DonaldSmith

The coil fires (secondary, high-voltage circuit through the rotor to the appropriate plug) when the current in the low-voltage circuit is interrupted by the points opening. That should be a big clue. Good luck. I'm sure the other guys will chime in.

As I remember, without lookng it up in the book, that the dowel pins are removed to check and align the bell housing. If need be, the holes are enlarged and larger dowel pins are put in. My hazy memory tells me that my bell housing was right on.

There's a DeSoto Suburban at the Gilmore Car Museum that has a good-looking still treatment. It looks like a deep pattern mat that was cut and beveled to size. The cross section does have that high flat spot in line with the windlacing. Would that we could find a source for such a sill by the foot. Cut to fit any model.

Our National DeSoto Club current president, Les Pesavento, restored the car for over 25 years, using parts form three Suburbans and searching nationwide for some of the parts. I've had the car for about 15 years, and did some minor cosmetics, power steering, and, oh yes, a spotlight. But we've hijacked the thread. Sorry...

Yep, hydrographic, that's it. Plastic laminates started as insulating panels and boards for electronic applications. Decorative plastic laminates came later. Even the decorative laminates conform to NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) standards. (I've been told that Bakelite dishes are quite the collector's item.)

The wood grained panels the 46-48 DeSoto Suburban are high-pressure laminate, Bakelite brand, layers of phenolic-saturated paper with a printed woodgrain layer, hot-pressed over wood molds. Perfect for low production applications. I sprayed them with clear enamel to hide the years of surface scratches. The window moldings are metal, with the secret woodgraining process that mystifies us to this day, something about floating the image in water and raising the object into it. Here are the Bakelite panels and woodgrained metal moldings and dashboard:

Open trunk - the DeSoto Suburban -

Here's the turn signal switch, usually after-market, dealer-installed. Cover off This vintage style doesn't have the circuit to interrupt the brake lights, like the newer types. No problem with the dual-filament bulbs at the front, but no good with trying to have brake and turn lights at the tail lights. So I squeezed three quartz bulbs in my tail lights housings, for tail, turn and brake. Some guys add auxiliary turn signal lights. (The rocker switch which I added is an emergency flasher switch and turns on all the flasher bulbs.)

Doe snot, funny. I always proo fread my entries before I send them, but then I change somethingand things go awry a rye? I'm sure the guys can com eup with some other unusual space placement. or strange hyphenations. Benny Hill, a British comedian whose old shows were eventually shown on Public Broadcasting, had one sight gag where the sign man had installed the letters THE RAPIST The Bobby made him change it to THERAPIST

It looks like the spinner wheel performs the function of an accessory "suicide knob", for one-handed turning of the wheel. Grab the center bar, and the thing turns when the wheel turns, but the center bar and the hand stay in the same position. The suicide knob was so called because it would stick out toward the driver, interfering with two-handed turning of the wheel. Some of the suicide knobs could be tipped in toward the center of the wheel, allowing two-handed turning of the wheel.

Show us your failures. We can share in your learning experience.

So the outer two wedges remove something bigger than a hubcap (the thing on the hub, not a wheel cover). Hmmmm. Gas cap? No, that's threaded. Thermos cork?

Try this photo. The little gizmo to anchor the clutch spring is peeking out from the bottom of the upper bell housing. Another photo. Spring anchor at the bottom front of the bell housing. "Fluid Drive" coupling, clutch and semi-automatic transmission.

I was able to keep the steering wheel. I added an insulated sleeve to the steering shaft and a brush contact to the steering jacket, to maintain the horn circuit while ending the steering shaft and jacket near the firewall.

I know that the steering setup on the 49 and later models is quite different from the postwar models. I suspect that the 53 and later are quite different from the 46-48. The Desoto power steering of '49 and later had the power thing built into the shaft and the pump mounted on the back of the generator. The 53 Taxi post shows the fat steering volumn, the hydraulic hoses, and the double pulleys to handle the power requirements. The pump on the back of the generator is out of view. Anything is possible, but not few things are easy.

The trans looks like the semi-automatic, with the governor and solenoid peeking out from the other side, and the bell housing deep enough to house the "Fluid Drive" coupling.

The Sisson choke and the exhaust heat riser are separate animals. I looked through my photos to show the choke and heat riser. Here are the best photos that I have - The Sisson choke, at the bottom left of the photo: The wire link at the end of the arm works the choke plate in the carburetor. The choke is on top of the manifolds. A bimetallic spring in the choke partially closes the plate until the manifold heats up the spring. The wire is from the starter solenoid, and the choke closes the plate further while the starter is cranking. Manifold heat riser: The partially circular weight works against a bimetallic spring, to open and close a plate in the exhaust manifold. I forget which way the spring and weight work, and which position is "open" or "closed", but when the engine is cold, exhaust gases are diverted into the chamber below the carburetor. When the engine heats up, the plate moves and the exhaust flows straight past the chamber. And that's all I have to say about that.

You need a few more gizmos on your car. Maybe a pair of spotlights - they don't have to be functional. and maybe something for the top of the antenna, which should be fully extended. Your air deflector should have a propeller on it. Well, maybe not. The car looks good now. Enjoy it.

Little holes in the pistons? Please excuse my dumbness. The first post shows two small holes in each piston, with a black line between the holes, and a relieved area next to the black line. Oil drainage? What is the black line that looks like someone's shoelace? Inquiring minds need to know.

The car has an exquisite patina.

W. C. Fields would not drink water, preferring strong drink instead. He did not want to drink anything that fish made love in. Ah,yes...

That high $$$$ price makes me feel real good about filling and finishing my steering wheel, even though I had to redo it once. I'll keep on, as necessary.

Your speedometer could be right on, for rpm's of the cable, but the tire size and rear end ratio will affect the reading. The shop set my speedometer to the set revolutions of a test cable. My speedometer was still about 10 percent off. I bought a ratio changer on line, and got an accurate reading. Silly me installed the ratio changer right at the transmission, and had to modify the floor cover to clear. I could have installed the ratio changer on a short length of cable, to clear the floor cover. (How come when I type ratio changer, it usually comes out ration changer? Let your fingers do the walking. Also, I could have referred to the speedometer as my speedo, but you guys might get the wrong image.)

Did Dodgeb4ya mean to say that Oz is Mopar hell? I know it's said to be down under. (I know what you guys meant; I'm just stirring things up.)

For the "kick-down" function, the full throttle position closes the downshift switch on the carburetor, to ground the solenoid, or something like that. It might just be an adjustment of the throttle linkage, to close the switch when the (technical terms follow:) gas pedal is tromped. Such was the case with my 47 DeSoto. I had to push the pedal through the floor to get the car to downshift. Now I just have to compress the carpet halfway. Congrats on the carb work. Tweak that throttle adjustment and you'll have more to brag about.