Bryan G

Exactly what Hickory said. You can ground that terminal on the solenoid...when a ground is missing, automotive wiring will do really, really weird stuff! Components will find a ground in the strangest places sometimes. With my car, I had a bad start in the armature of my generator. The car would start fine, unless it happened to have stopped on that bad spot. My short term fix was to run a jumper wire to the cabin so I could ground it. Now I have an alternator and just grounded it permanently.

Have you been inside the heater box? I'm not familiar with the '47; on my car, it wasn't too difficult to take apart. There were some holes rusted through, and the doors weren't working right. I actually have the opposite problem: I can't turn the heat all the way off. I suspect I don't have something adjusted just right.

I've jumped 6 volt cars a few times with 12v. Just like kencombs said, check the lights...keep the doors closed, roll the window down so you can just reach in. No sense blowing out your interior lights. The real question: why is your starter turning too slow? It should spin plenty fast on 6 volts, in less something is awry. Got the good, fat battery cables? Clean connections? I just know that my straight eight spins just like a modern vehicle with the stock setup.

I'm sure it's been done, by somebody. Much more common would be a small block Chrysler, or a small block Chevy. Expect a LOT of headaches. This is how a lot of half-finished projects got that way It's going to be quite an investment of time and money, to have a Ford-powered Chrysler, but it's your car, your time and your money!

I've used various lawn mower cans in the past, but then found a cheap outboard tank at a yard sale. It turned out to be a project in itself, as the pickup tube had rotted away. It took me a while to fashion a good replacement (eventually I managed it by using some copper tubing and solder.) I haven't had to use it much, but it does work. When I was a kid there was an old man who went around picking up aluminum cans. He drove a fifties Jeep pickup truck whose fuel pump had long ago gone bad. He mounted some sort of tank to the roof and used gravity feed. He drove that thing for years like that, until finally he cashed in all his cans and bought a brand new truck!

This would be my first step. At least on some models this was grounded through the generator. Mine had a bad spot and when it happened to stop there, no crank. I currently have an alternator installed so I just grounded that post to the block.

Most of the vendors (Bernbaum, Roberts, Kanters) offer sets that are reproductions of the material used back when the car was young. You can get some pretty snazzy looking color combos, among other things. But that's all overkill. I would shop by color, finding something black or dull orange vs bright yellow or something else that wouldn't look right under the hood.

The yellow color on the condenser makes me think 60's-80's, at least. They're the one part that can go bad just sitting. Over a car's life, every time the car went in for a tune-up (which would have been fairly often-annually, at least) the mechanic would have likely changed all of those. If I was going to replace the points I would find NOS aftermarket parts no newer than the 80s. You can usually find them on eBay with some research.

Yes, shortwave is still around, just not as many stations as there once were. Most stations were run by the various national governments and were given the axe in budge cuts. Still some interesting things out there, though. A really good radio tech could add shortwave, I'm sure. Modifying the dial could be as tough as anything. I think a basic conversion could be done by switching in a separate coil.

Not sure if any of these will work; I suspect he could make a set if not. http://renovatedradios.com/productlist.php?category=101&secondary=114 I've bought a couple sets for home radios I've restored and been happy with them. AM always works best at night. There's still some good music, depending on where you live. 740 out of Toronto covers a wide swath of the US, for example.

Though some would argue, in many ways you have a better engine than a flathead V8. Just a lot fewer options for extracting maximum potential. I've heard of racers who gave early SBC's a run for their money with a flathead six. Follow their lead.

I think this is the one I bought: https://www.amazon.com/Lisle-23500-Stone-Type-Glaze-Breaker/dp/B0002SREPO/ref=asc_df_B0002SREPO/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=385480448341&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1025463572215892955&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007979&hvtargid=pla-572010054663&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=79419941500&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=385480448341&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1025463572215892955&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007979&hvtargid=pla-572010054663 Really, this model is a bit too light-duty but it did okay for me. I try very hard to only buy American-made tools. I didn't want to spend the money for the really good Lisle hone. I know Harbor Freight has some stuff but I try to steer clear. Do what you got to do I did use some 320 grit sandpaper in some spots, by hand. Lots of WD-40 & paper towels for cleaning, and cheap motor oil for lube. Now, I didn't have a ridge to deal with. My engine didn't have that many miles since a rebuild, but had sat for 20 years. I'm still not sure what got into that cylinder to mess it up so bad.

I did a set in an old car that were in terrible shape, actually eaten all the way through in places (beyond the traveled area.) All I know is, they worked. I did have one seep after a few years.

If it's in 3rd gear, pedal to the floor, and not running at a very high RPM...then it either isn't getting enough fuel or it has a timing issue. Check your throttle linkage. Does the pedal really move it like it should? If it's revving high in 3rd gear and not gaining any more speed, it's a drivetrain issue. I've found the Fluid Drive has to be very low to cause significant slippage. A worn out clutch is possible. Who knows: you might be closing in on what retired this car in the first place.

This is what my worst cylinder looked like when I started; that's Marvel's Mystery Oil inside. I made a pledge: NO machine shop. I cleaned it out by hand real good, then honed the heck out of it. I think I've put somewhere around 8-9k miles on it since then. The engine runs great; I've never been behind it when it was going down the road so I couldn't tell you if it smokes. No clouds in the rear view mirror. I have to feed it lots of oil, but I suspect a lot is running out of various places onto the ground. The spark plugs, including this one, all look the same and stay clean. My vote: give it all you got. What have you got to lose? Worse case, later one you can DRIVE it somewhere where the engine can be pulled.

If you have a local company that does hydraulic repairs, you could give them a try. I've had a bottle jack rebuilt many moons ago by a shop like that. Maybe if you carried it in they would know what you need?

Speaking as someone in the business, the challenges are real. There are multiple facets to the problem. Some considerations: 1) Tesla started off on, what I feel, was the wrong foot. They set up a network of authorized body repair shops, and it cost a bundle to get on the program. Shops were promised they could make that money back because they could charge insurance companies a lot more. That hasn't totally worked out for them, but did create major conflict. Non-authorized shops don't get any discount off list prices for parts, and Tesla won't deliver them. (Shops have to go to the nearest Tesla location.) They can't buy some parts at all. 2) I was hoping Rivian, and some of these other start-ups, would follow a different path but that doesn't seem to be what they're doing. 3) There isn't all that much unique about the construction of any of these vehicles, at least compared to the modern competition. But the newer companies didn't put a lot of effort into making them easily repairable. 4) That $42k Rivian repair is very interesting. I read the story and there are two sides to that coin. Much of the blame can be placed on the shop, which is extremely aggressive and is basically "anti-insurance company." Their actions bordered on fraud, and were at least tainted with some incompetence. I believe that repair could have been performed correctly for about a quarter of what the customer was charged. 5) Even the simplest gasoline powered car on the market today is an electronic marvel, loaded with all sorts of amazing technology. A parking lot fender-bender can mean over $2000 just for calibrations. I see it all the time. These are expenses which didn't exist just a few years ago. 6) Inflation. Parts prices and labor rates have skyrocketed, and insurance premiums have been slow to catch up. There's a lot of pressure right now to hold the line on costs.

Lots of talk about vapor lock this summer; the heat, coupled possibly with whatever changes might be common in gasoline mixtures? I gave up and just leave my electric pump switched on for the season.

My first brake job was on a shoebox Ford; I was broke. Cylinders weren't that expensive, but I decided to grab a cheap hone and some rebuild kits. Those cylinders were in terrible shape, with most of them being partially eaten away inside. I did my best...I probably put 20-30k miles on that car over about 10 years. I think I eventually had to replace one cylinder. Rich is right; it's the old "garbage-in/garbage-out" situation. If you don't start by matching a perfect part, what have you got? That Ford? You could buy all sorts of things reproduction, mostly thanks to Dennis Carpenter, but none of it that I bought...none of it...ever matched originals. Most were still quite functional and most folks would never notice the difference, but other items were so far off as to be useless. Weatherstripping has let me down several times, on various models. I recall spending half a day replacing the T-Top gaskets on an early 80s Z28 for a customer. The new ones leaked ten times worse than those old originals!

I needed an unobtainum widget for my car. Seller listed it, reproduction. Arrived unusable. Replacement, after a less than apologetic note, was likewise unusable. I now have two doorstops. Fixed the old one with JB Weld. Now, there is a company that doesn't let you down The Rock Auto cylinders work. Same experience as desoto1939 when it comes to the pins. But, they go in and out and don't leak.

Oh, sure...you could have swapped the battery in your driveway. But, THIS is where great stories come from!

How much massaging was old Lee Petty doing with his Plymouth? I suppose he knew the limits!

I bought LED bulbs and the electronic flasher a couple months ago but have yet to get things to work right. Apparently I have a ground issue somewhere, though darned if I've been able to track it down. The dash indicator won't work with this unit, and the taillights? I can have blinkers or running lamps, but not both, with LED. (The incandescents, meanwhile, work just fine!) Oddly, I can't duplicate this with the bulb on the bench. I'm just going to have to start tracing down a lot of wires. I will say, the more consistent flash of the modern unit does make for an easier to see light. I've thought of adding an extra set of turn signals somewhere but haven't come up with anything that wouldn't look tacky.

When I look at Chrysler products in the flathead era, I see vehicles that came to the table from a slightly different position than the others of the big three. With Chevrolet, you got great styling and an OHV six (but ignore the splash lubrication and babbit bearings.) With Ford, you got style with V8 (and had to ignore overheating & archaic suspension.) Plymouth was never really the style leader but very much offered its own kind of value. You really did get more for your money. In ways, each of the big three could truthfully say that, but you have to decide, what exactly do you want more of? I say this as someone who has owned products of the three, plus a couple independents, and I like and respect them all. What owning my old Chrysler has taught me: that original buyer, back in '49, got their money's worth.

I've had the vapor lock issue on several vehicles and "fixed" it each time with an electric pump. It's fairly easy to install one, and not something you have to think about. Perhaps with enough insulation around the line I could get away without it, but the only path my line can take up to the carb is rather crowded.