keithb7

@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:

I bought mine for my '38 Ply on E-bay I think. They didn't fit right either. I trimmed the rubber down on a lathe with en exactor knife blade welded to a bit. The upper half, bottom steel section did not fit in the seats properly in my cross member either. I filed & ground them down, reshaping them to fit. I installed new bolts too. I think they had to be a little longer. I sourced them locally. Everything finally came together and all lines up now. Everything seems to sit right. So no, I'm not being very helpful either as to where to source 38 engine mounts. Just sharing my troubles. Someone said it before...Seems that there is a real market out there for proper, quality, good fitting old Mopar motor mounts.

Each Wed night the regulars show up at a local parking lot. Quite civilized there too. No stunt drivers or show-offs. The police and local businesses leave us be. Its a good time. My spot tonight was tucked between some performance cars. I was the odd-duck there again. No, I’m not seeing any other Mopars from about ‘64 back. Just my old Ply. No complaints. Rare is cool with me. Tonight I passed 800 miles on my 38 Plymouth’s odometer for 2020 cruising. i’d sure like to 1,000. I will aim to.

Hot cables is a clue. Too many amps trying to be shoved through too small of a path. For example. Good vs Bad. Could be part of your problem. There are other factors too. Field windings? Armature windings condition? Brushes? Etc...

Chirping in to say, a poor performing intake valve, will exhibit the ticking sound of exhaust manifold leak. However the ticking sound is coming back up through the intake manifold. Heard thru the carb venturi body. Yes when I got into the valves I found an intake valve not seating properly. A wet/dry compression test and or an intake manifold vacuum test will reveal intake valve issues. Just something to think about.

@lepic56 in a few more years you’ll have a very low milage stock car!!

I totally understand @RobertKB. I replied to your PM. If you get close to a deal let me know. I may be able to assist with a 20 ft flat deck trailer and my Dodge Diesel 3/4T truck.Maybe we could work something out. Depending on what you’d normally do to get it to your area. Southern Alberta Correct? Keith

Seems to me there's about $1000 worth of fresh fish there! Nice!

For those interested, I did produce a video on the 1935 Desoto, and the emotions that often can come with our car hobby. This is more about the choices we have to make and how we bond with our cars. There is some footage on the Desoto, however limited. The car is still for sale and out of respect for the seller (a real decent person), I did not go into the details of why I passed on the Desoto. I did not want go into exactly what I saw when I viewed the car. Possibly hurting his prospects of a sale. I had the support of the members here, my family and a good "Mopar Lover" friend. I have no regrets. I feel I made the right decision. I get into that more, in the video. Thanks folks. - K