keithb7

I’ve been plucking away at wiring. All the removed wires I have been replacing, I’ve been tossing in a bag. I glanced at the bag tonight and thought, the pile of wires grew somehow! A few wires replaced here and there, turns into quite a bit. I guess by now I could have just bought a new wire harness kit. Then I thought, what fun would that be though? I’ve had a real hoot making my own. Tracing the old wiring diagram, scratching my head. Adding and improving. I am getting to know the car very well. A bond is developing! ?

The rear tail lamp assembly was fun to get apart. I’ll bet it was 81 years ago that the last time the hardware was turned. Plenty rusted. I used a Dremel to get inside the housing and cut the bolts out. Cleaned it all up with a media blaster. Will be primed for now and re-assembled.

Does mine here appear to set up for column shift? Does my input shaft appear fairly long? Possibly for a fluid drive? Thx.

Hi kind folks. I acquired the following transmission in a group of old Mopar parts I purchased. Main housing is marked with casting 1408517-9. Rear housing marked with casting 138238-1. Front mounting flange of tranny has the following stamped on a flat surface. Looks like punch was used. Reads “5 6 53 KE”. I have reason to believe it may have come out of a 1953 Plymouth Belvedere. Does that seem likely? Manual tranny. 3 speed I assume? Additionally what other years and models of Mopar‘s might this bolt into with few complications. I was thinking of keeping it as a spare for my 1938 Plymouth. It has a ‘54 engine with original 3 speed manual already in it. If it is unlikely to fit in my ‘38 May move it on to another owner in need. Thought I’d ask here before donning coveralls and getting under my ‘38. Today my garage is tore up for new shelving and organization. Need more efficient use of space! Thx. Keith.

As this thread is getting more in-depth I will shed a little more from my experience. About 2 years ago I bought the same tool as shown above by @Los_Control it worked for about 10-20 flares. Then I pulled the threads out of the hold-down hardware. The press is not rotating very nicely either. Again, more thread damage. It came with all the various sized buttons. Cheap off-shore junk is what I surmised. It worked, just not good quality steel. So I set out to find a “Made In The USA” version. Better steel I figure. Hopefully it’ll hold up to more use. I got the bar and the press, used for under $5. Made in USA by Industrial Eastman. No buttons included. No big deal, I have the buttons from my first set. It works. I need to perfect my technique I think. It’s got the big butterfly wing nuts for the clamp. Is is better that my first one. However the size of the press tells me it was not designed for dual flare. Only single. With a double flare, you need more travel height with the press. Because you are making the bubble first. Then folding it in on itself. The Imperial Eastman press does not open far enough to make the initial bubble. I think that between the parts and pieces from both tools I can do what I need. Double or single flares. Sure the right tool the first time would have been the right thing to do. Bigger bucks on tools is nice, but I’m not sure I do enough flares to make it worth the cost. Likely I’ll get fed up, and go get another, higher quality, more expensive flare tool. At some point I’ll wager that’ll happen. Here you can see the differences. I do not recommend the offshore lower priced press. You can see the thread material I pulled right out of the blocks, on the hardware here.

Great points guys. I will go back to where I bought the tubing and see if it is metric. Upon research I found that this particular tool appears to be designed for single flare use. I am currently making fuel lines. Practicing a few more here, I am getting good single flare results. I will carry on with single flare as I believe this is adequate for fuel.

I read about the newer flexible, softer tube line that is available. Its easier to work with than steel lines. I agree its easier to bend and shape. However I am scratching my head about the double flair I am getting. Is this softer tube a thicker wall? I seem to be getting oblong flares. Not nice and circular. The tool bracket, when I tighten it on around the tube is bowing in the centre. The outer ends are tight. Center clearance seen in pic below. Top pic is after inital step 1 pressing to bubble the tube. Tube is cut straight, filed and tapered before pressing. Tool is Industrial Eastman made in USA. 195-FA. Perhaps only built for single flare? Or only made for thinner wall steel tube? I will research more. I had better success when I double flared steel tube in an earlier job. Thoughts tips appreciated. Thanks.

New York City. 1920-ish.

Lately I can't seem to get enough vintage Mopar info to feed my desire to learn more. I think I am currently in "obsessed" mode. ? Between working on my '38, driving my '53, and visiting a few web sites, I get a pretty good fix. It's seems it's just not enough these days. The leaves have all fallen. The cooler weather has most all of the old cars in hibernation by now. I'm itching to go see some more old cars, but there seems to be few opportunities to do so by this late in the year. Next week I am driving the Car Club's '28 Dodge Bros car in an evening, lighted parade. I am looking forward to that. As long as the snow holds up, I will be out for a cruise in my Chrysler on any weekend ahead. My upcoming winter projects are focused around my '38. That should keep me occupied. I am settling in to a pattern. The dark evenings are filled with daily work in my garage, working on my '38. Lots of little picky work trying to salvage 81 year old hardware that's never seen lube. You folks know all about that I'm sure. My Windsor will not see any major repairs this winter. It's in a holding pattern until its part, in 2 weddings is completed next year. Tonight I am having respectful thoughts about members here who have done a full restoration on an old car. Endless hours spent, nit-picking over every little thing. Cheers to you folks for preserving automobile history! ? -K

Do you know what type of brakes you have? The pic above is also a Standard 6 model. It has mechanical brakes. Steele-Draulic brand. The car is about 98% stock. SN also starts with “J”. An engine pic:

Before you plug in your block heater for the first time, check to ensure if its a 6V or 12V type. Swap out the air in your tires with helium. Its lighter than air. You’ll float on the snow and not get stuck. For quick engine warm up time and cab heat, drain about half of your crankcase oil. Refill and top it up with -40 rated window washer fluid. As an added bonus it’ll flush out the bugs that got in there last summer.

The SN tells us it is indeed a 1928 Dodge Brothers. Could have been built in late April 1928. J prefix seems to indicate it is a Standard 6 model. See here: http://www.dodgebrothersclub.org/DB_Production_Dates.pdf Do you have any pics you could share? We'd enjoy seeing the car. Thx.

Rear tail lamp treasures found. No solder to be seen. No wire covering left. Twist, black tape, & fingers crossed I reckon. More progress tonite replacing all wires with new! Rear tail lenses appear to be glass. I’m impressed.

That old restored gas station is awesome! Who financed the restoration? Who pays for it’s upkeep and annual costs?

That is a perfect illustration of the rear seal. Chrylser had so many great drawings that were not shared among all the various car service manuals.

Thanks @TodFitch . It appears my engine was exactly the 1,000th P6 engine in 1938.

Re SN: Passenger side wood floorboard near the firewall. Lift carpet and underlay. SN tag should be there.

You started pulling plug wires and there was no noticeable difference in engine RPM? Interesting. What can you can say about your valve settings? Too tight clearances, then when they heat up, they get a little bigger. Then the clearances get tighter. Then valves are not closing all the way. Not sealing. Then you have dead cylinders. Sparkplugs would be firing, but there would be no power in that cylinder. Sounding like a miss. Later the engine cools down, the valves shrink again, and they seal again. Until the next time they heat up. Have you any compression test results? Hot and cold?

Thanks @Sam Buchanan I will shop around and see if I can locate some options for fittings. I spent a little more time this afternoon on wiring. I installed a quad-bank fuse panel on the firewall. As seen below. I am experimenting and learning as I go. It’s my first time at this and having fun. Reviving, not restoring at this point. This fuse panel is hot, un-switched. I installed an 8 AWG wire right off the starter switch up to the fuse buss. I ran the horn off it. Before, the horn was anemic and dull. Now its bright, peppy, and alive. I am planning to run both high and low headlight relays off this fuse panel as well. Separate relays and fuses for each circuit. In an effort to get bright lights. Final fourth fuse I’ll likely for the fog lamps. These lamps and horn are now by-passed from the ammeter. I suppose if wanted, I could run the 8 AWG feed wire from the back of the ammeter. Then they all feed off there, and are measured. Will consider. I plan to wrap all wires in loom once layout is complete.

Certainly an interesting problem. I am a little stumped and look forward to learning the answer. Thinking about the throttle wiring that cuts power to the coil temporarily when forcing a downshift to 3rd. I wonder if it could be somehow related to the indicated problem?

Explain a little further.... At a stop light if you don’t use the clutch what happens? Engine stalls?

Good eye @Sam Buchanan. Hose is a little large. Going drop it down a size. I assumed the 90* fitting was stock so I have been working with it. I’ll see what other fitting options I can find. Thanks.

Try clicking this link here. I have opened up the shared folder to anyone who clicks on this link. Read only access. This folder contains a lot of in depth info/ A lot is labeled and directed at the Victory 6 model car. However much of it pertains to all the Dodge Bros cars of 1928. There are numerous books here to read and get a good understanding of the cars and the culture of 1928. If clicking this link does not work, let me know. Regards, Keith. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nopWofBqwBKJ4yj8kJkmsfmrbbHpkJ2W?usp=sharing

A pic of the 28 I mentioned.