Loren

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.

The first question I'd ask is, do you have vacuum wipers? If you do you might want to find a dual chamber pump to remove the lag every time you stomp the gas pedal. If you have electric wipers then any pump will work I suppose. No matter what pump you use try and find the heat shield folks threw away with great gusto, actually work to prevent vapor lock.

I have a 49 and a 52. I have always loved the 49 Chrysler made cars especially the Plymouths. However the Dash on the 52 is nice if not as elegant as the 49. Where the 52 goes wrong is that the dash is supposed to be the same color as the body and after 70 years the car is seldom the original color ( even fading hurts ). Whereas the 49 can be any color and the dash is the same wood grain. I like original cars but changing the dash in a 51-52 to a 49-50 is not something that will destroy the car, so why not? Besides I believe it can be reversed. To confirm all you need is a tape measure. I think sooner or later the wood grain dashes will need to be refinished ( as will the body color dashes, perhaps only to match the paint on the body ) A quick look will tell you there is no paint or rust proofing on the back side of the dash ( in an original car ) some thing that has bothered me no end. A future restorer will want “Japanese Quality Paint” and that changes the character of the car. At the Harley Museum there is a sign that reads: “You will see unrestored vehicles here. They are originals and will never be restored. A vehicle can be restored many times but an original is an original only once”. 100+ years later nobody knows what an original Model T Ford looks like. I have seen only one and I looked it over very closely. They were awful! Nothing fits right, the paint is terrible and chassis and engine have wash of dull black paint you can see through. Bottomline: the good old days weren’t as good as we think they were. I like the line about Stewardship of the car. Take care of it and if you must change something to suit your taste, make sure some future owner won’t think bad of your stewardship.

On the 49 and later, no. It has two screws to the steering column. I took mine completely apart trying to figure it out, but if you know its fabric you could just drop some oil in there and let it do its work. If you wanted to you could remove the screws and slide the bushing down to reveal the bearing surface. ( for cleaning and oiling ) Now after the oil treatment it works better and better.

Dad was on an Army freight ship in the Pacific ( FS259 ) and it had a Bofors on the stern. For fun they’d take a big Oxygen bottle and drop it from the bow when they were underway. It would go way down and come shooting back up out of the water behind the ship. They’d shoot at it with the Bofors usually hitting it with a violent “Clang” with bright sparks sending it tumbling end over end. That gun takes at least three people to shoot it. One for up and down another for right to left and a loader. My Dad and a German Immigrant Sargent were the best team on that gun. Only once did they man it in defense. A “Betty” bomber spotted them made a turn and lined up on them bomb bay doors open. Just as it got in range it pealed off and closed the bomb bay. They figured the ship was too small to waste bomb on…. When the war ended the Navy came and removed the Bofors. I figured somebody in the government must have known the mischief they could get into with that gun. lol The last ship he sailed on was the FS344 for one trip San Francisco to New Orleans just after the war. Much later It was transferred to the Navy and became notorious as the USS Pueblo, a victim of North Korean piracy.

I had a very similar problem on my 49. The shifter kept getting stiffer and stiffer. The cause was a fabric bushing at the top of the shifter that was dry. Once I lubed it things went back to normal. Hope this helps.

In May of 1952 Plymouth began using the Borg-Warner R10 Overdrive. Your 1940 is the first year of “3 on the tree” so yes it will fit. You can check the rear end gear ratio online for you car and double check it under the car. The housing has the ratio stamped under the filler plug. Ratios are available to 3.54 which with an Overdrive would need a strong engine or a light car. It is my personal opinion that a properly working R10 Overdrive really benefits a Plymouth. Even at 55 mph the car is so much quieter because the rpm drops 30% in Overdrive. BTW don’t throw away your 1940 transmission. That’s the one with desirable 2nd gear ( the only optional gear ratio in 2nd )

I have to admit I am watching this thread. I am not particularly happy with my new muffler. It seems louder than my first 49 Plymouth. So when some one comes up with a better replacement, I’m in too.

Not sure you can find a new set BUT since most folks want 3.73 or 3.54 R & Ps you should be able to find lots of used 3.9 and 4.1 used cheap! As always a shop manual is a very good investment.

I use a pair of "duck bill" pilers to straighten and pre-load the teeth on the wheel covers. They seem to loose their "bite" on the wheels over time. I do it to keep them on more than stop the walk.

On my 49 Coupe I have a Stromberg. The P.O. said that the mechanic who he bought it from claimed the Stromberg starts easier. It does start very nicely when you drive the car often. Some times when it sits for a while the fuel pump has to refill the carburetor and you need to crank it more. An electric pump or perhaps a rebuild kit in the pump would help. What I have noticed is that Stromberg had a real good replacement business and there are new old stock Strombergs on eBay once every so often, while its hard to find even used B & Bs. I found two NOS matching Strombergs for my Thickstun manifold for a very reasonable $150 each from the same seller, so they are around. For a dual manifold there was never a question which carburetor to use. The Stromberg has the fuel inlet on the side while the B & B has it on the end which is not as easy to deal with. For single use an elbow fitting is in the box and the fuel line does not require bending. ( you do have to loosen the fitting at the pump though to avoid tweaking it ) I have had good service from Mike's Carburetor so I would keep them as a resource and a go to outfit.

One quart extra won't damage an engine. However it might lower your power and fuel economy. There are certain diesel pickup trucks which shall remain nameless, that inject fuel on the exhaust stroke periodically to heat up and clean their trap oxidizer. These engines routinely have fuel washing down into the their crankcases raising the oil to alarming levels. One gallon extra is not unheard of! I once bought a car with a sheared off oil pump drive shaft...it was in Lancaster-Palmdale and since I didn't own a trailer, I had to drive it home to Burbank, CA. 90 miles at 65-70 mph. So I just put in two extra quarts of oil and hoped for the best. I made it without any drama. Pulled the engine and removed the pan and there was nothing wrong except the pump shaft! A new oil pump ( for insurance ) and drive shaft and put it back on the road. The two quarts extra were 50% more oil than it was supposed to have ( 4 vs 6 ) so I figured that was a good ratio. Model A Fords will leak oil if parked on a steep driveway nose up. The only solution is to back in. Model T Fords have no oil pump or "dippers" on their connecting rods so you don't want to park them nose up in a steep driveway and let them idle for extended periods.

You’d have to check the Mopar parts book, which is the simple answer. The Dodge is 4 inches longer than the Plymouth so that makes the question a little more complex.

That big ole canister on the side is in fact a full flow filter, one of the first as a matter of fact. Chrysler wasn't convinced for some time that a full flow filter was a good idea. They thought it might plug up and stop the oil flow. This inspired them to engineer a "second chance device" into the system. It worked to by-pass the filter so that flow would not be reduced. However, the pressure seen on the dash gauge would drop about 20 lbs. It wasn't too long before a special plug was installed to do away with this as a plugged up filter never became a problem. Most spin-on filters have a by-pass valve built into them because the fear persists. On the two industrial engines I have, have the feature that the holes under the filter housing are threaded, making it tempting to install an oil cooler and a remote spin-on filter. It should be noted that the by-pass filter is a 10 micron filter, while a full flow is 30 micron. As far as I know one could plumb in a by-pass filter along with the full flow filter. When it comes to keeping the oil clean the biggest improvement is Positive Crankcase Ventilation. By placing the crankcase under a mild vacuum, any moisture from combustion is removed. Moisture along with acid ( also a product of combustion ) creates sludge. Now you filter it out or you can stop it from forming in the first place with PCV. The additive package in modern oil is designed to counteract the acid ( diesel oil also gets acid in it but it is sulfuric acid while gasoline has hydrochloric acid, that is why each has different oil specs ) So....my theory about the optimal Chrysler 237-251-265 oiling system would be an oil cooler in place of the full flow filter, a spin-on by-pass filter, a PCV system and modern high quality oil of your choice. That seems to cover all the bases.

That’s good to know! My 49 Coupe is rather light and makes the standard second gear seem almost silly. They came with 3.73 final drive gears so I have a 3.54 pumpkin ready to install. My other car is a 52 Suburban, a heavier car. Its no where near the weight of your DeSoto but it is heavier than the Coupe. Perhaps I should stick with the standard gear for it. If you go to eBay and search “1940 Plymouth Transmission Gears” you will find plenty of them. You’ll need the cluster ( which I bought for $90 ) and the second gear ( $50 ) sold by seller fmmpar.

It is safe to say the R-7 is more rare than the R-10. It certainly is more antique than the R-10. The first Mopar R-10 being May of 1952. I am sure it might bolt in but you might want to stay with the R-10 because of the volume of parts still around. I mean that is the safe recommendation.

If you came from the Ford side of this great hobby you may well have heard the term “Zephyr Gears”. The Lincoln Zephyr used a taller 2nd gear and is a very similar idea as the 40 Plymouth gear set. The hot setup for a Model A is a 39 V8 gearbox with Zephyr gears. This gives you a synchro/silent gear set more evenly spaced. The 39 gearbox is like the Plymouth being the last stick shift. What I have done additionally for my Model A is add the “Old School” Studebaker R-10 Overdrive mounted on the torque tube driveshaft. These were built in the 1950s for guys wanting to use their Model As on the highway. This is replacing the S-10 T-5 transmission that I have come to hate so much. For my Plymouths I have the R-10 Overdrive gearbox with the 1940 gear set. In my humble opinion this is far and away better than the S-10 T-5 on several levels, it gives four speeds but because of the freewheel feature you can ( if you desire ) and the Automatic Overdrive avoid using the clutch as much. The gear ratios make more sense and the thing bolts right in. My Coupe came with a 3.73 final drive ratio but I have a 3.54 from a 56 Dodge, I am going to try. So the “Fast second gear” is not some crazy rumor and it has a basis in other car makes.

Mike’s Carburetor may have a 6 volt choke that will fit. In point of fact I am not certain the existing choke wouldn’t work, its just a heater after all. Since I’m not a fan of Webers I can’t speak to their parts situation. I do know that jets, needle valves from 97s can be used on WWs. I put the fancy stainless banjo fittings on a pair of mine. Any Supplier of Ford V8 parts usually has 97 parts & tools. The good ones are reproduced in England now, with bargain ones made in China, so parts are readily available at reasonable prices. When it comes to the WW I can’t think of many car brands that didn’t use them at one time or another. I used them on 91 cid Ford/SAAB V4s and they came from the factory on 318s so they are very adaptable and tunable. I’ve even seen them on Mercedes 450SLs as a replacement for Fuel Injection! I think there are no bad choices between the two in this situation. The car in question is not a race car and good fuel economy tip the balance to the Weber.

Okay my 2 cents worth. The Stromberg does not fit the single barrel air cleaner and the 1955-56 6 cylinders used a vastly different linkage system. The WW is simply a bigger carburetor. As far as tuning parts are concerned they are probably easier to find than the Weber as they are roughly the same as Stromberg 97 stuff. Same jets, same jet wrench and I fitted 97 fittings to a pair of mine. The 230 exhaust manifold has provision for the choke heater. They made a lot of WWs so kits are widely available. On the Weber. It has a progressive linkage as I recall and it might be easier to hook up to the stock single barrel linkage. The barrels are smaller and open first one then both. You will not be over carbureted and very likely get better mileage. So there’s much to consider. Most importantly you have the Weber package and from where I sit it might be the path of least resistance. I favor the Stromberg because I have had so much good luck with them. I personally don’t care for progressive linkage carburetors because they are a compromise in my book. When I stab the throttle I want things to happen. One race car I drove had a Weber and it had a nasty habit of running out of fuel at unpredictable and unfortunate times. My Strombergs never let me down like that. I am all about the path of least resistance. The Stromberg maybe my ideal but if the Weber gets you on the road quickly and easily that’s the way to go. Besides you can always revisit the Stromberg later.

I have an S-10 T-5 in my 31 Model A Ford. The kit that was used was pretty awful but that's another matter. My main complaint is the choice of gear ratios used by GM in the S-10 T-5. They are terrible! The reason the S-10 T-5 is used is the location of the shifter and the fact that it has a mechanical speedometer drive. I know folks have problems finding B-W R-10 Overdrives but you have to be eagle eyed and you will find deals. I bought one on eBay a week ago on a "Buy-it-now" for $250 plus $93 shipping from French Lake Auto Wrecking. French Lake can be Googled and you can contact them directly if you'd like. I have been a heavy advocate for the R-10 over the S-10 T-5 as most readers know. In fact I've been a pain in the neck about them and I apologize ahead of time for repeating myself endlessly. What I like about the R-10: Bolts right in, no adaptors required. No cutting or welding. You don't lose your E-brake You can use the speedometer gear from your old transmission so there's no re-engineering there. If you have the long transmission now, there are no issues. If you have the short wheelbase car you'll need to shorten the drive shaft and lengthen the E-brake cable with a coupler and a piece of rod which you have to thread ( or an All-Thread rod ). Lastly there is the throttle switch and the relay. I have found alternatives to the very high priced reproductions. The wiring is easy and the diagrams are available on this site. The top gear in an S-10 T-5 is a 28% overdrive while the top gear in the R-10 is 30% overdrive. If you still have to have an S-10 T-5 I have one for sale.