Dan Hiebert

Ditto Loren's and Doug&Deb's post. Rebuild kits are available, I got mine from Andy Bernbaum. It is not difficult, and if you are adept enough to get the steering box out, you should have no trouble fixing it if you so choose. Mine needed a complete rebuild - hardest part for me was getting the old bearing races out simply because I didn't have the right tools. If yours is just leaking, you may only need the seal and perhaps the sector shaft bushing. I can't give any better a run-down than Loren does. As Doug&Deb notes, getting it out of the car first can be a little challenging if you can't get the front end high enough off the ground. I had to use extra blocks on my jack and jack stands to get it high enough, if you've got access to a lift, that would make it so much easier.

Yes, you are correct.

The ammeter mainly just checks current flow, it does not have to be hooked up to all those components to work. As you note, all you need to do to check if it is working or not is to put a load through it. Use a circuit that is working, run a jumper or two, as needed, to complete the circuit with the ammeter in it. Pay attention to which way the current is running.

I usually do the feathering of the gas, as you put it, while engaging the clutch. Probably more out of habit than necessity. I have, on occasion though, put the car in gear with the brake applied, and taken off from there. The owners manual says you can do that for certain situations such as taking off on a hill or in slippery situations. I've even mistakenly started the car in gear with the clutch engaged. Jumps enough to realize the mistake and hit the brakes, but doesn't die.

Unknown if you could still find it herein, but Don Coatney (RIP) put a 25" 265 out of a DeSoto in his P15 and documented the process quite well here in the Forum. This was going on 20 or so years ago now, but if you can still access the thread, it has a wealth of information.

Yeah, ditto Sniper's comment. Our D24 did not have a filter when we got it. I scored one off of a B1B (it was a Dodge Pilot House truck, that's all I knew at the time). Same filter as the one you have there, mine does not have a drain plug. I use a turkey baster to drain the oil (no, not out of the wife's cooking utensil drawer), although there are several kinds of inexpensive siphon pumps that will do the trick, too. Walmart's Hyper Tough brand makes one that comes to mind, I have one, works well but messy to clean up. The turkey baster is better at getting the last dregs of oil from the bottom. I used to use the Fram C134PL filter, but could not find one, not even a cross reference, when I needed one last year. Now I use a Wix 51080, and others use Wix 51010. I am unsure of any meaningful difference, I went with the 51080 because that is what they had in stock at the time. Only place that had either of them up here had them listed under agricultural / industrial applications.

Up here I aim for mid-October to put the old cars up, the onset of winter tends to be all over the map lately, but we can still bet on some form of snow before November. Putting the cars away involves a bit of garage-Tetris to get 4 cars in the shop so I have room to work on one, and other projects, over the winter. I discovered those under wheel car dollies last year, sure makes things easier! This winter the Terraplane takes center stage. Took the ol' D24 out for a casual spin last week to get the fuel stabilizer all through the system, gave it a good wash, and put it in the corner for the winter. First winter since we've been here that I don't feel compelled to work on something on the Dodge. A dusting of snow last night, below freezing overnights, highs in the 40's all week except Halloween, when it's supposed to get up to 70. We don't get Trick-or-Treaters at our house, but we give out treats in town at the Elks Lodge, so we still get to see the neat costumes.

Welcome! Yes, folks on this Forum are a curious and helpful bunch!

Yes, "Tudor" was more Ford specific marketing and would probably net you a lot of search returns that are not what you're actually looking for, since you're rather specific. Also, keep in mind that 1942 was a truncated year for all makers due to the onset of WW2, so although not rare, 1942 model year cars are not quite as plentiful, and sellers may have an exaggerated idea of their value. Of course, should you decide to stick around on this Forum once you've found your dream car, we'd like to follow along on the adventure (fair warning, you'll be pressed for photos). Welcome!

Indeed. Too long ago, I don't remember exactly why I gave up on the Sisson choke so quickly. I didn't mess with it afterwards because the manual choke worked well. Couldn't help but chalk myself up as a recovered dunderhead when I put it back on and got it starting well with little to no fuss.

It sounds like it's full of water, displacing the lighter than water fluids. Get the water and silt out of it as soon as possible. That may involve some disassembly and heavy flushing and rinsing, then this is where good ol' WD-40 comes in handy - it is made to displace moisture - then a protective coating, don't rely on the WD-40, although it will protect some, that's not what it is truly made to do. You will probably have to do that, waiting to find a good shop (most in your region will be overwhelmed for a while), or for insurance to chime in will exacerbate any of the issues from the flood if you don't clean it/them out quickly. In doing so, you should find out quickly if the engines actually got water and silt in them. Don't attempt to start or turn them over unless you know for sure they didn't.

Glad to see you're still at it! One thing that is always overlooked when working on old cars, especially bringing one back from the dead, is more of a virtue than a skill...and that's patience. (Although in some lines of work, patience can indeed be a skill.) When I finally decided to teach myself to weld for bodywork, I just jumped right into a car project (cheated a bit - it was my brother-in-law's car, not mine), but I started with the places that would not be visible and worked my way into the visible places. As bad as the car was, it gave me lots practice to get pretty good by the time I needed to weld on outside panels, and the confidence to weld on our old Dodge. The steering box won't be as hard as you may think. Repair kits (bushings, races, bearings, seals, etc.) are available. Hardest part when I did mine was getting the old bearing races out. Keep at it! We've had our D24 for 33 years now...still isn't done.

I had the hard-start-when-hot problem when we lived in west Texas (El Paso). My issue was that the Sisson choke was not adjusted correctly and did not have that high-temp gasket. When I wanted to start the car when it was still hot, I'd have to have someone manually hold the choke open while I cranked it. Otherwise, I'd have to wait often more than an hour for it to cool off enough to start. If it had been adjusted correctly and had that gasket, it wouldn't have fully closed when starting hot. That matches the too much fuel description, as well as Merle's starting procedure to let more air in. I corrected it at the time by removing the Sisson choke and installing a generic manual one, and I never had the hot starting problem again. That and actually following the manufacturer's starting instructions once I obtained an owner's manual - partial throttle when starting hot - may have helped. (I re-installed the Sisson choke earlier this year.) In what could be a reasonable study between ethanol and non-ethanol gasoline. When we lived in El Paso was during the time ('94 or so) the EPA mandated that El Paso County sell ethanol laced gas during the winter months, so we got to involuntarily compare the two. And - with the hot-start problem, there was no difference between summer and winter gas. That's just an observance on the hot start, there were several other issues with notable differences, such as fuel economy. We rued the onset of winter because gas mileage went down considerably, and I had a 42-mile one-way commute.

Yeah, I'm morbidly curious, too. Our original radiator went kaput year before last, couldn't find an NOS one, bought a used one for parts (other than the core) to have the original one restored. $$$$!

I like that, I would never have thought of that!