Oldguy48

Just saw that drawing in a "Reminisce" magazine that a friend had. That is a great magazine; one that many of the forum members would enjoy, I'm sure !! Kind of takes you back to the way things were "back then", and revives some forgotten memories.

About a half-pint of gasoline worked for me...Don't light it !! Just pour it in after dark when they're all back in the nest. Should be the end of the problem. I guess the fumes do them in.

Hi Rodney, Sorry, but I failed to mention, that if you are measuring current (amps), depending on the multimeter, you may have to insert the test leads into different jacks. That should be explained in the user manual. :)

Hi Rodney, To take a resistance reading (ohms), set the multimeter to the Ω setting. You'll probably see an indication in the display of O.L. If you touch the two test leads together, the display should change to 0.0 or some other very low value. This proves that the multimeter is functioning, and that the test leads are OK. Now you are ready to take a resistance reading. If you are checking a coil, testing between the + and - terminals should result in a very low resistance reading. Perhaps just a few ohms. If you check from the high voltage connection to ground, the resistance will be much higher. Not sure what a normal reading would be, but expect it to be at least a few hundred ohms or more. Be careful here...when you test across the + and - terminals, you are causing a slight amount of current to flow through the primary winding of the coil, which builds up a magnetic field within the coil. When you disconnect the test leads, that magnetic field collapses. That causes a momentary high voltage across the secondary of the coil. Probably not enough to worry about, but it may get your attention if you get zapped !! As far as taking voltage measurements on the car, you'll be looking at the DC range...may be marked as a symbol with a dashed line/solid line on the switch (sorry, but I can't recreate the symbol here). Anyway the multimeter is probably autoranging, meaning that it will settle in on the correct range, and give you a direct readout of the measured voltage. If you connect the test leads backwards, (like black to +, and red to -), you'll see a minus sign in front of the digits on the readout. That's OK, and doesn't change the real numbers on the display. If you need to take current readings with the multimeter, set the switch to the "ADC" or Amperes-DC range, and insert the multimeter leads in series with the circuit you are measuring. Again, polarity won't be a concern. If you see a - sign in front of the numbers on the display, just reverse the test leads. Just be careful here...most multimeters have a maximum current range of 10 amps or less. If you exceed that, you'll probably pop a fuse within the meter, and the current function will be inoperative. Hope this helps:)

Sorry to hear about the broken ankle, Charlie. Hope you have a speedy recovery. The cast can be a real pain in the butt. Was in the same boat about 2 years ago with some foot surgery. Might want to consider the rental of a mobility scooter. Got me out of the house, into the fresh air numerous times, and did a lot to keep my mind off the $#@%&* cast on my foot !!

This may or may not be related to your problem, but I had a 57 Dodge pick-up clunker with the flathead in it, & one day it make a heck of a clatter. Turned out to be the bolts holding the flywheel to the crankshaft. Pulled things apart, and discovered the loose bolts. After tightening them, the problem disappeared.

My P15 now has a master cylinder/pedal assembly rescued from a 1976 Valiant. It's a manual brake unit, and I'm installing a front disc conversion from OldDaddy. Lots more to do to get it all installed, but looks like it should be OK. Had to make some modifications to the pedal assembly to fit it under the dash, and added some reinforcement to the firewall. My only concern is that the M/C doesn't sit level due to the angle of the firewall. I may have to do some rework to make it level. Not sure yet if it's a concern or not.

You can't go wrong using heavier wire. The larger cable will have less resistance, which means less voltage drop. That means you'll have more voltage available at the starter. Welding cable would work fine, although it's generally plain copper. The battery cable designed for marine use is tinned copper, which should be more resistant to corrosion. That's what I got for my P15. Just use good quality connectors, and keep the connections squeaky clean. I would suggest crimp style terminals, if you have access to a proper crimper. You could even solder them after crimping, or just solder if you can't crimp them.

Thanks to all who replied. I'll start trying some of these suggestions, and hopefully get rid of those blasted streaks.

What do you use for glass cleaner? I've tried many different products, but have yet to find one that leaves my windows clean and streak-free. Alcohol-based, ammonia-based, etc. all seem to leave streaks that may not be noticeable at first, but when the light strikes the glass at the right angle, the streaks are apparent. Hopefully, someone has discovered a product/technique that produces clean windows. Help!

Even though the photo links provided by 47Heaven are horrific accidents, and disturbing to look at, I thank him for posting them. To me it serves as a wake-up call to all of us with vintage vehicles, that are lacking many of the safety features that modern cars have. My feeling is that if you can upgrade to features like seat belts, disc brakes, etc. that can at least lessen the likelihood of fatal or serious injury in the event of a crash, why would you choose to not do it?. Maybe the modification isn't exactly original, but I would prefer to upgrade my vehicle with as much safety equipment as possible. My family and myself will be cruising in my P15 when it is completed, and I shudder to imagine that any of us could meet the same fate as those poor souls in those terrible wrecks. My mother rolled a 1952 DeSoto...the driver's door popped open, she was thrown out, and was seriously injured. Only by the Grace of God was she not killed. Seat belts would probably have prevented many of her injuries. I believe that our vintage autos were very well engineered, but safety was not a major consideration at that time. Many safety improvements are available for our cars, and I, for one will try to incorporate as many as I can before any of my family members will ride anywhere in my car.

Just stopped in at Hoffert's salvage yard in Bernville, PA. Hoped to find some pieces & parts for my P15. Was told that there was only one small area where I might find some old Mopars. Only found a couple of Mopars left, and they were 100% rust. Lucky enough to find a complete but pitted horn ring lying on the floor of a 2 door. Spotted one vehicle with a tree of about 16 inch diameter growing out from the engine compartment. It's sad to see these once shiny proud vehicles in such a state of decay, destined for a date with the crusher. It seems like operations there will be curtailed quite a bit, although the lady who runs the place said that a number of vehicles that might be valuable for parts were relocated to another area, and not going to be crushed. Call before stopping by...610-488-1577:(

There is also one located at Tamaqua, Pa, at a restored railroad station. I'll try to get a picture of it when I pass theu there again. Looks pretty good, although I don't know if it's operable or not.

It was not me, but I believe whoever it was should make amends to Robin immediately. Anyone who would deliberately rip off a fellow forum member does not deserve to be a member of this forum. At any rate, if this is not resolved, apparently this rogue member has no conscience.

I just made a trip to Harry's U-Pull-It yesterday. It's a great place. Found a brake pedal assembly / MC to transplant into my P15. Felt like a kid in a candy store with 5 bucks in my pocket !!! :D

Looks great! I may rethink the idea of using wide whites on my P15.

There's a good chance the problem is caused by faulty capacitors in the power supply circuit. The vibrator produces pulsating DC that feeds a transformer. The transformer produces high voltage AC that gets rectified back to DC, then filtered by electrolytic capacitors to produce a ripple free DC voltage. Those capacitors have a tendency to dry out and lose capacitance over time. That DC high voltage is required by the tubes to operate. If the capacitors fail, reduced or no filtering occurs, and a loud hum would be the result. Any good electronics technician should be able to fix that problem, although exact replacement parts might be hard to find, if you're trying to keep the radio exactly original. As long as the correct value of capacitance is restored to the circuit, the problem should disappear, even though the capacitors may not look like the originals.

I agree with you about the Hard Rock & Rap. It's just loud obnoxious noise, designed primarily to annoy us older folks. I guess some people like it, but I can't imagine why. As for me, my radio is set on old Country music. If I'm in the garage working on the old Plymouth, the music is on.

Try checking out McMaster-Carr's website. It's an industrial supply company that has an incredible amount of high quality stuff. It's like the world's biggest hardware store at your fingertips, and you'll probably get your order within two or three days. I've ordered from them several times, and have been very pleased.

That may not be an original color, but it looks perfect on that car. Great choice of colors.

Northeast PA

Spotted an ad in the local newspaper (Bloomsburg, PA) for a "1936 Chrysler Airstream C7" Ad says all original and complete. Not running. Price is $4000 Don't know any more about it, but there's a phone number of 570-387-6549 if anyone has any interest.

I fear this forum is about to lose a member tomorrow. R.I.P.

I purchased mine from PlyDo. Nicely made, but I did not want to weld them directly to the frame, so I fabricated L-shaped brackets out of 10 ga. steel that the mounts were welded to, along with some gussets to beef things up a bit. Then the brackets were bolted in the correct location for the mounts. The project is not completed yet, but I've got an engine block installed on the mounts, and it looks like it's going to work out pretty well. I hope I won't get criticized too much by the forum folks, but my P15 will be Chevy powered. To each his own!

Not sure about the 35s, but I recall an incident with a 69 Dodge van, when my father purchased a new gas cap for it. The new cap was not vented, and the gas tank actually collapsed due to the vacuum created as the gas was consumed. We decided maybe we could pop it back to normal with compressed air down the filler neck! Bad decision! The tank did kinda pop back to normal, but when I tried to relieve the pressure in the tank (I had a rag wrapped around the air hose & stuck in the filler neck), I got a face full of gas right square in the eyes. Spent the next hour or two at the local hospital emergency room. Hopefully someone else can learn from my dumb mistake!!