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This may give you some insight. My recent delve into the rear seal leaks. My ‘38 is similar, yet not exact. Same principles and procedures.

Remove drive line. Remove transmission. Remove pressure plate and clutch. Remove flywheel. Remove oil pain. Remove crank rear main cap. Replace rear seal. Clean all. Reassemble all with all new seals, gaskets and fluids. Or you can skip some steps and then do it all again next winter. Lol.

You could be right @Doug&Deb I have not had my Chrysler rear end apart. Yet even with my Chrysler OD off, my ‘38 Plymouth coupe climbs the hill home faster. It has 4.11 gears. It has a fresh 237 engine. My Chrysler has a healthy 251 engine. My research tells me the sedans got 4.11 and the coupes got 3.9x gears. It feels like it when I compare the two cars. You could be right though. Perhaps my Sedan is lighter than my coupe. Perhaps my sedan has different gear ratios in the tranny.

I had the newer 1938, round rear motor mounts. I trimmed my mounts shorter To me that one appears to be a no go. Try Runner Steel Products maybe?

When I engage OD I push the cable knob in. I never do this while the car is in motion. I am completely stopped. Push the cable knob down. Then drive away, shift normally. You need to reach about 25 mph or faster. You can be in second or 3rd gear. Let your foot off the throttle. Do not put the car in neutral or push in the clutch. While briefly coasting, the OD will now automatically engage. It will feel like you just shifted into another gear. No big clunk, but I can fee it. Then drive away as normal. OD will stay engaged until you slow down below 25 mph. The OD gear is engaged automatically by centrifugal forces on the drivetrain. It is set to occur at about 25 mph or so. Do not attempt to pull the knob to disengage OD while moving. Again, pull over and stop. Or at a traffic light. Then pull the cable knob to disengage OD. While OD cable knob is pushed down, in theory you could still prevent it from being allowed to engage when you are above 25 mph. Just never let your foot off the gas. Hard to drive like this though.

Consider watching my 3 part series on You Tube. I replaced my cylinder head on my ‘38 Chrysler. Any time a head comes off, checking valve seal-ability is best practice. #1 video starts here: Part 1: Flathead Mopar Cylinder Head Crack! https://youtu.be/vlb2q9w0vGk

I agree with what others are saying. Put a DC volt meter on the battery at idle. Turn on radio. High beams and heater fan. Voltage should be dropping steady. Rev up engine. Watch battery voltage. Hold engine RPMs up a bit. Battery voltage should be climbing again. I do want to add my typical plug for clamp style digital ammeters. Excellent tool to own for testing and troubleshooting these 6V cars. Highly recommend.

A brake shoe(s) that is contaminated with brake fluid won’t bite. For example, say the one on the front right is contaminated. The front left brake is fine. The front left will brake normally as you apply the pedal. The RH side will not. This will cause the vehicle to pull in the direction toward the brake that works. Good brake shoes with lots of material, are easily spoiled by leaking pistons. I heard a rumour: Soaking the spoiled brake shoes in gasoline then lighting them on fire will remove the brake fluid. I have not tried this. Anyone have a report on this? Or is this basically a death wish, when you have a single reservoir master cylinder?

El-cheapo Harbor Freight type vacuum pump used.

Now I’m thinking, if I use a 30” or so clear piece of line I can also use this fitting to top up my master cylinder. Its a PITA to get brake fluid in it. I use a small syringe. Next time I’ll try this idea too.

Dry threads would not seal. Teflon thread tape sealed everything up very well.

The car’s winter hibernation. A wheel cylinder will usually start leaking at some point. They don’t like to sit. This year I tried something different before going into a wheel cylinder. I removed my master cylinder cap. I used a pipe thread fitting and adapted it down to a hose barb fitting. I pushed a hose on it I pulled 20 in/Hg vacuum with my hand pump. The vacuum held solid. I popped open my wheel cylinder, disassembled and cleaned everything up. The fluid in the master held nicely while I serviced the brake. Only 1 brake to bleed! No dripping master while I worked. The plan worked well. I’ll do that going forward, when going into a brake.

If I recall there is a circuit on these cars: When in top gear under 25 mph, you mash the throttle to the floor, it briefly grounds the ignition coil. This allows for the shift to take place by taking the engine load off the transmission input pinion. I’d be looking into that portion of the wiring. Test for a possible short to ground. Check the rotating silver points switch on the transmission centrifugal weights too.

I’ve never done the dual carb set up. In theory you should get better even fuel delivery to all cylinders. Right now, stock set up the two cylinders farthest from the single carb get less fuel in them, compared to the cylinders closest to the single carb. I suspect this is due the amount of time the intake valve is open. The intake valves all open for the same duration. Yet the air/fuel mixture needs more time to travel to pistons 1 and 6. I am skeptical (more uneducated actually) that dual carbs will improve horsepower or torque on an otherwise stock 218. The stock carb can be set to overfuel that stock engine. Dual carbs, I suspect will net a smoother running stock engine at idle. Especially a cold engine at first start up on a cold day. Why? Condensation droplets forming on the insides of the longer air intake manifold arms, furthest from the single carb. Perhaps dual carbs will net a little crisper throttle response. Dual carbs and dual split, balanced headers? Now we’re talking about performance upgrades. For a stock engine, is it worth it to fiddle with dual carbs? I don’t know.

I rebuilt my ball and trunnion, as best I could. The issue was I ordered a rebuilt kit. Bernbaum’s if I recall. Some of the parts fit. Some didn’t. I made the beast of the situation mixing old and new parts. It got the job done and fixed me up. Been a couple years. No problems so far.

You just gave me an idea for my next YT Video! “How to replace your 6V vintage Mopar single wire coil for $20”. Let’s see if we can’t spare a few more souls from the scenario you went through.

Enjoying the conversations. Getting back to steering gears. My research tells me that somewhat unique machines and skill set are required to make worm gears. The old tooling is maybe gone from America. Someone in Argentina acquired the tooling and will build and sell you the proper worm gear and related parts. Buenos Aries. Mopar never made all their own steering gears. Gemmer made many of them for Mopars for many years. They also made them for Ford and other companies. I used my Vintage Hollander Exchange book, and my Motors Manual to find a match for my ‘38 Plymouth. It was from a same era Ford. Ford aftermarket parts is huge industry compared to Mopar. I found a matching Ford set, also made by Gemmer. I went from staring down a potential shot gun in Argentina, to a $80 solution in the USA. The parts fixed up my gear box nicely. You can read more about my experience and the details here:

For me, Mopars is a passionate hobby. I choose not to make it my main source of income. I participate in the hobby sharing my knowledge here and on my YT channel helping others. I am not driven to profit from selling to others. The fact that YT nets me $75/month USD for advertising revenue is a fringe benefit! If I save up for 12 months I can spend a little more on beer or buy 2 tires. Then Mr Canada’s version of the IRS wants their 30% each April. Lol. My point is it’s pittance. What I get is personal satisfaction in self education, and pride that I have helped others. Passing along my knowledge motives me for some reason. I have little desire to compete with “the Pro” for market share of aftermarket Mopar parts. Where the lowest price wins. Quality and support be damned. I will not send him a counter offer on any part for that he has for sale, because I’ll never buy anything from him. Never is a long time. The self proclaimed Pro will sell new parts to many first-time buyers. New folks coming into the Mopar hobby. That’s how he’ll carry-on. Eventually people find their way here and learn as others have, about Mike. Or get stung. I see many new rookies joining us, new to old Mopars via my You Tube videos. There is no underlying motives or knife in the back when a rookie gleans knowledge from me. I respect your comments Plymouthy. I will admit I am a bit stubborn when I get stung, then brushed aside when an opportunity for a amicable discussion is offered.

Lawyer turned Mopar parts peddler. Which explains, however does not justify his business ethics. One earns one’s reputation.

They don’t have the means to build them in China?

Have you considered tweaking the adjustment setting on your worm gear box? Possibly adjusting shims as well if needed?

Excellent news. Love it! Glad to hear another flathead Mopar will live on.

I’d check the exhaust manifold for gasket leaks. If it still ticks check valve clearances. Might as well perform a valve set. Have a listen at the carb intake. Is tick sound coming from intake?

There are many friends here I’d like to meet. Many remain faceless with fabricated ID names. Lol. I get the feeing many of you probably know me pretty well. Thanks to YT. 😁 We are on a road-trip for 1 week. We are in Denver and a MLB game tonight. We just arrived in Denver. Sorry @LazyK our travel schedules didn’t allow for a stop in Cheyenne this morning. Lots of neck snapping going on as we drive by heaps of old cars on people’s property. I’ve seen a few old Mopars for sale. Although I’m not looking to buy, I still like to look. @Sniper and @Los_Control if I was headed to Texas I’d make time to drop in. Sorry not this trip.

I’ve benefitted greatly from Permatex High Performance Thread sealant on all threaded fasteners that touch the coolant. Don’t settle for anything less. I’ve also had no issues when I sprayed the head gasket with Permatex Copper spray. Good stuff.