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I was really hoping to have this all finished by Q time, but I don't think it's in the cards. Gotta take a few nights to finish off the taxes....stupid taxes Driver side is giving me a few isues getting it all lined up happy with the passenger side. Even a vaunted template failed me and I'm down to itterative pivot placement. I'm close, but not quite yet. 34100.mp4

3-26: Out running some errands. Stopped at the Bluff Country Co-op for some goat milk and a few other things. Man I tell ya it felt good to drive the Meadowbrook. What a cool car! Got some strange stares as not many people around here drive a rusty early 50s car. Actually, I think I'm the only one! ?

The step down converters won't charge your battery. As mentioned, go the 6v alternator or the complete conversion to 12v.

I would skip the Mickey Mouse approach and install a 6v alternator. When/if you decide to move to 12v you can sell the 6v alternator to someone on the forum who has gotten disgusted with trying to get their generator/regulator to work.

Hello everyone. I'm dropping in to say hi and introduce myself. I live in a suburb of Tulsa, OK and have a 1947 Plymouth Special Deluxe. I bought the car in April 2022. I've entered it in a couple of car shows so far, but haven't used it too much. I love classic cars & trucks of all sorts, but have to admit, I don't know a whole lot about them. I'm always learning, though. It is just hard to remember it all. I have a few friends that are walking encyclopedias on cars and it baffles me how they retain all of that information. Anyway... as for the car itself, to my knowledge I'm the 3rd owner at minimum. The gentleman I bought it from only had it 2 years. The PO before him had the car redone, but I'm not sure how long he owned it. I had the generator rebuilt last summer. I need to replace one of the rear door windows as the previous owner cracked it. I just had a blowout on one of my front tires and have some replacements that I need to get installed. I added seat belts to the rear seat, as we have 3 kids that want to ride along and they still require car seats. From what I was told, this car is "original" with a repaint. To be honest, I don't know if it is, or not. I was told it has the original motor/transmission. Interior is supposed to be original, but I'm pretty certain is was all redone. It has the tube radio in it, but I haven't been able to get it to work. The previous owner said he got it to come on, once. All of the lights work, heater works, defrost works, even the hood light functions. The kids are the main reason we got this beautiful car. We have 2 trucks ('71 C10 and a '73 F100), but we can't all ride in the trucks as a family. So, the search began for a "family car". I ran across the ad for this car and pulled the trigger on it. I've searched around on this site a few times for info, and decided to join in order to learn more. I like to be active on forums, so feel free to ask me any questions and I'll do my best to answer, or I'll probably be asking questions.

chevys are neg ground. Interesting 'cause GMCs of the same year were +. Both General Motors products!

Were chebby ever + ground? I've heard stories that while the normal for the day was + ground, most makers were using it ... chevrolet refused to use it. Then by 55 when Chevrolet came out with the 265 V8 they were the top car sellers of the day .... everybody else just fell in line and went - ground also ..... Is it true? If the pulley is narrow, you can use a narrow belt. Fits the generator fine & does work on the other wider pulleys, just sits deeper. Not as sexy as the big wide belt .... works. I destroyed a old generator trying to get the pulley off years ago ... obviously I did not have the right puller or knowledge.

May also need to change the voltage regulator to match that Chev. gen.

That is my default solution. I just dont want to buy something I know I am going to replace in the future. Lacking a good alternative Your plan is the one I am going with.

No worky

Well I really need this like a hole in the head, or as little Johnny McCormick at Wright Tree Service used to say, if you had half a brain that be all you'd have! But for $1,000 a running truck with a fairly good set of grill bars hood ornament and bumper guards couldn't turn it down. Just an 8-hour road trip up to Wyoming. Upon further inspection I noticed it has the hard to find dual horns, interior light I don't know what else I'll find when I get home. Attached is the Facebook ads and some pictures. 1948 B-1-D DUALLY.pdf

YES! Moving to FL, could not take it, going to scrap in another week or so, OH HELL NO!

The cat nonchalantly coming out from behind the tire is hilarious!

Well, hello fellow Okie! I'm originally from Skiatook, but currently live in Owasso. I usually put Tulsa down as my location, as it's more easily known/easy to find for forum members. My wife, and her family, is from Tulsa. My family is still in Skiatook. Owasso was a nice middle ground for us.

I know this is a little OT, but I swear it's all for the truck! I finished up 95% of the concrete prep over the weekend and I was able to get the permanent lighting in Friday night after work with some guys from work. I'm just running the building with my generator until I get the power feed ran from my other garage. I'm really hoping to pour it Saturday pending I can get concrete. It's a little early in the season around here for any concrete plants to be running on a Saturday. Every ounce of my free time has gone into this the past 3 weeks. I'll be happy when it's poured and I can relax a little.

Don't set the radiator cap on top of the radiator while the engine is running! When it falls off into the fan, damages a couple of fan blades, the fan disintegrates due to imbalance and distributes shrapnel around the shop......you will have a memorable day. Engine sounds good--might be due to the video audio but sounds like it is idling kinda fast.

From FB

Rock Auto offers manuals and parts books in either hard copy or CD: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=10593924&cc=1486874&pt=10335&jsn=377 https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=14711425&cc=1486874&pt=10335&jsn=381

From Dodge PilotHouse Era Truck Club on FB, At Bonneville

My 1953 Canadian Plymouth Belvedere (25” engine, 228 CID) has just over 102,000 miles. It is the original engine with very little work done. In 1977, at 72,000+ miles, I did replace a burnt valve with a good used one and all valves were lapped. As it was kind of apart, I did put new rings in after honing the cylinders. Bearings were plastigauged and were within factory specs so therefore reinstalled. 30,000 miles later the engine still runs great and uses virtually no oil. Serviced and maintained regularly. It just goes to show these old Mopar flatheads run a long time if treated reasonably. So, original pistons, bearings, valves, etc. Only new non-original parts are rings, one valve, and head gasket. P.S. - Paint is original too.

#6 will be firing at TDC ( both valves fully closed) when the timing dots are aligned directly opposing each other. NOT #1 cylinder.

When you have the marks properly aligned where does the distributor point and are the crank and valves properly timed?. If I recall correctly, the distributor location is a function of how the oil pump is installed. It sounds to me like the oil pump and distributor need to be retimed.

Many have mentioned that, with radials, wheel covers tend to "walk". There are ways to prevent this, including a metal valve stem vs rubber. But, just the fact that they walk shows that those wheels are seeing different forces than they were designed for.

Got it fixed. Like I say had power going in and none coming out. Both resistors showed continuity through them. With nothing to lose pried it apart. The inside of it looked clean but the continuity was lost between the contacts. I took emory cloth to them, polished them up and all was good again. Pretty basic stuff. Thanks

The small hole is the bypass, do not enlarge it. No thermostat, RTV, etc tells me someone had a cooling issue before you. Have the radiator flow tested, you can use the FSM method if need be. Bet it's plugged up. My 51 can idle all day long in 100+ degree heat and not have an issue. Even before the electric fan conversion.

As my little avatar attests, I have been involved with setting up the P15 Picnic over the past few editions. One of the covenants of these gatherings is the phrase, " No Plymouths left behind " Meaning we never leave a participant behind due to a breakdown. Over the last few years, the hard luck trophy has been awarded for Fuel system, blocked pick up in tank Charging system, fouled Voltage Regulator points Broken tail pipe hanger The fuel system required a call for a trailer. There was another failure that required a trailer rescue on the trip home due to a noisy rear end . But all who started got home. So over the course of seven or eight years with around 300 miles of tour driving plus miles to and from the event, let's call it 600 to 700 per car times 10 cars, adds up to considerable reliability with very little in the way of mechanical down time. Over the course of our regular driving and long distance events,in just over 50,000, our P15, has blown a headlight fuse, spit a fan belt, and needed a fuel filter swap due to a split seam leak on metal in line filter. Compared to my daily driver. which now gets about the same miles as the Plymouth it has needed Brakes, transmission cooler lines, valve cover and intake manifold gaskets, exhaust, set of tires, radiator and hoses, horns, timing chain, O2 sensors, front struts, u joints, and two recalls.

My personal thoughts on whitewall or black wall tires: In 1938 the Chrysler was a fairly premium model. People who were pretty well-off was likely the target buyer. The bank manager might be an example. I like to think they would probably be more inclined to pay a premium for whitewalls. The Plymouth was the low price entry level model in the Mopar line up. The shoe salesman might have been more likely to buy one. Less bling. Fewer features. I tend to believe they would be less likely to pay extra for whitewall tires. This is why I have equipped my cars as such.

That box is indeed the horn relay. That one unsecured wire connector, from the near horn, we can see should be attached to the one lead that has nothing attached, that we can also see. Looking at the relay directly it'd be the upper left one. As harmony notes, there may be a reason it is/was taken off that may need to be chased down. Keep in mind there is no power to the horn circuit on these cars when the ignition is turned off. Spitballing here, but that bare section of wire at the horn end may provide a clue, perhaps grounding on the horn, so the/a PO just unhooked it rather than fix it. Part of the clue also being that only the one horn wire looks to be unhooked. The power to the horn circuit goes through the ammeter, so maybe either the horn was sounding or the ammeter wasn't working right due to that ground / short.

She's been well loved for sure. Ownership, care and maintenance is a major factor. Lots of people across the past 100 years have, and still do ,treat their car as just another tool. They'll defer costs and drive the wheels off it. Any hint of downtime, go get a new one. Many just do the bare minimum until something starts acting up. Preventative maintenance is unknown to many. I like the saying that many people treat their cars just like their fridge. You just buy one and use it until it breaks. Then buy another. In many instances its as true today as it ever was.

20230324_125731-small.mp4

It's quite possible,,,, however,,,, It's best to try and follow the wires on the car and compare them to the wiring diagram. One thing to keep in mind. That slot screw on the relay actually doesn't look loose. Also the forked style terminal end on that wire is the type that makes a bend at the end of the two prongs. This means the terminal screw where it mounts to has to be really loose for it to simply fall off. What I'm getting at is if that wire is supposed to be connected to the terminal on the horn relay, it looks to me like it was deliberately taken off. So if you're any good with a multi-meter, I'd snoop around a little bit. Maybe it kept blowing fuses, or maybe something started to smoke, or maybe it was grounding out somewhere. I'd check around a bit before I hooked it up to what looks like a simple solution.

VINTAGEPIC: another Route Van spotted on the FB

I will add that my engine had a overheating problem .... went straight to overheat. I will add that my water distribution tube was plugged with hard water deposits. Once I cleared it & flushed out the block, it would not warm up with no T-stat. With a 180 T-stat installed, it would warm up & maintain steady temps for long periods of time. I also pulled all the soft plugs & replaced them while working on it .... flushing the block at same time.

Dodge PilotHouse Era Truck Club

VINTAGEPIC: another Route Van spotted on the FB

24/7 yo VINTAGEPIC: Route Van spotted on the FB