Bobacuda

Has anyone been to this one? Is it worthwhile for a Mopar person? Most swap meets I've been to (with the exception of the Mopar Nationals) have been devoid of old Mopes or performance era Mopes. BTW, I've been to the car museum and the Ozarks,both are worth a visit, but what about the swap meet?

And not my cup of tea, but the best deal I saw for $15,000. A '73 El Dorado ragtop in great shape for $15,000. El Dorado.docx

Some other interesting Mopars and a distant Mopar relative where for sale. A Valiant wagon (sold), a 4-door Virgil Exner styled Plymouth with a poly 318, a rebuilt 74 Road Runner 340, and a Willys Henry J gasser Plymouths.docx

The FBG swap meet got lucky, temps were down from over 100 to just 98 . Anyhow, it had a good turn out, but most of the stuff was Model A, Model T, Ford Falcon or 70's Chevy truck stuff. I did see two Dodge trucks for sale (51 and a 46 shell on a Chevy frame). Both needed lots of work (more rust that the photos show) and both were $4,500. 2 Dodge trucks.docx

The old drag link from my truck did not appear to be a problem, until it was under load on the truck. That is when you could see the ends flex without moving the tie rod or the tires.

Have you changed out the drag link (it does not have replaceable tie-rod ends)? When the steering in my '53 got sloppy, the drag link was the primary culprit. Lay under the truck and have someone move the steering wheel from side to side while you watch the pitman arm and how the drag link and tie rods respond. Doing this made it fairly easy to spot slop in the system. After I had the slop removed (new drag link), I moved on to adjusting the steering box. BTW, the drag links are not cheap. I have considered taking my old one to a machine shop and having them modify it to use tie rod ends.

Cruise Ins are free and the few car shows I have gone to around here are $20-$35 with defined charities getting the proceeds. When I take my truck, it is the oddball, but my money is green. I really don't care about trophies or any of the other stuff. A mention on the PA that it is a "Good looking...what type of truck is that?" always makes my day. My '53 outdraws the equivalent Chevys and Fords around it. I always open the hood and the windows. I stay by the truck, so I will let them open the doors so they can see inside. I generally wind up being a tour guide for all the folks that have never seen one and more than one person has told their spouse or parents, "Why didn't we find a truck like this one?" Brent, do like the rest of us...stay away from Pebble Beach.

John H - Sorry I did not see this earlier. The $270 was for wires, connectors and the directional signal. I copied my old harnesses to make the new one. I had a wiring schematic provided on this site that gave me the correct wire sizes and colors. I was also able to peel back old electrical tape and confirm the wire colors. Do a search on my name, I have posted photos and descriptions of this several times. If that fails, PM me and I will see what else I can add. Bob

Hooked the pressure gauge and code reader to the truck before re-opening the trans and changing the governor (again) and the pressure transducer- all readings are now correct. Go figure. Anyhow, the beast is shifting, but has to be coaxed into overdrive the first time as JBNeal said or by decelerating, then accelerating the first time you top a hill (plenty of those around here). Front suspension did even out when the beast was back on the ground.

While you are at it, what is the number for the carb? On the photo you posted, it will be stamped on one side or the other, just out of the photo's range, on that "fin" that connects to the "barrel" of the carb.

Take a photo of just the part needed, sitting on or near a ruler for measurements. I might have one on one of my parts carbs.

Does it say "Free candy and puppies inside!"...?

Young mechanic I know tells me that the "lean" will zero out when the suspension is on the ground and loaded. Just replace the worn out parts and all will be well. In any event, this was a new one on me.

The "how to drive it mods" did not help. I installed the "magic wire" with the capacitor and rerouted the ground wire away from the alternator, which helped for a while (stopped the shift in/shift out issues). Several months later, it simply refused to go into OD or to lock up the torque converter. We replaced the fluid, filter, OD and TCC relay (one piece) and the pressure governor. The new gov did not seem to want to fit right. Once it was all back in place, the pressure in the trans would not exceed 60 lbs - in fact it decreased to 38 lbs at higher RPMS. We will change out the gov with a new one (again) and change the transducer to it as well. If we get all of that functioning and it still doesn't work, it's on to the TPS next. The more I work on this, the more I like my flathead.

And a close up of one side.

Another try at attaching photos.

OK, my daughter's boyfriend's truck has proven to be a real PITA for me. While doing a ton of overlooked maintenance and trying to get the automatic transmission to shift properly and go into overdrive, I noticed the front swaybar end links were "leaning" to the side. WTF? I was going to replace the front suspension parts (drag link, tie rod , track bar and those links) but seeing the "lean" caught me totally off guard. What causes this and how do I fix it. BTW, replacing the steering box (a 1 - 2 hr job according to YouTube) only took me closer to 6 hours...and a messed up lower back. Dodge 2500 front suspension.docx

https://dcmclassics.com/44-1939-1947-dodge-truck has them.

I think I have told this on this site once before. My brother and I bought a '41 Plymouth (with only 38,000 miles )in '65 from its original owner. The lady (husband had died and she was in her late 70's) decided that she was no longer a safe driver. When we got the car home, we cleaned it front to back and took out the rear seat to make sure that there were no mice nests. There, we found a large pair of "granny panties." My brother, being the joker he is put them in a bag and brought them back to the lady. She opened the bag, laughed and said, "I wondered where those went. My husband used my old panties to wax the car." Later, we had the car up on a lift to rebuild the master cylinder. There we found a Chrysler Corp. box end wrench with the main brake line running through it to the MC. Whoever installed the brake line at the factory grabbed the box end rather than a line-wrench and did not take the brake line off to remove the box end. We put the box end back in place after rebuilding the MC and told the next owner about it when we sold the car. One last note on that car. The original owners bought the car and a "vacation package" at the local dealer. What that entailed was Plymouth set them up with a hotel room where the car was built (Detroit?) and told them when to be there. Once there, a tour guide walked them through the assembly line as their car was put together. When finished, they took delivery, put a tow bar on it, and towed it back to Texas behind a Model A - they didn't want to put those miles on their new car. Can you imagine a car company doing a "vacation package" today?

But it hits it much less...

This one shows both sides of the hood on the overflow line.

Bright idea time - if you are having a radiator shop boil out your radiator,have them move the overflow line further back toward the engine where it won't get crushed. You can see in my last photo about how far you would have to move it.

This is the current fit - still tight.

I took some new photos showing the radiator in place. This is a replacement radiator (which works GREAT) from U.S. Radiator. It is a direct bolt in.

Here's another. I will look for some with the radiator in place.