Loren

The line on the manifold goes to the exhaust side of the pump. A metal line works best. The suction side goes to the wiper motor. This way if the engine has more vacuum than the pump it will suck through the pump. Such as going down hill with the throttle closed.

I stopped by our local lumber yard and snapped a photo of the place you can find the couplers. Hillman Couplers.heic

Leaving hand brake on is a rite of passage for old Plymouth owners. When on a foggy late night my car suddenly stopped on its own and refused to move, I was worried. When tendrils of smoke appeared between me and the dashboard my imagination took off. I opened the car door and looked up and there was only a street light ( no alien space craft ) so looked under the car and there was this bright orange glow! Now I was thinking OMG! “Its the subterranean Martians! And you know they are the worst kind!” Looking further under the car there was the brake band emitting the bright orange light I saw reflecting on road. Looking all around me I was alone on the road and thinking “I am telling no one about this. This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done!” Hey I was only 20 and I’ve had a lot of practice doing stupid things since then. When I installed the overdrive in my P17 ( 111 inch wheelbase ) I did not want to change the hand brake cable which of course was 7 inches too short. True Value hardware stores and Tractor Supply use the same hardware supplier ( and my “Old timer’s” is kicking and I can’t remember the name ) Anyway if you go to where the metal is to get the rod you need you will only find course thread couplers there. However if you go to where the hardware & bolts are they will have fine thread couplers in the drawers. They are very sneaky! In our little town ( population 2,200 ) the hardware store is True Value and they don’t have much but our Lumber yard gets their hardware from the same outfit and they had them. The coupler was priced at twice the money as the course threaded one but they had it! For a first class job I bought a jam nut to lock the coupler to the cable then screwed the extension in till it bottomed on the cable to lock it. You could use two but I thought that would be redundant.

12 pack and a Sawzall. When I was a little kid we had a 49 Mercury two door club coupe. It was blue and looked exactly like the James Dean Merc that went over the cliff into the sea. My Mom was pulling out of a driveway just in time for a speeding drunk in a new 54 Ford to T-bone her. The impact “printed” the front end of the Ford so deeply into the side of the Merc that you could tell what kind of a car hit it. Much like the print of a bird on a window. My Dad decided he wanted the wreck and got it back from the insurance company. Since the damage was on the driver’s side he didn’t have to look at in front of the house, only the neighbors did. With the driver’s door wired shut, you got into the car in a “peeking order” driver first. I think the fact that the accident was so bad and the car was still driving, people thought it had just happened and my Dad was fleeing the scene. He did drive rather fast all the time. After a while I think that began to bother him. He came up with this wild idea of sawing off the roof to make it a pickup. He never said it but so modified everyone knew it was a recycled wreck. That never would have happened if he hadn’t had a friend in the boat business who had an air powered reciprocating saw ( this was before Milwaukee invented the Sawzall ). Now sawing off the roof at the rear ( now gone ) seat opened new possibilities for mischief! He would seek out those folks who were careless in their parking and literally slip the Mercury between two cars taking up three spaces. Then he’d exit the car by climbing over the seat out the back. Yes he was that kind of a guy. In driving, today we would say, he had no filter, he spoke his mind with action. Just like most people now days who own pickups, he never once carried anything in the back. I think he liked that car. How do I know? The one and only time I ever saw him change oil in a car was that Mercury. Happily I figured it out as a child that you are not responsible for the behavior of your parents. 12 pack indeed.

A caution for all, do not forget to put the cotter pins back in! I would add that you shouldn't reuse them either. When you lose a wheel it is always in the middle of an intersection and its mighty hard to find a jack that fits under a car without a wheel. Don't ask me how I know this!

If you have the right tool the drums are easy to get off. I bought one of those cheap Chinese hub pullers because it looked like an old American one. Could not get the drums off. Then a friend gave me an old one he had used. The main difference was heft. This thing is heavy! I set myself up for a tough afternoon of beating on this thing. BAMM! It came apart just like in the movies! There is a thing I've been thinking of. The Model A guys are now getting 12x2 inch Bendix type backing plates ( and Lincoln Drums ) reproduced in China to replace the stock mechanical brakes. The whole setup is like Lincoln Zephyr brakes only with the self energizing Bendix system. Some may know it's really easy to add the self adjusting feature as well. What attracted me to this is the possibility of drilling them to fit the Plymouth steering knuckles without having to change them to Chrysler pieces. Next up would be to find a brake drum to substitute for the Chrysler drums that you could rivet to the Plymouth hubs. The supplier to the parts houses is in California and I figured I could take a Plymouth steering knuckle to them and see how they fit. In this way you could get all the advantages folks see in the Bendix system with off the shelf parts and retain drum brakes. The rear brakes can be had with cable parking brakes if desired. It kind of checks all the boxes. My only complaint is the cost maybe higher than finding used Chrysler brakes. Lastly if you want to know what the gear ratio is in your rear axle here is a photo of a cleaned up housing. You will find it stamped on the flat under the fill plug. They didn't always stamp them the same way or with the same size stamps but if you will look you will find.

How about just changing the differential carrier? It’s a lot less work and your car is still stock. You can get a 3.53 ratio easily from one of the Mopar V8s up to 1956. Somebody said they were too hard to find. It took me all of 5 minutes to find 4 in the same wrecking yard. While I was looking I found a rare positive ground 6 volt Delta Mark Ten CDI, so it wasn’t a bad afternoon! My local Craigslist had an advert for a pile of the up to 56 rear ends for free, come and get them!

I had an old hub a PO had cut the rivets out and put studs in. When I got a new set of 6 inch wide steel wheels I used the hub as a drill jig to drill the hole for the alinement stud. Turned out super! If I were doing it again that’s the way I’d do it. For the rivet heads, you only have to “spot” it where they live. Of course you don’t have to remove all the rivets and the drum. You only need one then index the hub to the next rivet.

In keeping with this thread I uploaded to the Download section of this site Barney Navarro's October 1952 Hop Up magazine article "The truth about cams" parts 1 and 2. It includes some great period advertisements that some of us might remember from our Dad's car magazines ( as none of us are that old, right? )

Truth About Cams by Barney Navarro View File An October 1952 article from Hop Up magazine by Barney Navarro with guidance from Ed Winfield. Mr Navarro was a well known hot rodder at the time and a manufacturer of speed equipment. His equipment is now being reproduced by H & H Flatheads. One of his projects was a "Stock Block" AMC 6 cylinder which qualified for the Indy 500! I asked him about it and he replied, "That engine was highly dependent on turbocharging." You could read a great deal from his comment. Submitter Loren Submitted 01/16/2023 Category Reference Information  

If one were building a very well prepared engine, one could easily run an experiment. Put everything you want into it, electronic ignition ( zero horse power ) dual carbs or fuel injection, the cam du jour and any exhaust that meets one's fancy, everything except more compression. Then see how it performs. Certainly there should be some improvement. If I were to guess a well designed exhaust would help the most closely followed by dual carburetors. Nothing will work by itself as well as more compression. So once there is a reading on horse power, then change the cylinder head. I think the results will speak for themselves. There is one and only one proviso, side valve engines have a limitation to efforts to raise compression. If you make the combustion chamber too small, it restricts the valves and the engine can't breathe. This is why overhead valve engines took over after the war. It is also why Barney Navarro sold Detroit Diesel 71 series supercharger kits for flathead Fords. So how does compression work? Imagine gun powder, spill it out on the floor and light it with a match and it burns very hot and slowly. Put it in tightly wound paper and it burns just as hot but very quickly, so much so it goes BANG. Compressing the fuel air mixture does exactly the same thing. More compression means more effective and complete burning. One of the side effects is better fuel mileage too. On camshafts, there has been some tinkering on individual engines over the decades since side valve engines ruled. However, you'd really be surprised at how little has changed since Ed Winfield taught Isky, Crower and others how to grind cams.

An analytical look at this table shows you exactly what Barney Navarro said in his advertisement of the same era. Compression is what makes horse power. Some things make zero horse power but are worth having for reliability such as Dual point ignition. Grouping the Sharp head and the Mallory coil, condenser and Dyna-Flyte dual point breaker plate together is a perfect example of compression carrying the weight. ( omitting the ignition stuff would have not reduced the power output ) The intake manifold and dual carburetors added to the Sharp head added very little in example B until you got higher up in the rpm range. A good example of the horse power vs torque debate. In a long stroke flathead six low end grunt is a whole lot more useful than high rpm horse power. You can use that more of the time than bearing hammering rpm. Navarro of course doesn't mention manifolds because he sold them too and I am certain he liked to sell you heads and a manifold as a package. Example C shows how exhaust can free up the breathing of an engine. Again compression is the magic that makes it work and that is why the Sharp cylinder head was the first thing they did. You will note there are no mention of camshafts. Navarro penned a two part article titled "The truth about Camshafts" along about the same time. In it the editor says that Barney had Ed Winfield look the article over before publication. Winfield and Navarro were friends of course having shops nearby. ( Navarro at the end of Lake St, Winfield on Lake St. in Glendale. You could stand at Winfield's door look south and see Navarro's shop on the cross street ) It is a pretty deep dive into the subject but it basically says other than the sound effects there's not much use for a "hot cam" in a street car. "Sound effects" seem to be real important to the car culture now days. Kong Jackson was a friend of my Dad and I ( the inventor of the Jackson gear drive for camshafts ) his son ran brother Pete Jackson's shop and produced the gear drives in two flavors, silent and noisy. Oddly the noisy ones sold very well! They sound like a blower and the guys buying them liked that. So in conclusion what should we take away from this? If you want more power the most cost effective way is to bump up the compression, either by a new head or milling your old one. Every other mod is incremental to compression or only additive to reliability.

Clean the threads in the block. I always run a tap down every single hole. Then spray some Brake Clean or Berryman’s in them. An extra step is to make sure the bolts are not too long. If the bolt threads are longer than the threads in the block they can corrode on the ends and be difficult to remove. It’s better to put a washer under the head of the bolt than to trim the bolt ( it may corrode faster ) Bolts with sealant on the ends are “single use” they do not require any more sealant ( the first time you install them ). Personally I don’t like “pre-sealed” bolts. It is hard to get a genuine torque reading on them. Most are “torque to yield” which means you torque them to a figure then turn them another 90 degrees. They are designed to stretch when they reach the proper torque. An idea I find a little scary. The best head bolts are not bolts at all. They studs. The gold standard for head studs are ARP brand. Very pricey! You have to be serious to spend the $200 to 300 for ARP hardware for a flathead 6 engine. The kits with head gaskets for V8 diesels will run you about $1,500, so don’t feel bad. ARP studs are very nicely made but I have my own opinions on how to make studs. ARP uses cut threads, if you made them with rolled threads they are 20% stronger. Rolled threads require a high precision centerless grinding of the stock. The rolling process forces the thread “up” making the threads a larger diameter than the shaft. Which I think is much better for use with aluminum heads. By making your own you can control the thread length a lot closer than using off the shelf studs and thus prevent the end corrosion problem. ARP uses a black oxide coating which is good but you could have them plated instead. Aircraft studs which see high temperatures are silver plated on the threads so they can be easily disassembled after long service without breaking.

You needn't spend money on starter fluid, unless you want to seat a tire. In the wilds of Baja that's how they do it. Spray starter fluid in the tire and throw matches at it. You've got to see it! The Olds diesel mechanics used to use WD40 to start those things after a fuel pump rebuild. it wasn't the ingredients that lit them off it was the propane propellant. Could have just as soon used Right Guard spray deodorant! ( That and a Zippo lighter used to make the neatest flame thrower! Stunk though ) What works that is not quite so aggressive is an unlit propane torch. The reason you need Starter Fluid is there is no fuel in the carburetor for some reason. On my putt putt engines, if they don't start I just put a new carburetor on. That's not so crazy wasteful when you realize a new carb is $10.50! Considering the cost of starting fluid, a carb kit and my time $10.50 sounds pretty reasonable. I keep one on the shelf at all times. I learned this from my local putt putt engine dealer ( but not intentionally ) each time I took some device in for a tune up because it wouldn't start, he put a carburetor on it at $125! Only took twice for me to figure that one out. So...why is your engine not getting fuel? Find that out and you're half way there.

Honestly I’ve never seen a return line on a remote booster. What I have seen is the slave cylinder losing a seal. In fact any master connected to a vacuum booster can even modern cars. The tell tale sign is the white cloud following you and stinking badly. Anti freeze and brake fluid are made of the same stuff and have similar actions when sent through the combustion chamber. One of the projects I have my list is a remote reservoir for the original master cylinder. One you could check under the hood. You could even add a cap with float switch if you wanted, for a warning light.

Call me old fashion but I get a kick out of using old tech. The easiest way to help with wide open throttle slow down of the wipers is of course a vacuum tank. Another way is to get a dual chamber fuel pump. The top chamber only pumps vacuum. What makes the dual chamber pump so useful is that in the situations of prolonged high rpm wide open throttle ( going up a long grade ) which would drain the vacuum tank, the pump is actually pumping more vacuum than you'd need. Put them both together for a really workable system. Electric wipers are two speed and aftermarket motors are 12 volt only. I find it fun to live with a good working 6 volt system so the aftermarket is out for me. However, vacuum wipers have an infinite speed control ( between slow and slower lol ). Good modern rubber wipers, dual chamber fuel pump and a vacuum tank give you a serviceable system. Add a momentary vacuum switch foot or dash mounted and you can have manual intermittent wipers!

There are several single circuit remote brake boosters available on the aftermarket and they are not hard to hook up. The booster itself stores the vacuum ( kind of like an accumulator ) There's a one way valve on the inlet so the vacuum stays constant, not like the vacuum windshield wipers. Any location on the intake manifold will work fine as the vacuum source. High vacuum occurs when the throttle is closed ( just when you need it for braking ) The old early 50s DeSotos and Chryslers used the same master cylinder with a remote booster so its not rocket science.

I agree four posts are less scary! With a four post you don't need to worry if the slab is appropriate. Harbor Freight has the hydraulic jacks for about $60. Best to take the dead one and see if they have a match. At that price it's not worth messing with the old one. If you buy two so you have a spare and you'll never use it. If you buy one...well you're taking your chances. lol Before you start a job you need the cherry picker for I would spray the daylights out of the casters with PB Blaster. They are usually just awful. With a low ceiling you're stuck with a cherry picker. So I understand and feel your pain.

Got one on the way, THANKS!

I believe "Sky hooks" like your's are the only way to work! After working with those lousy cherry picker engine hoists for years I refuse to deal with them ever again. I have a Harbor Freight version of your hoist. Its very stable moves a lot easier than the cherry pickers and can be elevated as needed. The Yale round block I have is an antique and the whole set up was used to unload a 2,300 lbs Detroit Diesel 2-71 generator set from a pickup. It did this without complaint even though the combination is rated at 1 ton only. My only complaint is that it isn't wide enough to lift something from a flatbed truck or a trailer. It can go high enough but it is too narrow. So I have a larger and longer I-beam for the next time I get "a round to it" and fix that issue. What I like about these is the fact they will roll easily with a load ( the larger wheels have a lot to do with this ). You can move forwards and backwards just by tugging on the vertical columns ( you don't have to move the car ). Side to side is easy because your round block is on rollers above. Add a tilting engine balance and you can install long engines with the transmission installed ( within limits of course ). If anyone still likes the cherry picker style I have one ( with a spare cylinder new in the box ) I'll sell cheap!

There is a Permatex product called "Right Stuff" which works very well in most places. Its black and kind of a dry consistency. Blue silicone seal has gone a little obsolete and I rarely use that stuff anymore. The orange high temp stuff ( we used to call it GMS for General Motors Sealant ) is much the same, obsolete. In the good ole days guys would put Blue silicone seal on everything! I can't tell you how many valve cover gaskets I've changed because they leaked with the blue stuff all over them. ( cork gaskets squeeze out with the slippery silicone. There is one place I use it. When you need something to slip into place without bunching up the gasket ) On bolts and studs which get exposed to the coolant, I use the lowest strength Loc-tite I have. Clean the I.D. threads and the O.D. threads throughly then apply ( run a tap and die over the threads ). Loc-tite seals the threads and prevents corrosion, most gasket sealers don't do as good a job. In off road racing we had an axle nut that was exposed to dust. They rusted to the point where I was cutting them off to avoid ruining the axle threads in just two races! When you seal the threads with Loc-tite, they come off easily because the only thing that held them was the torque and the Loc-tite, not rust. On studs going into the water jacket, don't run them in up to the end of the threads. Figure out the depth of the thread and only run them in that far. The threads rust inside the water jacket and prevent removal, that's why they break. Never use hard bolts or studs in a water jacket. They corrode faster than grade 5 bolts, way faster. You could replace the water pump bolts with stainless steel but remember they are not as strong and they tend to stretch. So unless you plan on re-torquing them regularly stay with the grade 5. Check the depth of the threads and use bolts that only go in that far ( or add washers ).

For your entertainment: Delco-Remy was of course two companies at one time. Remy had a perfectly awful reputation while Charles Kettering's Dayton Electric Co. had a perfectly awesome one. Billy Durant was cognizant that his Buick buyers first trip in their new cars was to the Bosch dealer to replace the crummy Remy ignition. Durant who was more of a stock market guy than a car guy wheeled and dealt until he owned both companies. He merged a sick company to a strong one and got Kettering in the bargain, which by itself proved to be the best part of the deal. The point type ignition, more accurately called Battery Coil Ignition was invented by Mr Kettering ( along with the self starter, a host of other key automotive innovations not the least of which was the perfection of Winton's 2 cycle diesel engine which became Detroit Diesel ) Delco-Remy benefits to this day from Kettering's legacy of scientific research which just in time for World War ll included Tetra-Ethyl-Lead fuel additive for high compression engines. We owe the development of the post war High Compression Overhead Valve V8 engines to Mr Kettering's fuel research. Billy Durant's stock speculation brought together all of the best people to create General Motors and they all seemed to have passed through Buick at one time. Charles Nash and Walter Chrysler both went on to create their own cars. Durant was thrown out of GM not once but twice. His major contribution to the company was the people he brought to it by his stock market activities which ultimately was his down fall.

50 years ago my college second car was a 49 Special Deluxe Club Coupe ( raced my first car so I needed something reliable ). The water pump ( the original ) started leaking so I replaced it with a modern style lubed for life pump. I had the same leak as you describe after a little while. I had tightened the 5/8ths fan belt too tight and it pulled the pump away from the block. The fix was to loosen the belt a little and retighten the bolts. Maybe two years later the replacement pump started leaking. Never throwing anything away I knew I had the old pump in the trunk, so I reinstalled it. Once in place I spied the grease fitting on it. I fired up the Plymouth and the old pump still leaked, not having healed itself during its rest. Found a grease gun and gave it a couple of shots AND the leaking stopped! Amazingly enough that old original pump never leaked again.

One of the small ( very small ) advantages of vacuum wipers is that they are infinitely adjustable. With electrics you get two speeds, however with a little clever wiring you can make them intermittent. In the 50s all the cars our family had were equipped with dual chamber fuel pumps, so vacuum drops were never an issue. That said I think a vacuum reserve tank is a good idea.