Dan Hiebert

Aha, here it is!

Slow moving cold front coming through, 64 degrees here right now, it may get into the low 70's later in the day. Leaves on some of the maples are turning orange already... It was a scorcher here this summer, hit 90 three times in July! No AC in the house, or the garage/shop, not worth the cost for the week it gets a "little miserable" up here. I can put a shop fan at the back of the garage that pulls cooler air through the shaded back windows, and blows over the cool slab of the floor, makes it comfortable on the 80 degree days.

We've lived in Maine a little over four years now, still trying to figure things out. Fortunately, we live in "The County"..."The way Maine used to be". And, while they do have/do some weird stuff up here, most of that malarkey you cite is downstate, the other side of Bangor from us, which is kind of the dividing line between northern and southern Maine. I know what things the locals call differently, and can at least restate stuff in the local vernacular when I get that glazed expression wondering what I just said... Most folks up here start getting antsy as soon as they get on I-95 and start heading south.

Welcome to the Forum! You'll find a treatise on the fluid drive in the tech tips, under the Technical tab at the top of the page/bottom of the header. Browse the links for sources, most of which will require a phone call to ascertain if they have a seal kit for the fluid drive. But, it does require a couple special tools according to the shop manual. The fluid drive in our D24 leaked, not bad, but annoying, for some time. I drained and refilled it with Type F ATF about 12 years ago, and haven't had a problem with it since. I don't know what magic happened, but it did.

That seems to explain the same round flat spot on the thermostat housing of our D24, that is not drilled and tapped. Apparently for some ulterior motive, but it seems kind of pointless. The better question may be what heater set-up your car has, or had? Was this something for a severe winter market to provide that faster heat for the defroster? Multiple heaters in the cabin that need a tad more flow, or a better air bleed? I've never seen that set-up, either, and now I'm anxious to know not so much what it's for, but how it is supposed to work/improve something.

Yep, rattlesnakes can be "pretty". We had what they called a green rock rattler in west Texas - mostly green, brown, and a little black. We'd find herpetologists from some of the universities poking around in the desert looking for them because they are rare, and not very big compared to the others. I rather enjoyed watching their reaction when I could point out where to find some - giddy - over rattlesnakes.

The head bolts do not contact, or otherwise hold the water distribution tube in. The tube is just a royal PIA to get out. Doing so has come up a few times herein, with "secrets" to successfully removing one.

If there are cracks, might as well fix them now. File them out in a V shape down to the base of the crack, even if it's to the metal core. Then fill with two-part epoxy putty. Pits and chips can be filled this way too, always best to rough-up the surface you will be applying the putty to, and don't apply it to a painted surface. The epoxy putty is supposed to stand up to expanding/contracting better than body filler. Sand, prime, paint. I used rattle cans. I used Krylon's "Khaki", much lighter than the original tan, but I like it better. I used rattle cans to have a ready source for touch-ups. Before: After: This has been through some serious freeze / thaw cycles since, with a couple hair-line cracks showing up that I really have to look for to find.

Before the advent of factory cars designed for heavy duty service (police, taxi, etc.), one of the brake upgrades would be to install larger wheel cylinders, usually from that maker's higher-end models. Some agencies would do it themselves if they had the funds, and some of the better funded state highway patrols would special order a shipment of ordinary cars with the next model up's larger wheel cylinders, along with special paint. Factory built special service cars didn't come about until the late '50's, and lo and behold, one of the features was larger brake cylinders rather than larger drums. In both cases, 1/16" to 1/8" bigger, depending on maker, made a notable difference.

Our '37 Terraplane came with an auxiliary hand crank, although there's no mention of it in the owner's manual. From the lack of wear, I don't think it was used much, if at all. Two piece, handle doubles as the lug wrench. The nut on the crankshaft pulley is chamfered so it only grabs when cranking the engine, if it fires, it's supposed to spit the crank out without tossing the operator across the driveway. I've tried to start it with the hand crank a few times when the battery was mostly dead, with no success. I assume there has to be at least some charge, I don't see how hand cranking can generate enough current through the generator to charge the ignition if the battery is completely dead, I could be wrong, though. My technique is probably not right, either. Comes in handy, though. I'd been using the hand crank to turn the engine once in a while when it was idle, and it's super-handy for turning the engine for tune ups, clutch service, etc.

Every summer, Island Falls, ME (pop. @ 800) hosts a "Summerfest", wherein a couple of local businesses host a cruise-in. Ostensibly for our car club, but all are welcome. They have a BBQ, music, and general good time to kick off the town's Summerfest weekend, which is the last weekend in July. A pretty good to-do for such a small town. Club members staging in Houlton for the 30-mile trip to Island Falls. The "hard luck" trophy went to the owner of that Galaxie convertible, he lost a hubcap on the way down that we couldn't find. A first for our Dodge - "zipping" down an Interstate on its own (...any Interstate). I-95, and yes, for those who have ever been on I-95, this road with one car between me and the horizon is the same I-95 with almost 24/7 bumper-to-bumper traffic just about any other place on the eastern seaboard. The club has the slowest car lead on cruises, turned out to be us this trip, but despite leaking quite a bit of oil, the ol' girl hummed along pretty good. A couple general views of the cars in attendance. 25 in all, which I think is pretty good for such a small venue. Just a few Mopar products, our Dodge, a '36 Dodge sedan, and the Polara above. That '46 Dodge truck is on a GM 3/4 ton frame & drive train, it's the guy's daily driver/work truck. And there was a '32 Plymouth coupe hot-rod with a Chevrolet engine.

To each their own, but at least we can add layers to stay warm, you can only take so many off before you start scaring the neighbors or getting the cops called on you.

That's bizarre, relocation onto a different part of your property is not relocation, that's just moving your problem around. What's the point of having animal control if they're no help? Despite my previous dissertation, I've never tried to capture rattlesnakes on purpose. Killing them does get rid of them (duh), but you still have to be careful, probably more so with your local ordinances if you choose to shoot them. Luckily, I've never been bitten, but I've lost count of how many I've stepped on, or had to change my course because of them. Hoes, shovels, BFRs, etc. will do the trick, too. Something with a bit of "reach". I always carried a "snake stick", about a 4' hiking stick to move them out of the way when I didn't have time to mess with them. You have to go for the head, either lop it off or squish it, and you can't be timid about it - if you're going to kill it, then kill it. Once you start hacking at it without killing it quickly, it will defend itself. And if you're squeamish, once you lop the head off, they'll still move around quite a bit, even act like they're still trying to strike. And always treat the head/fangs with caution, as the poison is stored in glands, and doesn't decompose like the rest of the animal. When they are stretched out, they can't strike further than the limit of their body, but if they're coiled up, they can strike something like 1/3rd again the length of their body. I've dealt with them all the way up to over 6 feet long. Shotgun or snake shot is best, better chance to hit them, and the pellets are less prone to ricochet. You can always eat the bigger ones, and I'm sure there is some local tanner or hobbiest that would love to get some hides. Thankfully, there are no poisonous snakes in Maine, so I don't have to be quite as vigilant as I used to be.

The best way to deal with rattlesnakes is to get rid of what is drawing them to your property. Sounds like that would be a difficult task with the conditions you describe, a lot of rattlesnakes means a lot of rodents attracting them. Kind of a Catch-22, they take care of your rodent problem, but that creates a problem with them. Relocation only works with the snakes you move, it doesn't keep others out. Nothing really works to keep them away once they find a food source, other than removing the food source. Despite their reputation, they would rather not be around you, or your dogs. I grew up and lived and worked many years amongst them, and just kind of figured out how to avoid and/or deal with them. A good way to trap them is to bury a 5-gallon bucket(s) in the ground, preferably under or near bushes or other low shade, with a board, brick, or flat rock loosely covering the top, but not so loose they can move it. If you've got a spot where you constantly find snakes, that's a good location, too. They'll slither under the board/rock, fall into the bucket, and won't be able to get out. You can either use a double bucket so you can pull the one with the snake(s) in it out, or bury it so you can take it in our out easily. Keep bucket covers handy to keep them in, with holes for air if you're so inclined. Then deal with the snake(s) however you deem necessary. There will be other critters in there, too. Learned this from folks who trap snakes and other reptiles in the desert for the pet industry. I bet herpetology sites may have info on traps, too.

It's alive! Took some patience, since the fuel system has been dry since before we moved from NY, but it runs. There's a couple items to tend to, but this is a start. I flushed the clutch out with kerosene (per a Motors manual I finally found), refilled with fresh clutch fluid, and propped it disengaged while the G-kids were here, rotating with the crank-handle every couple of days. Can't say just when, but at some point it came free without having to bump the starter. I'll certainly remember your procedure, 9 foot, although I now have a "special" 2x4 cut to length to keep the clutch disengaged when the car is in storage. Thanks, guys, for entertaining my query!

This also gives you the pleasure of breaking in the new counter person when the folks you usually deal with see you coming and want to have a little fun at work. The confused expressions usually begin with your response to the first question..."what year?" Gets even better when they ask the make and you have an orphan car. Sometimes they're more surprised than I when they have a part I need.

I'm told Rte. 3 was never closed due to flooding until AFTER the new flood controls were put in. It certainly was never closed back when we were there, although the area was regularly flooded as it was. Farmers didn't seem to mind, since the silt was good for the soil, unless it stayed too wet for too long.

I don't think recovery from classic VW addiction is possible. I'm pretty good at pencil drawing, which I started by drawing VW Beetles when I was a kid, while the other kids were drawing Ed Roth style hot rods and such. My Uncle in Illinois got us started with the "slug-bug" game when we were little so we were always on the lookout for them to wreak havoc on the other occupants of whatever car we were in. Another uncle in Maryland had a Transporter for many years and it was always his "job" to kart all the cousins around when everyone was visiting the grandparents. I built VW models, again, when everyone else was building hot rods. When I was in high school in south Texas, my grandma's second husband had an oval window Beetle that ran like a sewing machine. A girlfriend in high school in west Texas (I went to 3 different high schools) had a '78 Beetle. When I was in the Army in Germany, a few of us GIs pooled some dough to get a hand-me-down Beetle to bomb around in, that we handed down as well. And now my summer daily driver is a '70 Beetle. So the VW bug (sorry) has always been there with the other old car affliction.

My brother and I were 7, visiting our grandparents in Jones Ridge, Illinois, as we did every summer. We were both fascinated with the space program. All anyone had to tell us was that there was a launch or other NASA activity on the TV and we'd be there to watch it. So, imagine two 7-year olds with the run of a farm, having run amok all day, staying up to watch that first moon walk, after we'd gone in to watch the touchdown earlier. It was awesome. Our grandparents had the only TV (B&W) in "The Ridge" at the time, so the few other folks who lived there were over to watch the event, which was a big to-do, because everyone knew Grandpa was always in bed by 9 (except when there was a Friday fight-night on). I remember that Grandpa was reminiscing about seeing the headlines for the first powered flight by the Wright brothers, seeing rickety biplanes overhead during WW1 in France, fighter pilots out of St. Louis training over the farms, during WW2, and now this. I don't think we slept much that night.

Can affirm that once you have a "heat injury", especially a heat stroke, the more susceptible you are thereafter. I worked many years in the southwest, in a dark uniform, out in the sun, often afoot, and far from any shade. I've never had an issue, but co-workers did, and we had to keep an eye out for them forever afterwards. Heat stroke can be deadly, I know two agents who died on duty because of it. Key is to stay hydrated, and don't overdo the physical effort. Sweating and overheating are two different animals, if you aren't cooling off from sweating, its time to slow down or stop. If you suddenly stop sweating, you're in trouble and may need medical help. Some are more susceptible than others. And you can drink too much water. Too much water without nutrients (i.e. electrolytes) will cause the body to start breaking down its own proteins, if not addressed quickly, it can lead to death. That's how one of those agents died.

Yes, you are correct.

Don't want to tie up your awesome vacation thread, sencha a PM.

Is that D24 not far north of Waldoboro? I don't recall the road number, I saw one in someone's yard after I met Glenn a couple years ago, but haven't been back in the area to scope it out better. I do recall cringing when I saw it, though. I've got a buddy up here that has two D24s that might make up one car between them. Even that has some useable parts we could harvest.

An interesting thread topic that can help shed light on some potential issues. Sometimes it can be difficult to figure something out because you can't get into the PO's head for WTF they may have been thinking when they "fixed" something. I don't have any horror stories for the D24, but we had a 1960 Ford F-100 for a while whose original and sole owner before we got it was a farmer. Absolutely nothing was fixed right, most by spot welding, any extra holes (thankfully only a few) were made with a sharp punch, and the aftermarket oil pressure gauge was plumbed by scavenging pressure off the rocker arm shaft, via a hard line run through the valve cover, with, you guessed it, a punched hole.

Nope, no commo failure. Got my clutch terminology backwards, and got the transmission to go into gear whether the clutch is disengaged or not, so I can give this break-loose procedure a go. Had to readjust the shift rail latches due to the clutch getting squished for a few years, to get the tranny working. Happened to get the grandkids the beginning of this week, so my schedule for getting the car started is delayed a couple weeks.