Loren

I've come to the conclusion that the original style pinion seal is not a seal at all. It's a cruel hoax perpetrated on the poor hobbyist! I am putting together a spare differential (with an alternate ratio) for my Suburban. OMG! This is the nastiest seal I've ever tried to install! Pinion seals should not be that hard to install. Modern stuff with silicone outer rims are designed to go in with a little more than thumb pressure. There is no way you can get an original in while on your back under the car. Yet that is exactly how most pinion seals are changed. So after a frustrating failure I went to my local NAPA looking for a modern seal. The counterman was in no mood to re-engineer a 67 year old Plymouth so what I got was the listed seal for my car. The outer edge has the dry sealant coating and there is no felt dust seal. It's tap-in to fit in the housing and a reasonable thumb push fit for the yoke. You could easily install this seal while on your back under the car....if you could get the old out! The NAPA part number 18880 price $20 so for $70 (with the "Speedi Sleeve") you can be assured of a leak free differential and you won't be frustrated.

Redline has for years made gear lubes that performed. We used them in off road racing in a car that had a notoriously weak transmission and never had a failure. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that thicker lube isn’t always better. A thinner lube can run cooler and if temperature is killing your bearings as in our case, thinner is better. The factory recognized this and went from 90 wt to 75 wt which is like water, then settled on 30 wt motor oil. I have always tried to drain a transmission and replace the lube with ATF before pulling it for repair. A few hundred miles with ATF in them makes the rebuild process so much easier because when you take them apart the inside is razor clean. I haven’t figured out how to clean the outside as easily yet. Redline lube gets my endorsement whole heartedly. I know the Overdrive gurus are fixated on GL-1, but my experience with ball and roller bearings, brass syncros and sprag clutch freewheeling makes me think there’s a Redline product that will work fine.

TBI is great if you don't have a lot of underwood space, because it fits in the space of a carburetor. My all time favorite injection is Bosch CIS. It's considered obsolete now days but boy did it work good! Extremely easy to fix when something went wrong and it was easy to modify. It was mostly hydraulic with a temp sensor (aka warm up regulator) that regulated control pressure, a cold start valve and a fast idle device. The airflow sensor was a flap in a Venturi. Bog simple but took up a lot of space. Three basic spare parts and you're ready for the apocalypse. 1) Fuel pump 2) Fuel filter 3) Warm up regulator A customer drove a 1978 SAAB 99 80,000 miles without a service (he just changed oil) before it stopped running and had to be towed. We did the 80,000 mile service and it ran like a top!

That's what I would think too. On the SAAB V4 the WW worked very well with the bowl on the side (one barrel ahead of the other). I did it that way because the stock linkage could be used and the carburetor didn't seem to care. The factory two barrels sat crosswise diagonal to the center of the engine with the float bowl forward (the sister engine Ford V6 as used in the Mercury Capri had the same goofy set up) and you could never get a smooth reliable throttle action in the SAAB. Float bowl forward would cause the three ports to get a fairly even mixture. Float bowl to the side would have the mixture drawing from the closest barrel. The main reason to go bowl forward is fuel starvation under acceleration. I had that problem with Webers but never with the WW. (another reason it was my favorite) In another post there is a discussion of a Thickstun manifold with 2 singles. Googling Thickstun brought up a photo of a Manifold he made for an 8 cylinder Chrysler flathead. This had 97s as I recall with float bowl forward. I think I'll have another look at that.

That sure looks like a Bendix-Stromberg WW. The diagonal accelerator pump link is what I look for first. One of those served a 107cid 7,000+rpm 4 cylinder just fine. I was thinking two might work as well on a 265cid 4,000+rpm 6 cylinder. They use the same jets as a 97 but are much shorter and seem to be very versatile. The carburetor guy who introduced me to them even put one on a 450SL which everyone claimed ran better than its original fuel injection! Since they put a lot of them on MoPar cars, some have the provision for the Overdrive kick-down switch I need. Now which way to mount them? Barrels in line or crossways?

I've been reading one of the history books and there is a mention of a "Power Pack'" kit that MoPar sold for the 1956 Plymouth PowerFlow 6. (apparently Dodge installed these at the factory for their cars....) The book said it had a Stromberg dual throat carburetor and it raised the output to 131 hp! My question which the book didn't elaborate on is which Stromberg carburetor? My all time favorite is called a Bendix-Stromberg WW. They were used on lots of V8s including Dodge and Studebaker. I had lots of success adapting them to SAAB 96 V4 engines and even set a Dry Lakes speed record with one. I have a project I am working on which I'd like to keep "period correct" and the WW would fit my "skill set" and parts bin nicely.

For years I worked on Swedish and German cars, I never had to adjust the pedal push rod. Then I rebuilt the brake system on a Morris Minor. I was shocked that the manufacturing tolerances finally caught up with me. Happily I knew what to do. After that experience I got a little more fussy about that adjustment. Apparently the Chrysler engineers who wrote the shop manuals I have were fussy about the pedal adjustment too, because they describe what happens it each point in the pedal depression.

Honestly, I'd worry more about the brake light bulbs burning the lens on your tail lights. My favorite year Plymouths have plastic lenses and those bulbs get hot! Sitting with your foot on the brake for extended periods taxes more than just the Fluid Drive. I'd kick it out of gear and apply the hand brake. Just saying, consider the cost of replacement lenses.

Hi James, The closest thing he has are the Imperial, the DeSoto and a very sad Plymouth Business Coupe. But he's got a pile of manual transmissions in so many variations I was surprised they made so many (no Overdrives) There is a bone yard in Arizona that has a bunch of 1952-54 Windsors which might still have what you need. www.dvap.com is the web site. I'd like to go see the place, let me know if you'd like to go. (I have a pickup to transport treasures)

Well, now I know more than I did before! All good suggestions. Part of this wrecking yard deal is a 1950 DeSoto donor car. So it’s a question of the path of least resistance verses effectiveness and future spares. Happily I have a machine shop so making a part isn’t impossible.

Hmm Well, this is why I asked. After reading your reply I checked Andy's site and you are painfully correct some of the parts are pretty spendy or just not available. Due to the wrecking yard closing, I'll be getting the Imperial like it or not. Once I have it I can pull some parts and see if there are any solutions. When you read about putting 12 x 2 inch Lincoln Zephyr hydraulic brakes on a Model A, it sounds rather involved but they do it every day. What got me was the one vendor offering "remanufactured" Imperial drums for nearly $600! All it would take to ruin my day would be one bad drum or the nagging notion I might need one years from now. Hmm indeed. Perhaps 11 x 2 is more practical.

I have found a 1952 Imperial two door (pillar less hardtop) that somebody took apart decades ago that's sitting in wrecking yard. The wrecking yard is going to close soon so with a little wheeling and dealing it will be delivered to my garage. My thought was to transfer the brakes and the differential (if it is a 3.53, I already have a 3.73) to my 1952 Suburban. The brakes fill the wheels, so I figure they are 12 x 2 inch. I am guessing the wheels are 15 x 5.5 inches vs the Plymouth's 15 x 4.5. I am thinking I can drive out the King Pins in the front and use the Imperial spindles. In the rear the Imperial Brakes should fit the Plymouth rear axle housing. The rest of the car can be had for cheap and I detected zero rust in the body. It's a real shame it's been allowed to waste away in a bone yard. Is there anything I need to know about this plan? I am correct in my guesses about the brakes and the wheels.

What a lovely gift for a son from a Dad! My eldest son got the 66 Mustang his grand parents drove. He rewarded their memory by doing a truly expert restoration with updates. He made it his own and he made it far nicer than the factory ever made one even by accident! It took years but he has a car he can be proud of. Because it was such a precious car with a beloved history, while he worked on it he got another "first car" to drive. So.... There are lots of "Disposable cars" for kids to drive. That's all a guy I know drives. He calls them "Leavers". He only puts fuel in them and changes the oil when he buys one. After that if it dies on the road, he signs the title and leaves it on the seat under the keys, gathers his gear and calls a friend to pick him up. Hence the name "Leaver". You can tell your son his car is much admired even in this state.

I had to sleeve my yoke as well. It's a fairly easy process actually. I bead blasted the yoke to get it clean then put it in the freezer to shrink it a little. That step proved pointless as the sleeves are so thin the temperature difference disappears too quickly to be useful. Installation is simple, you hammer it on with a cup that comes with the sleeve that pushes against the flanged end. Then I buffed the end with a Scotchbrite wheel to reduce the burr. The seals are pretty old timey with the felt dust barrier. The felt serves only to keep dust out not lube oil in. I am certain there are better seals that would fit. Nobody uses that system anymore. I have the pumpkin out of the car for bearing replacement, so I am going to use a different procedure than you would for an in car seal replacement. After all the adjustments to the bearings are made, I'll take the pinion out, put the front bearing & oil slinger in, then press in the seal and finally the yoke. To keep the slinger from wondering a little grease will hold it. The pinion will go in last. Lots of trial fits first. I would use a modern seal if I had to do this under the car. The originals are way too fussy and too easy to damage. I got my SKF "Speedi Sleeve" from NAPA for $48.

My Great Grand Parents had a Victrola that was a pretty spectacular piece of furniture. I have it now and it survived because it was so nice. The only record that survived was a record for a film strip. We used to use it to demonstrate that the Victrola still worked. It's been a long time since I heard it but I think it was for around 1934 model year Dodge Sales. You started the record from the center and it played out to the edge at 33 1/3 rpm. The label says "Dodge Slide Film" "Smart as tomorrow" No. 16 - Part 1A (The flip side is 1B). I am not a collector of random stuff (at least that is what I tell myself) The stuff I do accumulate has to fit together with what I feel is a treasure. One record is a fragment of a much bigger collection which I don't have, so it is just random stuff to me. If anyone can use this I'd be happy to donate it for the shipping cost....otherwise it goes back in the Victrola. Thanks, Loren

Once I had to worked on an old four cylinder flathead Willys Jeep. It had popped a head gasket because of corrosion. I got about 5 phone calls from the machine shop, "It didn't clean up yet, what should we do?" Answer, "Take more off till it does." At .125 or an 1/8 of an inch it cleaned up enough we knew it would seal. The studs now too long and required a box of washers under the nuts to have enough threads. Needless to say it had a lot more power! Enough to make it scary to drive. In my humble opinion, in the general condition you'll find old Jeeps in, they should never exceed 35 mph. If the water jackets don't tapper outward (opening up the passages), you can mill a flathead a surprising amount. That's only because they start off with such low compression. Overhead Valve heads start higher and have strict limits as to how much they will tolerate. The machine shop trade has a best practice book from their trade association which has that data collected from the experience of all their members and the manufacturers. I remember seeing a notice from Oldsmobile regarding Diesel heads in a place I worked. It said ".010 warpage and under reuse. Over .010 replace. Re-surfacing of Oldsmobile Diesel Cylinder Heads is not recommended." So there's the thick and the thin of it.

It is a fact that in 2019 our privacy is under attack. Personal data is a commodity that has value to those who can figure out how to sell it. Usually it's not the person who is the subject of the data who profits from it. That said, I've come to the conclusion that I do not own my cars. I only have stewardship of them. I am only a small part of their history because with care they will out live me. Once I made that leap, I started taking even better care of them! Some day somebody's going to know and I don't want to leave behind an embarrassing legacy. It's kind of like "Do the right thing even if you think nobody is looking." Everyone is proud of a clean shiny car. Sometimes it takes real courage to keep an original, original. There's a sign on the wall at the Harley-Davidson Museum that explains this: "You will see within these walls vehicles which are not as presentable as you'd expect. These have been determined by the curators to be originals. A vehicle can be restored many times but an original is an original only once."

This is a great question. Plymouth in 1952 was the first production car to feature tubeless tires. Looking at a number of older wheels you can see they were ready for them for years. What Plymouth called "Safety rib" wheels are needed for tubeless tires. If your rims have that feature you can try them. The only thing that could be a fly in the ointment are the rivets holding the centers. If the wheels leak at the rivets don't worry there are fixes for that. Not all car makers were as smart about "Safety Rib" wheels and tubeless tires. Hint: Look at present day photographs of surviving 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1s. Then look at the advertising and brochure photographs. You will note the survivors rarely have their original wheels. The ones that didn't have "Safety Ribs". Don't ask me how I know.

I just sold an 1964 International Travelall that had a T86 with R 10 Overdrive transmission. I've been told the Plymouth Transmission with Overdrive is a better gearbox. I really liked the Overdrive feature especially with a smallish engine. (The IH had a 266 V8) There's a pretty good hill near my home which at about 3/4 of the way up would trigger the kick down. Once you crested the hill and lifted the throttle a little it went back into Overdrive. Getting it into 2nd gear Overdrive took the right situation and practice. I am sure most people wouldn't bother. A flathead Plymouth seems to be the perfect car for an Overdrive transmission. Overdrives have a certain charm to them and Plymouths are cruisers which amplifies that charm. If you don't use the "Automatic" feature of the B-W Overdrive, I think they are kind of pointless. In other words if your Overdrive doesn't work like it was intended automatically, I'd either fix it or get a different transmission. Using it to get "one more gear" is not enough to justify the trouble of having it. A T5 shifts faster, easier and has a synchro first gear. There's not much "charm" to a T5 though. I've driven foreign cars with the Laycock-DeNormanville Overdrive which are not "Automatic". You have to flip a switch or toggle a lever to switch between direct and Overdrive. Honestly, I'd rather have a 5 speed than a 4 speed with non-automatic Overdrive. L-D did not put the governor and kick down switch in because they figured the Overdrive would be engaged under full throttle most of the time. The L-D Overdrive was to be installed in sports cars, while the B-W was designed for full size American cars and trucks. Different designs for different vehicles and uses. The freewheel feature should get some mention. First of all parking the car in gear does not ensure it won't roll. You've got to pull the Overdrive handle to lock the freewheeling. However, if you master it you can shift without using the clutch. You have to let the engine RPMs drop below the drive shaft speed to do it, then slowly raise the engine speed till they match then accelerate normally. I raced SAAB cars in SCORE Desert and Baja races. They had a dedicated freewheeling unit (it was a hold over from the 2 cycle days. Two cycle engines don't get as much lubrication when the throttle is closed, as the fuel carries the lube oil). I loved it as you could down shift going into a corner then power out without touching the clutch. I used it like a kind of "Pre-select". I suspect this has a limited application for a Plymouth as you will never rev one 7,000+ rpm. So the question is "Charm" and highway speed or modernity? You can put a V8 with an automatic in your vintage Plymouth and perhaps a front frame clip from something else for better steering and brakes, but what do you have afterwords? It will only look like a vintage Plymouth. There's something rather 2D about such a car. My choice would be the best example of what was available at time the car was made. That way it retains all of it's charm.

What I would say only applies to my car (1952 Suburban). I recently bought a Plymouth Overdrive transmission on eBay. I had been watching for sometime and the going price for one in unknown condition was $800. This one had been gone through and had a new relay, the wiring harness, kick down switch and as a bonus the drive shaft. It had also been set up for 12 volts. It was near by so I picked it up myself saving a shipping bill. I paid $1,100 and figured it was a good deal. Overdrives became available around May or June 1952 for the post war cars. The B-W Overdrive reduces engine speed by 30%. There are calculators on the internet for tire rotation per mile (for commonly available modern tires) and final drive ratios. A friend gave me a rear end from a 1954 with a Powerflite transmission. This was a cheap and easy way to get a lower numerical ratio (3.73) and all of it is stock stuff. It's just arranged in a way the factory never intended. Factory built Overdrive cars used 4.1 final drives which gave them better acceleration but didn't give them top speed potential. Now something to consider, is that one is not going to "speed shift" a Plymouth transmission (or any 3 on the tree Overdrive for that matter). I have a T5 in a Model A and I don't care for the ratios at all (I am told there are other ratios available such as for a Camaro) but it is modern and does shift quicker with less drama. So that is an option. For me I was not going to cut a hole in the floor of my car for a shifter. So three on the tree works for me. Gear ratios will get you to modern Highway speeds but.... will your engine have the torque to pull them? Which means now you have to do some engine work. One thing I haven't heard on this site is the idea of restricting the size of the holes drilled in the block to the cam bearings. The oil passages go to the cam bearings first and then to the Crankshaft main bearings and finally thru the crankshaft to the rod bearings. Many production engines are that way (even the mighty Ford FE 427 that won LeMans). For racing there are kits for these engines to restrict the flow to the cam bearings which sends more oil at greater pressure to the crankshaft main bearings. Plymouths have oil passages about .250" the common restrictor size is .065 to .070. So you see there's a lot to be gained! There are no secrets to getting more power however keeping the engine alive is of greater importance.

Of all the 1949-54 Plymouths I have had a love of the Suburbans. Woodys are nice but just don't have the purportions of the Suburban (they were on the 118' wheel base). K.T. Keller I believe had a great idea when he made Chrysler cars with "chair height seats and enough head room you could wear your hat". As I get older I appreciate taller cars, they are easier to get in and out of. In retrospect some have called the Plymouth Suburban the first SUV. Certainly the SUVs are giving mere "cars" a run for their money in the market place now days. Some may recall the Suburban with the floor shifted 4speed and 18 inch wheels, (as seen on this site) now that was an SUV! This thread made me to go over to my warehouse and "visit" my 52 Suburban. The rats have been using the front seat materials for nest making...but I planed to re-upholster it anyway. I found the original seats a little plain. Today I drug out a rear end from a 54 that had a PowerFlite transmission. It's a 3.73 ratio and coupled with the Overdrive transmission I just bought should get the highway RPMs down to modern standards. I know I guy who is putting an early Hemi in a DeSoto. He's promised me the engine so I might have enough cubic inches to pull that gear ratio.

I think Dan Hiebert has the right idea. I might try the factory setting First as a baseline, then a degree more positive and if all is well then the second degree. If you're lucky to find an old timer, he's very likely already done a 1949-54 Plymouth several times and knows exactly what works. If I still lived in Southern California, I know exactly which alignment shop I'd go to.

Just my two cents. If you go with Radial tires, you might want to consult with a real good alignment shop (or several). Radials respond better to more caster than Bias Ply tires. Seventy years ago engineers only had Bias Ply tires to work with and their focus was on extending wear, which was in the 15 to 20,000 mile range if that. WiKipedia, that great oracle of knowledge says radials like 7 degrees of caster where Bias Plies like considerably less. We live in the 21st Century and our cars are forced to deal with what is available at a reasonable cost, might as well help them adjust to modern reality. From the Plymouth Manual Caster is -1 to +1 with Zero preferred, which is a long ways from 7 degrees. My knowledge is pretty dated (I last worked in auto repair in 1986) so I am a little fuzzy on Caster vs King Pin Angle (which is 4 3/4 to 6 degrees). Seems to me they basically do the same thing, just in a different place (one adjustable and one usually built in). So adding 1 degree of Caster might satisfy the tires and still remain within the specs.

In regard to fitting the hubs to a keyed axle. I have found that Low Strength Loc-Tite is the way to go. It seals the moisture and dust out and provides good metal to metal contact AND it makes it easier to get apart next time. I speak from experience gained in off-road racing. We had problems with wheel bearings on a front wheel drive car. We used new axle nuts every time we replaced a bearing and after only two races, they had to be cut off as the alkali dust welded them to the axle. Low Strength Loc-Tite sealed the threads and made the nuts come off much easier. Used on splines and the O.D. & I.D. of the bearings made them fly apart by comparison. Usually you think of Loc-Tite as a means to keep things together and it does that very well, but I used it to be able to get things apart again! In regard to brake bleeding. It is far better to PUSH the fluid through the system than any method involving SUCKING. I would pressure bleed Master Cylinders on the bench, then install them on the car, without bleeding the whole system. Done right and all you need is a couple of pedal pumps and you're done. If you need to bleed the whole system then start at the furthest point from the Master Cylinder. Open that wheel cylinder's bleeder (if you have a hose and a catch container, use it) then fill the reservoir (use a pressure bleeder) or just put the cap back on and apply a small amount of air pressure to the vent hole. Fill the reservoir again, then close the bleeder and repeat with the next farthest bleeder. Note that it only takes one person to bleed brakes fast the first time.