FarmerJon

I think the part that I highlighted is crucial. It isn't poor workmanship to use sealants on in-spec surfaces. I will often stone a surface flat, then use an appropriate sealant on the (actual gasket material) gasket, especially if it is an assembly that I hope to never open again or is below an oil/fuel/coolant level. Oil pans, transmissions, rear ends. Anaerobic sealant is nice for installing lip seals, to insure oil cannot seep past the outer seal case. I do occasionally wonder how "tight" the original tolerances were on some of these parts. These carb lids probably started out only but so flat, and after being installed and the first few heat cycles, they can get out of hand. There is a reason that many hot rodders (and a few manufacturers) back in the day preferred to build on "seasoned" engine blocks. Foundry technology has greatly improved in the last 100 years, even though the workforce of tradesmen has drastically declined.

Whooo boy, that thing is crusty. Does that advance plate move freely? An ultrasonic cleaner does great getting all the crust out of the ball bearing pivot. Hopefully, fresh wire inside, with everything clean and lubed will fix the issues you are having. If not, at least you will know that the distributor is OK. Manual calls for .008" max play. If you can feel much slop at all, it may be worth setting up an indicator on it to see if you are in spec.

The problem with using sealant is that it makes it difficult to remove the top after applying. Seems like no big deal, but if you ever need to make a float adjustment, prime a dry carb after winter storage, unstick the vacuum piston, or for the hot rodders among us, change jets, It really sucks to replace a lid gasket every time you have it open. It is also possible to bend the lid when prying it off of a sealed surface. Just make the flat parts, that are supposed to be flat, flat. Its no big deal.

Rock Auto lists it as SKF 99226.

I dont see the set on rock auto, but I see just chains, If 251 chains are the same.

Not sure what make carb you have, but all the ball&balls and the Carter WA-1s I have rebuilt have a faint gap around the throttle plate. Even removing the plate and reseating it only gets them so good. I don't think it makes a difference for a single carb set up, I have no problem achieving a 475 rpm idle (manual transmission, maybe you have a different spec) With these old cars, chances are that it isnt just one thing wrong, it can be a little bit of everything. You can check for intake leaks by spraying carb cleaner at the suspected leaks, and if Idle changes, it is leaking. I would check for air leaks and rebuild the carburetor, then reassess.

It is almost easier to pull the whole distributor, than to install points with it in the car. The distributor drive is a tab, so you cannot get it "one tooth off", just right or 180* out. Once out you can get a better idea of whats going on. I would check that the advance plate can freely move, and that your vacuum advance isn't leaking.

My factory dipstick reads full with 6qts. With the filter. Better to be a little too full, than sucking up air.

Sam, I don't think that the factory service manual does a good job showing this area. There is the overcenter spring, but also the clutch pedal pull back spring, and the brake pedal pull back spring. Mine were all wrong, so had to figure them out from scratch. The clutch pull back goes from clutch fork to a bracket on the bellhousing, and the brake pullback went to a small u shaped bracket on frame near the steering box.

The bearing retainer gasket sets the endplay for the input shaft. A home made gasket would be OK as long as the endplay is checked. The "Best" gasket set runs around $30 on ebay, and all the seals are available from Rock Auto. Why not reseal the whole thing while it is out? For the bolt grommets, I suspect that they were molded in when new. For my transmission, I used liquid thread sealant on the threads, and black RTV under the head of each bolt. Everything clean and dry, of course. My transmission also had 2 or 3 of the lower tailshaft housing bolts "sealed" with the bolt grommets too, and I did them the same way. No signs of leaks yet.

There should be a detent ball and spring under each plug bolt in the side of the shift selector.

Loren, I currently have the stock 3.9 gears and 28" tires. I will be swapping in the 4.1 gears (and matching speedo gear) to further improve in town performance some time early next year. You can see in the ratio charts I posted that in first, 25 mph is 3000rpm. Fine shift point for leisurly, around town cruising. Peak HP is at 3600, which is right around 30mph. When hot rodding around (not always, but often) I wring it out that high because that IS where the power is. Any higher and power does fall off. I would estimate that the "cliff" where power really drops off is around 3800 rpm. In my test drives, I have had no problem getting the 2-2OD shift. 30mph and up it will shift, if I lift. It is very controllable. I usually shift from second to third 35-40 mph, so that seems to be a plenty big window to actuate the OD.

I am on the tail end of installing an R10 OD, so obviously that is my preferred route. I also found that 3.73 gear sets were difficult to find for sale. Easier to get a whole rear end, but shipping would kill it for you, I suspect. My cost for rebuilding the trans myself was around $1200 US. This includes the price of the core transmission, a new clutch and pressure plate, nos input shaft, clutch gear, syncros, 2nd gear, seals and gaskets, USA made bearings, new rollers, snap rings, thrust washers, assorted hardware, cup plugs, spare Overdrive parts, and snap ring pliers. I did not factor in some install costs, like having the flywheel machined, ARP pressure plate bolts, and fluids. These costs were around $300, with flywheel work being right under $200. I already had a spare standard transmission that i pillaged a few parts out of. The second gear, input shaft, clutch gear and shift fork I stole from my spare trans were to convert my '55 pin syncro to the older, and more standard, blocker ring syncros, because they are stronger and I drive my car hard. Some R10s have the blocker ring syncros from the factory, but not all. As long as your gear and input shaft were in good shape, there would be nothing wrong just replacing the friction rings and keeping the pin syncro, and this would reduce cost by around $250-300. As far as the "Fast" 1940 gear set, here is the math. 1.83 is standard, so ratio spread is 2.57, 1.83, 1.281, 1.00, .7 1.55 is fast, so the ratio spread is 2.57, 1.55, 1.085, 1.00, .7 This makes 2nd OD a duplicate for 3rd, so I stuck with the standard ratio spread. If you were able to shift from second to 3rd without OD kicking in, the fast second would be better, but in the few test drives I have taken, when you let up and press the clutch, the OD engages, so you would go from standard 2nd to OD 3rd. I have actually found a similar problem if I shift 1-2 at full tilt, I am above the cut in speed and it wants to kick in 1st OD, so I have been making a point to shift 1-2 at 25mph instead of my usual 30mph. The long term remedy for this is to duplicate what the factory did: taller rear gears. I have a 4.11 axle I plan on rebuilding and installing next. This will raise final drive rpm, by around 200rpm, which is still a huge improvement over my standard 3 speed and 3.90 gears, but will give more grunt in 1st and second, which is always appreciated with 96hp. I have found 2nd OD to be very similar to 3rd, so I wouldn't want the ratios and closer. Another point I feel the need to make is that these are NOT 55mph cars. With my standard 3 speed, I have driven it regularly at 65-70mph (based on GPS) for thousands of miles over the last 3 or 4 years. If you look at the non-OD gear calculator, 3600 rpm is 79mph. I have gone as fast as 83, but started loosing steam due to valve float or point float. Even with the OD, I likely won't push it that fast again untill I do some suspension work, as handling started getting uncomfortable. ETA: I see that you have a '50, have you checked what ratio your axle is? I believe that is around the time 3.73 gears became more common.

The transmission i just pulled out of my '48 has the speedo on the (US) passenger side as well. Same tailshaft part number too. Transmission is dated January '49. There should be a hand stamped date on the pad right behind the shifter. You will need to take a wire wheel or some sandpaper to find it. The cable I have (which may or may not be stock) reaches both locations. The OD I replaced this is a '55 and speedo is on driver side. One thing to note is that the earlier transmissions had the Speedo gear nut/seal made with the seal vulcanized to the nut, and isnt replacable. The later transmissions had the nut machined with a pocket and a little lipseal installed. I will check my notes for the modern part number. They are interchangeable, so make sure you have a later style one.

When installing my clutch, I measured the 4 bolt 217 flywheel and the 6 bolt 230 flywheel, and can confirm that the 230 flywheel is around .065 deeper. This means that a 217 flywheel would be that much further from the starter drive. It could be fine, but also could cause problems. I chose to harvest a 3rd flywheel from a spare 217, that was in much nicer shape than my original. Now, the 217 flywheel on a 230 could be machined deeper, or as others have done, the bellhousing could be machined. A 230 fw could (in theory) be used on a 217, but a shim would need to be made up to push the ring gear away from the starter.