keithb7

Tonight was a fun evening worth sharing. We’re looking after our son’s pup for the weekend. We took him down to the river in the ‘38, for a swim. I bump into an acquaintance. We’re chatting while my wife is down at the water edge with doggie. He mentioned he was chatting with my wife recently. Somehow cars came up in their conversation. My wife had mentioned that “You’d laugh. My husband’s daily driver is a ‘38 Plymouth.” He replied, “Probably all hot-rodded up”. To which she replied, “No it looks like it came right off the farm. It's all stock. It's great!.... Lol. My wife has never told me that! She’s never said my ‘38 was great, to me. Neat to hear about it 3rd hand tho. ? We stop for some fuel. While I was checking the oil. a youngster approached to ask about my car. His family was a couple pumps over, gassing up. He looked To be about 14. Short hair, clean. Freckles. Sorta modern day Opie Griffith. “Excuse me sir, what kind of car is that?” We had a great conversation about all the old cool stuff he’d never heard of. I asked him if he knew much about cars. A bright grin full of braces stared back at me while he nodded and said “Yes!” I pointed out the oil bath filter. 6V, generator positive ground system. Manual steering and 4-drum manual breaks. He replied “my old ATV has drum brakes!” The aaoogah horn got a quick blast. The vacuum wiper motors blew his mind. He asked where the vacuum came from. I closed the LH hood half and we gathered over to the right side. We talked about intake vacuum and traced the hose thru the firewall and up to the wiper motors on the roof.....Beep! His family was honking at him to get back to their truck. They were leaving. Makes it all worth while. When the young kids are fascinated. Given a few more minutes, I’d likely have had him driving my ‘38. I said to my wife as they drove away, “he’s telling his dad about vacuum wipers right now”. Lol. A great night out and my wife loves my ‘38!

Regarding the transmission. You have some clashing of gears it would seem. There are a few things going on when you shift. Likely not related to the battery ground question you asked. Idle speed should be set to spec. It makes a difference. Tranny oil type and proper level makes a difference too. Suggested reading includes an original shop manual. Also the Chrysler Master Mechanic series on troubleshooting and repairing the M6 tranny. Double check for sure that the battery cable from the negative post goes to the ground. As mentioned, not just the black cable goes to the ground. It could easily have cable colors mixed up. I know mine are. I have a black 00 battery cable from the positive post to ground in one of my cars.

We're all liking that car a lot! Glad to see you and the car join us here.

Welcome to the forum. I too own a 1953 Chrysler. Which type of tranny do you have? Manual 3 speed or semi-auto with torque converter and clutch?

Last night I participated in an organized rolling car tour. We raised $1200 for Multiple Sclerosis. Was a good run. 125 cars participated. At one stop we all drove right through a repair shop. Anyone that could, peeled their tires inside the shop. I did not. Lol. A nice warm evening. Cops showed up to monitor behavior at the wrap up gathering. They were cool as they just observed and made their presence known. Gatherings are frowned upon due to covid. Several cars could have been required to be towed away For various infractions. But all turned out well. My lowly ‘38 can been seen in this one. Met some good folks. Was a good event.

Today I finally addressed the wiper vacuum hook up with new fittings and hose. I now have working vacuum wipers. Yes! Exciting stuff, I'd expected the worst. Yes Plymouthy, he's a rare gem. I was just thinking the other day of maybe getting sort of custom T-shirts made up. "Old Mopar Guys...Get it" or something along those lines. Maybe with an image of an old coupe. I'd like to give a few out to the the kind folks who have been so helpful and generous with their time. I will look into that....

Fun adventure tonight in my ‘38. I went to visit a local Mopar guy. Super nice guy in my car club. He said he might have Some wiper arms and blades to hook me up with. He did! A great fit. Every time I go to visit him he gives me more spare Mopar parts. This trip I inherited a super clean drive shaft for my ‘38! Exact match. Like brand new, complete with all trunnions boots etc! A good looking master cylinder for my Chrysler. Bunch of carb and distributor parts too. I’ve yet to meet an old Mopar guy I never liked. Such a great community. Its getting dark earlier now. Great opportunity to use my dual relay headlight system. Also my fog lights were on too. Sure enough, deer on the road. Fog lights picked ‘em out! The old Plymouth lives to see another day.

Sure. I'd be honoured.

@RobertKB the Airflow sold. You have no distractions now. You can focus on this truck.I like it a lot! It looks like a good one for a mechanical rebuild. If you pass....Please PM me. This one is very attractive to me.

Thx. Pretty hard to drive a stick shift, wrestle bias tires with manual steering, use arm turn signals, and drink a coffee all at the same time. I go for a lot of relaxing cruises that include coffee. I had to come up with a practical non-permanent solution!

@RobertKB I do love those Dodge coupes. They have a great front end and grill. In my opinion, when it comes to coupes, they are second only to the 48 NY'r 2 door coupe with straight 8. They are a big beast that I'd also love to own. I am a little jealous of you folks who have nearby old Mopar connections. I'd enjoy a partner to cruise around with and help each other out with wrenching. The ultimate friend: He lives in my neighbourhood within walking distance. He's nuts about pre 20's-50's Mopars. He owns one or two, different models than my 2 cars of course. He has a hoist. Does welding and body work. Likes beer. His kids are all grow'd up and gone. Has an independent, un-needy, low maintenance wife who gets along with my wife....LOL. That there is a match! I'd get nothing else done around here except we'd have dialed up some of the finest Mopars in the land. In the mean time this site will have to do....

Welcome to the forum. The car likely had a radio at some point. Some radios had a tube powered head unit, with operator controls. It was then wired into a separate tube powered amplifier box with a speaker in it. One or both may have an old flapper type rectifier tube. It converts DC back to AC power to run that part of the radio. It does make a buzzing sound which is totally normal. Red knob that you turn and it lights up may be an aftermarket add on switch for fog lamps? Does the shifter button appear to be a bolt on aftermarket? To allow manual shift control of the otherwise auto tranny shifting? I have heard of people adding a switch to accomplish this.

Nice looking car @RobertKB! Glad to see it out and about enjoying the summer roads. It seems both you and @T120 are both in Southern Alberta. Lucky to have some nearby active old Mopar guys in the same region. If I ever get over that way I’ll be looking to check out both of your car collections. They appear fantastic!

Tonight I headed out with my wife. We took, the family blonde doodle pup, and my mother-in-law in the back seat. All that weight back there, I noticed the old ‘38 actually rode better. Smoother. Unfortunately I’ll never experience that again? The car seems to be getting better the more fuel I burn. I may test my compression again. Feels to me, it might be up compared to April this year. I’ve heard it before, these old cars seem to be best when driven regularly.

A pretty neat, once in a lifetime experience for me. I met a fellow who owns a 1910 Russel CCM car. Made in Canada. The car has a Knight engine in it. He took my wife and I for a ride, and then offered me to drive his car. I was surprised and quickly took him up on his offer. It was an experience I won't soon forget. The car ran great and did not smoke. Plenty of torque. I was quite impressed. The car performed much better than I expected. I don't know the size of this Knight engine, but it was a good match for this massive car. What a thrill!

You guys made me laugh. Not this time out. I won’t be taking a shortcut to Minnesota. Lol. 120 miles round trip today. 45-55 MPH the entire trip. The furthest and the hardest I’ve pushed my ‘38 since I’ve fixed it up. 45 Mph is extremely comfortable with the 1:1 ratio in 3rd and 4:11 gears. 50 mph is fine, just wee bit more buzzy. 55 and up is a little too dicy for my liking. Steering is a little loose feeling. The bias tires tug you around pretty good at 55. It would seem my ‘38 was built with 45 mph the speed target. You still have some guts to pull out pass at 45, though not much. It rides like a train at 45, yet I feel ya gotta be semi-crazy at 55mph. I could get 3:73 gears. Maybe find an OD tranny. Some radial tires. That would tame it a bit. To me its still a ‘38. The only safety feature might very well be the windshield. Lol. To keep gravel out of your teeth. I’m content at 45-50 mph. Top things I learned today about longer-ish trips at higher speeds: -pop out vent windows are extra awesome. Cowl vent genius. Modern cars are really missing out! - at 45-50 mph the engine seems to be in its happy spot. Easy to maintain 50 on hills too. She’s got the torque to pull them hiway hills. - My recent cooling system work has made it very efficient. It has a 160F thermostat. Gauge read 115F on the hiway at 50mph. Ambient air temp was 9 celsius then. Not enough cab heat. - There are a ton of really idiotic drivers willing to sacrifice your life. So they can get to where they are going, faster, at any cost. -The hard work is paying off. Its super rewarding to go 120 miles with confidence in a 1938 Jalopy.

5:45 AM today. Her first modern hi-way trip.

Carter BBS carb. I have a spare screw I could mail you. Could take a while though. I am in Canada. Is the postal system in the USA currently bogged down?

I just weighed my spare set for you.

I too have had to learn from trial and error. What I find that has netted good results is: Back off any adjustments needed to slide the drum off easily. So all adjustments are sloppy. Slide the drum back on.It should spin freely at this time. Use the upper cam adjustment in one spot. Adjust it out until the shoe contacts the drum. You'll know it as the drum won't turn any more. Then back that cam off just a hair so you can slide the drum back off. Then I install the concentric tool that I made. I adjust it exactly over top of the part of the shoe that was just contacting the drum. The tool just kissing the shoe friction material surface right at the spot where the upper cam pushed the shoe out to touch the drum. Then I rotate the little concentric tool all around the entire shoe surfaces. 360 degrees. I adjust the shoes then as I go around. Adjusting the other upper cam, also the two concentric mounting bolts too. All the way around, the shoes are set to just kiss the tip of the concentric tool. Then they are set at the proper distance to the drum, and concentric. Slide the drum back on. Set a teeny bit of drag with the upper cam adjustments and voila. Good to go. Rinse and repeat as needed.

Sorry, I realize now you have the later, different master cylinder.

Is this helpful? From my "38 book.

I am wondering about rad caps.... When the cooling system gets hot enough it makes steam. Pressure builds up inside the rad. When 4 psi is achieved the relief in the rad cap opens end steam and coolant ejects. The hotter and hotter the system becomes, the more steam it would create. Correct? So if a 10lb cap was used, more pressure builds up before it opens. Possibly over pressurizing the system, also allowing the engine to run hotter before the cap opens. However, if a cooling system is in top order and running very efficiently, keeping everything nice and cool, it would not be generating up much steam pressure. Correct? If eninge is running between 150-180F on the gauge consistently, running a 10 lb cap, it would make no difference? The cooling system is not making 10 psi, nor even 4 psi. Is that correct? The problem with the 10 higher psi cap factors in when the system gets very hot. When the rad and water pump cannot keep the system cool. 10 psi would be bad. Wondering if I am on the right path here in my thinking.

Good job!

For illustration.... The original removed mounts: