Sniper

I have a set of 17x7 rims on the back of my 51, Dorman 939-137, less than $60 new. Not sure on the back spacing, but it's more than 3.5". Bore is correct for hub centricity. No issues with the drum rivets hitting the wheel. Running 255/50R17 tires, zero issues with fitment, no spacers. But, PA is right about having to jack the body high to get enough clearance to install them.

I dunno, my time is worth something to me, especially when it's 100+ degrees out. To be honest this is one of those deals that'll either cost nothing because the mechanic is interested in doing the job or cost a lot because he isn't, lol. For example, If Los wanted a hand on his truck, I'd do it for free because of the comradery. Some unknown character that wanted the same? Probably quote a price that'll either run him off, or really make it worth my time to do it. But I don't do that for a living so I don't need to work or the word of mouth. One related thing, might even be helpful. When I changed the exhaust out on the ex's Canyon I had a trick to find leaks. Here's a video on my SIL using that trick, I was filming.

Been awhile since you been to a shop? $100 might cover one hour, if you are lucky. Closer to half an hour in a lot of places. https://www.motor.com/2023/05/a-look-at-shop-labor-rates-across-the-country/ Mind you that's over a year old.

I dunno, when I went to title and register my 64 300 in Arizona, it was a California car, they had to check the VIN. The numbers stamped on the body never matched the VIN back then, the number stamped on the body was referred to as the SO number in Chrysler literature. It's the same on my 65 Cuda. So the inspector was like thinking we had a problem. That was fun to deal with.

Lat time I did a B&T rebuild I got a kit from Andy Bernbaum, zero issues. But that was back in the 80's and it was NOS. Not sure what he has now.

That's because you need to rejet when you go from one carb (designed to feed the engine) to two carbs (both designed to feed the engine by themselves). Synchronizing the carbs has nothing to do with the AF ratio, just equalizing airflow through the carbs. Well, one carb, properly jetted, will work better than two carbs way off on the jetting. Going back to a single B&B would have probably made the same difference. Now the question really is, where do you get jets and other such tuning parts for a B&B.

Technically, yes. Legally they are different. VIN's didn't come into being till 1954, but as Dan said, they weren't standardized till 1981.

In Texas that year would have used the engine serial number on the title. There was no VIN, per se, back in those days. You had a body serial number and you had an engine serial number and they were not the same. Which number was used was up to the state to decide.

I dunno, comparing stuff made today to stuff made 22 years ago is problematic. Everything is so cheaply made, for the most part, these days. That said, I don't have garage doors so I cannot help.

My comment? How did you manage to mess up your post that badly?

I work in the commercial and industrial uninterruptible power supply industry. We use VRLA batteries for most of our setups. VRLA means Valve Regulated Lead Acid (sealed batteries essentially). Batteries heat up when you charge them, nature of the beast. However, there is a limit to how hot you want them to get and we use temp sensors to monitor that, as an option though. When I test the batteries, my tester costs about $5k, and it shows an initial "fully charged" voltage under 13V I know that battery will fail the test and we replace it. If yours reads like that after being on the charger overnight, it's dead. BTW, a maintainer isn't really designed to charge a fully discharged battery, it's just to keep it charged, which is why it is referred to as a maintainer, it maintains the charge level, such as in a car being stored for the winter. But as JB said, your battery is dead is it won't hold a charge.

That's why they came out with the everdry sparkplug boot setup.

And tuneability. You can more finely adjust the AF ratio with computer controlled injection than a carb could ever hope to do. But you do have to do the tuning, or at least get a self tuning setup but even those aren't as finely tailored as possible. No disagreement, considering they are cast and not machined, but even CNC machined units would still vary some. Enough to matter? maybe. I am curious as to what you did to compensate for the flow differences? Porting/polishing?

When I was a kid I took three shots with my BB gun at a badger before it finally saw where I was hiding and that's when I found out they were all teeth and Claws and I ran like hell. I haven't messed with a badger since.

I have never seen carburetor synchronizing tools used at anything other than the idle setting. And we're talking about how much the throttle blade is open not so much the mixture. I'm not sure those tools would have the range to measure at wide open throttle although I suppose you could add an extended range gauge to it and accomplish it. In my case I have dual throttle body fuel injection and I hand made both air cleaners identical to one another with the widest diameter filters I can run and they're about 4 and 1/2 in tall so I shouldn't have an air flow restriction on the air filter side of it

Don't forget your carbs need to be synchronized too. Basically, that means the airflow thru each carb is equal at idle

Old school cast iron rings can take awhile to seat, that is for sure. We get spoiled these days with the more precise and finer machining and better materials availability. While you can probably benefit from the better machining these days, assuming you find a shop with the latest tooling and the willingness to deal with old iron, we are still stuck with cast iron rings or chrome rings as the choice. It is what it is. Of course there are custom options. The Freewheeling Tony Smith sells a custom rod and piston package, with modern style rings, but it isn't cheap. About $4500 last I looked

My 64 300 had a front B&T joint. With a warmed up 413 and a stick. It had zero problems handing that power. I broke many things on that car but never the ball and trunnion. I doubt you broke yours. In any event, it is a little different to install, but it's not rocket science. U joints are simpler to install and cheaper to make, which is why they went to U joints, not because they were stouter. You really need to get under the car and inspect the driveshaft to see what your problem is.

I just used that pic because the graphic was clear and readable. Some Bosch relays do have the diode, just have to be ware is all. Since the OP never said Bosch and didn't give a brand or part number of what he has, who really knows.

DC energized relays use a diode to control what is called the flywheel/flyback effect. So they are indeed polarity specific. Flywheel occurs when the coil de-energizes and the magnetic field collapses inducing a voltage, much like how the ignition coil works. The diode is there to short that flywheel voltage out so it doesn't cause noise or issues int eh electrical system. Being that our stuff is relatively crude this effect doesn't really apply, except that the diode is generally built into the DC relay and if you wire it incorrectly the diode will short out the control voltage rather than the flywheel voltage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyback_diode Usually, the relay will have a graphic on the case showing a diode, in the picture below it is the right pointing triangle and line between 85 and 86

Back when my mother-in-law's Kia's battery took a dump I did some Price shopping for her and believe it or not Napa had the best prices for the same warranty levels. So when it came time to buy a 12 volt battery for the Cambridge after it's conversion I did the same in Napa still had the best price. However O'Reilly's had the best price for the battery in the BMW. So do a little Price shopping you might be pleasantly surprised.

Oh, that's true regardless of which Hemi you are talking about.

I'm not too worried about being able to go stupid fast in the 51. If I did that I'd probably kill myself LOL. This suspension isn't up to it the brakes are halfway there. And handling I don't think that word was in the dictionary when the 51 was built LOL. I like it for what it is and I'm not going to try to make it something it isn't now if I happen to find a Hellcat charger for dirt cheap I might do a body Swap and fix all of those problems at once

Modern compressors aren't that power hungry. My neon had ac and I doubt it had much more horsepower. And a heck of a lot less torque.

I'm kind of like Plymouthy here, I prefer to keep my Mopar all Mopar. I actually have a 318 on the engine stand and a couple of automatics and a couple of four speeds. So I wouldn't really have to pay for that part of the swap if I wanted to put a small block in. But I found a big block truck I could use a lot of parts off of that donor aside from the drivetrain. AC comes to mind.