Lou Earle

I had bought my taxi 48 4 d00r as a partial wreck and thought the engine was shot- then discovered the engine seems very good( except for something laying in the bottom of the oil pan? honest to god I think it is a screwdriver- can just feel it with my little finger) but it was leaking oil - 6to 8 ozs and hour- from the front seal? wrong. I replaced the starter and while there checked the bolts holding on the timing chain cover- You know it will really reduce the oil leak if you tighten the bolts!! Right now it appears the oil leak stopped. Now to getting whatever out of the oil pan! So I removed the head from a junk car I bought - only twisted off one head bolt - yes bolt- that among other thing made me think I might have a rebuilt engine on my hands- well it is- pistons 40 over tight-- very smooth walls no top ring - just a little black soot getting ready to become a ring valves seem to work great no scoured walls or piston wobble. I am 90 percent certain I have lucked into a newly rebuilt engine. Sometimes even a blind hog finds a root !!! The heat temp Gage bulb even came out in tact and works. So really a good week. While I have the head off anyone got any suggestions on what else I can check visually or otherwise? Lou

I am going to be removing head on my 48 parts car to get the plugs out- Anyoine ever use inpact wrench on the botlts or studs? any danger? Lou

fords until 48 and 34 plym

But have a Son who drives it and thinks he is! BEsides I stayed at a ___ Inn last night! TAxi- Hey - You talkin to me???"

I just got tired of the box door always being openand I had the old door or spare door. Lou

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Looks to me like a good body man with a little 400 grit sandpaper and a buffer could have that done in just a few hours. Um maybe that is why many tell me my cars still have plenty of room for improvement. I admire your courage in tackling that job.

To my knowledge motors will work either way . I run a 6 volt heater in my 48 ford it was pos ground but it - the car is now 12 v and I run the pos thru a reducer. The radio will not work. Also the 6 volt pos ground generator does not adapt thru the regulator. I imagine no problems except radio Lou

Had an old sun pro small tach and I had just installed the converter and radio in the 48 cab - used drive in speakers with new 4 inch speakers inside the old casing. It works great. Speakers are on floor near seat and can move them to back if I want but fine where they are. Might put 2 more on to see how it does/ Well anyway I hooked up the sun pro as follows- white and red ( light and hot) to the hot lead coming out of the converter grounded the black and attached the green to the coil. It works!! However it has a lot of variance ( needle movement) now but not sure if that is from the way it is hooked up or from having to attach the green to the pos side of the coil. Anyway it is rather neat I think. Will tidy up the installation when I re do the dash. The glove door was from my old scrap/parts car. I will be donating a lot in the near future Lou http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/redpen42/MVC-004S-3.jpg

I removed the 3 screw on the T in your picture- went under the car and cut the wire and pulled out fron top but wait!!!- tape a piece of string to the cut wire and pull it thru as u remove the old wire. Then re do wire any way you want - you can see it is just wire soldered to the T. Then when doen attach the new wire to the string and pull it thru. I ran a threaded rod thru the wheel itself and ran fender washers and nuts onto it so I had a handle to word with when I painted my 48 dodge wheel. Lou

Given the advances in lubrication technology and not many dirt roads traveled now( YES Tim Don and the Ga gang- my road is now paved!! Now you can get gravel chips in your new paint job!!!) what are some of you doing about greasing the front end and brake/clutch pedal, kingpins, bearings etc. And what about frequency of oil changes? I am figuring on greasing about every 2500 miles and oil changes at 3000 to 3300. Using 15 40 or 20 50 if I can get it Lou

Get an old sheet and cut some strips about 8 to 10 inches wide. Have them sewn onto the tabs and then slit the sheet at the bolts. Then you will have something to grab and pull the welting tightly into the seam. Then cut off the sheet. I did this on a A model and it worked great - cut my install time in 1/2 and had no bulges or waves Lou

Looks to me like just move the radiator forward, fabricate a couple of rear mounts and that baby will be ready to drop in.

I have one of these and was wondering how well they work? anyone have any experience with them? Also what is the wiring on them - to solenoid? Lou

They were soaking in Pb blaster- but so much rust on plug cannot even get good grip without the plug just collapsing Lou

Will the drive shafts from dodge 46-48 interchange with 46-48 plym? Also if you have the drive shaft balanced - then will it matter how installed? ans what get them out of balance anyway? Lou

This car is restorable but I bought it for parts- So it will prlbably be used for that Anyone needs parts let me know what parts and we can see if we can work something out- As most of you know I ma not inthe business butwould like to recoup some of my cost. Someone wanted a front clip and this one is good Lou

The 48 parts car might turn out to be a lot better- engine turns oil pressure builds up did not see any water l in the oil and antifreeze was present in the water and radiator does not leak . However a few year of sitting with water dripping on plugs has caused them to be disintegrated. They are literally rusted off. Slightest pressure with socket and they twist apart. Anyone got any remedies besides pulling the head and working from there? And if I need to pull head where do I go from there. Also if head is pulled what should I look at in the pistons etc- won't they be marked like 30 over etc. If valves are sticking do what? Lou

Do not know if true but when I told him the number- nfpm 847 the counter man at napa here (He is very good) knew that number immediately- said he orders them a lot for industry here- they also fit continental engines and are still in production and that carter makes them now for napa. Cost about 50. He checked warehouses all over se and found ALL had from one to 5 in stock. Naturally i ordered 2- aint gonna get caught in that bind again for a while!! Lou

I asm noticing a steady oil drip inthe front of engine- the didstick is different- is it possible I am puttiong 2 much oil in and it is dripping out the front when running? or what? can this be a pan gasket issue or a crank seal issue that can be solved in the car? Lou

Fuel pump on the taxi is squirting a bit of fuel out the side - anyone know where to get a rebuild kit(how hard is it to rebuild?) or buy one Napa does ont list it online- kit or actual pump

How do you test dwell on 6 v pos grand? I was thinking of hooking the tester to a 12 v battery and then test - Will that work? Or what about installing a 12 v battery just to test dwell - not turning anything on? Lou

Once again- Wendell to the rescue- Carbs seldom run rich. I have many times swore the carb was running to much gas to cyl but wrong. Invariably I discovered the timing was off. Sooted or fouled plugs Are caused by the timing. If it fire to early the plugs will be rather wet and sooted and if firing to late the plugs will be sooty and dry- Have I got that right? I clean them with a wire wheel and they seem to do OK after I get timing right. If u are sure timing is right and still foul out I would look at vac and mech. advance before I touched the carb. Lou

can you set the dwell by just turning the ignition with the dist cap off? I would like tto try this to set points I thought you could onlu determine dwell with the engine running let me know how to do it Lou

I learned how to set points on an A model Ford and this is a slight adaptation of that procedure that has worked very well for me on ALL point ignitions from 49 caddy to 34 Plymouth. 1- trace the #1 plug wire to see where it is on dist and make a WRITTEN note - like at 6 O'Clock or 2 O'Clock- the common places. 2- either remove the plugs or have a remote starter button attached to the solenoid so you can bump the starter to tdc. 3- Remove the dist cap- but not distributor -and then turn the motor by hand or by the starter button to where it sits on tdc at the pointer .Or whatever point is the set point( some are 3 degrees or so before or after). The rotor button should be pointing at the #1 spark plug wire area- if not your one rotation of engine and 1/2 rotation of dist off - . If your at the set point with he pointer on the dampener then note the location of the end of the rotor button. 4- remove the dist at this point and bench set the points to 20 or the proper setting- I don't believe anyone can really set points accurately in the car - Lord I have tried !! 5- re-install the distributor so the rotor is pointing to where it was when removed and not 180 off!! As I have often done!! 6-Now take your test light and attach a jumper wire with alligator clips at both ends to the point of the test light . 7 make sure-test- the test light on the battery to make sure there is current flowing from the alligator clip on the point to the test light 8 So now you have 2 alligator clips on test light one original and one you added to the point via jumper wire- attach one to the side of the distributor(ground) and one to the moving point side of the points - hot-.and turn on ignition . 9 -rotate the dist until light is off. Then rotate - slowly- until light turns on then back to off and very slowly back to on- just when light turns on is the place. Lock her down and fire her up. When the light comes on-that is the point where the spark jumps the points and causes ignition. Hope this helps Lou