keithb7

I’m not well versed in the early Mopar V8. I saw this local ad for sale recently. I wondered, did they offer a hemi V8 in 1951? I thought they were still straight 8 in 51? I honestly don’t know. What year did the Chryslers get the V8 option? Thanks for educating me!

12V if you prefer. That’s fine. I like 6V for old school cool factor. I like it when young drivers want to check out my old car. I point out the positive ground 6V system with a generator. Vacuum wipers. Suicide doors. Tube radio. Split hood. Flathead engine. Bias tires and more. They are often stunned and awed. I like being a custodian and teacher for these old systems. That’s just me.

Next time I’m in the area we’ll stop at the Denny’s again. Try and order the exact same meal!

With My 18 year old girlfriend at the time, it was July 1990. We were driving through California. We stopped for dinner at Denny’s. Just north of Sacramento. 34 years later, tonite we stumbled into an old box of receipts. I didn’t realize my love of Meatloaf went back that far. Lol.

Spring arrived this week. I saw enough vintage cars and motorcycles on the road to stir-up some nostalgia. I removed the car cover and rolled out my ‘38 Chrysler today. It flashed up and ran like a hot engine that was just tuned-up yesterday. I didn’t do a thing other than check the oil and hit the electric fuel priming pump. I love a well maintained flathead engine. While warming it up the pup wanted in on the action. We went around the neighbourhood a couple times. I will drain the oil now and put in a fresh jug of 10W40. How’s 2024 shaping up in your Mopar neighbourhood? -59,331 miles.

I like that deal. Yet I think I have 4 multi-meters kicking around here. One from each decade over the past 40 years. I do really like the ability to clamp around the wire to measure amp flow. One of my meters does this very well.

The plug in the first photo must be for the diff lock limited slip additive. 😉

If you do decide to stay with 6V a simple 6V to 12V converter works great to run a modern stereo and iphone charger. https://www.amazon.com/Converter-5V-11V-Waterproof-Module-Transformer/dp/B0B1CVW5GP/ref=mp_s_a_1_9?crid=GU0N6Z92UCCD&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.G9g0AbApOZsfkd7KGDVFC1zkYe_uKnfVsCEEddfJrz7VQfG41r0xznMKN89VW_Cind6X-iE-YzsyjxUmWLTJeo5M-U0Yvv--cDUKYmYGkTOh8-QHK0P1iBhlWht3H-E2oS42Lz05Yjrz4Cpf2COxjtheKC8jd3qjvJX_b4FysusA8YLyckEpdU5fja00YwDZ9Yd9u-8usHzH5A38-DXfJQ.jjw1xEFS80mw_h6Knc7bjS-qMpjf9YitLt8pg53mtYM&dib_tag=se&keywords=6v+to+12v+step+up+converter&qid=1710089337&sprefix=6V+to+%2Caps%2C178&sr=8-9 I get-it if you want the whole system to be 12V. A nice little simple 12V alternator is pretty nice.

Make sure the push arm for the pump is positioned correctly in relation to the cam shaft lift lobe.

For me a cobbled together old car that runs well, brings lot of fun and pride. I have about 6-7 old scabby fuel pumps here. I mix and match parts as needed. I’ve ordered pump rebuild kits and rebuilt my own. Good times were had and extremely valuable knowledge is earned. You’ll learn skills that will allow you to troubleshoot and fix problems on the side of a road with a pocket knife. My ‘38 Plymouth looks like it came out of a field last week. People sure take a liking to it when they see me ripping around town in it. I won’t win any show awards except probably longest drive in what appears to be a shaky car at best. But its not a shaky car. Its very solid under its exterior appearance. I keep en eye out for old Mopar parts and acquire them proactively. I can’t tell you exactly how much money I’ve saved getting my old Plymouth reliable and road worthy. But its a lot. The hobby doesn’t have be expensive if you’re smarter than the average bear and ambitious.

No need to remove any of the grease in there. Just submerge it as is in the oil, and turn it by hand.

I too filled my oil pump with grease at rebuild time. I expected it to easily prime with oil pan oil. It did not. I pulled the oil pump and put it in a bucket of oil. I turned the drive back and forth by hand a couple of times. Reinstalled it and it worked great. Apparently grease isn’t a guarantee it’ll prime. Re fuel to carb: could be many reasons. Earlier info on the pump and recent engine work is not known to us. We can guess. I might start by putting a vacuum on the fuel line where the bowl float valve is. Suck until fuel arrives there. No fuel? Work back from there looking for a hose kink, plugged flex fuel line near rad. Pick up screen in tank etc.

This may offer some assistance for you:

I suspect that whatever additives are in the coolant, glycol etc, when all moisture has boiled-off you are left with a brown gooey concentrate residue. I struggle a bit to grasp how engine oil can get up into a sparkplug well. There is no oil above the valve covers in these engines. Except for the filer housing and oil pressure gauge line to the cab. Add to that the valves get misty oil floating around in the crankcase. Pressurized oil sprays up from the rod caps to the camshaft and tappets. It collects in the tappet oil pools. How does it get into a spark plug well?

I had brown-ish sludge forming in my #1 sparkplug well. Things started to slowly get a little worse. I’d clean it up. It would soon be back. I believed it was burned coolant. I traced it to the thermostat water neck housing. I took it off. Looked at all the corrosion around the gasket area. I cleaned it all up. Put JB weld in the voids. Block sanded it smooth reinstalled all. Test drive…Burnt coolant was soon back. It could look like oil to the untrained eye. It is brown. Round two: I took the 251 ci cast iron head off. I spotted a crack in the head near the thermostat mount. It travelled down towards the spark plug. Aha! I recycled the iron head. I installed a spare 228 ci 25” head that I had. It had a little smaller combustion chamber. A tad more oomph. She’s been all good ever since. No more gooey mess.

I’m voting for the coil option. However should be verified.

I can't speak about trucks, but my 1938 Plym has a solid I-beam front axle. The inner fender window comes out and I have great access to the valve cover. Maybe post a photo or two of your inner fender, while the front wheel is removed. It would give me an idea exactly what you are seeing and trying to deal with.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

Hi @1948DodgeD25S There’s tons of experienced folks here happy to help you. We’ all want to get your car going asap. I’ll refrain from any further tips on the fuel pump pressure until you work through the ideas already presented. Please do report back with any progress or new findings. Keep in mind these fuel pumps can take a long time to prime if the car has been sitting for some time. You’ll be cranking the engine over much longer than you might expect, before fuel is delivered to the carb.

The big thaw is happening around here. We haven't seen the sun in several days. We got a lot snow 10 days ago and at the current rate may all be gone in a few days. Its washing all the ice melt away. Positive spring vibes!

Very cool. Nice use of color and unique style.

This winter I took-in a weary stray. Non-Mopar. Its been fun digging around in more modern, yet still simple technology. It’s a 1970 307 Chevy. I kinda wish it was my car sometimes. I’d find, tear down and rebuild a hopped-up SBC 350 and put in it. Then burn up all the spare tires layin’ around here. Make them tires earn their environmental fee. Officer: “What do you think you’re doing out here, laying all that rubber?” Me- “Asphalt crack sealing sir. Maybe a little weed control as well if I side off.” Officer (hopefully) “This thing got a big block? Here”s a blank citation so if anybody sees this, it looks like I’m giving you a ticket. Now respectfully drive outta here. Thank-you for your civic service.” ?

Top of my head I can’t recall. I can maybe review one of my videos to comfirm and get back to you. Currently I’m sitting in a plane not near my reference material. @Dodgeb4ya may pull that from memory?

A tip for those posting from their iphones. Iphone Camera photos are too large to upload. This works: -Open image on your phone. -take a screen shot of it -crop it, tweak colors etc if you like -Save the image in your phone photos -upload this new, smaller sized photo to your post here.

Are you able to test your wires for contact to ground? Continuity? Two exposed wires touching each other? Measure amp output from generator? A multi-meter with DC amp clamp is a marvellous tool for diagnosing electrical problems. A basic digital multimeter will get you a lot of info too. Have you seen my clamp style MM featured in a couple of my videos? I bought this one below on Amazon. It works well. A must-have tool for me. Yet, knowing how to use it properly, decipher what its telling you, and basic electrical theory must be learned. That doesn’t come with the tool. https://meters.uni-trend.com/product/ut211b/#Specifications