whippersnapper48

Hi Guys, I just wanted to double back and let everyone know what the culprit(s) were. Yes, the distributor needed a full rebuild. The breaker plate failed and was causing the points to bounce. Also, someone dropped the original point locking screw into the bottom of the distributor housing, and it was lodged into a heavy old cake of grease. This was the causing the mechanical advance to hit the screw and not function properly. So I rebuilt the whole distributor and set it up on my distributer machine. I was also right about fuel being the issue as well. The flexible fuel line from the body line to the fuel pump was so rotted, there were holes worn down to the webbing. With these fixes, the car is running better than it ever has. Thanks for all the advice and suggestions, Jon

Thanks for your input, and no, it does the same thing with no load. He said that he was driving the car last fall, and all of the sudden it started doing this. It hasn't run properly since. He insists its timing, but in my experience cars don't just jump time. If they do in that rare occasion I have found them to run terribly across the board.

Thanks for the input TodFitch. I plan on doing a timing gun check using just that method you described. I really think this is gas and not timing though. I asked if I could pull the distributer and run it on my Allen distributer machine, but he feels that since it has been rebuilt, it is not needed.

Greetings Mopar gurus! So I've been working on a friends 39 Plymouth convertible for about a month now, and I just cant get this thing running properly. The car runs and idles great, but when you are accelerating in 2nd gear to about 20 mph she bucks hard and just wont go any faster. same in third at about 35-40 mph. Someone worked on this car before me, and shot gunned a ton of parts. The whole distributer was rebuilt including the vacuum advance, the carburetor was professionally rebuilt, new fuel pump, new spark wires, new flexible fuel line, and a new coil. I timed the car 2 weeks ago, and she needed a little advance according to the vacuum gauge. I took the car for a spin today, and its still bucking hard like its running out of gas. There is no backfiring at all, no white, blue, or black smoke, and the carb is getting gas. Today the car over heated on me, and I had to take it back and let it cool down. Im at a loss on this one, but Im not defeated. Thanks for the help in advance, Jon

The starter is out, dismantled, and waiting for parts to come in. There was lots of metal shards in the nose cone and the drive won't return on its own. I have the inspection plate off for the clutch/flywheel as well. Everything isfine on inspection inside there.

This is a good thought, but the car has not moved and is in neutral when it's started. Somehow, the starter drive is not disengaging when the car starts for some reason. When it warms up a bit and I have more time, I'm going to make a few shims and see what happens.

Thanks for responding. I hope thats not the case, because I didn't pull the starter until it the noise happened after the mount swap. The hardware looks original from what I can see. I was going to just shim the starter with a couple washers to see if that fixed the issue.

I lost one of the rear engine mounts on my 48 Plymouth, so today I decided to do the swap. Everything went well until it came time to fire her up. The starter was making a a rattling sound when I was cranking like the bendix was about to go. when she finally caught, it was an awful high pitched squeal coming from that area of the bell housing. I pulled the starter and dropped the clutch dust shroud to see what was going on. no sign of anything a rye in there, and the flywheel spins freely without any issue. The starter spins over fine under its own power, but but back in there, it makes that damn awful screech! My guess is I have a broken starter drive somehow causing the drive to catch and stay engaged while trying to run. Am I on the right track? Any pointers? Thanks in advance, Jon

Greg, we have successfully solved the problem. The fan is whirring at top speed! Who do you recommend for getting a repop switch from? Jon

I have an aftermarket switch that lights up when switched on. It lights up when the ground is not connected. When connected to the frame,the light goes out. Very odd

The car is 100 percent original. Including paint and upholstery

I pulled the old aftermarket heater out of the car because of a leaky core. when it was hitched up, the fan worked. I got a known good original heater from a friend of mine that worked when hitched to a battery. sadly nothing now that its in the car. The switch is good, and its a two wire one. Thoughts gents? Jon

So I finally got the floor off with no issues. There's a lot of rust there, and someone did a decent patch but didn't cut out the rust; just sprayed it. A word of advice to anyone who plans to put in a brand new master: The front loop that goes over the pedal assembly shaft has to be drilled out .010" in order to except the shaft. a 3/4" drill bit works perfectly for this application.

Well, that settles it then. Looks like I'll be pulling the front seat and the floor this morning. From what I understand, there is only 8 screws holding the floor to the frame? Thanks again for all the responses!