DonaldSmith

Pipe sizes are based on the inside diameter of the pipe.

Fluid dive with 3-speed standard transmission - Shift into first gear and push the car until it starts or reason suggests backing off. Fluid drive with semi-automatic transmission - put the transmission in the "power" range and push the car. After getting up to 8 miles per hour, the transmission should shift into second, which should bypass the freewheeling function. Keep pushing above 8 mph until the car stars or reason suggests backing off. (For engine braking with the semi-automatic transmission, shift into the "power" range, and the transmission will shift into second gear, again avoiding the freewheeling effect.)

I think that there are two basic models of Chrysler of that era. Is it the New Yorker that has the eight-cylinder engine, and longer hood and fenders? The other models have the same 6-cylinder block as the DeSotos, and I suppose similar hood and fenders.

You would only need one kickdown switch. to tell the transmission to downshift. Some people have rigged a kickdown switch on the accelerator linkage, separate from the carburetor. It just has to know that the pedal has been floored. Would you need the anti-stall control on both carburetors? maybe, maybe not.

Uncle Arthur told my dad that if he got a flywheel big enough, and spun it fast enough, it would spin forever. Perpetual motion. My dad, the engineer, knew that friction would slow it down, but could not argue the point. My dad wondered how Arthur could be so dumb. Uncle Arthur wondered how long before my dad realized he was pulling his leg. Oh, and if you get a wagon with the front wheels smaller than the back wheels, the wagon would be pointing downhill, and would roll forever.

Precious.

Battery connected, positive ground?

The ammeter reads negative when the motor is revving? Sounds like the wires are switched.

Breaking news! Desoto radiator number 972210.

23-1/2, center-to-center of the bolt holes, per my DeSoto. Just measured mine. Definitely not 22 inches.

I think most gas saving wonder devices are fancy in theory, with disappointing real-world results. The old saw is that the auto makers and oil companies conspire against such devices. But in wartime, I would think that, if the device really worked, the government would ramp up production and mandate its use.

If you look under the car (so you bought a hoist - now that's commitment) the Hy-Drive torque converter and clutch assembly takes up a good bit of space between the engine and the transmission, more than a clutch-only bell housing. Post a photo to get verification from the assembled multitude here. Your previous photo shows the oil pan, some bell housing?, and the crossmember that supports the bell housing. Guessing from that photo, i would bet no Hy-Drive, but what do I know. Added thought: Look where the clutch fork goes into the bell housing. If no Hy-drive, the fork is near the engine, since the clutch pushes against the flywheel bolted to the engine. If there is a fluid coupling, the clutch fork is back farther, since the clutch pushes against a plate at the back of the fluid coupling.

Vintage photo effect complete with the white fold lines from the photo being found folded in the drawer all these years!

2003, on the way to a National DeSoto Club convention, a hubcap went sailing off. Several times later, I scoured the roadside, to no avail. Then three months after the convention, I saw an ad in the club magazine - hubcap found! A GM employee had found it, and told his friend who was a DeSoto aficionado. Reunited with the hubcap, I gave the clubbie two DeSoto coffee mugs, one for hi and the other for his friend, After that incident, I permanently marked the inner face of each hubcap with my name and phone number.

Good job. We knew you could do it!

Let's look at an assembly that is working right. At rest: The cap, pics 4 and 5, is screwed tightly to the non-metallic ring, pics 1 and 2. This draws the 8 lugs of the horn ring, seen in pic 3, against the spring. The horn ring and its cap in themselves are isolated from ground, since they are fastened to the non-metallic part of the steering wheel, seen as ring-shaped in pics 1 and 2. The spring is kept from contacting the brass tee, which connects to the end of the grounding wire. (For fun, contact the horn ring with a grounded wire; the horn will sound.) To sound the horn: Press the horn ring forward, and it rocks the lugs. The lugs opposite the pressure are lifted away from the spring, so that the spring in that location can contact the brass tee. Circuit completed. (Pull part of the ring backwards, just to be different; the horn should sound.) The lugs of the horn ring should not touch the sides of the brass tee. Things would have to be out of alignment for that to happen. Anything look worn? The design of the ring and cap should keep enough gap between the lugs and the brass. Do the clips in pic 5 extend too far and contact the brass tee? Not likely. Late Night Edit: Grounding: Necessarily, the brass tee is not grounded, being screwed to the plastic of the steering wheel. Immaterial whether the horn ring is naturally grounded. It is grounded when it contacts the spring, which is always, once everything is assembled. Let's sleep on it.

How the horn ring works: (Not what you would think.) Look at Pic No. 1 above. Yes, the spring is contacting the Tee-shaped thingie with the end of the grounding wire. Yes, this grounds the circuit. Sustained Honk. (Disconnect the ground wire from the horn relay, or under the steering box, to keep from driving yourself and the the neighbors crazy. You can connect a bulb in a circuit from a power source to the ground wire, to tell when the horn wire is grounded.) The ends of the Tee are fastened to a plastic molding, and thus are insulated from the ground. The tee has to contact the spring to ground the circuit. What keeps the spring and the tee separated are lugs on the horn ring. (The horn ring is also insulated from ground.) Push the horn ring in one location, and the opposite side pulls away from the spring, allowing that part of the spring to contact the Tee. Honk.

You can get a ratio changer, which you add in line with the cable. Police maintenance garages use them to correct the speed readings. The professional kits are very expensive, because they include a full set of interchangeable gears. But I found one on line a reasonable price. Its ratio was 10 percent, but I don't remember whether it was up or down. That was back in 2009. I mounted the ratio changer at the transmission, and modified the floor cover. I should have added a short cable, to put the changer more comfortably below the floor.

Is it like "The Old Man's" tires, in the Christmas Story movie, round and were once rubber?

One year off. I missed the "I".

Steering wheel on the right - right? For cars that drive on the left, like in the British Isles, South Africa, Australia, Japan, and a few other countries under the influence of Great Britain. I heard that there was the country that decided to switch from driving on the left to driving on the right. cars one week and trucks the next. It didn't work out so well. At least that's what I heard.

Andy Dodge, where are you? South African RHD, in the UK, calling Oz, calling Oz...

I usually skip the power range, and start in 3rd. Nobody on my tail. If I do start off in 1st, I'll skip 2nd. One time I found that I needed first was at a car show, where the lawn where I was parked was lower than the drive. I needed first to get over the short but steep slope to the paving..

I was getting mysterious puddles of coolant in the spark plug wells, mostly at No. 1 and 2, after the car sat idle for long. Apparently, running the car would help boil off the coolant, and the plug wells would be dry. After the Winter down-time, coolant re-appeared in the two front wells. I sopped up the coolant with paper towels, and found that the source was at the head of the nearer bolt. I could have drained some coolant, removed the bolt, and Permatexed the threads and under the head. But no. I had to remove the t-housing and related paraphernalia. I cut a new gasket and reinstalled the housing, with gasket surfaces and bolt threads slathered with the non-hardening sealant. Always having to do things the hard way, but not as hard as milling surfaces. These are non-pressurized cooling systems, so I'm putting my faith in a squeeze-tube fix.

The official shop-manual wiring diagram for the DeSoto S-11 (post-war) shows the horn relay powered off the ACC post, and the hot side of the relay connected to the solenoid post where the battery cable is connected. But we have the option of keeping the horn relay hot.