Dan Hiebert

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!

I'll join the chorus! I put a new parking brake lining on when we first got the car. It didn't have any lining at all when we got it, and some of the parts were missing - that I didn't know at the time. I've got the "adjusted too tight" box checked, but thankfully only made it down the block a little before I smelled it. Our D24 has a warning light for the parking brake, yet I still manage to drive off with it on every once in a while.

I put one in our daughter's '63 Falcon ten years ago, no issues as of yet. I've been pondering putting one in the ol' D24, but that "spendy" thing you note keeps getting in the way due to the plethora of other projects requiring $$.

Oh, these engines like to keep us on our toes with leaks, too. Our Dodge's engine weeps there just about as much, too. I know I have "valve issues", which is also showing up at the spark plugs and with the plume of blue smoke when I decelerate. If mine ran well and just had that much of a leak and nothing else, I'd certainly be curious, but would still run it and keep an eye on it. Maybe put a vacuum gauge on it, that's supposed to give you an indication of valve condition, but there may not be enough of an issue to register on the gauge.

Probably just semantics, but "cheap" and "inexpensive" are different things in my book. There are several Forum members who run aluminum radiators with no issues. Availability of original radiators is dwindling, and as you noted, re-coring is indeed expensive. The original diamond pattern cores are no longer made, the closest is an Auburn heater core pattern that is only made in England which adds to the expense if you want as original as possible, getting mine recored with that Auburn core cost more than the car originally did - but that digresses from your query. There is at least one thread from a year or two ago that goes deeper into that. I'd look at the fit and finish of the product, and ensure it is a proper fit if you're wanting a close match. Which means a little more expense, and a brand with wider recognition. A couple years ago I ordered an inexpensive aluminum radiator off of Amazon that was supposed to fit our D24. It did not. It was less expensive than listings for other cars, but was "cheap", which I couldn't ascertain until I got it. The hook was that it was the only aluminum one that listed it would fit a D24. I could have probably made it fit, but I chose to return it. The mounting brackets were not right, and the angle of the upper outlet was way off. That and the welding looked horrible, to the point I could not have hidden it with paint. The average Joe or Jane Spectator probably wouldn't notice, but it would have bugged me to no end. If you aren't concerned with a close to original appearance, there are generic or general purpose ones from reputable manufacturers that work as well as or better than an original one.

Ditto LazyK's comment. Our D24 was delivered to Las Cruces, NM, but was sold from Carlsbad Motors in Carlsbad, NM. Which is still there, at the same place. When we lived there, the original building was still there, with a new one next to it, and the same family still owned it. We actually met the retired salesman who most likely sold our car at a car show in Carlsbad in 1998 or so, shortly after we moved there. He was Carlsbad Motors' Dodge guy in '48. The owners were nice enough, we already had the build sheet and some other paperwork that was in the car that led us to Carlsbad, but they still had ALL of their sales records and found the information on our car pretty quickly. The owners were rather enthusiastic about it, but not enough to give us a "loyalty" discount on a new car...

Andy Bernbaum Auto Parts advertises that they'll fix temp gauges, too. Last time I checked, it costs about the same as an NOS one. I'll probably be in the marked to get mine fixed soon, it's been kaput as long as we've owned the car. It's got an aftermarket gauge in it that came with all the appropriate bezels and fittings, SunPro brand bought at Pep Boys in El Paso, TX.

Yep! Not many people know that. I've always liked that quote, I used to sign off with it in my work emails.

Yep, and this'll be the end of this saga. One thing neat about these old cars, I had the head off, the valve job done, valves readjusted, engine back together and plug wires corrected in a day. Saying it fired right up would be a bit of a stretch, but it didn't take long to get running. Peened some marks for the correct TDC on the flywheel, and still wondering whether or not it has been apart in the past - car "only" has 78K miles on it, lowest mileage of any car in our fleet. Endeavor to persevere.

Things that make you go "hmm". Still haven't got the T-plane running. Did a compression test and was not impressed, so I decided to at least lap the valves. And discovered why this has been a challenge. Once I got the head off, I could see that the timing mark on the flywheel is not where it is supposed to be. I can only assume that at some time in the distant past, a PO had the flywheel off for some reason, and it looks like there is not an "only one way" to put the flywheel back on. I hate to think the drivetrain was assembled incorrectly at the factory. The timing mark is at #4 TDC! When I put new spark plug cables on, I had just pulled the old ones off without paying attention where they were plugged in to the distributor, assuming the timing mark would be OK to show where #1 went. I had replaced the cables when I first got the car, but I did those one at a time. So, I had the #1 cable plugged in based on the flywheel timing mark, but it was actually plugged in to #2 in the firing order. No wonder it wouldn't start. Once I get the valves done and the head back on, I bet it fires right up. I should be annoyed, but I'll most likely giggle like a little girl when it does. I'll just need to put a timing mark in the correct location.

Very interesting. Thanks for posting!

Roger that. But at least you can do a static adjustment to get started with just two turns of the motor, which is what I was hoping for with the Terraplane. There may be a shortcut for the T-plane, but I haven't found it yet. I did what Hudson calls the timing adjustment one cylinder at a time. Which is an adventure because the timing mark is on the flywheel on the opposite side of the engine from the distributor, which is mounted low and to the rear of the engine. I can bump the engine with a switch on the starter solenoid, the starter button, a wrench on the crankshaft nut, or with the auxiliary hand crank, which sounds great having that many options, but I can't see the distributor or valve tappets from any of those locations. Would have been significantly easier if I could have done the #1 and #6 at TDC thing. Just one of those pearls of antique car ownership. And no, I don't have it running yet. I ordered new spark plug cables for it, which came with 15 feet of wire, plenty for normal I6 engines, but about 4 inches too short for the Hudson-Terraplane engine because of that distributor location. Oh, well. More wire on the way.

Using the good ol' Dodge, longest trip was around 75 miles, one way, from Horizon City, TX (near El Paso) to Salt Flat when we had the car in the 90's remake of "Lolita". Salt Flat was one of the filming locations. Since then, the furthest she's been driven has been up here - 30 miles one way to Island Falls, ME. This year we're gonna take the D24 on our club's annual leaf peeping tour in a couple weeks, that's between 120 and 180 miles, depending on which route we take. Otherwise, we drive from northern ME to NM every couple of years. Our daughter and her husband and my dad live a tad over 2.5K miles from us. A year after graduating high school, just before I joined the Army, I drove a Pinto station wagon from Presidio, TX to Blaine, WA when I helped my dad move - my first iron-butt road trip. After I joined the Border Patrol we would travel from south or far west Texas to NJ every couple of years, that was right around 2K miles. I've driven from the southern border to the northern border a few times, but haven't done a coast to coast road trip...yet.