55 Fargo

I have the same sentiment as you, I am also spending a small fortune on Gas, in my part of Canada, gas is $5.00 a US gallon. We live in the country, both my wife and myself commute to work, but we go to different locations, and I am on shiftwork, so we take seperate vehicles. Plus gas to run my lawn tractor, weed whacker, lawn mower, chainsaw, rototiller, sonowblower, and my baby the 47 Coupe. So brother I hear you on this one, but we need gas, what else can we do.........Fred

Louman thats a slick bracket, is that camo paint on that engine block......Fred

Hi Norm, that what I most likely will do, and will aslo give it the acid wash treatment too, clean i up real good and primer and paint.......Fred

Hi all, have any of you had to do a rust repair along the bottm of your trunk lids. I have a parts car lid, it is in better shape than the one I have on the car, but it needs a rust repair job on the inside bottme lip. Anyone have something like this to deal with..............Fred Trunk Lid Rust Repair Update. Had the trunk lid sandblasted, the entire outside, and the inside the lip area around the whole trunk lid. The bottom lip had some rust, and a few small holes, but otherwise not bad, was very pitted. I acid treated, it after the sand blasting, just to make sure, I then patched the 2 holes, this was followed by me mixing up a big batch of firbreglass resin, and pouring it into the lip, I brushed it into place, let her set-up, then sanded her into a decent form. This was followed up with primer, once I finish the rest of the prep, I will shoot the topcoat onto the entire inside of the trunk lid, that will be followed by prep on the outside of the trunk lid, to also be followed up by the top coat. This trunk lid is my experiment, and learning curve on doing the rest of the car, will see how it turns out.............Fred

Hi Rodney, glad to hear the good news of the paint job completed, can hadly wait till mine is painted, but my pockets are real lean these days, ain't gonna happen for a year or 2. Also happy you are okay after the tornado, we have had 3 here this year, we usually only get 7 to 10 per year, but this year they are earlier........Fred

Tim the problem is resolved, I bought a new switch, the rest is history. The old switch showed continuity, but was gummed up, I guess it wasn't closing enough to allow the juice flow, so I installed a new NAPA switch, all is good now.............Thanx Fred

Yes it did, the males on the switch and females on the iwre as before on my OEM switch. I know you mentioned yours was the reverse, but mine was the same, as above..........Fred ps NAPA sure beats waiting for a switch from Roberts or Burnbombs

Went to NAPA and bought SL134 switch, installed immediately, brake light works fine now. The old switch had thick goop in it, when I redid all the brakes, I did not clean out th switch and terminal block, shame on me, thank God, the goop stayed in the switch..........Fred ps and $8.00 fix, 1 year warranty on the NAPA part

My local NAPA has one in stock for $8.00, gonna go get it, any special way of installing it, any problem to the brakes, ie will they need bleeding afterwards.................Fred

Hi Tim, this is possible, but why when I connect the 2 wires that go to the switch the brake light goes on, could it be the terminals on the switch itself. This switch shows continuity, when the brake peddle is pushed......Fred

Heres the scoop. I still only have 1 stop lamp, one wire to it from the switch under the hood down low by the rad on the drivers side. One wire comes in from the power source, when you touch these 2 wires together the brake lamp works, so no issue with a grnd or the bulb itself. The OEM switch , when you connect the ohm metere to the 2 terminals without applying pressure to the peddle you get no reading (continuity), when you push on the brake peddle you get a reading on the Ohm meter, which tells me there is continuity in the switch. Now when you connect the 2 wires with new terminal clips, or bare wires or alligator test leads to the 2 connections on the brake light switch, I cannot get the brake light to go on. So can the switch have conituity, and still not work, not usually, so what might else be the problem? I can run new wire, or whatever is needed, this baffles me because the meter shows continuity, but the switch does not allow the current to flow.............Thanx guys Fred

Hi all, my speedo started bouncing like crazy last night, also noticed the odometer not turning anymore. I have a newer cable, it was lubed when installed, I lubed both cable ends last night, the needle is still bouncing after 30 mph and the odometer isn't moving, any ideas?

Hi all, last night on the way to the big city, some guy at a traffic light tells me I have no brake lights. I tell him there is only one, he says it wasn't working. Sure enough it wasn't working, I tested it, wiring is good, the bulb is good, connected the 2 wires and the light works, the switch has continuity, when the brake peddle is pushed. But no matter what I did the brake light do not work anymore. Can the brakelight switch have continuity and still not allow currecnt to flow? What is a good mechnical replacement, any ideas/suggestions, or should I replace it with an OEM type, I heard that a 1950s Chev truck switch works on our brakes. The city ride was crazy in my old car, too much fast traffic, drivcers don't seem to have much respect for aold cars, big p/u trucks and SUV s with cell phones were the worse, I was doing around 60 mph on the freeway. Temp stayed at 165 to 170 the whole hours drive.Thanx Fred

Thanx Robert, maybe the rad will need a recore at some point, but it won't be the one I have in the car now. The rad is from a D24, which is a bit narrower than a C38 Chrysler rad. I also have a Chrysler rad, but it is toast and needs a recore job, so that will be the one to get it, when that happens the D24 rad will be available for someone with a D24. As I have written, when I first put the timing light on the engine earlier this week, it wasn't out very much, so I really doubt my problem was timing, but maybe I am wrong about that. I notice a difference with my heatrsier now working as it should, still believe it has an effect on engine temps, if they are not allowing exhaust to exit freely...........Fred PS, next step is adjust brakes, do oil pan gasket, some other odds and ends, then on to body work, and hopefully new paint in the spring of 09

I believe that is correct under the Nixon or Ford adminstration, here in Canada we had speed limits of 70 MPH on our major highways at the same time, we did not go to 55 MPH nation wide as the USA did........Fred

I have the exact same Van, except mine is an 2005, it also has the 3.3 l engine, we too are not pleased with the gas mileage, I figure around the 20 to 22 mph per US gallon, doing 100kmh or 62 mph, on the highway........Fred ps we have the new 2007 Chevrolet Uplander vans there fuel economy seems worse than the Dodges, we have both of these vehicles at work.

Hi all, I timed my engine again today, set it to 2 degrees BTDC, in fact it was very close to this when I fisrt put the timimg light to it the other day. The mechanical and vaccum advance seem to work fine too. I had my idle set to approx 550 rpm, seems to run well, like this. Today I also went for aabout a 50 mile ride to the resort town of Winnipeg Beach on Lake Winnipeg, was doing around the 55 mph mark, with short bursts to 60, and once to about 65 mph. The engine temp was around 170 the whole trip, outside ambient temp was 70 degrees, so maybe things are going to be okay..............Fred

My My Rodney, I thought I was doing good at about 65 mph yesterday, had plenty of room to go, probably could have got up to 80. At 65 the car is noisy, having no headliner and door panels does make it loud, wonder if I install bubble flexi foil insulation on the inside of the roof, if that would quiet things down.

Put my hand over the carb, it about sucked my palm in and stalled every time. Don't think I have a manifold leak. I reset electric choke again, used carb spray on idle cam, it idles down nice now, reset idle speed and mixture. I also have the heatrsier working pretty good now. One off thread ??, should the heater valve be open or closed in summer for best cooling.....................Fred

Hi all, was looking at my coil last night, pulled off the wire, there was a tiny bit of oil where the coil wire plugs in. Is this an indication of this coil starting to fail?

Dennis thats the mix I am currently using, 1.5 Gallons of Prestone, bottle of Water wetter, and fill the water up. What temp does your engine run at on the highway Dennis, when the temps are over 80 degrees outside. Do you think the Water Wetter works, my first time using it, it was only 75 here today, my engine temp was 170 on the highway.........Fred

Okay, so you have used the 39 Chrashler speedo, and 36 Chrashler Tranny. What is the gear ratio of the diff, what size of tires are you using? The trans also has a drive gear ie, 17 t or 19 t, you need to know what you have in there. Usually the important factor in speedo accuracy is this, the correct speed gear as to the ratio of the diff. Tires will play a role in speedo accuracy too, if the the tire is tall, it can throw things out, as well if they are short. How about the odometer, can you go for a 10 mile ride, and see what the odometer goes up to, should be close to 10 miles, if all is well, there can be a slight margin of error. Let us know your current diff ratio, tire size, etc, see if we can help................Fred

Hi shel, I think your on the right track, this is the factory correct carb for my engine, which is a 218 longblock. Possibly the accelerator circuit is sticking, and/or the needle seat and float may have issues, this carb is clean and was rebuilt..........Fred

Thanx Shel your a gentlemen and a scholar,I know what the problem with it is. When the shop that made my new shaft, he cut the end for the spring to slip oonto, but he welded the flap onto the shaft leaving the end slit in the wrong position. So when I install the spring as per the pics, it is too loose, so the weight sits forward, in the warmed up position, which is fine in this weather, but not sure what I can do to get this working, I am not going top take the manifolds apart till a rebuild or engine swap, any ideas??? I was thinking of fabbing something to allow the spring to have more tension, or shorten the spring, is that possible..............Fred

Hi, I have to agree with Norm, you need to get some miles duration of the engine running at full temp, then if it holds up, great. I used the Tremclad High heat enamel good to 700 degrees, wire wheel and solvent prep, if it holds up great, if not who cares, not gonna ruin my ride, and fun with the car...........Fred