Bryan G

I bought one not long ago from Andy Bernbaum's in the states; this was for a '49. It ended up being a bit short but I was able to make it work. I would think your application might be more common than mine.

As I said before: RADIAL tires: I will not trust a modern one more than 8 years, from repeated, personal experience with multiple brands. Older ones? Sure. I've seen 70s-90s radials last and last. Not the new ones. BIAS tires: run 'em.

Curious: were those bias or radials?

Just remember that a brighter bulb will run hotter. Not always an issue, but could be if around plastic.

On a budget a few years back, and wanting to do everything I could with my own two hands, I rebuilt the cylinders in an old Ford I owned. They had no business being redone: a significant portion of each of them had corroded away, right into the bore. But, I went ahead and honed the snot out of them with the power-drill hone I bought at NAPA. I think eventually I had to replace one, maybe two of them, and that was after several years. I wouldn't advocate going to that extreme, but if they look fairly decent, give them a try.

Shine your flashlight down the throat of the carburetor while working the throttle. Make sure you see some gas squirting; if not, your accelerator pump needs attention.

I don't let dates worry me on bias plies. They age in a totally different way vs radials, and I wouldn't trust one of those past about 8 years these days. I went through a couple sets of used 10-15 year old 6.00-16's on another car I had with no issues. My current car runs some 8.20x15's that, judging by the date code, are over 50! They lose less air in a year than the tires on my late model truck lose in a month. Anyway, if those tires come close to the original size for your car, grab 'em.

On all modern vehicles I've owned (that had a gauge) the temperature would stay around 1/4 or 1/2. On my Chrysler it hovers around 3/4...unlike newer cars, this one is marked in degrees and the needle hangs right around 185...matching the thermostat. It's more pleasant to see a lower needle, but it's running at a good, efficient temperature and never boils over.

I can dial the idle way down on my car, but then I have trouble with stalling when it gets warm. I blame it on some vapor lock going on; fixing my broken heat riser could help there I've found some success by tweaking idle mixture, idle speed, and timing, and then doing it all again a few times until you reach the best all-around situation.

There is an industrial 8 for sale near me on Marketplace; a few months ago I ran into a guy who mentioned he had a couple in storage that used to run irrigation pumps. There's a great little video of a vintage boat with Chrysler straight-8 power and a fantastic exhaust note. I agree with the others: not much off the line, but once rolling along it can step away a bit. I drive mine quite a bit, and tonight took it to the supermarket. I was in a line of vehicles behind a guy who would drive 60, then 50, then 60, back and forth. He finally pulled off on the shoulder and I added just a bit of throttle; the late model pickup in my rear view fell way back. I've had a couple people tell me they were behind me and impressed with how it did. It's no miracle engine, of course, and sure has its limits. I did something I rarely do, just the other day. I pulled out from an intersection and, as usual, it's pokey coming up to speed with the Fluid Drive/Prest-O-Matic. Guy behind me in a late model Altima can't wait and passes me. By that point I was picking up speed so I just gave it gas and caught up with him But when he pulled out to pass the next guy ahead, I let him roll on. Guy has to know his limits! My speedometer is wonky but I'd say I was up to 70 at least. The chassis is the limiting factor. BTW, I'm glad this question was asked because I'd assumed the T&C was all eight.

I think it's very safe to say all new production cylinders are coming out of the same town in China. If I were to do mine over again, I'd have had the old ones redone. I bought mine from Rock Auto and I guess I can't complain a whole lot. I mean, they don't leak. The rods were too long and the front ones used a different size bleeder screw vs the rear. But, cheap.

My thought, when I had to replace my advance: no way I'd ever get that thing apart and back together again! The crimp was the issue. Same thing with rebuilding a heater valve. I could get it apart, but my attempts at getting it to go back together were futile. But, there are folks out there with the right tools and they can handle it. We need to keep them around. As for me, I found a NOS unit on eBay and it seems to work just fine.

I could only see my turn signal and high beam indicators at night, and even then it was dim. When I had the cluster apart for cleaning I found that the plastic lenses had rotted and would barely pass light. I hunted through my junkbox and found a matching red & green panel lamp cover that fit the hole perfectly. I can see clearly now!

Background: when I first brought my '49 back to life (wow, almost 2 years ago!) I found it would barely move. It took quite a bit of hydraulic fluid to get the Fluid Drive up to the fill line; okay, I hoped, maybe just a real slow leak (after all, the car had sat for nearly 20 years.) Well, gradually I was finding it required topping off more and more often. I could feel the slippage, and see the puddles. Strangers would stop me and parking lots and point out the fluid running out from underneath Earlier this year I ran to get pizza and could tell it was due for its now weekly (!) top-off. Well, I did something I knew I should never do: dropped the fill-plug down inside the housing. I crawled underneath, knowing the challenge I'd have getting it out...and that's when I realized that the quart of fluid I'd just poured in was running out just as fast. Ugh. It was time for action. I'd said, when it arrived at my house the first time, that it wouldn't leave on a rollback...that I'd drive it away. I did make an exception on getting it to my friend's garage. (I tried running it around the block with a homemade fill plug, but it was none too happy.) I'm blessed to have a mechanic I can con into doing these type of things, but I knew his limits would be getting the Fluid Drive out and then reinstalling it. He did ask around, to see if he could find someone with the tools/experience to reseal a unit, but without success. I knew that Bernbaum and at least one other vendor are advertising resealing at a cost of $1250+shipping (or more.) Could the old cheapskate here get by for less? I put some ads out hoping to come up with a recently resealed unit that someone might have but all I found were a couple used assemblies. I'd hate to go through all this trouble only to find a problem with the replacement. One thing my string of ads did was bring a message from a guy letting me know his boss might be able to help. And, he was right. The place is called Gaslite Garage in Holbrook, NY. I gave them a call and the shop owner let me know that he had resealed several of these, and I could tell he was familiar with them (including the variations in seals over the years.) I forgave him for insisting on calling it a torque converter! I shipped the unit to him and turnaround was perhaps 2-1/2 weeks, in line with the other vendors. Now, Bernbaum says they will convert older units (like mine) to the newer (and preferred seals) but Gaslite felt sticking with the original type was proper. He let me know that someone, in the past (probably the 90s) had fiddled with it before, trying to seal up the leak with some sort of silicone. Among other things he found that the "accordion" seal was cracked. After he had it together he filled with fluid and let it sit at least overnight to check for leaks, then drained it and shipped it to my mechanic. My bill for what Gaslite did was around $850, which included the return shipping. When I first filled the unit the year before last I decided to buy a 5 gallon pail of AW32 hydraulic fluid rather than special ordering the Mobil Light Circulating Oil. Since I was down to 1-1/2 gallons of the other stuff (what, you didn't believe me when I said it leaked a lot???) I broke down and ordered the good stuff. The results? So far, so good! I've had the car back maybe 2 weeks and have probably driven it close to 200 miles so far. Monday I had to take the dog to a specialist almost 90 minutes away. Of course, I took the Chrysler, and it performed great. The mechanic wasn't sure if he topped it off right, as he chose to fill it off the car. I told him to imagine about the 2-o'clock position. He took it for a test drive and mentioned a slipping; it did the same thing to me once or twice on hard acceleration but it didn't feel like the drive, but the clutch. That was replaced last year (of course, I should have done the drive at that time.) It feels like that did; pretty sure all that some of all that oil found its way where I didn't want it. It hasn't acted up in the last 100-150 miles, so maybe it just needed to "burn off". Anyway, I just wanted to share my experience, and offer my recommendation to Gaslite, 631-738-7712.

I've used those in an old pickup truck; they're okay, not great. The one I had didn't take long to wear through (rips in old vinyl seat helped tear it up, though.) These have been in production since at least the 80s, but don't seem as well made as they used to be. (From China these days.)

Schematics and other information can be found here: http://www.nostalgiaair.org/Resources/972/M0013972.htm I believe what you have is an aftermarket/dealer installed radio as the factory version wouldn't have said "Philco" on the dial. From the outside, nearly identical to the OEM sets that Chrysler installed (and which were also Philco-built.) A very common set through the 40s. I've seen one similar in a Packard. Trivia: when Chrysler quit car production midway through the 1942 model year, Philco had a bunch of sets left over so they installed them in console cabinets for home use.

In my 35 years of driving, I've always had something old enough to enter in a show. But I've only done it 3-4 times. The main issue, for me, is I don't like sitting still for that long. I think my best experience was a fundraiser for a local Vo-tech. It seems the county schools were holding a surplus auction next door that morning so I kept running back and forth between the two. Now, there are a few antique tractor shows locally where you can enter for free, and really come and go as you please. Those are handy because it gets you a good parking space, and they're low-key (no judging.) Only one of those shows charges general admission, and if you have something to display you get in free. There was one big show that I thought of entering; spectators paid something like $10 to get in the door, while those wanting to display had to pay $45. If you stayed all weekend you stood to get enough swag (lots of door prizes) but it didn't make sense for just a few hours.

If it's like my radio, you pull outward on the station buttons and the chrome cover will pull off. Underneath is a small dial that you use to set the frequency for that button. An ingenious idea, methinks.

I switched to using LA's Totally Awesome, a dollar or two at your nearest dollar store. To me it works just as good as Bleche White.

I bought my last few off eBay, a couple 60s/70s stock from Wix and a fairly new Car Quest, all at decent prices.

A few years back the FCC came up with a plan where AM stations that didn't already have an FM could apply for low-power FM licenses. They don't cover a very large area, but in many cases it's good enough to cover a small city. Not all stations got one, but those that did saw their value go up just a tad. They have to keep their AM side alive in order to be eligible. Locally we have some AM stations playing oldies, classic rock, and southern gospel. And at night you can search for stations like WSM Nashville, CFZM Toronto (very well done oldies) and on the weekends WABC New York has some great music.

I buy my capacitors from justradios.com. He's in Canada. He might be able to put together what you need as a kit? A good guy to deal with. Most important is the filters and the buffers for the vibrator, but might as well change them all. I've had some success bringing vibrators back to life with some fiddling. Worst case was prying one open and cleaning the points. Solid state replacements are available but not cheap.

Has it been driven regularly for a while or has it been sitting a bit? My first thought is to go along with the notion of sticky valves. For that, I'd put a bottle of Marvel's in the crankcase and another in the gas tank, and then take a nice trip and try to loosen things up. Aside from that, I'd keep hunting for a vacuum leak.

Be prepared to really take your time. You can't pour the fluid in very fast at all. I rigged up a small funnel that worked okay. Just keep bumping the starter, a tiny bit at a time, you'll find it. If you get it close enough to see you can use a big screwdriver or crow bar to move it a bit. Once you remove the fill screw, you can spin the rear output section by hand, slowly. There are one or two spots where an inner hole shows up. You can pour the fluid in without having it lined up inside but it's easier with the latter method. The regular hydraulic fluid mentioned above isn't perfect but it will work quite well.

That is very interesting, and not as expensive as I'd figured. Many years ago I had an 87 Dakota; they were carbureted that year and mine gave me constant trouble. At some point in the 90s Holley had came out with a one-size-fits-all EFI unit. I thought a bit of doing an upgrade but it was at least twice this price, so I didn't go for it. It would be interesting to read some user reviews.