keithb7

150 Miles of all hi-way driving today. My car performed pretty well. Finally I am developing some seat time at hi-way speeds. Well, higher than town speeds anyway for this old 6 cylinder. My car is definitely most comfortable at about 55 mph. I will go faster but feels like it's labouring a little to hard for my liking. A good mix of 2 lane and four lane driving today with plenty of elevation gains and drops. I did notice that when I pulled off the hi-way the car wound not idle. It would just die. It would start up right away again and run just fine while under throttle. It was having nothing to do with idling. It happened multiple times today and I had lots of time to think it through. One might jump right into the carb thinking the idle circuit needs to be looked at. Or fuel delivery. When you stop and think things through a little sometimes it can be something so simple. The last stall occurred as I pulled up to my garage at home. I got out popped the hood. I thought about the idle screw backing right out maybe. Perhaps it needed adjustment. This what I found: My throttle shaft has walked to the left. See the throttle screw at the bottom? It's supposed to be contacting the cast, carb throttle body. Weird how it moved to the left as shown in the photo. No idle set screw action going on here. Full closure of the throttle valve. I will get in there and see what allowed this to happen and address it. Today's little cruise involved a couple of local friends. One fellow was in his 1955 Ford Crownline. V8 three on tree. The other friend was in is 1995 Jaguar XJS V12. Was great day for a cruise. This was taken from my drivers seat. Jag is in front of me here. Here is my friend's 1955 Ford Crownline. I won't lie, we looked great travelling down the hi-ways together. Similar body styling but his car was a paltry 17 ft or so long. My Chyrsler is about 19 ft long.

Have a read here. I had a few hiccups going through my master cylinder.

I pulled both rear drums off for an inspection last night. About 500 miles on my brakes now since they were done. Plenty of use as I go down the big hill each drive. Looks good. No concerns. I got into the front left brake this morning before the honey-do list was presented. I could hear the occasional squeaking again last night. (From the brakes not my Wife ) I wanted to have another look. I cannot see any reason for concern. I cleaned up all brake dust with a little brake-clean. I made a minor adjustment. All looks good. I'll try and get to the FR drum within a few days to inspect. There is about 1800 miles on the engine since I did the valve grind last June. If I recall number 5 &6 valves were in the worst shape. This morning I blew some air in around the spark plug holes then removed them all. I was pretty happy with what I saw. Maybe I am just used to looking at dark two stroke plugs. All my '53 plugs looked light and respectable to me. This hole #6. It had been a dead hole for a long time previous to me fixing it. After a quick clean up with a wire brush I put them back in.

Real nice warm evening for a walk along the river with some ice cream. We parked downtown and walked to the river for waffle cones. My wife and I. In the driveway. Ready to head in the garage for the night. I am thinking I'll go try another hi-way adventure on Sunday. Test the car again with plenty of fuel in the tank this time. A local store had car covers at 40% off. I got the biggest, longest one they had. For a 19 ft car. Just barely fit. I hate the dust that settles on the car, just from sitting in the garage.

I bought a vintage one, scissor type off Ebay. Worked perfect.

It was on sale. It seems like a reputable company. I had been thinking about trying one out so I made the decision the spot to buy. It turned out well.

I must admit when I bought the D-link DCS-936L wi-fi cam, on sale for $65 I was skeptical. I took it home, plugged it in, downloaded the app. Got it connected to my home wireless home internet. Loaded the app on my iphone and got to tweaking the settings. It works really well. Any movement that is picked up in my garage, I get a notice on my iphone. Instantly. It starts recording clips and saves them on it’s micro SD card. I can flip on the view and see live, whats going on in my garage. Middle of the night, someone decides to come in, ding ding. I’m on my way. Out for dinner? In Mexico? Yup. Call the neighbour. It can be triggered to record from movement or sound. 70% sensitivity yields me no false readings. It also records video and sound. I’m impressed by it. However I’m more impressed at how often my wife is in my tool box helping herself. And putting everything back! Never again will ai think twice about investing more money in tools. They seem to get 10X the use I thought I was giving them. For those savvy enough, I recommend this low priced security cam. The night vision is B&W and offers very good clear images and video in total darkness. 720 dpi camera. I figured likely this cam for the price, would be retuned after a week of false alarms and a glitchy app. Nope. It’s a keeper. My old Chrysler safely at home.

I don’t know. The Chrysler engineers of the time have a pretty darn good reputation. I’d give them the benefit of doubt. The Ny’r and Imperial had shrouds. Bigger rads too. V8 Vs flat 6. Different fan blades. Etc. I doubt they just slammed rads in and rolled the dice till they got it right.

I had ruled out brake booster as I figured the Master Cylinder was down under the floor boards.

Nice. A good upgrade. No red for positive to the block? Someone in future at some point will get it wrong and not understand why. Lol. I have two black cables as well by the way. Lol.

My understanding is when engineers created our old Mopar flat head cars, someone spent some time analyzing and designing a cooling system. They likely would have reviewed fuel burn, engine displacement, heat dissipation exhaust gas volume, and many other factors. Also design and form limitations. Rad size. Core number and Depth. Physical size restrictions based on body design. Material costs. Suppliers. Fan blades. Shroud or not? So many things to consider. I wonder what their base line standards would gave been? A new car tuned up in great health likely. Clean rad of course. At sea level maybe? I am mainly interested in what ambient temperature did they design the cooling system to keep the engine adequately cool? For example if a system were designed to work at 120 F above ambient, if surrounding air reached 92, that totals 212 F. Water boiling point. 120+92=212. If a system were rated to 90 F above ambient, theoretically the surrounding air would reach 122F before water boiling point. 90+122=212. Add a pressurized rad cap for 7 psi, that increases water boil point to 232F. Add glycol, I think boil point raises further. I have just been pondering this as ambient temps rise here in the Northern Hemisphere. My 265 was getting warm climbing up 1000ft over 3 or so miles last weekend. At full throttle she holds about 30 Mph as I wind my way up home. Never over heated yet. I have good flow and a clean rad. My Windsor never had a fan shroud. At lower speed like I am describing I assume a shroud would be beneficial. I see a few drips glycol once I park it at home. Normal expansion I believe. Any Chrysler engineers here? Lol. Should I gather up a shroud?

@Worden18?

Mac or Windows operating system?

Welcome. This is a great spot. You are fortunate to have found it. Please excuse my ignorance but what’s that big assembly in the top left of your firewall? Looks like a vacuum diaphram maybe? For what vacuum wipers?

Here is my pick up screen flopping about after it became unsecured from the tank floor. 1953 Chrysler.

I was at a local vintage car swap meet recently and found some free books. I was very fortunate to have taken home "Automotive Fundamentals" by Frazee & Bedell. A quick flip though, I could tell this was a gem. It was written by a slew of highly experienced and educated professionals from the Automotive Industry. Including a former National Service Manager at Ford. An Airplane Mechanic and Instructor. A Chrysler Engineer and many others. The American Technical Society was involved, as well as long list of household name brand companies who proof read articles. They also submitted many suggestions, authenticated data, and accuracy. A few examples from the long list include Caterpillar, Allis-Chalmers, Harley Davidson, Packard, General Motors, Chrysler, Delco-Remy, Firestone and many more. In the book's Forward it talks about for whom the book was written: " This volume is written for anyone who requires or desires and understanding of how automotive vehicles work and what can or does happen to them. Those who are required to diagnose troubles or those who aspire to self-betterment within the industry will find this volume was written to fulfill their needs. Designing or service engineers will find that the authors have summoned up and arranged the considerations involved in a concise form that presents all the principles of operation for a particular unit together in one place where non can be overlooked" The is a technical book but an easy, well written read on everything automotive. I felt compelled to rate it on Amazon as it had received no ratings yet. I am engulfed in it currently and am sneaking in chapters whenever I can in the day. If you are here, you are likely into repairing, maintaining or restoring vintage cars from the golden years of the automotive industry. You likely should read this book. I am not affiliated in any way. I just love the style of writing from the era and the technical information is very, very good. First published in 1949, I have the 6th printed version dated 1958. I smiled when I read the section on overhead cam engines. "Although overhead camshafts find little use in automotive engines, they are used in some types of aircraft engines, and engines used in some types of military vehicles". This little book was written during the prime time of our lovely flathead Chrysler engines. Enjoy. - Keith https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0013ZH02W/ref=tmm_other_meta_binding_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=&sr=

Perhaps I will change that rubber hose @dpollo. Just incase. Thank you.

At any rate, when we arrived at the car swap meet, they guided me right inside the swap meet gate. They has us old cars drive right in and be a part of the show at the swap meet. We got VIP parking. Everyone else was sent to park in a tick infested hay field. Lol. It was cool to get special treatment. Met more cool folks and talked Mopar for a while. Was a decent swap meet. I bought a couple tools I could use. My wife Heather enjoyed herself too. Aside from the little roadside inconvenience. ?

Something that I can’t quite nail-down is happening. Fuel gauge was reading ¼ when it began to loose power on the hiway at 60 MPH. I got off the 4-lane hiway right away. An exit was conveniently just ahead. Got on a two lane country road. Car seemed to be fine again for another mile or two then died for good. Coasted to a stop about ¼ mile from a gas station. I walked up while my wife waited in the Chrysler. They had a small gas can that I borrowed. Only held about 1 ¼ gallons of fuel. (5L jerry can). I dumped that into the fuel tank. Cranked it over. No fire. Still no fuel. There was about a tablespoon of gas left in the gas can. I pulled off my air filter and dumped it in the carb venturi. Car flashed ip for a couple of seconds then died again. I knew now for sure that it was a fuel problem. I pushed the car, while my wife steered, up the road ahead to a driveway. Talked to home owner and left it there. Son picked us up. I returned the borrowed gas can to the gas station. When I got home I grabbed some tools and a larger gas can and headed back to the car. I cranked it over again first. The car was cool now. To see if maybe it was a vapor lock. No go. I dumped another 2 ½ gallons of fuel in the tank. Cranked engine for a 3-4 seconds. No go. Stopped, waited 5 seconds and cranked again. The fuel pump did its job and pulled fuel up to carb bowl and she flashed up. It ran perfectly to the gas station just up ahead. I stopped, shut off engine. Put another 5 gallons in the tank and drove it home. Smooth as silk. Something odd is going on. My fuel gage may be out. Reading ¼, my tank could be actually empty? If that were the case why did it not fire up when I put the first 5L in? Maybe for some reason my fuel pump won’t pull fuel when I get down to the last quarter of a tank? This same symptom occured to my son last summer when he was out cruising. Gauge was reading about ¼ full then too. At that time I dropped the tank to investigate. I found the fuel pick-up screen/puck had become disconnected from the bottom of the tank floor. I had the tank boiled and pick up screen brazed back in place. At that time I theorized that the pick-up screen was flopping around inside the tank grasping gulps of air. At that occurance last summer I installed the new fuel pump, as the old one I had no history on. No idea how old it was. Maybe the pick-up screen has broke free again? I am very doubtful. Maybe my tank is not properly venting? When I get down to ¼ a vacuum has developed strong enough that the pump can’t overcome it? Doubtful as today when I added gas I would have equalized any air pressure diffential in the tank. It still wouldn’t start. Maybe these old fuel systems need some help in the form of head pressure from the weight of the gas in the tank? Down to ¼ tank the system won’t perform? I don’t know. I’m interested in hearing any ideas. Maybe I should adjust the float arm on my fuel gauge sending unit? Get it to read empty sooner? Maybe I should install a 6V electric pump with a toggle switch? That will offer more fuel pressure when needed? I just toggle on the electric pump and see what happens when Engine dies with ¼ tank of fuel?

All smiles on the way to the swap meet! Nice day for a break down!

My lovely wife waiting patiently for our ride back home.

Went for about a 120 mile drive today to a vintage car swap meet. On the way back 10 miles from home I am dead on the roadside. Seems like I am not getting any fuel. I have little to no tools with me. My son is on the way to pick us up. Will be back with tools and a spare fuel pump to troubleshoot. My fuel pump was installed new from Andy Bernbaum last June. I know we have fuel in the tank. Poured some raw fuel into throttle body as well. Flashed right up for a few seconds then dies. Fuel tank was dropped. Boiled and cleaned out last summer. Vapor lock maybe? Not too hot out today. Engine temp is below half on gauge while at hiway speeds. However this was my first long-ish hiway trip with the car. At hiway speeds for extended periods. We shall see soon enough what’s up. More to come.

@Worden18 I am interested in learning what technique your friend used to bleed the brakes. We you in the car pumps while he cracked lines? or did he use some type of vacuum system? We did an awful lot of brake pumping and line cracking over here. I was drafting my wife, son, anyone, to get in the car and pump. Over a period of a couple evenings.

I found a Windsor Deluxe vehicle registration card. Dated 1969. Owner’s name and a $6 annual fee was listed. From the State of Massachusetts. Sadly upon researching the owner’s name on google I found his obit.

A modern sound system would be nice I will admit. I have a 12V power pack in the trunk if I ever need a boost. I have not used it yet, only on other people's cars. I do use the USB charges on it for my iphone though.