desoto1939

here are the bulbs numbers: parking light 63 Directional front and rear 1158 License Plate 63 Instrument 81-55 Indicator 51 Dome 87 All are 6 volt bulbs Rich Hartung desoto1939@aol.com

I have the same shifter installed in my 39 Desoto and yes they used a cable and these cables are very hard to find and even slide in the housing. Rich Hartung

Marcel: i totally agree with your comment about going back to original not many 1 of 387 cars produced of this low production are onthe road or even found. This is why i posted the pictures. It will take some deep pockets but someone that has the time and money might bring it back to life. I have enought trouble with my 39 DeSoto just to keep that on the road and I am not ready for a new project of this type. At the age of 70 time is not on my side. Want to jump in the car and go not rebuild from the ground up. Rich HArtung

It is a 3 speed on the column. The Plymouth Roadkings had the shifter on the floor but the upper models had the shifter on the column just like the Chrysler, Desoto and dodges. They both used the same trans either the three on the tree or the stick on the floor. Rich

A friend of mine runs an automotive parts and used parts company. They recently acquired a 1939 Plymouth 4 door Convertible Yes 4 door Convertible. They only made 387 of these cars so it is very rare. It is a parts car that has most of the parts, engine, frame body parts, doors 4 fenders convertible bows, etc. four fenders nose pieces. I have posted pictures of the car. I do not know what they are asking for the car. The correct pin striping is still on the rims Contact Jim Adamson 610-277-0400 at M&M Autoparts Bridgepot PA. mandmautoparts@aol.com I do not get any money from the sale of the car. Just listing so that it can get to a good home. rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

Here is a picture of the pulse charger and the power connectors when it is attached to the 1939 Desoto. The first pictures shows the scale to determine the amount that it is charged up to and it shows 100% the large number tell the amount of volts the battery is charged to. The second picture shows the 14 foot poser cord with the clips to attach it to my battery and to the ground on the head bolt. Rich Hartung desoto1939@aol.com

When I attended the Carlise event last week I was able to talk with the owner of a company called Battery saver. This same person also had done a lecture session at the AACA Annual Meeting and Lecture meeting that is held in Philadelphia. His company has designed a new battery charger that has a pulse mechanism that shocks the battery to help with the desulfation of the plates in the battery. The gov't has a similar technology for there large trucks to extend the life of their 24 volt trucks. I purchase the Micro 100 which is a small unit and the unit detects if the battery in your car or truck is a 6 or 12 volt battery and automatically sets the unit to the correct voltage. It also has a digital display to indicate 12 or 6 volt and how much the battery is charge and the amount of volts. I am not related to the owner nor do I have any financial compensation from the owner on this product. Just bringing it to your attention. I have attached pictures of the unit I purchase and some literature from the company. Rich Hartung desoto1939@aol.com

I have been attending Hershey for 34 years. Attended with my father-inlaw and all of his great friends. We did sell parts and had three spots at Hershey. Los of great memories. Learned alot from his friends that knew the older cars and how to look for parts. One secret is to keep your money separated in your pocket. So if you are trying to get a part and the seller is asking $40 for the part you do not pull out a $50 dollar bill and then ask if he will take 30-35 dollars. He knows that you have the extra money. Pull out a 20 and a 10 to show him the money in your hand but have the 5 in a pocket so you can then try to get it for 35 if he counter offers. Rich Hartung

47 Dodge: Yes you are correct about Chryslers at carlise. This is primarily a muscle car show and swap meet. Not many flathead parts and or cars. So if you have a long distance to travel to get to Chryslers at carlise then consider the above post and also mine. I have gone several times and i see the interest inthe older cars basically being dead. Hershey is a better place to save your vacation time and travel time. I live approx 2.5 hour drive to carlise and about 1.5 hr drive to Hershey. Rich Hartung

Mark ? I have been going to both carlise and Hershey for the past 30+ years. Ihave seen a real chnage especially in the carlise swap meet. Yes i agree sell lawn ornaments and home items is not correct. They state that 80% of the items that you are selling must be auto related. Up on the top of the hill in the back row there was a vendor sell deer antlers and that is all he was selling, then there was another person just selling lawn ornaments, go figure. Ye how many disk sanding pads can be sold. seems as if everyone is selling the same items. I remember when the toy model cars were the big item and the Hes trucks and Texeco trucks, have seen less of these being sold. I takes more time to find quality parts and you have to really look at each vendor becasue they do not even know what they have. There do not specialize, some do but alot just have parts and have no idea what they fit. Mark if you come down for Hershey inthe fall let me know and I will let you know my site location. Even Hershey is changing. The 50's and back parts are getting harder to find but at least you have a better concentration of older parts and less junk. Rich Hartung

I noticed a wet spot on the back of my rear rim the other day. Today pulled the right rear drum, pulled the cups back to see if there was any leakage at the cups and both were dray no brake fluid. Noticed that I thought maybe some grease or differential fluid might have seeped out from the axle. removed the outer oil seal. Cleaned up the axle and the inner seal area. I think put on the metal seal that is a pressure fit around the axle shaft and applied some Lubriplate as per the instruction to help hold the metal seal in place. Put the external seal back on the backing plates and bolted it to the backing plate. Turned the axle to make sure there was not cutting into the shaft. Cleaned up the shoes and used the Miller MT19 brake gage to adjust the brake lining and also the Miller Trubrake tool to cut down any highspot on the lining. This insured that the lining was symmetrical to the drum. Used the toe and heal setting and everything was in spec. Put the drum back on and used a brass drift to put the key back into the drum. Looked at the back of the backing plate and looed at the bleeder screw and saw a little wet spot of brake fluid. Cleaned it off with a rag so it was dry. Pumped the brake pedal came back to look at the bleeder screw and saw a wet spot on the area around the bleeder screw. These are new bleeder screws. Went to my 1936-42 Desoto master parts book and also 39 desoto specific parts manual found the part number 691471. very unique style of bleeder screw the hole that the fluid comes out is threaded and a cap nut screws into the hole. Now here is the good part. from 1936-38 they use a different part number 77671, But for 1939 they used part number 691471 and then from 1940-42 they used a different part number 854039. Do not know what the difference is but why only one year use a different bleeder screw? i can find on ebay the 36-38 bleeder screws and the 40 and up but not the 39 style. Learn something everyday when you try to work on a problem. Might be that the newer length is not bottoming out or the shape of the cone at the end is not seeting correctly. Trying to get the proper bleeder screw. The bleeder screw has the 3/8 nut to screw it into the backof the wheel cylinder. I found an original rear wheel cylinder that has the correct bleeder screw so hoping to find these at a swap meet. Rich Hartung desoto1939@aol.com

The Military developed a pulse battery charger for all of their heavy trucks and equipment. So basically what happens the battery charges is chraging your battery dah thats to be expected. But the chrager is designed to send a pulse down the two connections to pulse the battery. This shacks loose the build up of the deposits on the metal cells. This is done to lessen the buildup of the deposits to keep the battery charged. longer and to extend the life of the battery. So the chager bassically shocks the entire battery to keep it clean. I will post some pictures and some information on the unit I purchased. Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

I attended the spring carlise event this past Thursday. I arrived around 7:30 Am. I was surprised that at the main gate they were not requiring that the people wear any face mask protection. I would state that approx 99% of the attendees were not wearing any mask protection. I stil continued to wear mine even thought I have had both of my vaccinations. This year did have a major amount of venders but sad to say no specific early Mopar vendors such as ed Spiegel from Pittsburg Pa. I did find some non specific mopar parts. Lots of Chineese tool vendors, junk stuff more 1960 and up car parts. Very little prewar and early post was mopar parts. I was cold early inthe morning around 36 degrees and then about 9 Am we were all surprised by a major snow storm that came in with squaw and major snow flakes. It snoed for about 1 hour and then stopped and the sun came out but it was real windy for the rest of the day. MY Battery tender stopped working the other day and found a gentleman that had creted a pulse battery charger. This owner also presented at last years AACA general Membership and lecture convention here in Philadelphia. I purchased one of his units for $59 and it was attached to my car after i got home. You can see the voltage that it is charging. The battery Tender people would not replace the unit that went bad and this was the second unit that had an issue. So i gaveup on their product. Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

Here isa Power line MoPar Battery Sign rich hartung

But you need to have the cap and dizzy setup so that is the order that they fire. If you have the wires in an incorrect hole then everything is off. So you have to know where the number 1 hole is in the dizzy cap and then go from that point. Rich

I saw a post this morning about someone posting a question regarding if MoPar had an original Battery. I just purchase an original All MoPar Battery catlog that covers from 1929-42 and it is in color. Have postes some pictures of the correct MoPar battery. i have never seen any of these for sale or even in any cars But if you are point judging then this is what should be in your car or truck. Rich Hartung desoto1939@aol.com

Which NGL sparkplug number hope 14 mm with a 3/8 reach. Are there a riesister type plug? If resiter might have to gap at 30. What was the plugs that had been in the car? Are you getting spark at any of the plugs. remove a plug wire from the plug and have someone try to start the car and verify that at least you are getting a park at the end of the wire. Rich

Here isa color picture of the MoPar Battery that is taken from my MoPar Battery Catalog. I have never seen a MoPar battery at any swap meets I have seen the Willard Battery. I have more literature on MoPar Batteries and will list a copy of the Battery catalogs from the 30's to the 50's. Rich Hartung desoto1939@aol.com

what sparkplug did you use? What is the gap that you set p on each plug. Are the wires connected correctly for each plugs and by this I mean the firing order s number one on the cap is going to number 1 plugs. Did you chnage anything elase while doing a tuneup or just the plugs? You should just snug up the plugs. We all need more info Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

Extended weather for next week. Wed 50% chance of rain rest of week looks to be good. So I might be going on Thursday. I will put in an update after I come home. to let everyone know if there was a good amount of venders or not. Mark, this has to be about a 6-9 hr drive for you. Its about 2-2.5 for me. Hershey is also close to me and that about 1.5. I do have a site at Hershey every year so if you come down stop by I am in the Orange field OAD7&8 Row AD site 7 and 8. Rich Hartung Rich Hartung

Thnaks for the updates from the members that are looking at the catalogs. I am always search for original catalogs that can provide information abut our older cars. This is how I learn from these catalogs. A friend has a 38 DeSoto and when i looked at the Oil Filter catalog i saw his original style canister so I learned something again today. You can never stop learning. Rich Hartung

sometimes you do find the holy grail. I found a NOS plastic insert for the Speedometer cluster for my 39 Desoto. The seller did not know what it fit. I later on sold it to a gentleman in South Africa that needed it so it went to a good home. We are always on the hunt for these early parts and just think that yours is 80+ years old and is still in such great shape. Rich Hartung desoto1939@aol.com

Hey just a big reminder that Spring Carlise is schedule for next week starting April 21 -25. Lets hope that there are more venders this time as compared to the rescheduled event from last year. I am planning to go either Wed the 21st or Thursday the 22nd. If you are planning to go please reply and list the dates If you are there call my cellphone number and maybe we can meetup at some spot inside. I think ed Speigel MoPar vendor is scheduled to attended. Rich HArtung cell 484-431-8157 Desoto1939@aol.com

Next several pages: Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

Hydraulic Brake service Package catalog from 1944.