thing I can think of is that is indeed a universal gasket and some other model of tranny has a fin or something where that slot is....

Sam - I have the same leak that you described on my 48 P15 tranny. It's not too bad, but enough to leave a small puddle on the garage floor. I am going to tackle it this fall when the weather cools a bit. I think my tranny is missing the bell housing to tranny gasket, as I can see RTV at that junction. Or maybe it has a gasket plus RTV? We will see. Thanks for the tip on modifying the bearing retainer. I will look at the slinger threads when I have the tranny out to see where they end, and if the slot is necessary. May do the slot anyhow just for insurance. When you get her back together would you let us know if the leak has been cured?

Don't know if anything is recommended, but I installed a new gasket (Felpro) and smeared a LIGHT coating of Permatex Red High Temp RTV gasket maker on both sides of the gasket. I then installed the pump and just tightened the bolts a little bit. Waited an hour for the RTV to take a set, and then torqued the bolts to spec. I have not have any leaks in a year now...When I got my car it had a huge glob of sealant at the top of the pump too.