keithb7

Nice splitter Worden! I sure miss wood heat. I had a wood stove in the basement of an earlier home. We lived farther north here in Canada where -40 F or Cel, was not uncommon. There was lots of birch, pine, spruce and fir readily available for free. You jsut had to work your butt off to get it home. I was 15 years younger and could swing a maul like nobody's business. I kept about 4 chords of wood ready by easter for the upcoming fall. My wife and our two young boys would head out to the bush for a load together, often. Our house was so perfectly cozy and warm. We wore shorts and t-shirts all winter in the house. My Dad would come visit and say "Holy crap son, are you making anchors in the basement?" The only thing maybe better was the sweet smell of the seasoned wood burning. The air dead still and crisp. At dawn or dusk at -40 degrees when I was outside shovelling snow. Mmm. I can smell it now. I miss those days. Today I live in a town where wood burning appliances are banned. No new homes can be built with a wood fireplace, or stove. Older homes cannot install a wood stove. So now I get fat and lazy and pay a $200 gas bill during the cold months.

On another note I’ve got a line on a used set of 4 factory option wire chrome wheels. I hope to pick them up next Saturday. I’ll round up some tubes and get the tires swapped over. I am a little excited to get these. They are beautiful n my opinion. Looking forward to getting them on my Windsor.

And then it happened. Fall showed up. The sun was out this afternoon. I dropped everything to get out and enjoy my car. The crusing days left in 2018 are dwindling. We can’t waste them.

My plan is to change the fuel filer and the lift pump together. Just waining for the new pump to arrive. Then I will take a new base-line test.

I ordered a test gauge to check lift pump pressure. It is within spec. Minimum pressure at full load up hill was 8 psi. Minimum spec is 5 psi. I I ordered a new spare fuel lift pump. I will likely change it pro-actively soon. I do know the pump in my truck now was installed new in 2011. I will install a permanent fuel pressure gauge eventually. Until then, I will test fuel lift pump pressure every 3-4 months or so and monitor my records. I'll keep the one I pull as a spare. I have been doing lots of research. Thanks again for the tips.

@sser2 PM-ing you. Thanks. Keith

Thank you @sser2. I will try and find a matched pair of 6AQ5 tubes. My tube tester is thermionic type. The two 6AQ5 tubes and the 6X4 rectifier tube show up as pretty weak. As you said, the tubes are cheap, I will order new ones. I do see a solid state 6V + ground replacement vibrator is available for $30 US.

Great news! The schematic is still in place. I will tag radio info here so it will come up in future internet searches. Maybe someday someone will be looking for same info. Philco Models P-5206 D-5207 C-5209 Power Unit and Speaker chassis. Schematic part number 78-0894. 1953 Chrysler Windsor Deluxe. Detroit built. I'm off to refresh my memory on what the vibrator actually dues. It's the biggest metal cylinder can seen in the chassis shot above with the tubes visible. On the schematic it's shown as some sort of coil. Very bottom left of the schematic image here:

I agree with you on that Dodgeb4tya. Orange ground wire off speaker is new. Under those tubes is where the brains of this hi-fi system is. Remove three screws, flip it over and you get full access. The circuit appears 100% original from what I can tell. I will start by testing the tubes in my tube tester and see if the problem is as simple as a bad one. While I am this far in I will consider ordering new coupling caps as these are 68 years old. The muti-section cap-can too. These electrolytic caps are prone to drying up and failing. They were not intended to be still around in 2018 lol. Many figured we'd be commuting in flying cars by now. Looking at the lack of a circuit board, the assemblers of this power amplifier did a great job back in 1953. Tight space and they made good use of it. I'll measure all resistors to see if they are in spec and replace any that are not. More to come as I progress.

Thanks Thomba48. The power unit was easy enough to get out. I did have to remove a heater blower motor down there that impeded removal. Here are a few pics for those interested.

In the past 10 years or so I have bought countless items that I found on Craigslist. I have also sold equally as much. I can't complain. I am trying to recall a bad experience. I can't think of one. I must add that I even found used hard to find stuff on Craigslist in Denver, Nova Scotia, Dallas...All over the place. I live in Western Canada. I contact the seller and I can tell in a few emails if they are reputable. I have totally exposed myself and sent money orders to far away places. A few weeks later my purchase shows up. I don't recommend this, but if you know your stuff, and you converse with the seller, you can quickly tell exactly what type of seller you are dealing with. Two times in my life I got scammed while buying on-line. Both times were E-bay sellers. I have saved so much money buying used stuff on Craigslist, it's been awesome.

My stock tube AM radio quietly died one day last fall. I never got around to pulling it to check it over. It's about time I did. I have some tube amp experience and testing equipment. I think I can fix this once I get it out. I have an old tube tester as well. I suspect a dried up old capacitor or maybe a bad tube. I have a 1953 parts manual as well. No drawings in it. In my 1953 shop manual I see some info on removing the radio and speaker power unit. Looking up under there with a flash light I see a few things. The radio is separate from the speaker/power supply? There seems to be tubes and cap-cans behind the speaker. You can see the radio in my pics here, then the clock beside it, then the speaker to the right of the clock. There is what I think is the power unit with tubes, behind the speaker. I see in the parts book they may call this a "shelf panel". Part number 150389, oval type speaker. Can anyone confirm if there are more additional tubes and caps inside the radio housing? I am wondering if I may have to pull the speaker shelf panel in addition to the radio unit to check over the circuit power supply. Or maybe I just pull the shelf panel and test everything there. I suppose I'll start there and see what develops. I have never taken this part of the dash apart. I'll go with the service manual instructions and see how things progress. Any tips/experience appreciated. First time going in this for me. Thanks, Keith.

Valvetrain is very intersting to me. Clearances can and do effect so much. Those teeny clearances will set the ampunt of time that the valves stay closed, in their seats. When valves are in their seats they transfer heat to the block into the coolant. Those exhaust valves get very hot and need to to be cooled. Yes that micro-second that they are closed allows them to cool. As a valve wears, it pounds into the seat. It digs in and settles deeper into the seat in the head (or block in this case). As it sinks deeper over time, valve clearances at the tappets get tighter and tighter. As clearances get tighter, the valve is forced off its cooling seat sooner, and settles back down into the seat later. Due to riding the cam lobe ramps. Now the total time that it can cool becomes shorter and shorter. The valves can’t cool enough and eventually you get... A cooked valve. Baked red hot so the metal can start to break down. Then you have pieces of valve missing. So no seal. Which equals no compression. In additon to this wonderful phenomen, as the valves wear deeper into their seats, the contact surface becomes thinner and thinner. The cut angle of the valve, in relation to the seat gets out of whack. The valve sealing properties become compromised. No seal = low compression. The conditions that the valves must work in are intense. Hi temps. Combustion pressure. Aweful toxic gasses that leave residue and corrosion. Best practice is to stay on top of your valve maintenance. Proper clearance is important. Its no small feat that man was able to engineer and design this basic valvetrain system that we still use today. Well, well over 100 years old. Best of luck with whatever you find. Let us know!

When was the last time the valves seats were checked? Did you try a wet compression test to confirm? Rear generally runs the hottest. Furthest away from the water pump. Least cooling available. Last time valves were properly set? Oldmopar.com has NOS head gaskets.

I must really be getting old as I have never heard of all these car type TV shows mentioned here. I gave up on TV about 6-7 years ago. I actually find it insulting to the average person's intelligence. I get frustrated and shut it off. The constant barrage of commercials and marketing hype drives me nuts. News? Crap. They skim the highs and rarely follow up with what actually happened. Nor later when the truth was revealed. That's all boring stuff it seems. On to more "oil in the fire" type news! I think the last so called "reality show" I watched was Survivor Australia. When was that 2001? My wife and I were wound up in it. I was 30 then. Maybe it appeals to young people? Yes I suppose these reality shows do. They must appeal to someone. I don't get it but whatever. We used to have, and pay for all the shows and channels that rarely we ever had time to watch. So in Dec 2017 we cut off all paid TV subscriptions. Today we just have internet. We watch some Netflix movies when we have time. Maybe 1 movie every two weeks or so. Less in the summer. So now I have no idea what is "in style" or insanely popular. Not a clue. I pay $10 a month for Spotify and get all the music I can handle, commercial free. I have no clue what the biggest song hits are all over the world until usually 6-10 months after they peaked I estimate. I laughed when we were in Mexico with friends last Feb. A song came on some speakers somewhere. We could hear it over game of cards and drinks, we were enjoying at our resort. My friends started singing along and I could tell they were quite enjoying the song. I was kind of surprised because to me it just sounded like local Mexico radio. A song in Spanish language with their signature beat. My friends laughed at me when I asked how they knew this song. "It's Desposito" they raved. "Never heard of it", I said. They were shocked. I retorted, "Where am I supposed to hear this?" They said "its playing everywhere! Check out You Tube." I did and saw about 30 million plays. I laughed to myself and thought, "It's working!" I am systematically removing myself from mass marketing pop culture. I don't listen to radio stations. I don't have cable TV. I can't remember the last time I read and comprehended an advertisement on the internet. I have no problem blocking internet ads it seems. I do with my time, what interests me. Not what "everyone else" is doing. It just so happens I love flat head 6 Mopar vintage cars and trucks. It seems "pop culture" has little interest in old Mopars. Fine with me. This web site provides me with entertainment that I want to see, and can control. I do not at all miss TV. Superbowl? Stanley cup? Nascar? World Series? Enjoy as you please. It seems I have little time or interest for any of it. I'm not quite sure why or how I got this way...Crotchety I guess. LOL.

Hooray! You made it through the pass. Some great scenery around the Lillooet area. Congrats. Thanks for sharing the phots. I still can’t believe you travel like this. You guys are rugged!

All done.

@JerseyHarold it is a finer coat of box-liner type spray. It has been applied in several areas including along the front of the hood and fenders. All the way along the sides of the body of the cab and box too, the bottom 1/4 of the panels. It is also in the door jams where shoe scrapes and mud end up, as well as all along the bottom of the doors where prone to rust. On the top of the roof from the edge of the windshield back about 8" as well. This is where all the rock chips end up from our sanded (gravel) snowy winter roads. The spray coating has been painted over with the body paint. It is the same color but sill not be shiny of course. Seen here:

Good to know thanks. I will get under the front end and have a look at my block casting. I appreciate the tip on the fuel pressure gauge and will put one in. Should have the truck home from the bodyshop soon.

Error. Double post.

Recently a friend and I were BS-ing over my Chrysler with the hood up, engine running. He said "Holy crap. Smooth." He suggested we put a glass of water on it at idle. We did. https://youtu.be/lSAAVPNhEfg

I have had a few people ask me that same question @classiccarjack, unfortunately I don't know the answer. Up to this point, I enjoy cruising in my car so much, I pay absolutely no attention to the fuel economy. We tour family and friends around and have a great time. Every single time I take the car out, I stop by a gas station and put in anywhere from $10 to $20 to keep it topped up. Above the 1/4 mark, which as mentioned above is actually empty. To me my car is truly is a pleasure vehicle in the purest sense. I have little concern about the operating costs as it brings me so much joy. Not knowing the fuel burn rate feels kinda good really. As funny as that sounds, ignorance is bliss in this example. If I had to guess. I might be inclined to say about 12-14 mpg? Maybe? Total guess. Maybe I should figure it out? Out if interest?

The earlier fuel issue I had, I actually ran out of fuel. Fuel gage read ¼, yet the tank was empty. Not a big deal. I just keep the tank over ¼ now. Has not been an issues since that one time. We live, we learn. All the little intricacies about my old car, I am getting them figured out. I think I am at about 1200 miles driven so far this year in my Chrysler.

Thanks. I’m not so sure I have a fuel problem. The one day I drove up a steep hill in about 87 F or so ambient temps, Maybe I did. I was in low gear, throttle Is between 3/4 to full open. About 5 mins up steep winding incline. Maintaining about 30 Mph top speed. I reach the top of the hill. My neighbor flags me down. I stop. Shut off the engine and we chat for about 10 mins. Likely My hot block percolated the fuel in the adjacent fuel line. No start. No how. Once engine and fuel line cooled down all was good again. Thise exact conditions have not occured again. Our warm August temps have turned a corner. Its cooler here now up in Canada. I have not done anything about another possible future vapor lock. I have driven the car and same hill many times since that day. Trouble free. This winter during hibernation, I may install a 6V in line electric fuel pump with a momentary toggle switch. We’ll see.