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Dan Hiebert

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Everything posted by Dan Hiebert

  1. For what it's worth - Unless you're bent on originality, there is nothing "wrong" with an aftermarket manual choke on these cars. I've had one on our D24 for thirty years with no issues, but the more I look at it now, the more I want to put the Sisson choke back in operation. My installation of the manual one isn't quite of "hambone" (I like that descriptor) quality, but it's not far off. I had replaced the Sisson choke way back when because it was not working right, but I'll be the first to admit I knew absolutely nothing about it - other than it wasn't working. Now I know why it wasn't working and how to fix it, thanks to this Forum.
  2. Broken brake shoe return springs will cause that, too. I had about a two year span when one of the shoe return springs would break every two or three months, causing the exact same thing to happen. All had come from the same vendor, too long ago to cast aspersions about product quality now.
  3. If queries fail - auto parts shops that sell auto paint, and auto paint shops can scan a sample if you have one and come up with a close or exact match. Downfall is that the patch they scan has to be at least 4" and uniform in color. If your "sample" is immobile, some can even send one of their people out with a special camera, I know NAPA will do this. They can also cross reference what the color called "Eddins Blue" has evolved into as far as what it's called now. It helps if the shop has a good paint guy or gal. It's been discussed herein before that exact matches to older colors are really hard to get for varying reasons. Some shops will be lost if they can't find an exact match, some will get you recommendations for something close.
  4. Yup, that happens here "occasionally". Actually makes for some interesting threads...as long as the OP's question gets answered.
  5. I'll third VHT. Although the wrong color for our engines, I used VHT Chrysler Blue on my engine 30 years ago. It has held its color, and when I repainted the fan last year, was a bear to remove, even with a sandblaster. And ditto yes, the engine color was silver from the factory regardless of the car's color. Not quite as bright as aluminum, but no one makes "silver". The POR-15 is supposed to be the closest, but you've seen how that ages. "P15 Reference" information under "Resources" in the header above has a list of what's painted what.
  6. Had the same problem with our Dodge up to a couple years ago. There is a bar of metal towards the bottom of the door that limits how far the door can be opened. It is attached to the front door post, but slides in / out of a slot in the door. On the end of the inside of the free end is a rubber bumper that cushions the door when fully opened. Just before that bushing is an engineered thick spot / dimple in the metal strip, not machined in, most likely pressed. It is what works with the clip Plymouthy notes to hold the door open, that clip was still in my door. That dimple gets massaged flatter over time to the point it won't hold the door open anymore, especially the driver's door. That bumper is removable, I removed it, which allows the door to open "too far" and the metal bar to come out. Some persuasion with handheld impact tools restored the shape of that hold-open dimple, and some "reverse of removal", and now the driver's door is held open. I've a friend with a '46 D24 that had the same problem, he chose to remove the rivet that holds the bar onto the door post and removed that bar by pulling it back into the door. You have to be careful what you reattach the bar to the door post with, as it has to fit into a slot on the door when closed. You do have to remove the door panel for either procedure.
  7. Don't be lulled by the appearance of the cylinders from above, all of the "stuck" is below the top of the piston. I'd work on freeing up the engine before venturing into the valve train. It will be much easier to ID problem valves once the engine is turning. It's only been a week, some mentioned it took them months to free their engine. Someone also suggested getting the oil pan off - if after your patience runs out trying to free the engine from above this should be a next step, as you should get a better picture of what the cylinders look like from below. You may discover that it will be futile to try to free the engine, saving yourself some aggravation, or you could discover a slightly different approach to try next. The PO did not do you any favors removing the spark plugs - that opened the engine up to the atmosphere, our climate up here can create a lot of condensation, (the past month I've been indoors working on stuff dripping moisture from it). These L6s are not rare, MoPar used the same basic engine for 30 years, with industrial applications even beyond that. Replacements are out there and they're still reasonably priced. Although I've grenaded a few, I have never dealt with a seized engine, but I believe I would relish the challenge of getting one freed up - up to a point. I can't add any better advice on how to free up a seized engine than already given, other than don't be unwilling to cede defeat to the point it turns you off to old cars.
  8. I've had spacers that were touted to improve performance in a couple vehicles, although not L6s. They didn't contribute anything noticeable. If you're just trying to remedy the performance issue - assuming everything else is copacetic, I'd check the accelerator pump lever link setting at the bottom of the bowl, there is a small lever there with three holes in it, one (closest to the throttle shaft) is a short stroke, one is a medium stroke, and one is a long stroke. They are for high-altitude / hot weather driving, normal summer driving, and cold weather driving (same order). There is a small linkage between the lever and the pump that you adjust along those holes. They control the amount of fuel injected into the carb throat when you push the gas pedal. If you have it on the long stroke/winter driving hole, the car's performance will be affected when it's hot out. We've been in the same general climate as you the last 20 years, I've kept mine at the medium stroke with no issues.
  9. Those are a must have in a farrier's toolbox, but I don't know if they're specifically designed for horse shoeing or are a blacksmiths tool that just happens to fit the bill - keeping in mind one of the primary tasks of old timey blackies was shoeing horses. The Amish communities around here would barter handsomely for a set of those.
  10. The latch on the door post is adjustable.
  11. 70 mph may be testing the limits. These things were new on cars that generally didn't go much over 60, if that, and it's a safe bet they were/are not intended for "performance". That big honkin' sail of an outside sunvisor on the front of the windshield catches a lot of air. They're designed to let air pass, but they still catch a lot. I've driven our car at 45 to 50 mph in some pretty stout winds (sometimes up to 65-70 mph) in the southwest and the visor stayed on, but it certainly looked like it wanted to depart company with the car. I'd slow way down when that happened, and didn't purposefully drive it when I knew the winds would be over about 30-35 mph. Buzzing down the road at 70 mph and meeting a tractor-trailer going the opposite way at the same speed may spell doom for the visor and the windshield divider, if so equipped.
  12. There's a prior thread from several years ago that touched on this, too. I'd read somewhere that Fulton "scientifically" determined that the matte sage green color was best for reducing glare. That yellow-green color on aircraft aluminum is zinc chromate, primarily to inhibit corrosion. Being aftermarket items, most Fulton SunShields were packaged in that green color, and it was up to the end user to paint the rest of the visor in the desired color. Fulton recommended leaving the underside green to help reduce glare. I didn't know that when I installed mine, it had come off a donor car and was painted one color, so I painted mine all one shiny color, so when my hood is clean and shiny, I sometimes get glare from the shiny underside of the visor, too. The aforementioned previous thread has at least one photo of the green underside from the interior of a car. I don't think I've seen very many that don't have the underside painted the body color.
  13. Very nice, you'll enjoy having it on there, especially in that Texas sun. I've noticed these outside sunvisors get a love-hate thing going. I think they are quite practical for what they were intended for - keeping the sun out of the windshield and keeping the dash and steering wheel cooler. Our D24 did not have one when we first got it, before I installed it, if I had to use the inside visors, they really restricted my outside view, more so than with that outside visor. Since installing it, I've never used the inside ones. I have one of those "traffic light finder" dash prisms, which helps at stop lights, but it has distortion in it such that I have to stop just right and look for a sweet spot to see the light, sometimes I give up and just wait for the car behind me to honk. Otherwise, yeah, I gotta plan to stop half a block back from most traffic lights to see them without contorting myself. Not much of a problem in this dinky little town up here, but western NY was "fun". As far as aesthetics, I thought about taking it off when we moved out of the southwest, but I've gotten so used to it that I think our car looks funny without it, you know, kinda like red rims ?. Interesting what location does for such accessories, too. When we lived in Texas and New Mexico, folks knew what it was for. Up here in Maine, not so much - most think it is to keep snow off the windshield (which it does, but only when parked).
  14. Thanks so much for posting this info and the links! I've never had exaggerated expectations for performance from the '46-'48 Dodge cars, but I enjoy reading how someone else describes it, especially from a period standpoint.
  15. And your car is black, too! (Nice ride, I really like the bidness coupes.) When we lived in the southwest, I was always a bit impressed with how our D24 was always cooler than expected when it was in the 90's and 100's with clear skies. Couldn't touch the stainless trim, (i.e., hang my arm out the window), but the interior was surprisingly "cool". Didn't even get much above 70 here yesterday. Makes for rather pleasant driving, but also gives me some motivation to actually get our heater working.
  16. Ah, that slippery slope. I have my brother-in-law's '57 Ford 2dr sedan that I was going to "freshen-up". Take maybe a year, and that due more to him living 600 miles away than obvious stuff to do on the car. Three years later and I'm finally done - all I'm going to do, anyway. Every time I found something slightly amiss, it turned into a major project. Now comes the 600 mile return challenge, but he's getting it back in August, one way or another.
  17. Your car is a Custom Town Sedan. The Customs have the trim spear on the rear fender and the stainless trim around the windows. Town Sedan has the "regular" opening rear doors vs. suicide. I'd look forward to following your project, I know a few folks that have done body swaps onto a Dakota chassis with other brands, but so far not a Dodge, much less a D24.
  18. My Plymouth service manual calls for one inch below filler neck for coolant level from 1946 through 1954. When we lived in west Texas, our D24 regularly puked coolant after a drive, (never during), apparently a common enough malady. The coolant isn't being cooled by the car running / driving anymore and expands beyond the system's ability to contain it. My radiator was restricted a bit by damage repair, which probably didn't help much. Pep Boys had an off-the-shelf coolant catcher kit, I don't remember the brand. It wasn't very sexy looking, but it worked. I've since seen aftermarket stuff that doesn't look like it was cobbled together under a shade tree. I attached the reservoir on the passenger side, on the filler panel between the radiator support and the inner fender, trimmed the overflow tube, which runs along rear passenger side of the radiator, and attached the hose provided by the kit. Radiator still overflowed, but it was now contained. My concern was primarily with domestic critters, too. As the coolant cooled, it would get sucked back into the system. I removed the overflow tank when we installed the "new" radiator this spring, as the cooling system hasn't overflowed since we moved out of the southwest. As a side note to this, if you'uns are OCD level keen on originality, cutting an original overflow tube is not a good idea. The original tubes were not formed like modern tubes, they were actually made akin to how stovepipe is. New tubes made a la original are not available. Of course, that's one of those things someone who is really OCD, (or an antique auto radiator guru - which is how I discovered that pearl of wisdom), would notice.
  19. I had an '87 S-10 Blazer with the same tranny and hydraulic clutch set up. Same issue once, too. Something may have gone awry with the hydraulic clutch release, the doo-dad on the tranny, not the reservoir. Same basic issues as with a brake system. I'd think squealing would be the throw-out bearing initially, too, but the truck kind of wanting to move and squealing with the clutch disengaged to me means it is not fully released and the squealing is the clutch slipping just enough to make noise and move the truck a little. So, the release cylinder may be jammed. (My event is going on 25 years ago, and I haven't had a Chevy since, so my vernacular may be off.) I'd check that first before dropping the tranny.
  20. I have a fuel pump with the integral glass bowl sediment filter. But, I also had problems in the past with contaminates from the fuel pump itself making their way to the carburetor. (Probably detritus from the manufacturing process.) I had a filter installed between the pump and carburetor, initially a plastic one, but I installed a new fuel line and metal filter a few years ago. Both were just a simple splicing of the fuel filter and rubber hose onto the line. I've always been a tad nervous about the heat in that part of the engine bay, but no issues with it thus far, but I live in a milder climate than a lot of you'uns. I like the look of the glass bowl filters and will be installing one on the carb with a new fuel line later this year.
  21. No neighbors with their own 2-cycle generators, or gas trimmers and such? If you can burn other additives (i.e., Seafoam, MMO, etc.) you can burn a little 2-cycle gas. I'm thinking it may run afoul of uber modern emissions systems, but it certainly won't hurt older vehicles without complicated (or any) emissions systems. May even help 'em out a bit.
  22. I think the point is missed slightly with "fluid drive", I don't remember when fluid drive became an automatic, but the earlier ones front a regular manual transmission and require a retarded throttle return / dashpot so the engine doesn't return to idle too quickly and kill the car when operating it without using the clutch. When I read fluid drive, I'm thinking what our D24 has, a fluid coupling between the engine and transmission, not a transmission. There are no solenoids, switches, etc. in the earlier fluid drives. Not the Dodges, anyway. I imagine EFI can be tuned (if "tuneable") to accommodate that, but it would have to be engineered to do so in the first place(?)
  23. A master cylinder's amount of brake fluid leaking from a wheel cylinder in four miles would be readily visible from outside the drum. Once stopped, you would see fluid coming from the bottom between the drum and backing plate. The drum would not hold the fluid once stopped. The wheel cylinder boots can't hold that much fluid without leaking, either. So, you probably have a leak somewhere else. If there is a pin hole in one of the lines, it may not be readily apparent if the leak is pointing away from any surface where it would show. Before disassembling anything, I would echo cleaning off the brake system, filling the master, and having a helper push the pedal while you observe all the lines and connections. If it is a small leak, it may be helpful to hold a light from behind what you are looking at so you can see any fine mist. Holding a sheet of paper near connections and suspected leaks may help reveal leaks, too.
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