Cpt.Fred

Robert, the brakes are right ahead of me now, too...

i've done them 3 times now, and i didn't like any of them.

bleeding is a real pain...

right now i am digging into axle adjustment and measuring.

here's what i have for plymouth passenger cars from '36 to '42:

Robert, that is just the angle.

Everything clears nicely and i had them made half an inch longer than stock

now that i knew i'd relocate the mount, and there aren't an issues during a-arm movement

or steering either. It seems like i could be done soon. Wonder what'll come up next

...aaaaaand done!   

i could reuse the old mounts and just gave them a slightly different bend in the bench vise.

drilled and tapped new holes in the frame.

now i have to dig into my paperwork to get the measurements for track and king pin angles...

i test fitted the mounts and decided to use the forward hole of the brake hose frame mount

for the upper bolt of the truck mount.

i drilled it open to accept the bolt and then looked to find a 90° angle for the mount

and marked for the second hole to drill.

then came the point of no return...

took the angle grinder and removed the old shock mounts form the upper a-arms:

drilled the holes and fitted the mounting plates:

done and working perfect! i used the car jack to simulate load and let the car sit on the spring,

but everything clears nicely and looks like it was meant like this from the start

next thing are the new frame mounts for the brake hoses.

they were in the mail this morning and are now long enough.

yeehaw...

like i said, i don't like sore thumbs sticking out,

so i wasted some time in between today.

sanding and flat black coat:

coat of Owatrol oil to match the rest:

oh yeah, and we did the shock mounts and mounting plates:

now i have to find the right position for them to drill the holes into the frame

and move the brake hose mounts to clear the way (and build new ones, of course).

still no brake hoses in the mail today... boohoo.

thanks Derek!

discs to protect the offspring is completely ok with me. plus it's a good read

edit: just went through it completely.. GREAT THREAD, good info on the brakes, too...

went through most of that myself already, but there are some things i might try, now that i'm at it... 

i might have to get a dual master like Robert has.

thanks Pekka, and thank you also for your helpful contribution to the other thread,

but let's not talk about it here, because this here is supposed to be straight axle talk (although it's about IFS...)

i put the tie rods back in this morning and will proceed assembly, then grease up and try to adjust the steering gear!

well, thanks a lot, deathbound!

i hope you remember from the rear-end-lowering-thread how much i like the look of yours.

the locked thread was already very useful and is pretty much answered.

so i'm not too sad about it. i'll post updates in a new thread when things get real.

what did you have to do for the seering box rebuild? do i have to pull the column?

i think i remember something like that from the manuals...

my plan was to fill the box with some kind of sticky gat grease for the moment and then try to adjust.

for now...

what do you think

thanks, Lloyd.

good point on the linkage,

i always thought the gearboxes themselves were pretty much the same, but with an OD unit bolted to their rear ends...

from what i have learned on Tim's blog an R7 unit would be the drop in for mine, but again i read the nasty term

"one year only" when it came to 1940... been through that on the front end just now.

still waiting for my brake hoses,

so i'm killing time with cleaning the engine bay and planning world domination.

my steering box is seriouly leaking and has a bit of play in it.

do you think, from the position of the setting screw, i can still do some adjustment,

or did the whole thing have it already?

another thing i noticed when i took the gravel pan off and saw the box from underneath for the first time

since i own the car, was that i could tighten the nut holding the steering arm quite a bit, almost two turns...

spooky.

the car has a three on the tree, as said above, and i want it to stay that way.

so i don't think a T5 is an option for me.

i need to reduce rpm on the highway and get more torque out of the engine,

these are the goals, and i think they can be achieved with a 3-speed overdrive.

plus it is more traditional in my way and would suit the car better.

i already did lots of stuff to soup up the 201, but i think i will need more cubes and torque,

so i''d like to get a bigger one. compression was raised seriously and a good valve job was done.

there was a noticable increase in power.

here's a reminder of what was built a few years ago, unfortunately most of the pics in the thread have vanished,

which is a sad thing. i learned a lot during the build and it was a great great process with lots of board members

involved.

thread:

http://p15-d24.com/topic/22357-201-hop-up-project/

pics:

i want it to basically stay like this, only stronger. manifold and headers will be modified to fit or changed.

guess i'll have another very close look at the 25" block install issue.

i'm thinking the same thing about the radiator and nose, Bmartin, but first i'll do some measuring.

again...

ed, you're right of course. i was talking about the 251/265 in this case. the shorter 230 should fit right in.

i was drifting away in my mind a little...

thanks for all the info, guys!

the OD seems like the way to go, with 1/3 less rpm on the highway it would improve the fun considerably even with the small engine.

james, maybe i have a 4.11 in there, i measured by turning the drive shaft by hand... the numbers look great, just what i hoped they would.

thanks, Bmartin, i've seen your thread and it got me thinking... great car you got there as well. so clean, compared to mine, hehe.

deathbound, we seem to think alike most of the time

suntennis,thanks for chiming in. i guess i'll leave the rear end for later. i was told the number of splines is what makes the difference.

i have been snooping around my engine bay for quite some time to check all the clearances,

but moving the oem radiator 2" to the front seems to be quite difficult in a pre war body.

from what i know it gets much easier with the P15 front and aligator style hood... but we shall see.

this is not the first time i'm into this topic, back when we built the triple carb setup i was planning on getting a larger engine,

but didn't want to spend the money...

thanks, joe. i remember your project and i still have many pictures from your thread saved on my computer.   1/3 less rpm sounds good to me...

tim, thanks a lot for the input. i'm going to study your blog and learn more on the topic.

from what i know now i'd have to get both engine and tranny in the US and have them rebuilt,

then get them shipped over. i don't know any shops here that are familiar with these engines,

even worse with the transmission... more on PM

Including clutch assembly? i heard about different crankshafts, so there might be different flywheels?

pflaming, it's a 201 in 1940. the 218 was post war, as far as i know...

i thought maybe 29cui more should be noticable?

when we were in sweden 2 years ago, with 3 people and fully loaded,

i noticed that i would get in trouble on steep climbs if the rear end was any longer without having more power,

so i thought i'd get an overdrive first.

and thanks!

although i am not quite done with my front end rebuild yet i am already opening a new front line here.

i am thinking about changing the brave 201 to a 230 (or whatever the largest available 23" block is) to gain a little more power.

plus i want an overdrive unit to improve highway cruising abilities.

i have been driving the 201, 3-on the tree, 4.2 rear end combo for some 20000km in the past 4 or 5 years and i'd like everything

to be a little more everyday friendly. doing 65miles all day with this rear end and no overdrive can get stressful to both engine and driver.

i do not want to change the character of the car completely or have to many body mods, so i will not put a V8 in or anything like that.

we built a crazy 3-carburetor intake and full split equal lenght headers for the 23" engine, that i have been running very successfully for the past years,

so i guess a 25" engine will not be an option. i do not know how different the blocks are portwise, but i imagine it won't be too easy to modify the 

existing parts. i remember reading a lot about the swap on Don's car, and it looked like quite a job to make it happen.

so, i have a few questions to those already enjoying a 230cui engine with overdrive.

how many HP and torque does the engine have in stock condition?

are there any possiblities to stroke it to get more cubic inches out of the 23" block?

are there more than one overdrive units that where used in these cars? i only read about the Borg-Warner R-10.

what factor ist the RPM reduction with overdrive engaged?

i'm a total newbie to all things overdrive, so please have mercy on me if some my questions are stupid.

thanks in advance, i looking forward to your answers!

Fred

...maybe you gave them to the chrome plater's and they never came back?

give me some time... once they're in there they'll blend in, i promise

jeez i'm a nerd... hehehe

hahaha, yeah, i got them this morning, finally!

seems like forever, doesn't it... but i think it was actually in february?

indeed, as was discussed earlier

slow progress here...

i measured the tie rods and wrote everything down, then took them apart for cleaning.

they look much better now...

got the brake shoes back from relining and the new custom made flexible steel hoses arrived.

i sent them the old ones so they new exactly what they were dealing with, but somehow they messed up.

look at this:

the new connectors are much longer than the old ones, so the flexible part is now too short.

i certainly will not ride them like this, so i called the shop and sent them back.

i hope the new ones will be ready soon,

can't take all the waiting any longer...

the rest looks fine, i guess. getting closer one tiny step after another.

hey Andy, no problem, you're right. sometimes my english leaves me and i mix up terms.

i edited the post, since i want this to be a good and helpful tech thread with proper language -

accompanied by a well proportioned side dish of nonsense and clownery of course.

here's what i got this morning:

boy, these are A LOT stiffer than my oil shocks... we'll see how it goes.

unfortunately the container carrying the truck shock mounts got busted in the harbour

on arrival for some reason and now i'll have to wait untill they finished x-raying it...

thanks, Greg. i passed your info, but i haven't heard any news so far.

i put the steering arms back in place to get the tie rod ends pressed out. stupid me...

this is important: if i ever have to do something like this again, they'll come off first thing

before i try anthing else. you don't get them off when they're not attached.

next thing will be more cleaning and some measuring and then four new tie rod ends.