desoto1939

Hickory: i sent you a PM this morning Rich Hartung

Here is a picture of the shutoff valve that threads into the head near the number 6 sparkplug. They are on ebay and also Andy B sells them on his website. search Heater shut off valve. Rich

Chris you use the feel gage when using the pointer tool and you put this between the tool and the brake lining when the drum is off the spindle. You do this for both the toe and the heel should be approx 6 and 12 forget which point the the measurement is taken refer to your service manual. Rich hartung

On the back of the brake backing plate there will be two big hex nuts they are used to make the make the minor adjustment to the brake shoes and these nuts are near the wheel cylinders. Turning these nuts will move the toe section of the brake shoe outward and or inward to get the appropriate distance between the lining and the drum. The Heel is done by loosening the castle nut on the backing plate and then you take a 1/2 opened wrench and turn inthe appropriate direction to move the heel down and out or up and inward. You will also need to use feeler gages to get to the proper distance for the heel and the toe separation distances. This will be listed in your service manual. After fitting the drums to make sure they will go on then take the drum off. Take your 1/2 inch box wrench and put it on the flat spot of the eccentric end facing towards you. Then you will need a torque wrench set to around 55-75 ft lbs with the proper socket. Put this onto the nut on the back of the backing plate. Hold the eccentric firmly with your open wrench and make sure the pin does not rotate. Then take the torque wrench and tight the nut and hold very tightly the eccentric. Get the castle nut aligned so that you and install the cotter pin in the castle nut if you had them install originally. The first time will take some time to learn the process then it will get quicker as you do each individual brake on the car. Rich Hartung

I am the person that started this original posting regarding paying to show our cars at car show. I would like to thank everyone for their individual input and experiences over the years with their cars. I know one poster stated that at some shows they would get a voucher for some form of a lunch. I have always stated that if we the car owners have paid a fee and the spectators pay nothing then at least the promoter of the event should provide a voucher for some lunch food items, such as at least a hotdog and a soda. The vender that is providing the items would get paid from the club fees that were collected by the entrants and assume the cost would be at a discount to the participants and the general public then pays the regular cost that the vendor would charge. Because of the entrance fees I have seen the number of participants slowly getting smaller at they events inwhich you have to pay to show your car and an increase in the Cruise-In type of events such as Cars and Coffee events. Just come to the event and socialize with other car guys and the spectators and leave when you need to leave. Some Cruise in events have food drives for local food banks and also Toys for Tot in the late fall and no entrance fees. This is the way to go an promote the club for a worthy event. We also have a local show that is put on by the local all Volunteer fire department. Yes, they do get some funds from the local municipality, but it is never enough to cover everything they do for the community, so I do not mind the entrance fee since it goes to protect the local neighbor's homes and emergency services. So I to have stopped going to the pay to show your car shows and look for the participation type events. Please keep your comments coming I appreciate everyones feed back and input. Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

Not a lot of premade upholstery items for the MoPar like you find for Ford and Chevy. Mostly you will either have to find a material and color and style, which i mean small stripes, or wide strips or solid color to complement the color of the car and also headliner. An upholstery job can be done by yourself. If you try to do this keep the original panels as templates and the door panels as templates. If you do not have a good heavy sewing machine then you will also have to figure that into the cost, along with the materials. Also get more that what you really need especially if you are doing stripes on the seats. If the striped do not lineup from the front of the front seat against the striped on the seating area it will stand out like a sore thumb. If you are going to spend the money for original material such as mohair then this is costly, so why chance it to error and your learning experience and alot of your valuable time. Go to the upholstery guy, he doest it correct and you get a finished car in return and you just drive away with a nice interior and get to enjoy the car. Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

I have been noticing that the entry fee for day of show car registration has been slowly increasing. The local shows in my area around the greater Philadelphia area has now increased to $25 pre-reg and upto $30 day of show registration. As we all know, yes the costs for local clubs to keep their clubs financially afloat has risen and they are passing along the costs to the local car owners. At this point in time for me to spend $30 to enter a show plus fill the gas tank with gas with $20 worth of gas at 3.75 is around 5 gallons of gas. Then buy some lunch or some coffee at the show and if you arrive after the dash placques have been all distributed then you are not even getting a participation award. As the prices go higher I am now getting very selective on what clubs to support and what shows to attend. A $50+ day to show are car is now starting to get very hard for me and my wallet. This is one of the main reasons why we are seeing the increase of Cruise-Ins because there is no registration fees and or other items that a business has to pay out of pocket. Yes some of these cruise-Ins are at establishments that offer food and other items but at least you have the option to purchase a meal or not. So my only cost is some gas money and I am not spending a whole day maybe with a potential to get a trophy or dust collector for the basement. What are other car and truck owner thought on this topic of increasing entry fees and how it is affecting them??????? All comments are welcome and no-one is right or wrong just an opportunity go get input from everyone. Rich Hartung

You have a non bypass housing fitting. Seach ebay or call the major MoPar vendors. Rich Hartung

OK, most of our older cars and including some of the modern cars that do not have from wheel drive would have grease caps, or in the old days know as hub caps, becasue they covered over the spindle hub, have been hammered back on to the spindle by the mechanics that did brake work. I have seen on Ebay several metal tools that are used to insert the grease cap back into the end of the spindle but these run around $25 plus shipping. I figured there must be a cheaper tool or way to get such a tool for our individual tool box and since we do not do brakes jobs every day it has to be a reuseable tool. So I took one of my older grease caps and went to my local Hone Depot and found in the plumbing Dept a Plastic end cap that was a perfect fit and had enought of a lip so that it held the sealing edge of the grease cap inplace. The cost was around $2 for the cap might be more now. So now I just place the cap in the tool and use a rubber hammer to drive the cap back onto the end of the spindle and eliminate any denting. refer to the attached document that shows the tool and might save your caps. You can also send the document onto your local clubs to publish in their monthly newsletter Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com Grease cap mounting tool.docx Grease cap mounting tool 1.docx

Dan I have also found the same thing down here in PA. Walmart is out of stock but Amazon has it in stock. My daughter has Amazon Prime so I got free shipping on the Castrol GTX Classic. Yes if you can not get it at a brick and motor store but you can get the Valvoline instead that is also fine, so why pay for postage and mail delivery vs getting when you need it instead. I was just trying to provide an FYI about the oil and its availability. Rich Hartung

Sniper: i posted the information just to inform the members that the older Wesley's tire dressing did contain alcohol and not to use it on your tire if you have a chnace to purchase any of the older product. Like I stated the sales agent from Universal Tire here in Hershey told me not to use their product and they recommended Simple Green. Not trying to get into a finger pointing contest but FYI is always important for us car guys to know. So if this makes a car guy read the ingrediants of a tire product before buying the item that the important part of the posting to help protect the rubber components of our cars and trucks. Rich Hartung

I just did a look up on the wesley old product before it was sold and here isa copy of their contents of the original product: The original Wesley's did have Isopropyl Alcohol 1-5 % The company that purchased them is called Black Majic Bleach White Rich Hartung Below is some info regarding 2-Butoxyethanol:

I know alot of MoPar car owners are always asking what sparkplugs can they use in their flathead engines. These newer plugs can be found at your local WalMart store back in the section around the airfilters. The plug number is 295. They sell them for $1.97 here is PA. I have seen these same sparkplugs listed on Ebay and other site and they are asking alot more that the $2.00 price at walMart. These are a replacement for the Champion J8C plugs that were also used on our flathead 6 cylinder cars and truck. A friend of mine runs these in his 1939 Desoto and has had no problems with these plugs. The only difference that we seen is the the metal base of the plug is chrome and they original Autolite A9/A7 plugs were black. So if you have a driver you can purchase all six plugs for under $12 plus local state taxes. I have these as spares in my tool box in my 39 Desoto. Just passing along this information as an FYI. Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

Do not use the Sesley White wall cleaner it has alcohol in the spray and this is not good for the rubber. I was told by Universal tire company to only use Simple Green to clean the white walls. It will not harm the rubber. Rich Hartung

You stated that the tech told you the drum is warped and bent. Did he show you the location of the two defects? Also when and if you have your drums turned the mechanic should also be asking that you bring along either the lug nuts and or the lug bolts when they get ready to cut the drums. The reason is that our drums and and the associated hubs are rivited to each other. To insure that you get a perfect cut there is no way that the mechanic can determine if there isa ny loosness in the two parts. If there isa ny loosness then this will cause the cutting of the drum to get some slight uneven cutting. My mechanic did my 1939 Desoto drums and used my lug bolts all 5 of them to tighten down the drum and hub and then cut each front hub. Also you will need to cut both either the front and or rears hubs as a pair to insure that they are not going to pull. If you mechanic does not understand these basic principals then seek out another mechanic. Here is another good story. A friend took his old car into his trusted mechanic to have a petronics ignition installed. They could not get the car to run smoothly. I spoke to the mechanic and asked what plugs they were using and he stated the regular plugs. I told him that they should be using the resistor plugs as per all of the reading that I did on the petronics system. The mechanic then stated what is a resistor plug. I told my friend that he needs to go to another mechanic. So ask a lot of questions when you are getting repairs done on your older cars. The new guys only Know the new stuff but promise you they can fix everything. Just making note of having knowledge is so important. Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

OK here is the information that I found according to my AEA catalog: Your car used the Autolite Wiper arms and the Wiper Blade is know as a dead locker blade, probably a 10 inch blade. 1942 Chrysler C-28 Royal and Windsor both used the same blades and arms Here is more info: EWD-2106L wiper arm EWD-2106R Autolite used on 1941-42, 1946-48 Chrysler, DeSoto, Dodge 1941-42 46-47 These arms should be available. Sorry i do not have any pictures or the arms to show you but this is the original equipment for your car. Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

Doug: Here isa suggestion. I know back in the 50-60 the lower rad hoses all an internal spring to keep them from collapsing. Might you be getting this happening on the lower return rubber hose to the radiator. Also did you rebuild your carb? If you do not have a governor on the carb then the base thick gasket that is need has the four slots cut into the gasket. These slots then will line up to a very small hole. So check the carb and remove it to make sure you have the proper gasket installed. This is just a Wild Ass guess. What about the sisson choke.? Rich Hartung

Clay: After getting my car painted I ran into an issue with the right rear brake light and turnsignal. Since the car now had a fresh paint I lost the good ground for the taillight assembly. I had rhode Island wire make me a totally new wire harnes and also had them put in an extra ground wire and that corrected my issue. So I would say any light buckets and anything that might not have a good bare contact to the frame or other metal should have an extra ground. Rich Hartung

Sniper: i had done a posting on the Castrol GTX classic and their Technician staff had sent me literature on the PPM for the Phos, Zinc and Boron. I just got two 5 qt containers the other day from Amazon for around $22. For some reason Walmart is showing they do not have any in stock and can not get it shipped. Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

I just ordered 3 Wixx 51010 filters for my 39 Desoto from Amazon and the cost was $10.55 each and I got free shipping. I regulary use the NAPA 1010 Gold and the Wixx51010 is the same dropin filter canister. NAPA charge around 16-18 dollars for each filter element. Also just ordered the Castrol GTX Classic 5 quart container from Amazon for 21.99 and this has the higher ZDDP PPM than the rest of the oils. ALso delivered for free. Seems as if WalMart is out of stock for right now. Rich Hartung

thanks for posting the rest of the other pictures of the cars and showroom. This is how cars were suppose to be represented to the public. Rich Hartung

did anyone notice the pair of escalators inthe center of the showroom. This must have been a very upscale chrysler dealership with two floors. possibly offices or maybe another floor for cars to be stored. Also notice the very art deco lighting and the entire art deco style for the interior. Rich hartung Desoto1939

Here is some pictures of the various correct thowout assemblies from my Federal Catalog: Hope this helps. Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

have you contacted Egge engine and Piston Parts in Texas. They have piston and parts for the older cars. Give them a call Rich H

Hickory: To be more helpful we need to know what year desoto that you are looking for. Is this for the 29 Desoto? I have several catalogs that go back into the early Desoto years so I need to know the specific years. Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com