DonaldSmith

That's not series, that's parallel. Still 6 volts, but double the amps.

I'm confused. Who sold the bad stone guards? Was it Neil Riddle or some unnamed former denizen of this forum, and we're supposed to know who without saying his name? Maybe we should not say his name, if we're dissiing him. I'm guessing that the perveyor of the unacceptable stone guards remained unnamed, while someone else chimed in that Neill Riddle only deals in the good stuff. And the rest of the thread has been speaking well of Neill.

Aw, why did you have to go telling him about the shock from the plug wire? You ruined a perfect initiation to the club. Seriously, thanks for passing on an occult bit of knowledge which some of us had found out the hard way.

Typically, the long-wheelbase sedans had a full rear seat, and in the extra 18 inches between the front and back seat, a pair of jump seats. (In some cases, there may be a full second seat?) So. I guess they would count two in front, two on the jump seats, and three on the back seat. The DeSoto Suburban had a full size second seat, and a folding rear seat that was an extension of a cargo floor in the trunk. (They claimed seating for up to nine, a real squeeze.)

(Clue to the rest of the world - "Hydro" in Canadian refers to the electric utility.) "Hydro" comes from the earliest days of electrification, where hydroelectric plants at Niagara Falls have been generating electricity for the Niagara peninsula and western New York, and beyond, from the late 1800s. The Niagara River provides water at some 150,000 gallons per second from Lakes Michigan, Superior, Huron and Erie, and the 170-foot drop at Niagara Falls provides tremendous energy to the water hitting the turbines. Hydroelectric power is developed elsdewhere in the world, wherever river elevations drop substantially, or where rivers can be dammed. Same say that the rivers are damned, but that's another discussion that may be beyond the bounds of this forum.

Update- I checked my step-up piston today. It moves freely. It moves a needle valve next to it. The odd screw at the other end is a sort of guide. Here's my thumb pushing the piston down. (In the background is the top of the carburetor, flipped back. I disconnected the rod from the Sisson choke but not the rod to the throttle linkage.)

Happy thoughts. Happy day after the Fourth.

My 47 semi-automatic (TIp-Toe) transmission has a tag that says to use 10 wt oil. The gearbox has a hydraulic pump and piston to make the upshifts. Someone has said that the ISO 32, which is appropriate for the fluid coupling, is OK for the gearbox (but not for a 3-speed manual.) How to tell what you have: 3-speed manual: Typical "H" shifting pattern. No wires running to the transmission (Except to an overdrive unit, if present). 4-speed semi-automatic: "1st gear" position missing from the "H" pattern. Wires going to the gearbox.

I've used disconnect cable clamps on my battery. I usually undo the ground (+) connection when I won't be driving the car for a while. Back off the knob, and pull the cable awy from the post clamp. For a while, I had a second battery to provide 12 volts (another story). The second battery has the same clamps. I can switch batteries in a hurry, if I ever have to.

Thinking about my post No. 8, I wondered if I got the switch terminology right. It's late, almost bedtime, but I my mind was unsettled. Did I say NC or NO? So I checked. I had said NC. NC = Normally Closed. (Guess what NO stands for.) NC, the condition when this switch came out of the box, with nothing pushing or pulling on it. Not the same as "usually closed". It's "Normally Closed" but hopefully pushed open before the car is set into motion. So the parking brake has an NC switch that's pushed open when the brake is released, but allowed to close when the brake is engaged. Switch closes, reminder light comes on. Cool. I can go to bed now.

One last lash to a dying horse. The major purpose of a ground in automotive wiring is to save wire. A wooden boat has a separate "neutral" wire running daisy-chain from item to item, in lieu of "grounding" each item to a metal body. The invertor shown in the previous diagram grounds both circuits to the case, saving wire. My inverter is not grounded, but has two separatde wires for each circuit.

It's hysterical... I mean historical.

One could cobble and fabricate a mounting for a switch from someone like McMaster-Carr, but it would be a b*tch to install.

I crawled uder my instrument panel and tracked down the elusive parking brake switch. It's near the top of the parking brake assembly, above the handle, hiding behind a tangle of wires. But here's a shot: It's a momentary contact NC switch, on an adjustable bracket, secured to a fixed sector with notches. Pulling the handle to set the brake moves the arm away from the switch, allowing the contacts to close. Releasing the handle pushes in the plunger, opening the contacts.

I've got a 6-12-volt converter in my car, to power outlets for cell phones, GPS, etc. The converter magically produces 12-volt direct currrent, with (+) and (-) posts. I figured I had better have the (+) go to the center of each outlet, and the (-) to the shell, in case anything I plug in is polarity sensitive. But the power outlets are not grounded to the car. Everything is happy. Is a 12-volt wiper motor polarity-sensitive? I don't know. But to be safe, ground the shell to the (-12 V) post and run the "hot" wire(s), through switches, fuses, etc., to the (+12 V) post. ("Hot" wires are any that, if touched to ground when powered, will spark.)

My understanding is that the 6 to 12 volt converter doesn't care whether the 12-volt circuit is positive or negative ground, or grounded at all. The only oddity is that, if you happen to connect the 6-volt and 12-volt "Hot"wires, you will get either 6 or 18 volts, depending which way the grounding happens to be. But you will be keeping the "hot" wires apart anyway.

Try lifting the door while trying to open it.

Some people just switch the plug wires 180 degrees. The PO did my car that way. No. 1 is at 1:00 instead of 7:00, etc. I re-did it right. You can remove the distributor, turn the shaft 180 degrees, and reinstall it. (If the oil pump is in right, No. 1 will be at either 7:00 or 1:00.)

No. 6 pistom comes up twice for every firing. You could be getting spark when the valves are 180 degrees out of phase. One way to make sure that a piston is at the top of the compression stroke is to have a thumb over the sparkplug hole. If cylinder No . 1, the puff against the thumb should be when the rotor is pointing to the No. 1 plug wire, or close.

If the 53 is like my 47, the steering shaft is really a half-inch pipe. I modified my steering shaft for universal joints and D-shaft, to fit a power steering gear. I bought a splined plug ahd had it welded into the pipe shaft. (I also devised a brush to contact a sleeve over the shaft, to maintain the horn grounding circuit.)

I vaguely remember doing something like that to a quarter window. How to remove the glass? Very carefully. Snapknife flush with the glass, cutting the setting stuff. Carefully prying between the edge of the glass and the channel, with a non-marring tool. Working one end, then the other . Somebody's got to chime in now, because I forgot what I used for the setting gasket, softening it with paint thinner, etc. Doable, carefully. Or take it to an auto glass shop.

Town sedan! Rare! Shear pin in the transmission? Maybe the guy just doesn't understand fluid couplings. And the parking brake- must use. Or keep a brick handy. No rigid connection between engine and back wheels.

I remember putting stainless steel strips between the seal and the pinion housing, but theseal still leaked. Thus the old seal to hold back the oil while the sealant set around the new seal. And the speedi-sleeve. One thing about the speedi-sleeve- I could have/should have ordered a deeper sleeve. I had to locate the sleeve very carefully, so that the new seal would contact only the sleeve.

The pinion seal on myDeSoto Suburban leaked persistently, even after I replaced the seal. Two problems: the outer diameter of the seal was not quite large enough, and the pinion surface was scored. (I was able to readily get a seal with the proper inner diameter, but not the outer diameter.) I bought and installed a Speedi-Sleeve on the pinion shaft, which took care of the scored surface. I figured a way to install the new seal with sealant at its perimeter to close the gap. (I had enough depth for two seals.) To keep the lubricant from dripping out while I properly cleaned the surfaces and applied sealant for the perimeter of the new seal, I cleaned the surfaces as best I could, quickly installed the old seal, properly re-cleaned the surfaces, applied the sealant, and installed the new seal. The old seal kept the lubricant at bay while the sealant set up. I hasn't leaked since.

Just build a new countertop over the old one. Or just set a countertop on a few bricks. You can push stuff apart enough to spot a few bricks.