keithb7

The lot of spare parts that I purchased in October had a good removed, original Mopar throw out bearing. I am going to use that.....Wait a minute! Pretty sure there was a clutch plate too! I better go check it out. Perhaps I will defer another parts payment! It came out of a 1953 Belvedere L6. I get so into what I am doing, I had forgotten I likely have a good used clutch plate.

Thanks @Sam Buchanan and @Dodgeb4ya. Funny how that bearing retainer info is absent from any shop manuals I own. Clutch removed and inspected. All looks good except 2 broken springs in the disc plate. Out shopping now for a new one. No hot spots. Smooth and clean surfaces. Good pressure plate tension. So she’ll get a new throw out bearing and a new clutch plate. Married up to my rebuilt tranny I’m hoping for great things! Looking back, I’ve had so much fun and learned so much since May 2017 when I bought my first old ‘53. Mopar . Moving along is so enjoyable. My bench today:

I have not ordered any Mopar parts since last year! went 6 whole days! Tomorrow I’m ordering a clutch disc.

@Dodgeb4ya Is there some type of procedure to choosing the correct thickness gasket for the pinion bearing cover? I see that in my gasket kit there are two gaskets. Slightly different thicknesses. Somewhere in the back of my mind I saw a procedure somewhere that I read about, mounting the cover then placing feeler gauges in there to measure thickness? Maybe it was a dream I had, because I've read and flipped though several reassembly instructions in multiple books I own. Books covering various years of Mopars with manual 3-speeds. from mid 30's to mind 50's it seems they all used this same pinion bearing cover. I cannot find where I read this info. Thanks.

.Meanwhile down in the basement upholstery shop: My wife continues to move ahead. She’s learning new things. She’s done a very good job for her first attempt at this work. She’s not 100% happy with her work. I assure her its great for the level of revival for this car. Unless she worked at the factory in 1938 in the upholstery shop, with all the tools and techniques mastered, she won’t be 100% content. She trudges on with limited tools and experience here at home. I sure am very grateful, and tell her so

After -30 or so it all seems to feel the same. Funny things happen like your breath frosting up on your face, beard, hair, eyebrows. You breathe in through your nose and inside your nose freezes up. Car tires feel square. Manual transmissions stiff and hard to shift. Vinyl car seats may crack when you sit on them. All sorts of fun stuff

I think she's gonna go! This vintage car stuff is terribly addicting. I can't hardly wait to get into the diff.

1 question. Does anyone know the recommended torque on the park brake drum castellated nut? It mounts the drum to the tranny output shaft . Just tight enough to line up the cotter pin holes? I encourage you to go for it you’re considering rebuilding your manual transmission With a few common hand tools you can do this at home. Only task I left home for was the use of a hydraulic shop press to re and re main input and output bearings. I did not fab up a bracket to mount in a vice. Between my work bench and some blocking it was easily do-able. Possibly considered special tools I used: A slide hammer to remove the rear seal. (Not necessary just fast and easy) A brass hammer to tap pieces together. 1 pair of snap ring pliers. Not so special stuff: A spacer tube for seal installation. (Seen in pic below). A bucket, some solvent and a brush. 2 oak dowels mentioned above. Some grease. New parts, gaskets, seals, bearings are all readily available. About to push in the rear seal, in the pic.

You found the World Wide Headquarters for old Mopars. All the help and guidance you'll ever need is here. Welcome. I know we'd really enjoy seeing a few pics of your car. If you need help on how to upload a pic to share, we do that too. - K

We lived farther north in Canada years ago. We installed a modern air tight wood stove in our basement. It became our single heat source for home. We had a natural furnace and never turned it on. We burned a lot of wood. Which meant a lot of work. We harvested, split and dried our own wood. From the forest to our stove. Just my wife and I. It was hard work but we were young. For about 7 years we lived in t-shirts and shorts in our home. -40 outside? Knock on my door, I’m answering in shorts. Lol. It was so cozy!

Following up on this thread, my tranny is coming together nicely. I am a little shocked and proud at the same time, being this is my first tranny rebuild. I won't celebrate yet until it's in the car and functioning properly. New input and output bearings installed. All new needle bearings installed. The kit I bought from Mopar Direct fit well. All new snap rings and thrust washers installed. It was a tricky tight fit to allow the cluster gear to drop down lower in the front, to allow the pinion to be installed. The wood dowels are a huge job aid and worked very well. The gears seem be shifting properly and moving as they should so far. Next I'll install the park brake housing, all new gaskets and button this bad boy up...Riveting stuff! Thanks @westaus29 for the tips.

Natural gas fire places over here in my home. Looking out the window, the snow is coming down and piling up. A rye in the one hand, relaxing on the couch...Who cares?....About anything.

In the spirit of helping anyone who is new to old Mopar repairs and maintenance, I am happy to contribute my experience. So I upload a few videos here and there to You Tube (YT). It seems the entire younger generation goes to YT to learn about almost anything. Perhaps my contribution will help someone out, with their old Mopar someday. Many kind folks here teach me pretty much anything I need to know so this may bore you. For the newbies here, maybe I can help you. More talking about my '38 3 speed transmission here:

It's unfortunate to hear that @Worden18. Your comments confirm my decision about buying my 1998 RAM Cummins 2500! Lol. I had another good day today with my son (born 1997) working on his car. He bought his used car 4 years ago for $2,200 US funds. Had 50,000 miles on it then. He's never had it in to any garage except mine. He's donned coveralls and assisted or performed every maintenance or repair performed since he bought it. It's been a great car and his cost per mile is unbelievably low. A 2000 Ford Focus. Yes, lots of plastic but so far holding out very well. No rust! Today is has 84,000 miles. Last year he drove it to LA and Vegas and back home here in Canada. It fires up every day in any weather. He could literally drop a molotov cocktail in it tomorrow and still be ahead financially. He is interested in saving money, so this leads to his car maintenance work. I make it pretty easy and convenient with a heated, dry garage and all the tools he needs. Will his work evolve into love for vintage cars? I'm not sure. You never know. When he gets older he may pine for the old days when he worked with his Dad on cars in the garage. A simple old '38 Plymouth Deluxe might be right up his alley. I sure hope so. Again, it'll be easy. Dad already has a '38, also all the reference manuals ever needed. A support network on-line. Boxes of spare parts. Tools and experience....Could be an easy transition when I can't get under the car any more!

Today I was working with (guiding) my son, performing maintenance on his car. So my Windsor was sent out of of the garage for most of the day. We worked on his car in the garage. It started snowing today. I figured I had a rare photo opportunity with fresh snow on my old car. After sitting outside in below freezing temps for about 8 hours, I flashed her up. I swear the engine never made one complete revolution and it was purring. Starts faster than any car or truck in recent memory. Just dandy these old lovely Mopars are.

@tjlarson88 I hear that if you buy some Irish Spring bars of soap, break them up and place them in various places in the car the mice avoid it. The smell I guess? I have also seen where the car is jacked up and placed on 4 jack stands. However small plastic buckets, get a cut out in the bottom. Then turned upside down and placed over the jackstands. The buckets small enough that they don't touch the ground. The mice cannot climb up the jackstands. The wheels are off the ground. The mice cannot get up into your car while in storage. See here:

While you are in there, closely inspect the wire to the points. The area where the wire enters the distributor especially. Ensure the isolation pieces are in place. Inspect it closely and right up to the coil.

@LowMastersWelcome to the forum. Great to have another member who's into the wrenches With less than 500 miles on the engine rebuild, did it sit for a long time after the engine was rebuilt? Did you include a new condenser with the recent tune up? Compression test and valve set would still be high on my list. Just so I know for sure.

@LowMasters where abouts in the world are you located? Tell us a little about your background on working on old cars. How's your tool inventory and mechanical theory? There are many . here who will help and guide you. There are no dumb questions. 2.5 years ago I was in the exact same spot as you. I bought a new to me old Chrysler and I had only a few inklings on how everything worked. There are 10 inklings in a clue. So that gives you an idea. In terms of a miss in the engine, it could really be many things. In my opinion it is best to take some baseline measurements and develop a plan from there. If the car is new to you, and you want reliability for your wife to drive it, there are many things that you should do. A few things have been mentioned, such as upping the battery cables. In the photos, the majority of cables appear to be 12V size. Which is inadequate. Once you have a good cables, clean grounds and a good known strong battery I'd proceed to perform a compression test. Wet and dry. This may reveal valve seat issues, or maybe a cylinder with low compression. Fuel pump and carb are certainly candidates too. Old rubber parts break down and crumble over time. Especially due to additives in todays fuel. Again, considering you may want a reliable driver for your wife, I'd go with new spark plugs. Condenser. Cap. Rotor. Points and set. New sparkplug/coil wires. A 6V coil is not expensive, if you have no idea how old it is, I'd replace that too. In my opinion you're not throwing parts at the car here and hoping you fix it. These new parts are giving you peace of mind when your wife takes it out for a drive. These are common wearing tune up parts. With these ignition system parts replaced you'll want to set the timing. Checking mechanical and vacuum advance is a good idea. A timing light will show the spark advancing when you blip the throttle, indicating it's at least advancing. After the compression test is complete review readings and make an assessment. A vacuum test would be very helpful too. See here: https://www.classiccarrestorationclub.com/article/engine-vacuum-troubleshooting/# Depending on the compression test results, you may then want to proceed with a proper valve set. A valve that is set too tight will cause an engine miss. Valves normally wear and tighten up as they wear. So a valve set it part of a tune up. The carb would certainly be coming off if the previous history is unknown. You may find sediment in the bowl. There are many, many orifices in the carb that can plug up and lead to problems. How about fuel pump pressure? Is it adequate? Does the engine miss all the time, or mainly after it is fully warmed up? Only at certain ambient air temps? How's that choke? Is it opening fully when the car is hot? Lots has been mentioned here. Just go slow, one at a time and ask lots of questions.You can do plenty to ensure the car is safe and reliable. Many of us here love diving into the mechanics of these old cars. These tasks are more like fun jobs. Keith

I too have been buying up and hoarding old Mopar parts. If the prices are right. Storage space can become a challenge. I have a 1998 Ram Cummins 2500 quad cab 4x4. It's never been parked for long periods however I too, recently spend considerable time rebuilding the brakes extensively. Rock Auto is your friend with these big old trucks. Good deals on quality parts can be had.

Thanks for the kind words folks. Chrysler made ‘em pretty nice for sure. I wish I could take some credit but all i do is show it off. Lol. My Windsor has 2 months worth of “garage dust” on it here. It’s too cold to wash it, I just took it out for a drive and snapped a pic. That everglades green paint covers up a lot!

Fired up my Chrysler today and let it get up to operating temperature. I took it for a drive around the block. Kind of nice to be able to do that. It helps get through the winters!

I agree on several points mentioned. I keep pushing myself to learn and do more to my old Mopars, myself. NOS parts have proven their worth to me. Most new reproduction parts only appear the same. They are not high quality parts. I sometimes think about the engine oil fed, fluid torque drive in my ‘53. Certainly its beyond my current level of experience. If it goes down, well I guess I’ll give it a shot too. Or kill it while trying to fix it. I have no interest in trying to find a local trusted, knowledgeable vintage car mechanic. We’ll get things done one way or another. With the support here, and a few guys in my local vintage car club it’ll keep running.

Merry Christmas everyone! It’s lightly snowing here. We’re just getting up here on the West Coast. Couple of coffees in so far. Family is all here. My wife and I were up earlier preparing for a group breakfast. The majority vote was for “Eggs Benefit” (Benedict). My younger son called it that when he was a young boy, and it stuck. Our future daughter-in-laws are here too. They are so lovely and pleasant. Roast beast with yorkshire pudding and all the fixings for Christmas dinner. Gift opening will have to wait until after breakfast. We’re really blessed. Merry Christmas to all of you. Enjoy the time with your family! -K

With a good new battery installed Slow engine cranking may be attributed to a well worn starter, and incorrect sized battery cables that have been installed. Possibly poorly corroded cables too. Stiff and crunchy cables are symptoms. Poor grounds will also contribute. Suggest cleaning up cable contacts. If its cold, light viscosity engine oil helps speed things up a little too. It all adds up, each contributing to a slow cranking engine.