Mr Bee

Yes, I would prefer to broadcast to the AM radio. I agree, there's not much on AM anymore. I currently broadcast to my FM radio in my current F150 and it works perfectly.

I'm just bringing in the photo of the C-1608 that Ivan provided a link to for future reference. This is the actual radio chassis without the decorative grill faceplate.

Thanks for the tips Rich. I like the idea of hiding the antennas under the running boards! I'm not keen to put a hole in my fender. Also thanks for your contact info...I just may have to get back to you should I find a radio!

Thanks, that link was very useful as it shows me what the actual radio chassis looks like.

Thanks, that link was very useful as it shows me what the actual radio chassis looks like.

Great, thanks. I'll send him a message.

I believe my 1939 Dodge D13 has a radio delete blocking plate as seen in the attached photo of my dashboard. Does the second screenshot look like the correct radio for a 1939 Dodge? I do believe in the screenshot the part of the trim at the upper left side is not actually part of the radio. You can see from my dashboard photo there's a full length plate that covers the left and right flanks of the radio. And I also guess that the trim at the very bottom of the screenshot actually goes on the top. Is it possible that in the photo of my dash that the radio delete blocking plate is in fact the front face of a missing radio? I would perhaps just have to find a Philco C-1608 radio body and knock out the two vertical black plates in my dash photo? Please note that the silver tuning knobs are not stock. It's all I had hanging around. Any info or photos of your 1939 Dodge, Plymouth or Chrysler dashboard with a radio would be appreciated! By the way, I've searched the internet using various terms to find 1930's mopar car radios. I did find vintage, antique or collector car radio websites, but stock for pre war cars is pretty bare. Is there anyone out there that you've done business with in the past for old radios?

Wow, thanks for your great response! Perfect, exactly what I needed. Thanks so much...never even thought of mounting it to that center bracket!

1939 Dodge, Plymouth, Chrysler etc (cars). Does the long seat track slider return spring connect on the driver's or passengers seat track? Also, does it mount on the front or back of the track which is fixed to the floorboard? And finally, does it mount to the seat frame somewhere, or connect to the top slider of the seat track?

40desoto, which year of 70's Mustang master cylinder did you install? Do you have the make and model of your mc that works with manual (not power) front discs and drum rears? I'm using a 67 Mustang stock master cylinder (designed for power brakes) which works great on the new front discs, but its not enough for the rears.

I did get my original cable working. I gave a detailed how-to earlier in this thread. Long and short of it is that I bought a stiff push-pull throttle inner wire and brazed it to each end as per my earlier how-to. Works good so far. But...if I had a cable like yours that works for a couple days at a time, I'm pretty certain it's still got lots of sludge in the lowest 12 inches of the cable. In my how-to I described a number of methods to clean out the sludge. It would have worked on mine, however, I went a bit overboard by bending the cable while my drill was spinning the inner wire. That snapped my wire which led me to getting a fresh inner wire and brazing it in place. By the way, French Lake did send me a cable, but it was seized even more than mine was. No fault to them...they warned me it was badly seized.

Very cool, folks. Much appreciated. Thanks for helping build a knowledge base on these old beauties.

Ah...that makes sense. Did you come up with that idea of screwing in the grease cap a bit at a time, or was that in a manual somewhere?

Ah...Standard SL2 is a silicon lubricant. I actually have some! Thanks for mentioning it.

A couple things I was most unsure of. I had never seen a felt pad on the points bracket before. Yes, I recall getting a small packet of a jelly to put on the cam for my 60's cars, but was unsure about that felt pad on my 39. I ended up putting 3 in 1 oil on the felt and cam about a week ago as I didn't have any other feedback at thr time. I do like the idea of sewing machine oil on felt pad though, especially if one is diligent to touch it up once or twice a year. I'll check mine out later on in the year to see if it dries out. The second thing is the side port. Mine also had a bearing grease inside, but quite frankly, I can't see how it does any good as the small hole inside the port was just gummed up with old grease. Also, based on my distributor cap orientation, my side port is at 8 o'clock (if one were to think of noon being straight up). I would think the side port should be at least from 9 o'clock thru noon and into 3 o'clock for grease to melt in under high heat. And I assume you would only get a high enough heat when there's too much friction. Therefore one would need to know at what temperature your lubricant becomes viscous enough to dribble thru the small internal port, and at what temperature the friction gets high enough to warrant some liquid grease. Unless someone out there has a high level of knowledge about this, I'm going to say that its going to be pretty much impossible to get the side port lubrication right. Thanks for your responses so far!

I'd just braze a bit of brass on the end and use a file to shape it. It'll give you whatever length you need.

Quick update: so I bought a 1938 floor shift full transmission with the hopes of using the top plate, rails and shifter and mounting them on my column shift transmission. Quick answer: nope. Doesn't work. The transmission body is the same, but that might be where the similarities end. Turns out that the gears are different. As a result, the 38 rails don't fit on the 39 gears. Basically the rail's fork for a 39 has a small, tight arc (semi circle). The 38 has a much wider arc. So...its a no go. There are a couple plus sides. The first is that I now have a backup transmission, just in case. The second is that I luckily bought a new inner cable from an online aircraft supply house. This evening I figured out a way to get the ends on the cable without dismantling the cables outer jacket. Basically, you have to drill out the two ends where the original wire was pressed into. Drill them out right through. Then push the new inner wire through the conduit (the cables outer layer). Now thread the transmission end's push button onto the inner wire. Braze the end onto the wire. It might help to enlarge the hole in the end so that a bit more brass can melt into the button. Now push that button all the way in flush. You can now work on the other end (the steering column end). Thread the spring onto the wire and insert the spring inside its sleeve. Then thread the steel end button onto the wire and push it into the sleeve so that at least 1/2" is still visible. A bit more would be better. Now make a jig to hold the button in place since the internal spring will try to push it back out. Once you have it in the right position, carefully braze the end on. Again, I found it useful to drill out maybe 1/8" of the end with a larger drill bit to allow more brass to melt into the button. Just take your time and use your oxy-acetelene torch carefully so that you don't melt the button or the internal wire. I just installed mine and it actually works now. Whew.

Vintage distributors need lubrication. As per the photo attached from a 39 Mopar, I've identified and labelled five potential lubrication points. The bottom half is automatically lubricated as it is located inside the engine, so I didn't identify it in the photo. If I'm missing something let me know. For reasons of discussion, here they are: *FELT PAD (on the points bracket arm) *TOP FELT (inside the shaft, visible only when you remove the rotor) *WEIGHTS (visible after removing the breaker plate) *PLATE BEARINGS (the ball bearings that allow the breaker plate to rotate) *SIDE PORT (there a chrome cap over it, and it's the only visible lubrication point on the exterior of the distributor. So all you experts out there, feel free to chime in on what type of lubricants you use (or what you don't lube). Please forgive me if my nomenclature doesn't match yours, but if you use the same naming convention as I used in my list above, it'll be easier to everyone to understand. Any tips appreciated!

I'm in Ontario.

It would be great getting a new cable made up. The biggest problem of getting custom cables made is that they will likely want my original cable to use some of the unusual proprietary components. Thats the feedback I already got from manufacturers. It's always a risk shipping a rare part off with the hopes it arrives okay. Besides that, there's my shipping costs there, plus the cable manufacture costs, shipping and customs costs...most of that is in US dollars. I'm in Canada so the total cost to me is easily 700 bucks or more. It all adds up. Might be okay if I'm working on a $250,000 muscle car, but this is a budget 39 four door sedan.

I've already committed to picking up a complete 38 transmission with floor mounted shifter, so that'll be my first solution. If that fails, Dennis says he has a shifter and top plate, so I'll just need to find rails. Dpollo, your point about the overdrive is a good one, so your solution surely has its merits. Of interest will be whether or not moparpro does indeed bring Repro cables to the market. I'm sure there will be some demand for them. IF YOU HAVE A 39 WITH A STUCK CABLE: I've learned from my mistakes. Here's how to unstick it. Remove the cable and soak it in penetrating oil for DAYS, not hours. Then boil it in hot soapy water for HOURS. Then spray brake cleaner in one end then the other for MINUTES. Push in on the larger end. There is a return spring inside so it should pop right back out again. If not, push in on the other end and repeat pushing back and forth until it frees up. THEN, repeat the soaking, boiling and cleaning sequence as outlined above. You'll now have a bit of time in every day for almost a week...BUT...the very sticky, gooey, sludgy grease that forms inside the cable up to maybe 12" from the transmission end of the cable will now be loose. If you can move push the cable in on the larger end with your thumb (on the steering column end), you can now connect your drill to it and slowly rotate it. DO NOT bend the cable...keep it straight or you can break the inner wire like I did. Spray in brake cleaner slowly as you rotate it. If its moving well it might be an idea to flush the inside with a fine penetrating oil while spinning the inner cable with the drill.

I did contact a different manufacturer of custom push pull control cables and they said they would use components off my original cable but it would still cost about 350-400 dollars. So I'm going to focus on switching to a floor mounted shifter. A cheap alternative is to buy a new inner cable (a buck a foot), remove all of the existing inner cable, then try to rebuild it with the existing parts. Worth a try. Even so, you're still stuck with a less reliable 1939 technology column shifter.

39 was a one-off year for many parts, making it a bit more of a challenge to restore. Apart from this cable, I've refreshed my entire vehicle's mechanical components with a bit of digging at times.

The shifter for 1940 was different from 39. The 40 shifter appears to be available online. I agree, it would be fun to rummage around at French Lake, or any vintage car salvage lots.

Moparpro sold the cable already. However, Michael said that he was going to make reproduction cables shortly.